KAOHSIUNG – Taiwan: For the first time in nearly a decade, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) supreme leader and the head of the communist party, Xi Jinping, held a meeting with the chairperson of Taiwan’s main opposition party. Cheng Li-wun, chairwoman of the Chinese Nationalist Party (also known as the Kuomintang, KMT), met Xi in Beijing on Friday. 

Before their closed-door meeting the pair posed for pictures . Xi said that Taiwan is historically a part of China and remains an «inalienable» and «inseparable» part of Chinese territory. He said the «rejuvenation of the Chinese nation» was a «broader trend» that will not change. China’s state-controlled media and government officials often repeat these party lines, even though, after its establishment in 1949, the communist regime has not ruled Taiwan for a single day.

The two met in their capacities as heads of their respective political parties. China refuses to speak to the democratically elected government of Taiwan, led by President Lai Ching-te of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). The DPP won Taiwan’s presidential elections in 2016, 2020, and 2024, although in 2024 it narrowly lost control of the parliament to an opposition coalition led by the KMT. 

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The meeting came as Taiwan is mired in a dispute over defense spending, with the opposition coalition blocking President Lai’s proposed $40 billion special defense budget. During a recent visit to Taipei, Sen. Jim Banks, R-Ind., said approval of the package would send a clear message that Taiwan is prepared to invest in its own defense and «peace through strength.»

Hours before Cheng and Xi smiled for the cameras, Lai did not directly mention the Beijing meeting, but said on social media that any compromise with an authoritarian regime would damage Taiwan’s sovereignty. There are also concerns that if the special budget isn’t approved soon, the willingness of President Donald Trump to sell weapons to Taiwan could change should Trump decide to strike some kind of deal with Xi at a possible meeting in May.

Xi’s term «rejuvenation of the Chinese nation,» which was repeated by Cheng, is a reference to the goal of China becoming a – if not the – major world power by 2049, the centennial of the founding of the communist PRC. 

Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te, center, walks before an offshore anti-terrorism drill at the Kaohsiung harbor in Kaohsiung, southern Taiwan, Sunday, June 8, 2025. (Chiang Ying-ying/AP)

In comments that are sure to evoke controversy in Taiwan, Cheng repeated much of Xi’s phrasing, claiming that in the more than 100 years of interactions between the KMT and the CCP, «all we ever wanted is to guide the Chinese nation out of decline and toward rejuvenation.» Cheng went on to say, «The great Chinese rejuvenation involves people on both sides of the strait. It is about the reawakening and resurgence of Chinese civilization.»

That’s not how many here in Taiwan see things. Rose Chou, 45, works as an administrator in one of the biggest primary schools in Kaohsiung, southern Taiwan’s largest city and a major port. Chou told Fox News Digital it was time for Taiwan to dump any connection to being China or a part of China. «Yes, I want a Republic of Taiwan. I have an 18-year-old son. And yes, I realize we may have to fight. I’m willing to fight.»

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A screen grab captured from a video shows the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command launching large-scale joint military exercises around Taiwan with naval vessels and military aircraft in China on May 24, 2024. Led by the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), «integrated operations inside and outside the island chain are being conducted to test the command’s capabilities to jointly take battlefield control and launch joint strikes, and to seize control of crucial areas,» Li Xi, the spokesman for the PLA Eastern Theater Command, said. (Photo by Feng Hao / PLA / China Military/Anadolu via Getty Images) (Feng Hao/PLA/China Military/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Chou readily admitted that most people she knows favor maintaining the status quo. A very small number, she said, are committed to the idea of unification – but under what terms they hope that could occur, Chou said she didn’t know. 

Under the status quo that dates from the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949, Taiwan’s official name remains the Republic of China, to nominally indicate that Taiwan is a part of China, just not «Red China.» This formula previously satisfied the communist regime in Beijing, but – especially since Xi Jinping’s rise – Beijing has pushed Taiwan towards outright submission.

A meeting between the head of the KMT and the CPP hasn’t happened in almost a decade, but there is precedent. A KMT chair met Xi in 2015, and again in 2016, and separately, in 2015, then-Taiwan president Ma Ying-jeou met Xi in Singapore, during which each addressed the other as «Mister,» and titles used were «Leader of Taiwan» and «Leader of Mainland China,» respectively.

In a statement after the meeting, a spokesperson for the American Institute in Taiwan, the de facto U.S. embassy in Taipei, said, «The United States supports cross-Strait dialogue. We expect cross-Strait differences to be resolved by peaceful means, free from coercion, in a manner acceptable to the people on both sides of the Strait. Meaningful cross-Strait exchange should focus on dialogue between Beijing’s leadership and Taiwan’s democratically elected authorities without preconditions, while also including engagement with all other political parties in Taiwan.»

A nuclear-powered Type 094A Jin-class ballistic missile submarine of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy is seen during a military display in the South China Sea April 12, 2018.  (Reuters/Stringer)

Elizabeth Freund Larus, a Taiwan Fellowship Scholar in Taipei told Fox News Digital the KMT’s traditional China approach no longer connects with much of Taiwan’s electorate. «KMT Chair Cheng’s trip is trying to replicate Ma Ying-jeou’s approach to cross-Strait relations,» Larus said. «But that approach is 30-years old and no longer appeals to the Taiwanese. As a result, many people in Taiwan are critical of her China trip.»

