Beijing voices support for Taiwan’s pro-unification forces in latest exchange
- Wang Huning, the top official on Taiwan affairs, met a delegation led by Wu Cherng-dean from the New Party
- He called independence ‘a serious crime of splitting the country, which is a dead end and will only bring serious disaster’
Wang Huning, a member of the Politburo Standing Committee – the centre of power in Beijing – met a delegation on Monday led by Wu Cherng-dean, who heads Taiwan’s New Party that backs unification with mainland China.
“Taiwan independence is a serious crime of splitting the country, which is a dead end and will only bring serious disaster to Taiwanese compatriots,” Wang told the delegation, according to state broadcaster CCTV.
04:39
Taiwan residents living within sight of mainland China voice concerns over live-fire drills
He said Beijing would “firmly support the New Party and other patriotic reunification forces on the island and resolutely oppose the Taiwan independence split and external interference”.
Wang, who also heads China’s top political advisory body, hailed the New Party’s efforts to promote peaceful reunification. He reaffirmed that Beijing was seeking “peaceful” development in cross-strait relations and to “broadly unite Taiwanese compatriots”.
Chinese state media quoted Wu as saying that “only through reunification can Taiwan have a way out”.
The New Party was formed in 1993 and has been unwavering in its opposition to Taiwanese independence and its support for unification with the mainland. It was Taiwan’s third-largest political party in the 1990s but has gradually lost influence and seats in recent decades.
The party currently does not have any seats in Taiwan’s legislature and has only one in Taipei’s municipal council.