Taiwan’s predominant opposition get together KMT chairperson Cheng Li-wun attends a press convention on the Taiwan International Correspondents’ Membership in Taipei on March 23, 2026.
I-Hwa Cheng/AFP by way of Getty Pictures
conceal caption
toggle caption
I-Hwa Cheng/AFP by way of Getty Pictures
TAIPEI, Taiwan, and KUNSHAN, China — Taiwan’s predominant opposition chief, Cheng Li-wun of the Kuomintang Celebration (KMT), arrived in China on Tuesday for a uncommon six-day go to that she has referred to as a peace mission.
It comes as China is stepping up army drills across the island, a democracy claimed by Beijing as its personal territory, and the U.S. pressures Taiwan to spend billions on American weapons.
Chatting with reporters simply earlier than she boarded a airplane in Taipei, Cheng burdened the necessity for dialogue with Beijing.
“If you truly love Taiwan, you will seize every opportunity and every possibility to prevent Taiwan from being ravaged by war,” she stated. “Preserving peace is preserving Taiwan.”
China’s State Council’s Taiwan Affairs workplace stated the go to could have a “significant” and “positive impact” on sustaining peace and stability within the Taiwan Strait, in accordance to Chinese language state-run information company, Xinhua.
Cheng and a delegation of different KMT officers will go to the jap cities of Shanghai and Nanjing earlier than arriving in Beijing, the place Taiwan’s media is broadly reporting she could meet Chinese language president Xi Jinping.
It is the primary go to of a sitting KMT chief to China in almost a decade.
“I don’t think [the visit] is a very good thing,” Wen Wen-fu, a businessman from New Taipei Metropolis who was ready to fly to Shanghai, stated proper after Cheng’s airplane took off. “Her party of course is closer to China and the ruling party is more pro-U.S.…the most important thing is to consider the wishes of the more than 23 million people in Taiwan.”
One other Taiwanese businessman, Lee Jen-hsing, who relies in jap China’s Kunshan metropolis, was extra hopeful. “[Cheng’s visit] is definitely a good thing because the two sides of the Strait have always had very close ties,” he stated.
Beijing paused lots of its exchanges with the KMT, in addition to most state-level ties with Taipei, after the KMT misplaced energy to Taiwan’s present ruling get together, the Democratic Progressive Celebration (DPP) in 2016.
Beijing considers the DPP and Taiwan’s present president, Lai Ching-te, separatists, however “the KMT accepts that both sides of the Taiwan Strait belong to one China,” stated Xin Qiang, head of the Middle for Taiwan Research at Shanghai’s Fudan college.
Although, either side has its personal interpretation of what “one China” means.
Lately, Beijing has stepped up army drills close to Taiwan, even encircling the island by land, air and sea final yr.
Taiwan’s parliament is locked in a bitter debate over the DPP-led authorities’s $40 billion request for extra protection spending, which might partially be used to purchase extra weapons from the U.S.
Beijing is signaling that deterrence isn’t the one technique to handle tensions and that it’s open to dialogue, in response to Wen-ti Sung of the Atlantic Council’s International China Hub.
“Beijing will use [the visit] to project this image of how there are still a lot of Beijing-friendly voices in Taiwan,” he stated.
Supporters of Cheng Li-wen, chairwoman of the Kuomintang, collect at Taipei Songshan Airport forward of her departure for mainland China on April 7, 2026.
Cheng Yu-chen/AFP by way of Getty Pictures
conceal caption
toggle caption
Cheng Yu-chen/AFP by way of Getty Pictures
In the meantime, President Trump, who plans to satisfy with Xi in Might, has prompt he can be open to discussing future American arms gross sales to Taiwan with Xi.
Statements like this have led to a decline in belief within the U.S., says Yen Wei-ting, an assistant analysis fellow at Academia Sinica in Taipei, offering “a political window for Cheng” as she positions herself as a peacemaker between Beijing and Taipei.
However Chen Fang-yu, a political scientist at Soochow College in Taipei, worries that she’s taking part in into Beijing’s “United Front” technique, which incorporates welcoming Taiwanese politicians on journeys “to emphasize that Taiwan is a domestic or internal matter for China.”
Taiwan’s authorities is skeptical the assembly will enhance cross-strait ties. Chiu Chui-cheng, minister for Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council, reminded Cheng that she will be able to go to China, however she isn’t approved to barter on behalf of Taiwan’s elected authorities. “Peace can be an ideal, but not a fantasy,” Chiu informed reporters final week.
Valentine reporting from Taiwan and Pak reporting from Kunshan, jap China.