Larus said Beijing is also likely to use the visit for domestic propaganda, presenting it as proof that Taiwan embraces cultural and social affinities with mainland China while casting the government in Taipei as an outlier. «Cheng may be welcomed in Beijing,» Larus said, «but her party may receive a less enthusiastic reception» in local elections later this year and in the next presidential and legislative elections in 2028.

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Taipei-based political risk analyst and Tamkang University assistant professor Ross Feingold told Fox News Digital, «President Lai’s DPP has a savvy media team, which for many years has successfully shaped public opinion towards China. Following today’s meeting, Cheng and the KMT will be portrayed as traitors willing to sell out Taiwan.»

He concluded by noting, «Ultimately, though, the success or failure of Cheng’s visit to China and meeting with Xi will be determined by Taiwan’s voters, despite efforts from China and the United States to influence events. For the Trump administration, though, its near-term priority in Taiwan remains legislative approval to purchase billions of dollars of American weapons and speedy implementation of Taiwan’s commitment to invest $250 billion in the United States.»

The Navy is canceling a long-delayed overhaul of the USS Boise after costs ballooned to nearly $3 billion, with Secretary of the Navy John Phelan saying the submarine no longer made financial or strategic sense to repair.

In an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital, Phelan said the Los Angeles-class attack submarine had already consumed roughly $800 million and would require another $1.9 billion to complete — despite offering only about 20% of its remaining service life. Instead, the Navy plans to redirect funding and skilled labor toward building and delivering newer Virginia- and Columbia-class submarines, part of a broader push to accelerate ship production and overhaul troubled acquisition programs.

«At some point, you just cut your losses and move on,» Phelan said.

The Navy originally awarded a roughly $1.2 billion contract in 2024 under the Biden administration to overhaul the submarine, nearly a decade after it was first slated for repairs, but updated estimates later showed the total cost to complete the work had surged far beyond initial projections.

«The Boise has been pier-side since 2015, cost nearly $800 million already, and it’s only 22% complete — the math really does not work,» he added.

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The decision comes as the Navy faces mounting pressure to expand and maintain its fleet amid growing competition with China, which has built the world’s largest navy by number of ships. U.S. officials have increasingly emphasized the need to speed up shipbuilding and submarine production to keep pace with rising global demands.

Boise’s problems long predate the canceled contract.

The submarine last deployed in 2015 and was slated to begin a routine overhaul the following year, but delays at Navy shipyards left it waiting years for an available dry dock.

As maintenance was pushed back, the situation worsened. The submarine lost its full operational certification in 2016 and its ability to dive in 2017, effectively sidelining it from combat operations.

Despite being a frontline attack submarine, Boise remained tied up at port for years as the Navy struggled with a growing backlog of repairs across its fleet, driven by limited dry dock space, workforce shortages and competing maintenance priorities.

The overhaul originally was planned to begin in 2016 but was repeatedly delayed for nearly a decade before the Navy finally awarded a contract in 2024 — by which point the submarine had already spent years out of service.

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Even after work began, the timeline stretched further, with repairs not expected to be completed until 2029 — meaning the submarine would have spent roughly 15 years inactive by the time it returned to sea.

Over time, Boise became one of the clearest examples of the Navy’s broader maintenance and shipyard challenges, frequently cited by lawmakers and defense analysts as a case study in delays, rising costs and declining readiness.

Phelan said a key factor in the decision was freeing up scarce shipyard labor and engineering talent currently tied up in the Boise overhaul, which he said could be better used to accelerate construction of newer submarines.

Navy Secretary John Phelan described the program’s failure as the result of multiple factors for more than a decade, including engineering challenges, shifting priorities and strain on the Navy’s industrial base. (Meg McLaughlin/The San Diego Union-Tribune)

«One of our big constraints in our shipyards, particularly in submarine building, is labor and engineering talent,» Phelan said. «We have a lot of that dedicated to this, which we could free up and put onto the Virginia-class submarine or Columbia and try to shift the schedule left on those.»

He argued the overhaul no longer made sense from a return-on-investment perspective, comparing the cost of repairing the aging submarine to building a new one.

«The Boise represents 65% of the cost of a new Virginia-class submarine, yet it only delivers 20% of the remaining service life,» Phelan said, adding that equates to roughly three deployments.

The Boise, commissioned in 1992, is a Cold War-era attack submarine designed primarily for open-ocean combat, while newer Virginia-class submarines are quieter, more versatile and better suited for modern missions, including intelligence gathering, special operations and operating in contested coastal environments.

«Is it time we just simply pull the plug on that one?» Sen. Mike Rounds, R-N.D., asked during a confirmation hearing in June 2025.

Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Daryl Caudle called the situation «an unacceptable story» and «like a dagger in the heart» for the submarine force.

No public criticism immediately surfaced after the decision was announced Friday.

