New | Beijing to maintain ties with Kuomintang despite Taiwanese party’s defeat in local polls

Beijing will stick to its cross-strait policy and continue its proactive interactions with the Kuomintang despite the Taiwanese ruling party’s landslide defeat in the island’s local elections last month, the State Council Taiwan Affairs Office said on Wednesday.

“Our policy and principles on pushing for the peaceful development of cross-strait relations will not change,” the office’s spokeswoman Fan Liqing said at a press briefing in the morning.

“We hope that the Chinese Communist Party and Kuomintang on both sides of the strait will continue their efforts based on their common political ground, and push for the steady progress of cross-strait relations.”

In Taipei on Wednesday, the KMT Central Standing Committee will invite Mainland Affairs Council Minister Wang Yu-chi to report on the latest situation on cross-strait relations, to find out whether China intends to change its policy on Taiwan after the elections, the Central News Agency reported.

Fan did not comment on the island’s election results or President Ma Ying-jeou’s likely successor in KMT, New Taipei city mayor Eric Chu, but she said the Communist Party and KMT should keep up their good interaction. Ma resigned as KMT chairman on December 3 to take responsibility for the poll defeat.

On whether Beijing would allow independent Taipei mayor-elect Ko Wen-je to visit Shanghai for the Shanghai-Taipei City Forum in the future, Fan reiterated that any cross-strait interaction should uphold the “One China” policy as a premise.