BEIJING: China&#39;s President Xi Jinping met Taiwan&#39;s opposition party leader Cheng Li-wun in Beijing on Friday, telling the visiting delegation he had &quot;full confidence&quot; that Taiwanese and Chinese people would be united. Kuomintang (KMT) chairwoman Cheng is the party&#39;s first leader to visit China in a decade, but her trip has sparked debate in Taiwan with critics accusing her of being too pro-Beijing. China severed high-level contact with Taiwan in 2016 after Tsai Ing-wen of the Democratic Progressive Party won the presidency and rejected Beijing&#39;s claims that the self-ruled island is part of its territory. Xi told Cheng as the two met on Friday that &quot;the general trend of compatriots on both sides of the Strait getting closer, edging nearer and becoming united will not change&quot;. &quot;This is an inevitable part of history. We have full confidence in this,&quot; Xi said during the talks carried by Taiwanese media. He also said China was willing to strengthen dialogue with groups in Taiwan, including the KMT, on the &quot;common political foundation of... opposing Taiwan independence&quot;. The KMT supports closer relations with China, which claims Taiwan is part of its territory and has threatened to use force to seize it. Cheng echoed Xi&#39;s stance, telling a press conference after their meeting that by &quot;opposing Taiwan independence, we can avoid war&quot;. She also told Xi earlier that the Taiwan Strait would &quot;no longer be a focal point of potential conflict&quot; and &quot;both sides should transcend political confrontation&quot;. Beijing has sworn to take Taiwan and has not ruled out using force, ramping up military pressure around the self-ruled island in recent years. China conducts near-daily deployments of fighter jets and warships near the island and regular large-scale military drills. Taiwanese lawmakers have been at loggerheads over the government&#39;s plan to spend NT$1.25 trillion ($39 billion) on defence, which has been stalled for months in parliament, controlled by Cheng&#39;s KMT party. - Defence spending - Cheng&#39;s trip comes a month before US President Donald Trump is scheduled to visit Beijing for a summit with Xi. The United States has been piling pressure on Taiwanese opposition lawmakers to back a proposal for defence purchases, including US weapons, to deter a potential Chinese attack. Cheng has railed against the government&#39;s proposal, insisting &quot;Taiwan isn&#39;t an ATM&quot; and instead backed a KMT plan to allocate NT$380 billion ($12 billion) for US weapons with the option for more acquisitions. While KMT party members regularly fly to China for exchanges with officials, its last leader to visit was Hung Hsiu-chu in 2016. Cross-strait relations have worsened in particular since the election of Tsai&#39;s successor, Lai Ching-te, who Beijing considers a separatist. Lai said in a Facebook post on Friday that &quot;China&#39;s... military threats in and around the Taiwan Strait and the island chain have severely undermined regional peace and stability&quot;. Cheng landed in Shanghai on Tuesday evening, saying shortly after her arrival that &quot;the two sides of the Taiwan Strait are not doomed to war, as the international community has feared&quot;. The KMT leader also travelled to the eastern city of Nanjing, where she visited the mausoleum of revolutionary leader Sun Yat-sen, one of the few Chinese historical figures revered in both Beijing and Taipei.

China

Xi Jinping met Taiwanese Opposition Leader Cheng Li-wun in Beijing, voicing confidence in eventual cross-strait unity, while the visit stirred controversy in Taiwan amid rising military tensions and disputes over defence spending.

Chinese, Taiwanese will unite, Xi tells Taiwan opposition leader

TOKYO: Japan&#39;s government plans to deploy surface-to-air missiles on one of its remote western islands near Taiwan by March 2031, the country&#39;s defence minister said on Tuesday.&nbsp;It is the first time Japan has specified the timing of the deployment.&nbsp;The ministry announced the plan in 2022 to ramp up its air defences on the island, which already hosts a Japanese military base.&nbsp;Japan&#39;s defence minister Shinjiro Koizumi said at a regular press conference in Tokyo that the deployment on Yonaguni island would take place in the 2030 fiscal year, which ends in March of the following calendar year.&nbsp;The comments come during a months-long row between Japan and China, with Beijing on Tuesday announcing that it was imposing export restrictions on dozens of Japanese firms that it said were involved in building up the country&#39;s military.&nbsp;Koizumi, who visited Yonaguni in November, said the ministry will hold a briefing for local residents next week on the island, located roughly 110 kilometres (68 miles) east of Taiwan and 1,900 kilometres southwest of Tokyo.&nbsp;Japan&#39;s conservative Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi suggested in November that Tokyo could intervene militarily in any attack on self-ruled Taiwan.&nbsp;China views Taiwan as its territory and has not ruled out taking it by force.&nbsp;Since Takaichi made the remark, Beijing has discouraged Chinese nationals from visiting Japan, which hit tourism, one of the pillars of the Japanese economy.&nbsp;Beijing&#39;s top diplomat Wang Yi said at the Munich Security Conference earlier this month that forces in Japan were seeking to &quot;revive militarism&quot;.&nbsp;Takaichi told parliament on Friday that China was intensifying attempts to change the status quo &quot;by force or coercion&quot; in the East China Sea and the South China Sea and has said Japan needs to strengthen its defence capabilities.

Asia

Japan says it plans to deploy surface-to-air missiles on Yonaguni by 2031, strengthening defenses near Taiwan amid rising tensions with China. The move follows diplomatic friction, military warnings, and growing regional security concerns in East Asian water

Articles tagged with "Taiwan"

Chinese, Taiwanese will unite, Xi tells Taiwan opposition leader

Japan to deploy missile systems on island near Taiwan by 2031: defence minister