Li Hong, the host of “Cross the Strait” program of Beijing’s official mouthpiece CCTV made a comment on the show on Sept. 10 that drew strong backlash among Taiwan’s political parties. She said on the show that Wang Jinping, who would lead the Kuomintang (KMT) delegation to attend the annual Cross-Strait Forum, was coming to the mainland to “beg for peace.”
Although CCTV changed its rhetoric soon after, it refused to apologize, which has been unable to quell criticism among Taiwan’s political parties. KMT later announced that it would not participate in this year’s forum as a political party—this is the first time since the Cross-Strait Forum started 11 years ago.
