Taiwan's opposition party is defending itself after a report that Beijing vetted its leader's script before she met Xi Jinping — a story that plays badly for the KMT's claim of equal footing with China.

• The Wall Street Journal reported that Chinese officials negotiated the content of KMT chair Cheng Li-wun's remarks for months before her meeting with Xi.
• Cheng is said to have handed over a draft speech in advance, and her clear line opposing Taiwan independence won Xi's approval.
• The KMT calls this normal staff preparation — agenda-setting and advance coordination that any party-to-party meeting involves.
• As proof it cuts both ways, the party points to the 2015 Ma-Xi meeting in Singapore, where the two sides were still fighting over the wording hours before it started and Ma Ying-jeou threatened to fly home rather than give in.
• The KMT's counterattack: the ruling DPP is scoring political points instead of explaining how it plans to manage the risk of war in the Taiwan Strait.

Outlook: Expect the dispute over who is soft on Beijing to keep running, with the KMT pressing the government to spell out its own plan for avoiding miscalculation across the strait.