Overview
- China announced new steps to expand links with Taiwan, including restarting direct flights, easing entry for farm and fish goods, and broadening cultural exchanges.
- The plan would aid Taiwanese small firms in China and deepen ties for Kinmen and Matsu through shared water, power, and possible new ferry routes.
- The rollout followed Friday's meeting in Beijing between Xi Jinping and KMT leader Cheng Li-wun, the first such encounter in about a decade.
- Xi said talks hinge on opposing independence and on the 1992 Consensus, and Cheng called her trip a peace mission that seeks steady dialogue to avoid war.
- Taiwan's DPP condemned the trip as politically risky, and the KMT is still blocking a $40 billion defense bill, with a planned Xi–Trump meeting likely to keep Taiwan in focus.