Secretary-General of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Xi Jinping met with Chu Li-luan, chairman of Taiwan's ruling Kuomintang (KMT) party on Monday in Beijing, the first such meeting in six years. The Xi-Chu meeting has garnered extensive attention, with many people thinking it is a historic event.

But Taiwan's opposition, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) responded to the meeting with shrill and conspiratorial negativity. DPP chairwoman Tsai Ing-wen vilified the meeting, saying the meeting lacked transparency, and some senior members of the DPP even called Chu's mainland visit a trip to "surrender."

The CPC is open to all political parties of Taiwan, several leaders of which have visited the mainland and met with the CPC's leadership. The KMT rebuked the DPP's criticisms, saying the DPP should reflect on why there has never been a DPP-CPC meeting.

Beijing has become one of the most popular capitals among world leaders. A meeting with the Chinese leadership in Beijing has even become a sign for some leaders to indicate their statesmanship. Those who haven't had the experience might be deemed less influential.

Taiwan's political climate features much infighting, which has put cross-Straits relations at risk. We have witnessed how the situation nearly spun out of control when Chen Shui-bian was in power, but former KMT chairman Lien Chan's visit to the mainland in 2005 reversed the dangerous trajectory. The revived KMT-CPC cooperation is acting as a safety valve to ensure cross-Straits relations do not go astray.

The election of a new Taiwan leader is drawing near, and every public statement by the DPP serves to help it regain the top post. Tsai should take note that if she follows Chen's old path and uses "Taiwan's independence" as a stunt, she will never succeed. Taiwan's independence faces a dead end.

It seems that the DPP still wants to act like a maverick in cross-Straits relations and reap some petty interests by slightly bending the rules. This will leave less room for it to maneuver.

If the DPP's comeback comes at the cost of mainland-Taiwan relations, it should know that it is playing an extremely dangerous game by coercing 23 million Taiwanese to confront a superpower across the Taiwan Strait.

Cooperation with the CPC has become a tried and tested political asset for the KMT, and it will play a more significant role in the years ahead. Cross-Straits exchanges shouldn't be targeted and victimized in Taiwan's political infighting: This principle should be followed by both the KMT and the DPP.