Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) deputy chairman Andrew Hsia (夏立言) met with Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) Director Song Tao (宋濤) this week during military drills conducted by China around Taiwan.
Hsia led a KMT delegation that arrived in China on Saturday, according to the Chinese-language United Daily News (UDN), vowing to boost cross-strait exchanges.
Hsia said the KMT would uphold the “1992 consensus” and bridge the two sides of the strait to strengthen corporations in areas such as trade, technology and culture when he met with Henan (河南) Province Communist Party Secretary Liu Ning (劉寧) on Sunday.
Photo courtesy of China's Taiwan Affairs Office
Hsia then met with Tao in Xuzhou (徐州), Jiangsu (江蘇) Province, yesterday, during the second day of China’s military drill around Taiwan this week.
“Both sides of the strait belong to one China. All differences can be resolved because Taiwanese and mainlanders are both Chinese,” he was quoted as saying by China's state-run Xinhua news agency.
The KMT opposes Taiwan independence and would promote peaceful cross-strait relations, he said.
“No forces can tear us apart,” Song said, citing a speech from Chinese President Xi Jinping.
“Two sides of the Strait are one family, not enemy,” Song said when responding to President William Lai’s (賴清德) comment about defining China as a “foreign hostile force” last month.
China would work together with the KMT and all political parties, organizations and individuals in Taiwan to oppose Taiwan separatists and foreign interference, Song said.
National Cheng Kung University political science professor Hung Chin-fu (洪敬富) questioned whether Hsia's meetings meant he had colluded with the enemy as China has been defined by Lai as a “foreign hostile force.”
Not only did the opposition party not defend Taiwan’s sovereignty regarding China’s military drills, but it visited China to meet with Song, Hung said.
The KMT should make it clear that Taiwan is not subordinate to China to assert the nation’s sovereignty when it meets with Chinese officials, Hung said.
Instead, the KMT begged for peace for Taiwan and pursued its own interests, he said about Hsia's meeting with Song.
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