KMT vice chair departs for week-long China visit

Taipei, March 13 (CNA) Kuomintang (KMT) Vice Chairman Andrew Hsia (夏立言) left Taiwan Wednesday for a week-long, four-city trip to China, where he will meet Taiwanese business people there and wish them a happy new year.

According to the KMT, he will visit Chongqing and Chengdu in southwestern Sichuan province, as well as Jinan and Qingdao in eastern Shandong province.

However, Hsia told a radio interview earlier Wednesday before his departure for China that he would not be representing the government in any official capacity or holding negotiations with anyone in China. He is just traveling to meet with friends, he said.

Hsia's last China trip in late February took him to Xiamen, Guangzhou, Dongguan, Shenzhen, Xian, Shanghai, Kunshan and Hangzhou.

It came after the Kinmen capsizing incident that resulted in the deaths of two Chinese men on Feb. 14.

Asked about criticism from the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) that the KMT "kowtows" to the Communist Party of China, Hsia said his visits to China were only to exchange views while allowing Taiwanese thoughts to be understood.

Meanwhile, in response to comments by DPP legislative caucus whip Wu Szu-yao (吳思瑤) that Hsia always chooses to visit China at a sensitive time, KMT caucus secretary-general Hung Mong-kai (洪孟楷) urged the DPP to stop its "smear campaign."

Hung said that Hsia's China trip itinerary was fully open to public scrutiny, asking the ruling party to fulfill its duty of keeping peaceful communication between the two sides.

Cross-Taiwan Strait dialogue has been suspended since the independence-leaning DPP's Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) assumed the office of the president of Taiwan in May 2016.