Taiwan’s main opposition leader, KMT chair Cheng Li-wun, arrived in China Tuesday for a rare six-day visit she calls a peace mission. The trip comes as Beijing has increased military drills around the island, which China claims as its own, while the U.S. presses Taiwan to buy billions of dollars in American weapons.
Speaking to reporters in Taipei before departure, Cheng emphasized dialogue with Beijing: “If you truly love Taiwan, you will seize every opportunity and every possibility to prevent Taiwan from being ravaged by war. Preserving peace is preserving Taiwan.”
China’s Taiwan Affairs Office said the visit will have a “significant” and “positive impact” on peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, according to state media. Cheng and a KMT delegation will visit Shanghai and Nanjing before going to Beijing, where Taiwanese media report she may meet President Xi Jinping. It is the first trip by a sitting KMT leader to China in nearly a decade.
Reactions in Taiwan were mixed. Wen Wen-fu, a businessman from New Taipei City, expressed concern, saying Cheng’s party is closer to China and that leaders should consider the wishes of Taiwan’s 23 million people. By contrast, Lee Jen-hsing, a businessman based in eastern China, called the visit “definitely a good thing” because of close cross-strait ties.
Beijing sharply reduced exchanges with the KMT after the party lost power to the DPP in 2016 and cut most state-level contacts with Taipei. The KMT endorses the idea that both sides belong to “one China,” though Taipei and Beijing interpret that principle differently.
In recent years, Beijing has stepped up military activity near Taiwan, including actions last year described as encircling the island by land, air and sea. Domestically, Taiwan’s legislature is locked in a bitter debate over a DPP-led government’s request for $40 billion in additional defense spending, part of which would fund U.S. arms purchases.
Observers say Beijing may be using the visit to show there are still pro-Beijing voices in Taiwan. Wen-ti Sung of the Atlantic Council’s Global China Hub said Beijing wants to project that image while signaling it is open to dialogue as well as deterrence.
U.S.-China dynamics also factor in: President Trump plans to meet Xi in May and has indicated he might discuss future American arms sales to Taiwan with Xi. Yen Wei-ting of Academia Sinica says such statements have weakened trust in the U.S., creating “a political window for Cheng” to position herself as a peacemaker.
Some analysts are wary. Chen Fang-yu of Soochow University warned Cheng could be playing into Beijing’s “United Front” strategy, which seeks to frame Taiwan as an internal Chinese matter. Taiwan’s government has been skeptical that the trip will improve cross-strait ties. Chiu Chui-cheng, minister for the Mainland Affairs Council, reminded Cheng she may visit China but is not authorized to negotiate on behalf of Taiwan’s elected government, saying, “Peace can be an ideal, but not a fantasy.”
Valentine reporting from Taiwan and Pak reporting from in Kunshan, eastern China.
