What the Mainland Media Say | Beijing must appease Taiwan's public to keep cross-strait ties on track
Mainland courting of KMT has hurt the party in the eyes of ordinary people who want their say on cross-strait relations
The simmering tensions across the Taiwan Strait over the past year meant the meeting between Xi Jinping, chief of the Communist Party of China (CPC), and Eric Chu Li-luan, chairman of Taiwan's ruling Kuomintang (KMT), on Monday was keenly watched.
But the highest level contact between two ruling parties in seven years produced nothing more than a reiteration of their long cherished "1992 consensus", in which both sides recognise the "one China" principle.
The meeting came as Taipei and Beijing marked the 22nd anniversary of ice-breaking talks between Taiwanese tycoon Koo Chen-fu and his mainland counterpart Wang Daohan in Singapore in 1993. It also came as they celebrated the tenth anniversary of the historic meeting between former KMT chairman Lien Chan and CPC general secretary Hu Jintao in 2005.
They expected that by building closer economic ties they would strengthen support for the Taiwanese ruling party. Mainland state media used the meeting to chant the praises of the pro-unification KMT and admonish the pro-independence opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) as the island gears up for the presidential election in January.
The Beijing News said the meeting would foster political mutual trust between the two parties in order to "further lift the quality of cross-strait cooperative development".
The Global Times warned that cross-strait ties would continue to face deep uncertainty so long as the DPP refused to accept the "1992 consensus".
China Daily echoed the sentiment, saying any attempt to challenge the one-China consensus "would not only sow the seeds of discord, it would also undermine the political foundation for cross-strait relations".