KMT's Cheng Li-wun Visits China, Seeks Xi Meeting
SkimNews Take
Routing outreach through an opposition leader lets Beijing cultivate cross-strait ties that bypass the current governing party's stance, effectively pre-building relationships with a potential future administration.
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- Cheng Li-wun became the first Kuomintang (KMT) leader to visit China in a decade, laying a wreath at Sun Yat-sen's mausoleum in Nanjing and invoking his ideal that "all under heaven are equal" in a call for cross-strait reconciliation and unity.
- Cheng framed the trip as a de-escalation push even as her KMT-controlled parliament has stalled a proposed $40 billion increase in Taiwan's defense spending.
- Taiwan's ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) attacked the visit as undermining national security, with spokesperson Wu Cheng arguing that if the KMT truly wanted stability it should stop blocking defense spending.
- Beijing continues to refuse engagement with Taiwanese President William Lai Ching-te, whom it labels a "separatist," making a potential Cheng-Xi meeting a significant diplomatic test.
- Cheng acknowledged Taiwan's democratic evolution, including the legacy of decades of martial law known as the "White Terror," while also praising mainland China's development as exceeding "everyone's expectations and imagination."
- Atlantic Council's Wen-ti Sung said cordial Cheng-Xi photo ops would let the KMT argue that "dialogue is more effective than deterrence" — a pitch aimed at Taiwanese voters anxious about US commitment amid wars in Ukraine, Gaza, and Iran.
Why it matters: The visit exposes a core tension: the KMT is courting Beijing for dialogue while its own legislators in Taipei have frozen a $40 billion defense spending increase, and Taiwan's ruling DPP is now accusing the opposition of undermining security — a split that will shape whether voters conclude reconciliation or deterrence better protects the island.
