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Senior politician from Taiwan’s opposition KMT urges Beijing to help reduce cross-strait tensions
- KMT’s Andrew Hsia and Song Tao, a close confident of Xi Jinping, both expressed their desire for more cooperation, according to mainland’s state news agency
- Taiwan’s ruling DPP has expressed concern about the meeting and warned against reaching any back-room deal
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Lawrence Chungin Taipei
The vice-chairman of Taiwan’s main opposition party Kuomintang urged Beijing to help reduce cross-strait tensions in a sensitive meeting on Thursday that was closely watched by the island’s government.
Song Tao, head of the State Council’s Taiwan Affairs Office and the Taiwan Work Office of the Communist Party’s Central Committee, met Andrew Hsia in a closed-door meeting at Diaoyutai State Guesthouse.
The meeting had drawn concern from the government of the independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party, which had warned Hsia against making any promises that could hurt the island’s interests during the trip.
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Song, a veteran diplomat best known for an ice-breaking visit to North Korea in 2017 as Xi’s special envoy, was the first senior mainland official Hsia had met during his stop in Beijing.
Hsia urged the mainland side to make the utmost efforts to pursue peace and stability, according to a statement from the KMT issued late on Thursday.
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“The vice-chairman made three major appeals at the start of the talks,” the statement said.
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