'Avoid war': Taiwan's opposition leader proposes rare peace cooperation to Xi Jinping
&imwidth=600&imheight=450&format=webp&quality=medium "'Avoid war': Taiwan's opposition leader proposes rare peace cooperation to Xi Jinping")
'Avoid war': Taiwan's opposition leader proposes rare peace cooperation to Xi Jinping Photograph: (Credit: AFP)
In a historic meeting in Beijing, Taiwan’s KMT chairwoman Cheng Li-wun urges President Xi Jinping to seek a "systemic solution" to avoid war.
In a rare meeting, Taiwan opposition leader Cheng Li-wun proposed the idea of team work to Chinese President Xi Jinping to "avoid war". She suggested that both sides should transcend political confrontation.
As she continued, she said, “…and seek a systemic solution to prevent and avoid war, so that the Taiwan Strait can become a model for peaceful conflict resolution in the world.” Cheng Li-wun, who was known for her fierce campaigning for Taiwan's independence, has now positioned herself as a peace builder with China.
The meeting, the first between a Kuomintang (KMT) chief and a Chinese leader in over a decade, comes at a time of heightened regional anxiety. Seated in the Great Hall of the People, Xi Jinping responded with measured rhetoric, praising the KMT for its adherence to the "1992 Consensus"—the tacit agreement that both sides belong to "one China" but with different interpretations.
"The Chinese people on both sides of the Strait are all Chinese," Xi noted, emphasising that "external interference" would not be tolerated. His comments were widely seen as a jab at the ruling Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) close ties with Washington. For Xi, Cheng's reception offers a strategic opportunity to present a path toward "peaceful reunification" while bypassing the current administration in Taipei.
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However, the visit remains deeply divisive back home. The DPP dismissed the summit as a "political puppet show," warning that any dialogue conducted without government approval lacks legal standing. Critics in Taipei expressed concern that Cheng’s plea for a "systemic solution" could be interpreted as a step toward political concessions that the majority of the Taiwanese public is not ready to embrace.
