evidence: Taiwan President Lai Ching-te will on Friday make his first visit since taking office in May to the sensitive Kinmen islands that sit next to the Chinese coast and have been the scene of stepped up tensions between Taipei and Beijing. Taiwan has controlled Kinmen, and the Matsu islands further up the Chinese coast, since the defeated Republic of China government fled to Taipei in 1949 after losing a civil war with Mao Zedong's communists. No peace treaty or armistice has ever been signed. [...] China views democratically-governed Taiwan as its own territory and has repeatedly denounced Lai as a "separatist." He rejects Beijing's sovereignty saying only Taiwan's people can decide their future, but has also offered talks with China.