TAIPEI (TVBS News) — The Kuomintang (KMT, 國民黨) dismissed reports of a meeting between KMT Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) as speculation on Monday (Feb. 9), emphasizing that no such meeting is planned. The Liberty Times (自由時報) reported that the Cheng-Xi meeting is slated for mid-March, but the KMT maintains that no information is available and that such reports remain speculative.
Cheng responded to the rumors of a meeting with Xi on Monday, dismissing them as nonsense and pure fiction. Democratic Progressive Party (DPP, 民進黨) Legislator Lee Kun-cheng (李坤城) criticized the KMT for not yet submitting the special military procurement bill for committee review. He suggested that if the KMT believes the rumors are false, the party should promptly advance the bill when the Legislative Yuan (立法院), Taiwan's legislature, convenes at the end of February.
Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) also expressed on Monday his view that cross-strait exchanges should maintain principles of equality, dignity, goodwill, and reciprocity. He stated he does not worry about the potential impact of a Cheng-Xi meeting on election outcomes. However, new revelations suggest that for the Cheng-Xi meeting to proceed as planned, the KMT must fully implement tasks assigned by Wang Huning (王滬寧).
China launched its Taiwan Work Conference (對台工作會議) on Monday, led by Wang Yi (王毅), a member of the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) Political Bureau (政治局). The conference aims to disrupt Taiwan's military procurement and to thwart potential U.S.-Taiwan supply chain collaborations. Meanwhile, Wang Huning, chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (中國人民政治協商會議), met with KMT Vice Chairman Hsiao Hsu-tsen (蕭旭岑) in Beijing on Wednesday (Feb. 4).