Xi Jinping (right), general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, meets with Kuomintang Chairman Eric Chu Li-luan in Beijing on Monday. (Photo/China News Service)
Cooperation with other Taiwan parties not excluded
Xi Jinping, leader of the Chinese mainland's ruling Communist Party of China (CPC), called for both sides across the Taiwan Straits to build a community of shared destiny in a landmark meeting with Eric Chu Li-luan, chairman of Taiwan's ruling Kuomintang (KMT) on Monday.
Observers believe the high-level meeting between the two party leaders will help strengthen cross-Straits bonds ahead of the island's leadership election next year, as well as consolidate the importance of the one-China position in the midst of a changing political landscape in Taiwan.
The meeting, held Monday morning in Beijing, was the first between the leaders of the CPC and the KMT in six years and marked Chu's first visit to the mainland since he was elected KMT chairman in January.
At the meeting, Xi said that cross-Straits relations have entered a critical phase, and that both the CPC and the KMT should work together to shape the future of cross-Straits development.
Xi did not exclude cooperation with other political parties on the island, while warning of any acts that would hurt cross-Straits ties and lead to Taiwan's independence.
"We have been insisting on the 1992 Consensus as the foundation to engage with Taiwan authorities and various political parties," the Xinhua News Agency quoted Xi as saying.
He called for both sides to be on high alert against statements such as "one country on each side" and "one China, one Taiwan," which will not bring peace or development.
Chu echoed Xi's reference of building a community of shared destiny, and said that the 1992 Consensus, which upholds the one-China principle, has served as an important foundation of cooperation across the Straits.
Chu also said Taiwan should be able to play a vital role in regional economic efforts like the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and the "One Belt, One Road" economic initiative, as well as the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership.
"Voices have emerged in Taiwan that hold a distorted view of cross-Straits relations following the outbreak of the 'Sunflower movement' last year. The Democratic Progressive Party has also influenced the Taiwanese public with its confrontational view toward the 1992 Consensus," Li He, deputy director of the Beijing-based National Society of Taiwan Studies, told the Global Times.
The 1992 Consensus, which centers on the concept of one China, has served as the framework and foundation for cross-Straits interaction.
It was inscribed into the KMT party platform 2005, after then-KMT chairman Lien Chan made the first trip to the Chinese mainland by a KMT chief since 1949.
Observers believes that despite some in Taiwan proposing to revise or even to revert the 1992 Consensus, it will continue to serve as the fundamental principle of cross-Straits interaction and will not be subject to change over time.
"Chu's commitment to the Consensus is a positive sign as it is important for the KMT to adhere to this bottom line in a time when some among Taiwan's public have become more distant from the Chinese mainland," Hu Benliang, an associate research fellow at the Institute of Taiwan Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), told the Global Times.
Li believes that with Taiwan's next leadership election approaching in early 2016, stable cross-Straits relations are an essential aspect that the next Taiwan leader needs to maintain, and that Taiwan should continue to uphold the 1992 Consensus regardless of who will take the leadership position.
Relations across the Straits have greatly improved since 2008 when Ma Ying-jeou took office as the leader of Taiwan.
About 3.22 million mainlanders visited Taiwan in 2014, up from 300,000 in 2008. Cross-Straits trade has risen by more than 50 percent since 2008, to about $200 billion in 2014. The unemployment rate has also dropped steadily to 3.96 percent in 2014, a seven-year low.
Development was at one point challenged by the "Sunflower movement" in March 2014, when hundreds of students protested against a trade and services pact with the Chinese mainland, said Li.
"Still, both sides have been on the path of building a community of shared destiny, with increasing economic and people-to-people exchanges," Li noted.
"Cross-Straits exchange is not limited to economic cooperation, but also covers a psychological and cultural sense of belonging to a common nation, hence leading to the path of peaceful unification," Hu said.
Different from the previous practice that individual meetings would be arranged between party leaders of both sides, the Monday talk was a group meeting with Xi and Chu accompanied by senior officials from both governments.
"This arrangement is to increase the transparency of the meeting, so as to brush off criticism of a lack of transparency in interaction between the two parties," Chiu Yi, a KMT legislator, told the Global Times.
