KMT chair 'gladly accepts' Xi's invitation to visit China next week

Taipei, March 30 (CNA) Kuomintang (KMT) Chairperson Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) said Monday that she has "gladly accepted" an invitation from Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to visit China next week, which will show that the two sides "are not destined for war."

"We must firmly pursue a path of peace" for the sake of the two sides of the Taiwan Strait, regional stability, and the well-being of future generations, Cheng said at a press conference at the KMT headquarters in Taipei.

The trip next week to China will "show the people of Taiwan and the world one thing -- the two sides of the Strait are not destined for war, nor do they need to remain on the brink of military conflict," Cheng said.

She thanked Xi for the invitation, which she said she had "gladly accepted."

Cheng made the statements after China's state-run Xinhua News Agency earlier in the day reported the invitation, citing Song Tao (宋濤), director of China's Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO).

According to the report, Song said that since Cheng took office as KMT chairperson last November, she had "repeatedly expressed a wish to visit the mainland."

He said he was "authorized to announce" that the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and Xi had invited Cheng to lead a KMT delegation on a visit to Jiangsu, Shanghai, and Beijing from April 7-12, Xinhua reported.

Referring to Xi as general secretary of the CCP, Song said the invitation was aimed at "promoting KMT-CCP ties and the peaceful development of cross-strait relations," according to the report.

At Monday's press conference, Cheng said any efforts to improve cross-strait relations during her upcoming visit to China must be based on the terms of the "1992 consensus" and opposition to Taiwan independence.

The "1992 consensus" was a tacit understanding reached in 1992 between the then KMT government of the Republic of China (Taiwan) and the Chinese government. It has been consistently interpreted by the KMT as an acknowledgment by both sides that there is only "one China," with each side free to interpret what "China" means.

The ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), however, has never acknowledged the "1992 consensus," arguing that Beijing allows no room for the interpretation of "China" as the Republic of China, and that acceptance of the consensus would imply agreement with China's claim over Taiwan.

On Monday, Cheng said that in recent years, the Taiwan Strait has been described in the international media as one of the most dangerous places in the world, and she hopes her visit would help usher in "a mild and warm spring" in cross-strait relations.

She did not name the other members of the KMT delegation, saying that the invitation had only just been confirmed and many details still had to be decided.