Xi Hosts Taiwan Opposition Leader In Rare Meeting: ‘We Will Not Become A Chessboard For External Intervention’

All eyes remain fixated on the impending US-Iran talks in Islamabad, but big things are also happening Friday in Beijing, and they have direct impact on another potential global flashpoint: Taiwan. While Washington potentially gets bogged down in another Middle East quagmire (if talks don’t go well and there’s no offramp), Chinese leader Xi Jinping has welcomed the leader of Taiwan’s main opposition party for a rare direct meeting in the Chinese capital. The symbolism of the timing can’t be missed, as Xi invited Nationalist Party Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun to China ahead of the planned big mid-May summit with President…