Xi Jinping issues a dire warning about the "grim" scenario regarding Taiwan : There is "complexity and grimness" to the...

 Xi Jinping issues a dire warning about the "grim" scenario regarding Taiwan :

There is "complexity and grimness" to the situation in the Taiwan Strait, according to China's president, who has written to the newly elected leader of Taiwan's largest opposition party, who has committed to renew negotiations with Beijing. TAIPEI

KMT members picked former New Taipei City mayor Eric Chu as its leader on Saturday. Chu has pledged to restart blocked high-level negotiations with the Chinese Communist Party, which governs the country.

Despite the fact that most Taiwanese have expressed no interest in being governed by Beijing, China claims Taiwan as its own territory and has stepped up military and political pressure to force the democratically-ruled island to embrace Chinese sovereignty.

The Communist Party of China (KMT) issued a copy of Xi's letter, in which he claimed that the two parties had "excellent contacts" because they both opposed Taiwanese independence.

Writing to the Kuomintang Party chief, China's president encourages high-level contacts with Beijing's ruling party.

 "The situation in the Taiwan Strait is now complex and bleak. It is imperative that all the children of the Chinese nation labour together with one heart and go forward as one," wrote Xi, who also serves as the Communist Party's general secretary.

"Seeking peace in the Taiwan Strait, seeking national reunification and seeking national revitalisation" was his message to the other side.

In response to Xi's assertion that everyone on both sides of the Taiwan Strait were "all the children of the Yellow Emperor," Chu, who narrowly lost the 2016 presidential election to current Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen said that all Han Chinese were "children of the Yellow Emperor."

Chu attributed the deteriorating relations between Taiwan and Beijing to Tsai's Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), which he said had adopted anti-Beijing policies.

After meeting with Xi in 2015, Chu expressed his desire to "explore common ground and respect differences, improve mutual trust and geniality, strengthen exchanges and collaboration so as to allow the ongoing peaceful development of cross-strait relations." he added.

The 17-month reign of outgoing KMT leader Johnny Chiang was marred by military tensions and Beijing's assumption that the party was not fully committed to Taiwan's membership in "one China."

On top of that, they lost last year's elections when the DPP falsely accused them of being Beijing's stooges.

Chinese officials will not hold talks with Tsai because they consider her a separatist. In her view, since Taiwan is officially known as the Republic of China, its people alone have the right to determine their own future.