President Xi to meet KMT delegation today

A delegation led by Honorary Kuomintang Chairman Wu Po-hsiung arrived in Beijing on Wednesday for a three-day visit, a development that mainland authorities called "an important activity" among the high-level exchanges between the mainland and Taiwan.

Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, is scheduled to meet with the delegation on Thursday afternoon.

It is the sixth time that Wu has been to Beijing with visiting delegations, but the first time since Xi became the Party chief in November.

"I hope that we can maintain the peaceful cross-Straits relationship and move forward steadily, rather than move backward," Wu said at the airport in Taoyuan on Wednesday morning before boarding his plane.

"I believe that mainland authorities will also express similar views," Wu added.

Ma Ying-jeou, Taiwan's leader and KMT chairman, met with some of the delegation members on Monday, Wu said.

Ma "has been instructing me in a serious and conscientious manner on cross-Straits issues in the past days," he said, adding that he will submit Ma's opinions to mainland authorities.

Zhang Zhijun, minister of the State Council's Taiwan Affairs Office, provided a welcoming dinner for the visiting delegation on Wednesday evening.

The delegation is scheduled to meet with Guo Jinlong, Party secretary of Beijing, on Thursday morning, and with Yu Zhengsheng, chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, on Thursday evening, the China Review News reported.

Fan Liqing, spokeswoman for the State Council's Taiwan Affairs Office, said at a news conference on Sunday that Xi will exchange views with Wu on issues such as relations between the CPC and KMT as well as mainland-Taiwan ties.

The meeting will be "an important activity" in the high-level exchanges between the two parties under new circumstances, she said.

KMT authorities praised the upcoming meeting as a "new beginning", which both sides view as important, according to a news release on the KMT official website on Sunday.

The meeting is expected to be a "constructive dialogue" that reflects the two parties' emphasis on the KMT-CPC platform and their commitment to maintaining and advancing the peaceful development of cross-Straits ties, the KMT news release said.