Taiwan's KMT chief Eric Chu to meet President Xi Jinping in Shanghai

The head of Taiwan's ruling Kuomintang party said on Sunday he planned to meet President Xi Jinping next month, in what will be the first visit to the mainland by a KMT chief since 2008.

Eric Chu, who succeeded President Ma Ying-jeou as the party's chairman in January, said a plan was being arranged "for a meeting of the two party leaders" at a May forum in Shanghai with the mainland's Communist Party. Details of the meeting had not been finalised, he said. Xi heads the party in addition to holding the presidency.

Local media said Chu would fly to Shanghai on May 2 and address the forum's opening the next day, adding that he also planned to speak to university students there.

In 2005 Lien Chan made the first trip to the mainland by a KMT chief since the two sides split at the end of a civil war in 1949. The landmark visit and the ensuing annual forum paved the way for the fast improvements in relations that have taken place since Ma came to power in 2008. He was re-elected in 2012.

Ma was also party chairman from 2009-2014, but despite the improved ties he never travelled to the mainland. Wu Po-hsiung was the last KMT chairman to visit the mainland, in 2008.

In June 2010 the two sides signed a trade pact known as the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement, widely seen as the boldest step yet towards reconciliation.