Xi Jinping meets the KMT chairman in the first such talks in almost a decade

KAOHSIUNG – Taiwan: For the first time in almost a decade, the Supreme Leader of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and the head of the Communist Party, Xi Jinping, held a meeting with the chairman of Taiwan’s main opposition party. Cheng Li-wun, chairman of the Chinese Nationalist Party (also known as the Kuomintang, KMT), met Xi in Beijing on Friday.

Before their meeting behind closed doors, the pair posed for photos. Xi said Taiwan has historically been 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 will not change. Chinese state media and government officials often repeat these party lines, even though the communist regime has ruled Taiwan for less than a day after its founding in 1949.

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

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

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’s sovereignty. There are also concerns that if the special budget is not passed quickly, President Donald Trump’s willingness to sell weapons to Taiwan could change if Trump decides to strike some sort of deal with Xi at a possible meeting in May.

Xi’s phrase “rejuvenation of the Chinese nation,” which was echoed by Cheng, is a reference to the goal of China becoming – if not the – major world power by 2049, the centenary of the founding of the communist People’s Republic of China.

Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te, center, walks before an offshore anti-terrorism exercise at Kaohsiung Port in Kaohsiung, southern Taiwan, Sunday, June 8, 2025. (Chiang Ying-ying/AP)

In comments sure to spark controversy in Taiwan, Cheng echoed much of Xi’s language, claiming that in the more than 100 years of interactions between the KMT and CCP, “all we have ever wanted is to lead the Chinese nation out of decline and toward rejuvenation.” Cheng continued, “The great Chinese rejuvenation involves people on both sides of the strait. It is about the awakening and revival of Chinese civilization.”

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A screenshot from a video shows the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command launching large-scale joint military exercises around Taiwan on May 24, 2024, with naval ships and military aircraft in China. Under the leadership of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), “integrated operations within and outside the island chain are being conducted to test the command’s capabilities to jointly take control of the battlefield and conduct joint attacks, and to take control of crucial areas,” said Li Xi, the PLA spokesman. Eastern Theater Command, said. (Photo by Feng Hao/PLA/China Military/Anadolu via Getty Images) (Feng Hao/PLA/China Military/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Chou readily admitted that most people she knows are in favor of maintaining the status quo. A very small number, she said, are committed to the idea of ​​unification — but under what conditions they hope that might happen, Chou said she did not know.

Under the status quo dating from the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949, Taiwan’s official name remains Republic of China, to nominally indicate that Taiwan is part of China, but not ‘Red China’. This formula previously satisfied the communist regime in Beijing, but – especially since the rise of Xi Jinping – Beijing has pushed Taiwan into outright submission.

A meeting between the head of the KMT and the CPP has not taken place in almost a decade, but there is precedent. A KMT chairman met Xi in 2015, and again in 2016, and separately, in 2015, then Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou met Xi in Singapore, addressing each other as “sir” and the titles used were “leader of Taiwan” and “leader of mainland China” respectively.

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 that cross-Strait differences will be resolved by peaceful means, free from coercion, in a manner acceptable to the people on both sides of the Strait and all other political parties in Taiwan.”

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 on April 12, 2018. (Reuters/Stringer)

Larus said Beijing is also likely to use the visit for domestic propaganda, presenting it as evidence of Taiwan embracing cultural and social affinities with mainland China while portraying 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 parliamentary elections in 2028.

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He concluded by saying: “Ultimately, the success or failure of Cheng’s visit to China and meeting with Xi will be determined by Taiwanese voters, despite efforts by China and the United States to influence events. For the Trump administration, however, the near-term priority in Taiwan remains legislative approval to purchase billions of dollars of U.S. weapons and swift implementation of Taiwan’s commitment to invest $250 billion in the United States.”