Phelan described the program’s failure as the result of multiple factors over more than a decade, including engineering challenges, shifting priorities and strain on the Navy’s industrial base.

«I can’t point to one thing that killed it,» he said. «I think it was a combination … the complexity of the engineering, COVID impacts, and pressure on the industrial base.»

Navy Secretary John Phelan said the Navy will reprioritize resources to the newer Virginia-class submarines. (Colin Murty via Reuters)

The cancellation is part of a broader effort by Navy leadership to reevaluate underperforming programs and change how the service approaches acquisitions, Phelan said.

«We’re reviewing every program,» he said, adding the Navy is pushing for «radical transparency» and a shift away from what he described as a culture of accepting delays and rising costs.

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Phelan said the decision reflects a broader push to prioritize speed and efficiency in delivering war-fighting capability to the fleet.

«We need to be more disciplined and move out faster,» he said. «The president wants things yesterday.»

En la ciudad de Nahariya, ubicada en el norte de Israel, un misil lanzado por el grupo terrorista Hezbollah impactó contra un edificio en una cancha deportiva, provocando daños materiales pero sin dejar víctimas, según informaron los servicios de rescate.

El ataque se produjo en medio de una nueva escalada de violencia a lo largo de la frontera norte israelí.

De acuerdo con las Fuerzas de Defensa de Israel (FDI), desde la mañana de este viernes, Hezbollah disparó aproximadamente 30 cohetes desde territorio libanés hacia la región septentrional de Israel.

Tanto las autoridades militares como los servicios de emergencia confirmaron la serie de lanzamientos y detallaron que, pese al alcance de los ataques, no se reportaron heridos.

Un portavoz de los servicios de rescate en Nahariya indicó que el proyectil que alcanzó el complejo deportivo causó daños estructurales en la edificación. Las operaciones de evaluación y control de la zona continuaron durante la jornada, bajo estrictas medidas de seguridad.

Las FDI atribuyeron la responsabilidad de los ataques a Hezbollah y reforzaron la presencia militar en varias localidades del norte. Las autoridades locales instaron a la población a mantener la calma y seguir las instrucciones de protección civil.

Según la información recogida por medios locales, el intercambio de fuego entre Israel y Hezbollah ha intensificado la tensión en la frontera, donde persiste un alto nivel de alerta ante nuevos posibles bombardeos.

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En otro orden, el vicepresidente estadounidense, JD Vance, dijo este viernes que esperaba un resultado “positivo” al partir de Washington rumbo a las conversaciones de paz con Irán que se celebran en Pakistán.

“Vamos a intentar mantener una negociación positiva”, declaró a los periodistas antes del despegue desde la Base Conjunta Andrews.

“Si los iraníes están dispuestos a negociar de buena fe, nosotros, desde luego, estamos dispuestos a extender la mano abierta. Si intentan engañarnos, el equipo negociador no será muy receptivo”, advirtió.

La propuesta de Washington, de 15 puntos, se centra en el uranio enriquecido de Irán y la reapertura del estrecho de Ormuz. Teherán ha respondido con un plan de 10 puntos que exige el control del estrecho, un peaje para los buques que lo crucen, el cese de todas las operaciones militares regionales y el levantamiento de todas las sanciones.

Líbano también constituye un punto de fricción importante. Israel continuó sus ataques en el país contra Hezbollah —tras la entrada en vigor del alto el fuego—, y el primer ministro israelí, Benjamin Netanyahu, rechazó la afirmación del primer ministro Shehbaz Sharif de que la tregua incluía a Líbano.

El vicepresidente estadounidense adoptó un tono más conciliador, afirmando que podría haber habido un “malentendido legítimo“ por parte de Irán respecto a la inclusión de Líbano en la tregua. Fuentes iraníes también han declarado a los medios locales que Teherán no asistirá a las conversaciones a menos que se establezca un alto el fuego en el Líbano.

El presidente iraní, Masoud Pezeshkian, advirtió en X que los ataques israelíes contra el Líbano hacían que las negociaciones carecieran de sentido.

Irán también se ha negado durante mucho tiempo a ceder ante las exigencias de Washington sobre su programa nuclear.

Islamabad bajo confinamiento

Las conversaciones se celebrarán en la capital pakistaní, Islamabad.

El gobierno ha mantenido la información en secreto, sin confirmar el lugar de la reunión, pero el Hotel Serena, ubicado junto al Ministerio de Asuntos Exteriores en la Zona Roja de alta seguridad de la capital, pidió a sus huéspedes que desalojaran el recinto el miércoles.

Ese mismo día, las autoridades de la capital anunciaron un feriado público de dos días, jueves y viernes.

Se espera que las conversaciones sean indirectas: las dos delegaciones se reunirán en salas separadas, con funcionarios pakistaníes intercambiando propuestas entre ellas, replicando el formato utilizado en rondas anteriores mediadas por Omán.

En el exterior, las calles de Islamabad están repletas de personal de seguridad armado con uniformes militares, desvíos de tráfico y controles policiales. La capital, ya de por sí tranquila, lo estaba aún más el viernes.