AILSA CHANG, HOST:
Chinese leader Xi Jinping hosted the head of Taiwan's largest opposition party in Beijing today. It is the first such meeting in almost a decade, and it's been controversial in Taiwan, intensifying the self-ruled island's partisan divide over how to handle relations with China. Ashish Valentine reports from Taipei.
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ASHISH VALENTINE: The meeting took place in Beijing's Great Hall of the People, an ornate building where China has received heads of state, including Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump. Today, it hosted a different kind of visitor.
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VALENTINE: Cheng Li-wun, the leader of Taiwan's opposition Kuomintang, or KMT, party, arrived smiling as they shook hands.
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PRESIDENT XI JINPING: (Non-English language spoken).
VALENTINE: Xi said, the two sides share 5,000 years of history as part of one Chinese nation and that closer ties are inevitable.
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XI: (Through interpreter) The great trend of the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation will not change, nor would the trend of the compatriots on both sides of the Taiwan strait getting closer and coming together.
VALENTINE: Cheng followed up with a call for peace.
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CHENG LI-WUN: (Through interpreter) Both sides should transcend political confrontation, share common concerns and strive to build a mutually beneficial and prosperous community of shared future across the Taiwan Strait.
VALENTINE: The meeting comes just over a month before Xi is set to host President Trump in Beijing next month, where he may raise the fate of billions of dollars in U.S. arms sales to the island, which Beijing claims as its own territory. Back in Taiwan, the ruling Democratic Progressive Party, or DPP's, reaction was sharp. President Lai Ching-te issued a statement saying, history tells us that compromising with authoritarian powers only sacrifices sovereignty and democracy. It does not bring freedom, nor does it bring peace.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Non-English language spoken).
VALENTINE: At Taipei's Songshan Airport on Monday, as Cheng's plane lifted off for Shanghai, businessman Wen Wen-fu was headed the same direction, but he didn't share Cheng's optimism.
WEN WEN-FU: (Through interpreter) I don't really feel good about it. The KMT leans towards China. The DPP leans towards the U.S. It doesn't really matter which side you choose, but I think the most important thing is to consider the wishes of the more than 23 million people of Taiwan.
VALENTINE: That skepticism of getting too close to China runs deep here in Taiwan. And year after year, a consistent poll conducted by National Chengchi University shows support for unification with China in the low double digits at best, with most respondents favoring the existing status quo. George Yin, a senior research fellow at National Taiwan University's Center for China Studies, says Xi may have wanted to host Cheng in order to push the KMT's rhetoric in a direction more preferable to Beijing's interests.
GEORGE YIN: Although, the meeting between Cheng Li-wun and Xi Jinping might not lead to so-called concrete policy changes, it could lead to concrete political changes. It could shift perception. It could corner the KMT, you know, into a political space that - in the past that it wouldn't be comfortable happening.
VALENTINE: Taiwan's parliament remains deadlocked over President Lai's $40 billion defense spending request. And Yin says, today's handshake in Beijing may not break that impasse. For NPR News, I'm Ashish Valentine in Taipei.
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