Chinese state media reported that Chinese President Xi Jinping met with Taiwanese opposition party leader Cheng Li-wen in Beijing on Friday.Cheng, head of the Kuomintang, is the first party leader to visit China in a decade, and said she hopes to sow seeds of tolerance. “Seeds of peace” During her trip.Her visit sparked controversy in Taiwan, and her critics accused her of being too pro-Beijing.China cut off high-level contacts with Taiwan in 2016 after Tsai Ing-wen of the Democratic Progressive Party won the presidency and rejected Beijing’s claims to the island.Beijing claims that Taiwan is its territory and does not rule out the use of force to control it.China has intensified its military pressure around Taiwan in recent years by almost daily deploying fighter jets and warships near the island and conducting large-scale regular military exercises.Cross-Strait relations have particularly deteriorated since the election of Tsai’s successor, Lai Qing-te, whom Beijing views as a separatist.Lai said in a Facebook post on Friday “China’s persistent gray zone harassment and military threats in and around the Taiwan Strait and the island chain have severely undermined regional peace and stability.”.Cheng arrived in Shanghai on Tuesday evening, saying shortly after her arrival “Both sides of the Taiwan Strait are not doomed to war, as the international community fears”.
The KMT leader also traveled to the eastern city of Nanjing where she visited the mausoleum of revolutionary leader Sun Yat-sen, one of the few Chinese historical figures revered in both Beijing and Taipei.
