Former VP Biden rallies with striking supermarket workers

Former Vice President Joe Biden has attended a rally of striking supermarket workers in New England.

Biden spoke Thursday at the gathering of unionized Stop & Shop employees outside a store in Boston's Dorchester neighborhood.

Biden, mulling a run for the Democratic nomination for president, said workers at the supermarket chain are "not being treated across the board with dignity."

Former vice president Joe Biden speaks at a rally in support of striking Stop & Shop workers in Boston, Thursday, April 18, 2019. (AP PhotoMichael Dwyer)

United Food and Commercial Workers union members at 240 Stop & Shop stores in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut went on strike on April 11 to protest what they call cuts to health care and take-home pay in the company's latest contract proposal.

Stop & Shop, a division of Dutch company Ahold Delhaize, says it is offering across-the-board raises and "excellent" health care benefits that beat industry standards.

Former vice president Joe Biden speaks at a rally in support of striking Stop & Shop workers in Boston, Thursday, April 18, 2019. (AP PhotoMichael Dwyer)

Former vice president Joe Biden talks with officials after speaking at a rally in support of striking Stop & Shop workers in Boston, Thursday, April 18, 2019. (AP PhotoMichael Dwyer)

Former vice president Joe Biden speaks at a rally in support of striking Stop & Shop workers in Boston, Thursday, April 18, 2019. (AP PhotoMichael Dwyer)

Former vice president Joe Biden speaks at a rally in support of striking Stop & Shop workers in Boston, Thursday, April 18, 2019. (AP PhotoMichael Dwyer)

Former vice president Joe Biden arrives to speak at a rally in support of striking Stop & Shop workers in Boston, Thursday, April 18, 2019. (AP PhotoMichael Dwyer)

Former vice president Joe Biden talks with officials after speaking at a rally in support of striking Stop & Shop workers in Boston, Thursday, April 18, 2019. (AP PhotoMichael Dwyer)

Former vice president Joe Biden speaks at a rally in support of striking Stop & Shop workers in Boston, Thursday, April 18, 2019. (AP PhotoMichael Dwyer)

A spectator records former vice president Joe Biden on a cell phone as he speaks at a rally in support of striking Stop & Shop workers in Boston, Thursday, April 18, 2019. (AP PhotoMichael Dwyer)

BEIJING (AP) — Chinese President Xi Jinping met with former Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou in Beijing Wednesday in a bid to promote unification between the sides that separated amid civil war in 1949.

Ma stepped down as president in 2016 and was largely excluded from the opposition Nationalist Party’s failed campaign to retake the presidency in January, a concession to the electorate's strong opposition to political unification with China and politicians seen as willing to compromise Taiwan's security.

He follows a long line of politicians from the Nationalists, also known as the KMT, who have been invited to China by its authoritarian one-party government and given VIP treatment on visits around the country.

China claims Taiwan as its own territory, to be annexed by force if necessary. Beijing sends navy ships and warplanes around the island on a daily basis in hopes of wearing down Taiwan's defensives and intimidating the population.

“The people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait are all Chinese. There is no dispute that cannot be resolved, there is no problem that cannot be discussed, and no force can separate us," Xi told Ma.

"Differences in systems cannot change the fact that both sides of the Taiwan Straits belong to the same country and nation,” he added.

Ma responded that a new war between the sides would be “an unbearable burden for the Chinese nation.”

"The Chinese people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait will definitely have enough wisdom to handle cross-Strait disputes peacefully and avoid conflicts,” Ma said.

Independence leaning president-elect Lai Ching-te of the Democratic Progressive Party won the January election handily and his vice president-elect Bi-khim Hsiao has been visiting nations friendly to Taiwan in Europe and elsewhere ahead of taking office.

Ma's 11-day trip, ostensibly at the head of a student delegation, underlines continued interactions in education, business and culture despite Beijing’s threat to use military force against the self-governing island democracy to achieve unification.

Toward the end of his second term in 2015, Ma held a historic meeting with Xi in Singapore, which has close contacts with both sides. The meeting — the first between the leaders of China and Taiwan in more than half a century — produced few tangible outcomes, and Ma’s Nationalist Party lost the next presidential election to Tsai Ing-wen of the DPP.

Lai Ching-te, currently vice president, is despised by Beijing for his opposition to unification. The Nationalists recovered a narrow majority in the legislature but their influence on foreign policy and other national issues remains limited.

Taiwan has been boosting military relations with allies such as the U.S. and Japan while maintaining close economic ties with the Chinese mainland.

In this image taken from video by Taiwan's TVBS, Chinese President Xi Jinping at right meets with former Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou in Beijing on Wednesday, April 10, 2024 in a bid to promote unification between the sides that separated amid civil war in 1949. (TVBS via AP)

In this image taken from video by Taiwan's TVBS, Chinese President Xi Jinping at right meets with former Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou in Beijing on Wednesday, April 10, 2024 in a bid to promote unification between the sides that separated amid civil war in 1949. (TVBS via AP)

In this image taken from video by Taiwan's TVBS, Chinese President Xi Jinping at right meets with former Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou in Beijing on Wednesday, April 10, 2024 in a bid to promote unification between the sides that separated amid civil war in 1949. (TVBS via AP)