Cheng Li-wun: 'birds, not missiles' as KMT skips defence budget
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- Cheng Li-wun, chairwoman of Taiwan's KMT opposition party, told reporters at Shanghai's Yangshan Port on April 9 that 'what should fly in the sky are birds, not missiles,' invoking Norse sailors' 'road of the whale' imagery in remarks broadcast live on Taiwanese TV.
- Cheng was scheduled to fly to Beijing on April 9 for a possible meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, though neither China nor the KMT confirmed the sit-down; she quoted John McCrae's WWI poem 'In Flanders Fields' in her appeal for peace.
- KMT lawmakers skipped crucial Parliament defence budget talks in Taipei, prompting DPP defence committee co-chair Chen Kuan-ting to demand: 'Don't intentionally put this off because of the meeting with Xi Jinping tomorrow.'
- Taiwan's stalled defence plans involve an extra US$40 billion (S$51 billion); the KMT says it backs the spending but refuses to sign 'blank cheques,' while the DPP accuses the party of using the budget as leverage during Cheng's China trip.
- Taiwan's Defence Ministry detected six Chinese military aircraft and eight warships around the island in the 24 hours before April 9, and DPP spokeswoman Michelle Lin wrote: 'The Chinese communists still have a knife at Taiwan's throat.'
- Beijing refuses to engage with Taiwan President Lai Ching-te, branding him a 'separatist,' and has maintained daily military activity around the island despite Cheng's presence — facts the DPP says undermine the KMT's claim that the peace visit is unrelated to the defence-budget standoff.
- Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council said it hoped Cheng would tell China to stop military harassment and respect the Taiwanese people's right to determine their own future, reflecting the government's effort to redirect her mission toward Lai's agenda.
Why it matters: KMT lawmakers' boycott of US$40 billion in defence spending during Cheng's peace mission exposes a paradox: the opposition asks Beijing for de-escalation while blocking the military buildup that would give Taiwan leverage in any negotiation. The deadlock leaves Taiwan's defence modernisation and Lai's bargaining position with China stuck in parliamentary limbo, even as six PLA aircraft and eight warships circled the island in a single day.
