Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) has remained tight-lipped on a reported summit with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) late this month and a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), saying only that any talks would “not be conducted in secret.”
Online news site Meihua Media on Friday reported that the KMT and the CCP are set to resume their long-suspended dialogue — the Cross-Strait Economic, Trade and Culture Forum, better known as the “KMT-CCP Forum” — from Jan. 27 to 29 in Beijing.
The KMT delegation would be led by party Vice Chairman Hsiao Hsu-tsen (蕭旭岑), the report said, citing anonymous sources.
Photo: Tsai Shu-yuan, Taipei Times
While Cheng on Friday teased that she would on the following day provide a “public explanation” regarding reports of the KMT-CCP Forum, she offered few specifics when talking to reporters at an event in Taichung on Saturday.
Cheng said that she had sensed a spirit of “sincerity and goodwill” from Beijing regarding cross-strait communication since she became KMT chair in November last year, prompting the KMT to prepare for resumed exchanges.
Cheng gave a list of potential topics to be discussed, such as the pursuit of zero carbon emissions, climate change mitigation and disaster prevention, as well as demographic challenges, such as low birthrates and aging populations, and the development of artificial intelligence.
Building on a 2005 meeting between then-KMT chairman Lien Chan (連戰) and then-Chinese president Hu Jintao (胡錦濤), the KMT-CCP Forum was launched in 2006 and held almost annually until 2016, when it was suspended following the KMT’s loss of power after eight years in office.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) spokesman Lee Kuen-cheng (李坤城) dismissed Cheng’s plan to revive the KMT-CCP Forum as a move to “test the waters” for a potential meeting with Xi.
The DPP found the KMT’s eagerness to engage with Beijing and align with its narratives on Taiwan regrettable, especially as Beijing continues to employ military threats and diplomatic pressure against the nation, Lee said.
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