Taiwan's KMT chief will ‘bolster power within party’ after meeting Xi Jinping
Eric Chu likely to become focal point of future talks between Taiwan and the mainland and may even decide to seek presidency: analysts
A meeting next month between President Xi Jinping and the chairman of the governing party in Taiwan, Eric Chu Li-luan, is likely to consolidate Chu's power within the party ahead of presidential elections on the island next year, analysts say.
Chu succeeded President Ma Ying-jeou as head of the KMT in January after the island's leader stepped down from the party position to take responsibility for its heavy defeat in local elections last year.
Chu would meet Xi on May 4 and was likely to be the focal point of future negotiations between the island and Beijing, analysts said.
Ma came to power in 2008 on a platform of improving relations with the mainland.
Ties have been strained for decades since nationalist forces fled and based themselves on the island in 1949 after losing the civil war to the communists.
A Kuomintang source said Beijing was becoming increasingly impatient with Ma's slow pace in forging closer ties.
The source said Beijing had also become concerned about Ma's credibility among Taiwan's electorate.
These concerns led Chu to decide to personally attend meetings between the Kuomintang and mainland officials in Shanghai on May 3 and to meet Xi the next day, said the source.
Wang Kung-yi, professor of international relations at Tamkang University in Taipei, said Chu hoped to remove Ma's influence in terms of his party's direct contact with the mainland.
"With Chu taking the KMT reins and pushing for party reforms, there is no more need for him to send a proxy to represent him in meetings with his Communist Party counterparts," he said. "The expected meeting between Chu and Xi is important in the sense that Chu can get rid of Ma in order to set up his own dialogue channel with the Communist Party leader and hence take the reins in charting the party's cross-strait policy."
Previous high-levels talks between mainland leaders and senior Taiwanese officials since 2008 have been conducted by former KMT chairmen Lien Chan and Wu Poh-hsiung.
Some analysts have suggested that if Chu's meeting with Xi is a success some in his party might push him to stand as a presidential candidate next year.
Chu has said several times he will not run.
However, many see him as the strongest potential rival to opposition Democratic Progressive Party chairwoman Dr Tsai Ing-wen in the island's presidential race early next year.
