Chinese civil war enemies end enmity
The pair agreed in a two-hour meeting that they described as frank and friendly to work to end enmity between old civil war enemies the Kuomintang (KMT), or Nationalist Party, and the Chinese Communist Party and avoid military conflict in the Taiwan Strait, one of Asia’s most dangerous flashpoints.
“The two parties will work together to facilitate the resumption of negotiations as soon as possible... and facilitate the ending of a hostile state to achieve a basis for peace,” Mr Lien’s spokesperson told a news conference.
But that will depend also on Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), whose independence stance has heightened tension with a mainland China, which views Taiwan as its own and is bent on bringing the self-governed island back under its rule.
Mr Hu welcomed Mr Lien’s delegation at the Great Hall on the KMT’s first appearance in China since it was defeated by Mao Zedong’s Communist armies and fled across the Strait to Taiwan in 1949.
But Mr Lien’s trip, seen as a divide-and-conquer gambit by China to isolate the DPP, has come under fire at home.
“We are disappointed that he went to an enemy country and did not express the majority view of Taiwan people, which is that Taiwan is a sovereign, independent country,” the DPP’s legislative whip, Chen Chin-jun said.
