‘Complex and grim’

China’s Xi warns of current situation with Taiwan, urges the island’s opposition to help seek ‘unification of the country’

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The situation in the Taiwan Strait is "complex and grim", Chinese President Xi Jinping yesterday wrote in a congratulatory letter to the newly elected leader of Taiwan's main opposition party, who has pledged to renew talks with Beijing.

Taiwan's Kuomintang (KMT) elected as their leader on Saturday former New Taipei City mayor Eric Chu, who said he would rekindle stalled high-level contacts with China's ruling Communist Party.

China claims Taiwan as its own territory and has stepped up military and political pressure to force the democratically ruled island to accept Chinese sovereignty, even though most Taiwanese have shown no interest in being governed by Beijing.

In Xi's letter, a copy of which was released by the KMT, he said both parties had had "good interactions" based on their joint opposition to Taiwan independence.

"At present, the situation in the Taiwan Strait is complex and grim. All the sons and daughters of the Chinese nation must work together with one heart and go forward together," wrote Xi, who is also head of the Communist Party.

He expressed hope that both parties could cooperate on "seeking peace in the Taiwan Strait, seeking national reunification and seeking national revitalisation".

Chu, who badly lost the 2016 presidential election to current President Tsai Ing-wen, responded to Xi that people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait were "all the children of the Yellow Emperor" - in other words, all Han Chinese.

Chu blamed Tsai's Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) for tensions with Beijing after pursuing anti-China policies. Chu said he hoped to "seek common ground and respect differences, increase mutual trust and geniality, strengthen exchanges and cooperation so as to allow the continued peaceful development of cross-strait relations".

Under outgoing KMT leader Johnny Chiang's 17-month tenure, high-level contacts with China stalled amid military tensions and suspicion in Beijing the party was not sufficiently committed to the idea Taiwan was part of "one China".