As KMT chief heads to Beijing, some in her party wary over what she might say

Leaders of Taiwan’s Kuomintang and the mainland’s Communist Party will hold talks on Tuesday in Beijing, but experts say the meeting threatens to widen a rift in the KMT over its policy platform regarding cross-strait ties.

KMT chairwoman Hung Hsiu-chu and a 140-member delegation would arrive in Nanjing (南京) on Sunday and visit the mausoleum of KMT co-founder Dr Sun Yat-sen on Monday, KMT officials said.

Hung would meet President Xi Jinping in his capacity as head of the party at 3pm on Tuesday in Beijing, where the two were expected to discuss such issues as the peaceful development of cross-strait relations, they said. The annual forum between the two parties would be held on Wednesday and Thursday. Previously the meetings were called the Cross-Strait Economic, Trade and Culture Forum, but this year they have been rebadged as the Cross-Strait Peace Development Forum. The meeting between the two party leaders will be widely watched not only by some members of the opposition KMT, concerned that Hung might say something on forging a peace pact or cross-strait reunification to please Xi, but also the independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party and Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen.

The KMT legislative caucus has openly questioned Hung’s eagerness to meet Xi, especially after she orchestrated the change of the party’s policy platform. On September 4, the KMT national congress adopted a new policy platform that included “deepening” the “1992 consensus” on the basis of the constitution of the Republic of China (Taiwan’s official title) and exploring possibilities for ending cross-strait hostility through the pursuit of a peace pact.

The consensus is an understanding reached by the two sides in 1992 that there is only one China, but allows each side to interpret what China stands for.