Taiwanese officials are tracking what they view as a worrying rise in Chinese naval activity and military pressure against the island, even as ​Beijing presses a message of peace and cooperation in meetings with Taiwan’s opposition leader.

“China is continuously and persistently expanding its military capabilities, and the military threat it poses to us is becoming increasingly severe,” Taiwan Defence Minister Wellington Koo told lawmakers on Thursday amid ​anger among the ruling party over the decision by members of the opposition Kuomintang (KMT) to skip talks on stalled defence-spending.

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Taiwan opposition leader Cheng Li-wun said on April 9 in Shanghai in a plea for peace, as government lawmakers in Taipei expressed anger at her party for skipping crucial defence budget talks.

Ms Cheng, chairwoman of Taiwan’s largest opposition party Kuomintang (KMT), is in China on what she has called a “peace” mission to lessen tensions at a time when Beijing has stepped up military pressure against the island it calls its own.

China refuses to talk to Taiwan President Lai Ching-te, saying he is a “separatist”. Mr Lai’s administration has called on Ms Cheng to tell China to stop its threats, and says Beijing should engage with the democratically elected government in Taipei.

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In Taipei, lawmakers from the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) condemned the KMT for skipping talks in Parliament on how to progress with stalled plans to spend an extra US$40 billion (S$51 billion) on defence.

“Don’t intentionally put this off because of the meeting with Xi Jinping tomorrow. Don’t link this to the Chinese communists,” said the DPP’s Mr Chen Kuan-ting, who is joint head of the defence and foreign affairs committee.

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