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Beijing / AFP
Chinese president Xi Jinping met with the leader of Taiwan’s opposition party on Tuesday, state media reported, as
Beijing’s relations with the island’s new president deteriorate. Cross-strait ties have worsened under Taiwan’s first female president, Tsai Ing-wen whose China-sceptic Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) took office in May after a landslide victory over the Kuomintang (KMT). Tsai has refused to accept the concept of “one China”, prompting Beijing to cut off all official communication with her government. Beijing sees Taiwan, which has ruled itself since KMT forces fled there at the end of the civil war in 1949, as part of its territory requiring reunification. Xi met with KMT leader Hung Hsiu-chu at Beijing’s Great Hall of the People, the official Xinhua news service said.
It did not provide further details of the meeting. Xinhua previously reported that Hu was leading a delegation from Taiwan to China for a visit to “promote stability and peace across the Taiwan Strait”.