Senior Taiwan opposition leader visits China month before election

By Ben Blanchard and Yimou Lee

TAIPEI (Reuters) - A senior leader of the Kuomintang (KMT), Taiwan's main opposition party, is in China for meetings with the Taiwanese community, his party said on Thursday, drawing criticism from the ruling party for his going one month before elections.

The trip of KMT Vice Chairman Andrew Hsia, a former Taiwanese diplomat and one-time head of Taiwan's China-policy making Mainland Affairs Council, comes as his party seeks to narrow the ruling party's lead ahead of the Jan. 13 presidential and parliamentary elections.

The vote will affect Taiwan's future relations with China, which views the island as its own territory and has stepped up military and political pressure to assert those sovereignty claims.

Hsia, who arrived on Wednesday, is visiting Chengdu, Nanchang, Zhongshan, Xiamen and Chongqing at the invitation of the Taiwanese business community in China and will attend events with them, the party said in a statement first reported by Reuters.

Hsia's visit had been planned since October, and is mainly aimed at "continuing the achievements and goals" of previous trips, it added.

"Under the highly tense relationship between the United States and the Beijing authorities, the leaders of the two sides still need to maintain channels of communication," the KMT said, referring to Taiwan and China.

China's Taiwan Affairs Office did not respond to a request for comment.

Two sources briefed on the trip, speaking on condition of anonymity as they were not authorised to speak to the media, told Reuters that Hsia was likely to meet Taiwan Affairs Office officials.

The KMT said it was untrue Hsia would meet with "senior" Taiwan Affairs Office officials.

Taiwan's ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said the KMT needed to explain why it had sent Hsia to China "secretly" so close to the election and to say who exactly he would meet.

"It is no wonder that international public opinion and Taiwan's people have questioned: does the KMT have to report everything to Beijing first?" the DPP said in a statement.

Hsia has been to China four times in the last year and a half, including a controversial visit in August 2022 shortly after China staged war games around the island in response to a Taipei visit by then-U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

KMT Chairman Eric Chu at the time defended that visit as a "brave" outreach to China, even though Taiwan's government condemned it and even some party members were upset at the timing.

In February, June and August 2023, Hsia met Song Tao, the head of China's Taiwan Affairs Office.

The KMT traditionally favours close ties with China but strongly denies being pro-Beijing.

There is nothing illegal about Hsia going to China, and both the KMT and DPP, whose presidential candidate Lai Ching-te leads in the polls, have encouraged overseas Taiwanese to come home to vote.

Taiwan has no absentee or proxy voting system; all voting must take place in person in Taiwan.

China detests Lai, believing he is a separatist, and has rebuffed repeated offers of talks with him.

The Taiwan Affairs Office on Wednesday repeated its attacks on Lai, saying he was a "Taiwan independence worker" - a comment Lai has previously made though not this time on the campaign trail - and a "bringer of war".

The KMT says if it wins the presidential election it will re-engage with Beijing and lower tensions, but has also pledged to continue boosting Taiwan's defences.

(Reporting by Ben Blanchard and Yimou Lee; Editing by Christopher Cushing and Gerry Doyle)