Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Vice Chairman Andrew Hsia (夏立言) yesterday departed for China, where he is expected to meet with Chinese officials amid heightened tensions with Beijing.
Hsia’s nine-day trip, which is expected to include a meeting with China’s new Taiwan Affairs Office Director Song Tao (宋濤), has drawn criticism from the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), but received support from Beijing.
Taiwan Affairs Office spokeswoman Zhu Fenglian (朱鳳蓮) said that China welcomed Hsia’s visit, adding that Beijing is “willing to strengthen exchanges with the nationalists, consolidate and enhance mutual trust, and deepen exchanges and cooperation in various fields on the common political foundation of adhering to the 1992 consensus and opposing Taiwan independence.”
Photo: Ann Wang, Reuters
She said that the DPP was acting “out of selfish political interest” in seeking independence with foreign support.
The so-called “1992 consensus,” a term former Mainland Affairs Council chairman Su Chi (蘇起) in 2006 admitted making up in 2000, refers to a tacit understanding between the KMT and the Chinese government that both sides of the Taiwan Strait acknowledge there is “one China,” with each having its own interpretation of what “China” means.
Hsia visited China in August last year, six days after Beijing launched a high-pressure military and economic campaign against Taiwan following a visit by then-US House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi.
His visit this week follows several recent high-profile delegations by foreign lawmakers to Taiwan, and after US House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy pledged to visit Taipei.
Those actions “damage the Taiwan compatriots’ interests and well-being, endangers their safety and security, and gradually push Taiwan to a dangerous stage,” Zhu said, in a reference to China’s threat to use force to annex Taiwan.
Speaking to reporters at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport yesterday, Hsia called the trip “apolitical,” and aimed at helping Taiwanese living and working in China.
Regarding the timing of this visit and his trip last year, he said that “for some people, there will never be a good time to visit China,” adding that “the more perilous the situation, the more reason for a visit.”
Hsia’s delegation includes KMT Mainland Affairs Department head Lin Chu-chia (林祖嘉), and Kao Su-po (高思博) and Chao Chun-shan (趙春山) of the National Policy Foundation, a KMT-affiliated think tank.
They are to visit Shanghai, Nanjing, Wuhan, Chongqing and Chengdu during the trip, which ends on Friday next week.
He said he hoped the group could help resolve issues affecting Taiwanese small and medium-sized enterprises, particularly in the agricultural and fisheries sectors, hit by a series of import suspensions rolled out by China since 2021.
He said that relations between Taipei and Beijing had warmed following Taiwan’s lifting of border controls in October last year, adding that he hoped the trip would further improve understanding and dialogue across the Strait.
This would be consistent with the hopes of President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), who has asked Taiwanese businesspeople in China to engage in “positive interactions and dialogue” with Chinese, he said.
Regarding whether he would express concern to Chinese officials over CIA Director William Burns’ remarks last week that Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) had ordered the military to be ready invade Taiwan by 2027, Hsia said that “the timeline for such an invasion varies from one source to another, but any issue that is of concern for Taiwanese would be brought up with the other side at appropriate times.”
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