{"id":46822,"date":"2026-04-10T16:13:32","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T16:13:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/?p=46822"},"modified":"2026-04-10T16:13:32","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T16:13:32","slug":"xi-jinping-meets-kmt-chair-in-first-such-talks-in-nearly-a-decade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/?p=46822","title":{"rendered":"Xi Jinping meets KMT chair in first such talks in nearly a decade"},"content":{"rendered":"


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NEW<\/span>You can now listen to Fox News articles!\n <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

KAOHSIUNG \u2013 Taiwan:<\/strong> For the first time in nearly a decade, the People\u2019s Republic of China (PRC) supreme leader\u00a0and the\u00a0head of the\u00a0communist party, Xi Jinping<\/a>, held a meeting with the chairperson of Taiwan\u2019s main opposition party.\u00a0Cheng Li-wun, chairwoman of the Chinese Nationalist Party (also known as the Kuomintang, KMT), met Xi in Beijing on Friday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Before their closed-door meeting the pair posed for pictures. Xi said that Taiwan is historically a part of China and remains an “inalienable” and “inseparable” part of Chinese territory. He said the “rejuvenation of the Chinese nation” was a “broader trend” that\u00a0will not change. China\u2019s state-controlled media and government officials often repeat these party lines, even though, after its establishment in 1949, the communist regime has not ruled Taiwan for a single day.<\/p>\n

The two met in their capacities as heads of their respective political parties. China refuses to speak to the democratically elected government of Taiwan, led by President Lai Ching-te of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). The DPP won Taiwan\u2019s presidential elections<\/a> in 2016, 2020, and 2024, although in 2024 it narrowly lost control of the parliament to an opposition coalition led by the KMT.\u00a0<\/p>\n

TAIWAN ‘WILL NOT ESCALATE, BUT WILL NOT YIELD’ TO CHINESE INTIMIDATION, FOREIGN MINISTER WARNS<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

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In this photo released by Xinhua News Agency, Chinese President Xi Jinping, right shakes hands with Kuomintang (KMT) party leader Cheng Li-wun in Beijing on Friday, April 10, 2026.<\/span> (Xie Huanchi\/Xinhua via AP)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The meeting came as Taiwan is mired in a dispute over defense spending, with the opposition coalition blocking President Lai\u2019s proposed $40 billion special defense budget<\/a>. During a recent visit to Taipei, Sen. Jim Banks, R-Ind., said approval of the package would send a clear message that Taiwan is prepared to invest in its own defense and “peace through strength.”<\/p>\n

Hours before Cheng and Xi smiled for the cameras, Lai did not directly mention the Beijing meeting, but said on social media that any compromise with an authoritarian regime would damage Taiwan\u2019s sovereignty. There are also concerns that if the special budget isn\u2019t approved soon, the willingness of President Donald Trump<\/a> to sell weapons to Taiwan could change should Trump decide to strike some kind of deal with Xi at a possible meeting in May.<\/p>\n

Xi\u2019s term “rejuvenation of the Chinese nation,” which was repeated by Cheng, is a reference to the goal of China becoming a \u2013 if not\u00a0the\u00a0\u2013 major world power by 2049, the centennial of the founding of the communist PRC.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te, center, walks before an offshore anti-terrorism drill at the Kaohsiung harbor in Kaohsiung, southern Taiwan, Sunday, June 8, 2025.<\/span> (Chiang Ying-ying\/AP)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

In comments that are sure to evoke controversy in Taiwan, Cheng repeated much of Xi\u2019s phrasing, claiming that in the more than 100 years of interactions between the KMT and the CCP, “all we ever wanted is to guide the Chinese nation out of decline and toward rejuvenation.” Cheng went on to say, “The great Chinese rejuvenation involves people on both sides of the strait. It is about the reawakening and resurgence of Chinese civilization.”<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not how many\u00a0here\u00a0in Taiwan see things. Rose Chou, 45, works as an administrator in one of the biggest primary schools in Kaohsiung, southern Taiwan<\/a>\u2019s largest city and a major port. Chou told Fox News Digital it was time for Taiwan to dump any connection to being China or a part of China. “Yes, I want a Republic of Taiwan. I have an 18-year-old son. And yes, I realize we may\u00a0have\u00a0to fight. I\u2019m willing to fight.”<\/p>\n

US LAWMAKERS WARN TAIWAN TO \u2018MEET THE MOMENT\u2019 AS CHINA STAGES INVASION-STYLE DRILLS<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

