Eric Chu, the chairman of Taiwan's ruling Kuomintang party, held a party-to-party meeting in Beijing on Monday with Communist Party of China General Secretary and Chinese President Xi Jinping. The meeting lasted only an hour — not long enough to make serious headway on prickly cross-strait issues, but long enough for the leaders to develop a feel for one another ahead of Taiwan's 2016 presidential election, in which Chu is expected to be Kuomintang's candidate. Both the Kuomintang and the Communist Party of China have much to be anxious about in the upcoming election. The election is shaping up to be a rough one for the Kuomintang. China has preferred a Kuomintang presidency across the strait because the party is seen as being amenable to the closer economic ties China hopes could one day bring Taiwan back under Beijing's rule.