Taiwan's KMT chief, and Xi Jinping set to discuss cross-strait ties in Beijing
Parties on both sides of strait hope meeting will bring a better understanding of each other's positions and set tone for next decade
The honorary chairman of Taiwan's Kuomintang, Wu Poh-hsiung, would meet Communist Party general secretary President Xi Jinping in Beijing on Thursday to discuss cross-strait relations, KMT officials said yesterday.
The two sides hoped the high-level meeting will bring a better understanding of each other's positions and bottom lines, which should help set the tone for cross-strait policies in the next decade, Taiwanese analysts and KMT officials said.
As an envoy of KMT chairman Ma Ying-jeou, who is also the island's president, Wu would lead a delegation of senior KMT officials and cross-strait affairs experts to Beijing tomorrow for a three-day stay, officials said.
"Wu will represent chairman Ma in the meeting with general secretary Xi," KMT spokesman Yin Wei said. The two would engage in "constructive dialogue on cross-strait developments".
Fan Liqing , a spokeswoman for the mainland State Council's Taiwan Affairs Office, said the meeting was important, coming so soon after Xi's summit with his US counterpart, Barack Obama, at the weekend.
It will be Xi's first meeting with Wu since Xi became president in March. The two sides will meet as representatives of their respective political parties in the absence of consensus on the true government of China.
Hsu Yung-ming, an associate professor of political science at Taiwan's Soochow University, said that as "Ma's proxy", Wu's meeting with Xi would be more representative than a meeting between Xi and another KMT honorary chairman, Lien Chan, in February. During that meeting, Lien told Xi that negotiations across the Taiwan Strait were unavoidable.