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A screen grab captured from a video shows the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command launching large-scale joint military exercises around Taiwan with naval vessels and military aircraft in China on May 24, 2024. Led by the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), “integrated operations inside and outside the island chain are being conducted to test the command’s capabilities to jointly take battlefield control and launch joint strikes, and to seize control of crucial areas,” Li Xi, the spokesman for the PLA Eastern Theater Command, said. (Photo by Feng Hao \/ PLA \/ China Military\/Anadolu via Getty Images)<\/span> (Feng Hao\/PLA\/China Military\/Anadolu via Getty Images)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Chou readily admitted that most people she knows favor maintaining the status quo. A very small number, she said, are committed to the idea of unification \u2013 but under what terms they hope that could occur, Chou said she didn\u2019t know.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Under the status quo that dates from the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949, Taiwan\u2019s official name remains the Republic of China, to nominally indicate that Taiwan is a part of China, just not “Red China.” This formula previously satisfied the communist regime in Beijing, but \u2013 especially since Xi Jinping\u2019s rise \u2013 Beijing has pushed Taiwan towards outright submission.<\/p>\n

A meeting between the head of the KMT and the CPP hasn\u2019t happened in almost a decade, but there is precedent. A KMT chair met Xi in 2015, and again in 2016, and separately, in 2015, then-Taiwan president Ma Ying-jeou met Xi in Singapore, during which each addressed the other as “Mister,” and titles used were “Leader of Taiwan” and “Leader of Mainland China,” respectively.<\/p>\n

In a statement after the meeting, a spokesperson for the American Institute in Taiwan, the de facto U.S. embassy in Taipei, said, “The United States supports cross-Strait dialogue. We expect cross-Strait differences to be resolved by peaceful means, free from coercion, in a manner acceptable to the people on both sides of the Strait. Meaningful cross-Strait exchange should focus on dialogue between Beijing\u2019s leadership and Taiwan\u2019s democratically elected authorities without preconditions, while also including engagement with all other political parties in Taiwan.”<\/p>\n

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A nuclear-powered Type 094A Jin-class ballistic missile submarine of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy is seen during a military display in the South China Sea April 12, 2018.\u00a0<\/span> (Reuters\/Stringer)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Elizabeth Freund Larus, a Taiwan Fellowship Scholar in Taipei told Fox News Digital the KMT\u2019s traditional China approach no longer connects with much of Taiwan\u2019s electorate. “KMT Chair Cheng\u2019s trip is trying to replicate Ma Ying-jeou\u2019s approach to cross-Strait relations,” Larus said. “But that approach is 30-years old and no longer appeals to the Taiwanese. As a result, many people in Taiwan are critical of her China trip.”<\/p>\n

Larus said Beijing is also likely to use the visit for domestic propaganda, presenting it as proof that Taiwan embraces cultural and social affinities with mainland China while casting the government in Taipei as an outlier. “Cheng may be welcomed in Beijing,” Larus said, “but her party may receive a less enthusiastic reception” in local elections later this year and in the next presidential and legislative elections in 2028.<\/p>\n

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Taipei-based political risk analyst and Tamkang University assistant professor Ross Feingold told Fox News Digital, “President Lai\u2019s DPP has a savvy media team, which for many years has successfully shaped public opinion towards China. Following today\u2019s meeting, Cheng and the KMT will be portrayed as traitors willing to sell out Taiwan.”<\/p>\n

He concluded by noting, “Ultimately, though, the success or failure of Cheng\u2019s visit to China and meeting with Xi will be determined by Taiwan\u2019s voters, despite efforts from China and the United States to influence events. For the Trump administration, though,\u00a0its\u00a0near-term priority in Taiwan remains legislative approval to purchase billions of dollars of American weapons\u00a0and\u00a0speedy implementation of Taiwan\u2019s commitment to invest $250 billion in the United States.”<\/p>\n

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Eryk Michael Smith is a Taiwan-based<\/a> correspondent who since 2007, has worked both as a broadcast journalist\u00a0for the island’s only\u00a0English-language radio\u00a0station, ICRT, as well as with numerous other publications and local news outlets. Smith’s journalism focuses on Taiwan-China relations<\/a>, local politics, as well as\u00a0science and technology developments\u00a0in the greater China region. He is based in Taiwan’s largest southern\u00a0city, Kaohsiung.\u00a0He can be followed @ErykSmithTaiwan<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n


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