Summary The meeting is the first between Xi and Chan since Xi assumed the party leadership.
BEIJING (AP) - Chinese leader Xi Jinping has reaffirmed China s desire to have Taiwan reunite with the Chinese mainland during a meeting in Beijing with the honorary head of Taiwan s ruling party.
Xi met with Nationalist Party honorary chairman Lien Chan at the seat of the legislature in downtown Beijing on Monday. Xi told Lien the new generation of ruling Communist Party leaders who took office last November will continue developing ties and pushing for unification with the island that China claims as part of its own territory.
The meeting is the first between Xi and a leading Taiwanese politician since Xi assumed the party leadership in November.
The Nationalists, once bitter Cold War rivals with China s communists, support eventual unification with mainland China but only under a still-to-be negotiated framework.
