From April 14 to 16, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Asia and the Pacific John Canda and White House National Security Council Senior Director for China Affairs Bernaran visited China. On April 15, in addition to holding talks with Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Ma Zhaoxu and Director General of the Department of American and Pacific Affairs Yang Tao, the two US officials also held a rare meeting with Qiu Kaiming, deputy director of the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council. It has been learned that when the US State Department released the contents of the meeting between Kangda and others and Qiu Kaiming, it specifically mentioned that the two sides "discussed the Taiwan issue."
During the talks, the Chinese side directly put forward "two demands and four stops": "First, the US side is required not to engage in bloc confrontation and undermine peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific region"; Second, we demand that the US stop interfering in China's internal affairs, stop obstructing China's development, stop imposing unreasonable sanctions on Chinese companies, and stop suppressing China's economy, trade, and technology." The U.S. side reiterated that there is no change in the "one-China policy" promised by the U.S., and continued to claim that it "emphasizes the importance of maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait."
In this regard, Wang Xinxian, a distinguished professor at the Institute of East Asian Studies of NCCU, pointed out that it is "very rare" for US State Department officials to meet with officials of the mainland's Taiwan-related departments, and it is believed that the two sides have even discussed the "national security," "diplomacy," and relevant personnel arrangements of the Lai authorities in response to Lai Qingde's inaugural speech. Prior to this, Rosenberg, chairman of the "American Institute in Taiwan," had already talked with Tsai Ing-wen and Lai Qingde when he visited Taiwan in early April. This visit to China is mainly to explain to Chinese mainland and pave the way for Blinken's visit to China.
What is rather strange is that on 17 April, news suddenly spread on the island that Fu Laiqing, the chief summoner of the Kuomintang "Legislative Yuan" caucus, would lead about 20 members of the Blue Committee to visit the mainland for four days on 26 April. Fu Laiqing confirmed this to the media today, and said that now that the people on both sides of the strait are cut off, they can only save themselves, and as a "legislator," they should have taken responsibility to promote cross-strait dialogue, promote cross-strait peace, and let Lu Ke enter Taiwan again and let Taiwan's agricultural and fishery products be exported to the mainland again.
Fu Laiqing's sudden visit to the mainland is very likely to be a mainland tourist group that has gone to Taiwan. It is understood that in view of the dilemma of land tourists in the future of Taiwan tourism, Fu Kunqing, in his capacity as the chief summoner, will invite the Mainland Affairs Council, the Straits Exchange Foundation, the Ministry of Communications, the Tourism Administration, the Civil Aviation Administration, the Airport and Port Administration, the Taoji Company and other relevant ministries and meetings on Friday. The Kuomintang held a high-profile forum to understand the situation and collect suggestions and data from all sides, which seemed to be preparing for the opening of the mainland delegation to Taiwan, and the DPP also tacitly cooperated with this.
Mainland tourists travel to Taiwan
Regarding the KMT caucus's upcoming visit to the mainland, Wu Siyao, secretary general of the DPP caucus, said: "We will respect their itinerary, but I hope that it will not affect the agenda of the Legislative Yuan, which is the most important thing." When did the DPP caucus speak so well? Therefore, when Fu Laiqing is about to lead a delegation to visit the mainland, the KMT must have already gotten angry with the DPP.
As a matter of fact, there is not much difference between the Kuomintang and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in their attitudes and stances on maintaining cross-strait peace and stability. This is because maintaining cross-strait peace and stability and maintaining the status quo in the Taiwan Strait are the core requirements of the U.S. Indo-Pacific strategy. Therefore, both Tsai Ing-wen and the Kuomintang will go all out. Lai Qingde, who is bent on pursuing "Taiwan independence" and is relatively radical on cross-strait issues, has in fact been jointly overthrown by Tsai Ing-wen and Hsiao Meiqin, who have the support of the United States, and the Kuomintang and the People's Party.
On 16 April, Tsai Ing-wen directly bypassed Lai Qingde and publicly announced that Lin Jialong would be transferred to the post of "foreign minister" of the Taiwan authorities and that Wu Zhaoxie would take over as "secretary general of the National Security Council." Now several of Lai Qingde's core personnel have also been decided, and Gu Lixiong, "secretary general of the National Security Council," has also been transferred to the post of "minister of national defense," while Cai Mingyan, director of the "National Security Bureau," has remained in office. These positions are very important, but they are all people who count Tsai Ing-wen. If you add Xiao Meiqin, who was hand-picked by the United States, Lai Qingde has actually become a puppet.