Taiwan opposition leader pledges reconciliation at memorial for founding father

Taiwan opposition leader Cheng Li-wun pledged on Wednesday to channel the spirit of her party's founder Sun Yat-sen and seek reconciliation with China, offering praise at his tomb for the country's achievements following the communist revolution.



Cheng, chairwoman of the Kuomintang (KMT), Taiwan's largest opposition party, is in China at a time of increased Chinese military pressure on Taiwan, which Beijing views as its own territory, and as the opposition-dominated parliament stalls a government plan for $40 billion in extra defence spending.



In a moment filled with symbolism on her first full day in the country, Cheng laid a wreath at Sun's mausoleum in the eastern city of Nanjing, also the capital of the KMT-led Republic of China government before it fled to Taiwan in 1949 having lost a civil war with Mao Zedong's communists.



"The core values of Sun Yat-sen's ideal that 'all under heaven are equal' have always been equality, inclusiveness, and unity," Cheng said, in footage carried live on Taiwanese television channels.



"We should work together to promote reconciliation and unity across the (Taiwan) Strait and create regional prosperity and peace."