Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) is expected to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) when she goes to Beijing at the beginning of next month for the annual KMT-Chinese Communist Party (CCP) get-together, the KMT said yesterday.
The annual forum is also to change from an economy-centered meeting to one focusing on peaceful cross-strait development, it said.
In a news release issued in the morning, the KMT said the decision to change the nature of the forum was made in response to the current cross-strait situation and the emergence of new variables in Taiwan’s political and economic development due to the suspension of official cross-strait communications between Taipei and Beijing.
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
“After negotiations between the two parties [the KMT and the CCP], we decided to support civic organizations in their efforts to build a communication platform and transform the Cross-Strait Economic, Trade and Culture Forum to the ‘Cross-Strait Peaceful Development Forum,’” the KMT said.
This year’s forum is scheduled for Nov. 2 and Nov. 3, it said.
Later in the day, Hung told the weekly meeting of the KMT’s Central Standing Committee that she would lead a delegation to pay tribute to Republic of China (ROC) founding father Sun Yat-sen (孫中山) at his mausoleum in Nanjing on Oct. 31, before heading to Beijing to attend the forum.
It was reported that Hung is likely to meet with Xi, who is the CCP’s general-secretary, on Nov. 1, although China’s Taiwan Affairs Office spokesman An Fengshan (安峰山) did not give a direct answer when asked by reporters at a news conference in Beijing yesterday morning.
A detailed itinerary for the forum is still being planned is all that An would say.
Asked if a Hung-Xi meeting would occur, KMT Culture and Communications Committee deputy director Hu Wen-chi (胡文琦) said on the sidelines of the committee meeting: “That is for sure.”
The forum, which is to be hosted by 20 organizations invited by both parties, is to serve as an open discussion platform for leaders from various sectors of society to exchange opinions and offer advice on maintaining peaceful and stable cross-strait development, the KMT said.
The new forum is to consist of five different discussion groups: the “political group,” which is to focus on mutual political trust and friendly interactions; the “economic group,” which is to focus on economic development and cross-strait cooperation; the “social group” to deepen people-to-people interactions across the Taiwan Strait; the “cultural group,” which is to emphasize cultural inheritance and innovation; and the “youth group,” the KMT said.
The tradition of an annual KMT-CCP forum was started after then-KMT chairman Lien Chan’s (連戰) 2005 China visit, which saw the first formal meeting between the two parties since the Chinese Civil War.
Last year’s forum in Shanghai in May was attended by then-KMT chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), during which he met with Xi.
There had been calls within the KMT for the abolition of the forum following the party’s disastrous defeat in the Jan. 16 presidential election, which prompted debates about whether the party should become more Taiwan-centric to regain public support.
New Power Party Executive Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) said the announcement of Hung’s trip shows that “the KMT has not learned any lessons from its defeats.”
He urged the former ruling party not to repeat “mistakes of the past.”
“If you insist on holding the KMT-CCP forum, you cannot blame Taiwanese for believing that the KMT is joining hands with the CCP as it implements its ‘united front’ strategy,” he said.
Additional reporting by Abraham Gerber
NO-LIMITS PARTNERSHIP: ‘The bottom line’ is that if the US were to have a conflict with China or Russia it would likely open up a second front with the other, a US senator said Beijing and Moscow could cooperate in a conflict over Taiwan, the top US intelligence chief told the US Senate this week. “We see China and Russia, for the first time, exercising together in relation to Taiwan and recognizing that this is a place where China definitely wants Russia to be working with them, and we see no reason why they wouldn’t,” US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told a US Senate Committee on Armed Services hearing on Thursday. US Senator Mike Rounds asked Haines about such a potential scenario. He also asked US Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse
China’s intrusive and territorial claims in the Indo-Pacific region are “illegal, coercive, aggressive and deceptive,” new US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo said on Friday, adding that he would continue working with allies and partners to keep the area free and open. Paparo made the remarks at a change-of-command ceremony at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, where he took over the command from Admiral John Aquilino. “Our world faces a complex problem set in the troubling actions of the People’s Republic of China [PRC] and its rapid buildup of forces. We must be ready to answer the PRC’s increasingly intrusive and
INSPIRING: Taiwan has been a model in the Asia-Pacific region with its democratic transition, free and fair elections and open society, the vice president-elect said Taiwan can play a leadership role in the Asia-Pacific region, vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) told a forum in Taipei yesterday, highlighting the nation’s resilience in the face of geopolitical challenges. “Not only can Taiwan help, but Taiwan can lead ... not only can Taiwan play a leadership role, but Taiwan’s leadership is important to the world,” Hsiao told the annual forum hosted by the Center for Asia-Pacific Resilience and Innovation think tank. Hsiao thanked Taiwan’s international friends for their long-term support, citing the example of US President Joe Biden last month signing into law a bill to provide aid to Taiwan,
UNWAVERING: Paraguay remains steadfast in its support of Taiwan, but is facing growing pressure at home and abroad to switch recognition to Beijing, Pena said Paraguayan President Santiago Pena has pledged to continue enhancing cooperation with Taiwan, as he and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida expressed opposition to any unilateral change to the “status quo” in the Taiwan Strait using force, Japanese media reported on Saturday. Kishida yesterday completed a trip to France, Brazil and Paraguay, his first visit to South America since taking office in 2021. After the Japanese leader and Pena spoke for more than an hour on Friday, exchanging views on the situation in East Asia in the face of China’s increasing military pressure on Taiwan, they affirmed that “unilateral attempts to change the