The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday rejected a Reuters report that KMT Vice Chairman Andrew Hsia (夏立言) is scheduled to meet with senior officials of China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) during his trip to the country, calling the report “misinformation and disinformation.”
Hsia embarked on his China trip on Wednesday and was invited by Taiwanese businesspeople to participate in events in Chengdu, Nanchang, Zhongshan, Xiamen and Chongqing cities, the KMT said in a statement, adding that the trip had been arranged in October.
“The purpose of the trip is to continue the achievements of Hsia’s past trips to China, listen to Taiwanese businesspeople [in China] and contribute to peace, stability and prosperity across the Taiwan Strait,” it said.
Photo: Liao Hsueh-ju, Taipei Times
“That Hsia would meet with senior TAO officials during the trip is not true. It is misinformation and disinformation. The Democratic Progressive Party [DPP] government has repeatedly claimed that it is strictly preventing the dissemination of fake news from China, but the party is working with the news media to spread false information and demonize a casual and legitimate trip organized to visit Taiwanese businesspeople,” it said.
To avoid conflicts, Washington and Beijing must maintain channels of communication when tensions between the two countries are high, the KMT said, adding that problems facing Taiwanese businesspeople in China must be resolved.
Hsia, a former Mainland Affairs Council chairman, has traveled to China four times in the past year and a half, including a controversial trip in August last year after China launched military exercises around Taiwan following a visit by then-US House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi.
In his trips to China in February, June and August, Hsia met TAO Director Song Tao (宋濤).
Separately, Broadcasting Corporation of China (BCC) chairman Jaw Shaw-kong (趙少康), the KMT’s vice presidential candidate, yesterday in an online talk show said the party believes that Taiwan’s relationship with China should be maintained at the same distance as its relationship with the US.
“The DPP only honors a close relationship with the US and opposes one with China, but we are for being close to the US while maintaining a peaceful relationship with China… We like the US and are close to it, but Taiwan should not abandon its relationship with China, which is also important,” Jaw said.
“Leaders who cannot have a peaceful relationship with China and bring war to Taiwan would be sinners,” he added.
It would be in Taipei’s best interest that the US and China get along with each other peacefully, and a small country like Taiwan has good relations with the two large countries, Jaw said.
KMT presidential candidate and New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) supports Taiwan and China resuming negotiations over cross-strait service trade and goods trade agreements under the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement, Jaw said.
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