Chinese President Xi meets Taiwan’s opposition leader Cheng in Beijing

Beijing: Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday met with Taiwan's opposition leader Cheng Li-wun in Beijing ahead of US President Donald Trump’s visit to China next month.

Cheng is the first Kuomintang (KMT) chairperson to lead her party’s delegation on a week-long visit to the Chinese mainland in the past decade.

Her meeting with Xi is being closely watched around the world as the Chinese leader stepped up efforts to reunify Taiwan, strictly enforcing its One-China policy since he took over in 2012, according to high military and diplomatic priority to it.

China claims Taiwan as part of it and pledges to reunite it with the mainland.

China calls Taiwan's ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) separatists and tacitly backs the pro-Beijing KMT as it advocates close ties with the mainland.

DPP firmly opposes China's attempts to reunify Taiwan with the mainland and advocates for the breakaway island to retain its identity.

Speaking ahead of her departure to Beijing, Cheng called the visit a journey of peace and said both sides of the Taiwan Strait should seek dialogue and communication to resolve their differences.

It is undeniable that the current international environment is volatile, with conflict spreading and public anxiety rising, she said.

The Taiwan Strait has long been regarded as one of the most dangerous places, so we must ensure that if the strait is safe, the world is safe', she said.

Cheng's visit is regarded as significant as it comes ahead of US President Donald Trump's trip to Beijing on May 14-15, during which Taiwan is expected to figure prominently in his talks with Xi, considering Washington's plans to sell a USD 11 billion arms sales package, the biggest so far by the US to Taipei.

The deal includes HIMARS rocket systems, anti-tank missiles, anti-armour missiles, loitering suicide drones, howitzers, military software and parts for other equipment.

China said it firmly opposes and strongly condemns the US arms sales package.

But the Taiwanese government struggled to get this year's defence budget passed by the parliament to avail the US package, as it was stalled by the opposition-dominated parliament.

Last week, a bipartisan US delegation visited Taipei to urge parliament to pass a USD 40 billion special defence spending budget.

Cheng told the media in Taipei earlier that her visit is in line with the mainstream public opinion in Taiwan. "We have a choice," she said. "For the sake of both sides of the Taiwan Strait, for regional stability, and for the well-being of the next generation, we must firmly choose the path of peace."

She said that her visit, like previous visits to the mainland by former KMT chairmen Lien Chan and Ma Ying-jeou, is on the basis of the same political foundation -- adherence to the 1992 Consensus, which embodies the one-China principle, and opposition to "Taiwan independence."