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Positive attitude needed in handling cross-strait ties: Kuomintang chief

SHANGHAI — On the eve of a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, the leader of Taiwan’s Kuomintang party Eric Chu told an opening ceremony in Shanghai yesterday that cross-strait ties must be addressed with a positive attitude and that further cooperation between the Chinese mainland and Taiwan was of utmost importance.

Kuomintang chairman Eric Chu (left), in Shanghai on Saturday for a cross-strait economic, trade and culture forum, has not put his name up for Taiwan’s presidential race next year. PHOTO: AP

Kuomintang chairman Eric Chu (left), in Shanghai on Saturday for a cross-strait economic, trade and culture forum, has not put his name up for Taiwan’s presidential race next year. PHOTO: AP

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SHANGHAI — On the eve of a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, the leader of Taiwan’s Kuomintang party Eric Chu told an opening ceremony in Shanghai yesterday that cross-strait ties must be addressed with a positive attitude and that further cooperation between the Chinese mainland and Taiwan was of utmost importance.

“Cross-strait relations are something we all have to face,” he said. “The 21st century is a time of cooperation; not a time of resistance. We must use a healthy attitude, a positive attitude to welcome the age of cooperation between our two sides.”

Mr Chu spoke at a cross-strait economic and cultural forum in Shanghai attended by representatives from small and medium-sized businesses.

Mr Yu Zhengsheng, chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, China’s top legislative advisory body, told the forum that the key to the peaceful development of cross-strait relations was opposing Taiwan’s independence.

“The biggest threat to the cross-strait relationship is the separatists who are fighting for Taiwan’s independence,” he said.

Mr Yu added that the mainland and Taiwan should discuss ways for the island to participate in the Chinese-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. Taiwan had wanted to join as a charter member, but was left out of the list by Beijing, which does not want the island to use a name in the institution that would suggest it is a country.

Talks may also encompass the Belt and Road Initiative and regional economic cooperation opportunities to develop the international market and improve the competitiveness of the whole Chinese economy, Mr Yu said.

Mr Chu is the third Kuomintang chairman to visit the mainland and the first since 2009.

Mr Xi, as head of China’s ruling Communist Party, will host Mr Chu today in the first meeting of its kind between the heads of the ruling parties in China and Taiwan in more than 60 years.

The Kuomintang under Chiang Kai-shek was driven to Taiwan by Mao Zedong’s communists after the Chinese civil war in 1949, leading to decades of hostility.

Relations began to warm in the 1990s, partly out of their common opposition to Taiwan’s formal independence from China, a position advocated by the self-governing island’s main opposition party, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). Mr Chu’s Kuomintang is viewed as pro-China.

Business ties between Taiwan and China have improved to their best level in 60 years since Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou took office in 2008.

However, deep suspicion remains and no political talks have been held. Taiwan’s pride in its democracy helps reinforce many people’s unwillingness to see the island absorbed politically by China, which regards democratic Taiwan as a renegade province to be brought under Beijing’s control by force, if necessary.

That prospect has grown increasingly unpopular on the island, especially with younger voters. The opposition to Kuomintang’s pro-China policies was seen as a driver behind heavy local electoral defeats suffered by the party last November that led to Mr Ma resigning as chairman.

Mr Chu, who succeeded Mr Ma as Kuomintang chairman in January, has not put his name up for the presidential race next January.

Meanwhile, pro-independence DPP chairwoman Tsai Ing-wen has declared her presidential bid.

Analysts warned that cross-strait ties could deteriorate if the DPP returns to power without a China policy that is acceptable to Beijing.

“Cross-strait development on both political and economic fronts will come to a halt,” said Professor Chang Ya Chung from National Taiwan University.

“There will be political deadlock even though Taiwan will still need to rely on China economically. So if the DPP returns to power, cross-strait ties will be in a state of cold peace, putting Taiwan in a difficult situation that will stall the island’s economic growth.” AGENCIES

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