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The head of a small Taiwanese political party who is rising in the polls in his bid for the presidency said on Wednesday that he would not meet Chinese President Xi Jinping just for the sake of it and that there must be a clear aim for such talks.
Former Taipei mayor Ko Wen-je founded the Taiwan People’s Party in 2019, and formally announced last month he would run in January’s presidential election.
Although his party has only a handful of lawmakers, Ko has risen in the polls in recent weeks, with some showing him ahead of Hou Yu-ih of Taiwan’s main opposition party the Kuomintang (KMT), but behind Vice President William Lai, the governing Democratic Progressive Party’s candidate.
Ko sought engagement with China while he was mayor, though last year he criticized China’s military pressure during a virtual meeting with Shanghai officials.
