TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Kuomintang (KMT) Vice Chair Andrew Hsia (夏立言) denied his latest China trip was intended to pave the way for a visit by party leader Eric Chu (朱立倫), reports said Wednesday (March 13).

Hsia previously traveled to China in December, before Taiwan’s Jan. 13 presidential and legislative elections. He also visited in February-March, when the two countries were involved in a dispute about an unmarked Chinese speedboat capsizing off the offshore island of Kinmen, leading to the death of two of its crew.

Before leaving for China Wednesday, Hsia told reporters he was not scheduled to meet Chinese officials during his trip, per Radio Taiwan International (RTI). As relations between the KMT and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) were good, he added he could not exclude the possibility of other party leaders traveling to China in the future.

Hsia plans to meet Taiwanese business people during his seven-day trip to Chongqing, Chengdu, Qingdao and Jinan. He is accompanied by officials from his party’s youth and Chinese affairs departments.

As China recently denied the existence of Taiwan’s territorial waters in the capsizing near Kinmen, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) asked whether Hsia would defend Taiwan’s sovereignty during his China trip.