Senior Chinese officials give Taiwanese politician Han Kuo-yu the red carpet treatment on ‘non-political’ tour of mainland
- Possible KMT presidential candidate insists his visit is not intended to be political, but he has been welcomed by the head of Beijing’s Taiwan Affairs Office
- Han reiterates support for the ‘1992 consensus’, a model for unification rejected by President Tsai Ing-wen
A rising Taiwanese politician met a senior Beijing official responsible for cross-strait relations on Monday, and used the occasion to reiterate his support for a two-decade old consensus on unification.
Although Han Kuo-yu, the mayor of Kaohsiung, insisted that his tour was only intended the drum up business for the city, the meeting with Liu Jieyi, the head of the Taiwan Affairs Office, in Shenzhen was the latest with senior officials.
Han has also met Wang Zhimin and Fu Ziying, the directors of Beijing’s liaison offices in Hong Kong and Macau respectively, and Shenzhen’s party chief Wang Weizhong during his visit.
His trip has attracted criticism inside Taiwan, with President Tsai Ing-wen warning that Beijing may try to use Han to introduce a “one country, two systems” policy for unification.
Han, a member of the opposition KMT is widely seen as one of the front runners in next year’s presidential election after his mayoral election victory last year in a city that has traditionally been a stronghold of Tsai’s Democratic Progressive Party.
