Taiwan opposition leader accepts Xi’s invitation to visit China
The leader of Taiwan’s main opposition party accepted Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s invitation to visit in April and appeared in Taiwan’s Chinese state media.
Kuomintang (KMT) chief Cheng Li-wun, who took office in November, insisted on meeting Xi before making an official trip to the United States, facing criticism from inside and outside his party that he was too pro-China.
The KMT advocates closer relations and more exchanges with China, which claims Taiwan as part of its territory and threatens to use force to seize it.
Cheng “gladly accepted” an invitation to lead a delegation to China, his party said in a statement, confirming the Xinhua report.
In the statement, Cheng said he “looks forward to the joint efforts of both sides to advance the peaceful development of cross-Strait relations, promote cross-Strait exchanges and cooperation, and work for peace in the Taiwan Strait and the greater prosperity of people on both sides.”
Chinese state media said the delegation would visit the eastern province of Jiangsu, Shanghai and Beijing from April 7 to 12, but did not say whether Cheng would meet Xi, as he has publicly insisted.
Speaking after the statement, Cheng said he hoped to prove that “the two sides of the Strait are not doomed to war.”
This will be the first visit by a sitting KMT chief to China since November 2016, when KMT leader Hung Hsiu-chu met Xi in Beijing.
There are concerns within the KMT that the Cheng-Xi meeting could trigger a voter backlash in Taiwan’s regional elections this year.
Although the KMT has long supported friendly relations with Beijing, Cheng is accused by President Lai Ching-te’s Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) of doing Beijing’s bidding by stalling the government’s defense spending plans.
But speaking to foreign media last week, Cheng said talks with Xi would carry “important symbolic meaning” and could be a “foundation” for peaceful relations across the Taiwan Strait.
“I do not believe that a single meeting can solve all the problems that have accumulated for almost a century,” Cheng said.
“But… I hope I can successfully build such a bridge.”
Taiwan’s parliament is discussing proposals for special defense spending aimed at boosting the island’s military capabilities against a potential Chinese attack.
Lai’s government has proposed spending NT$1.25 trillion ($39 billion) on critical defense purchases, including US weapons, while the KMT wants to allocate NT$380 billion on US weapons, with options to purchase more.
But some KMT lawmakers are pushing for a much higher budget than the party’s proposed budget, signaling internal divisions over defense.
Lu Shiow-yen, mayor of Taiwan’s manufacturing hub Taichung and seen as a potential KMT presidential candidate in the 2028 elections, told local media after returning from a recent visit to the United States that “the reasonable amount to be spent and allocated should be between NT$800 billion and NT$1 trillion.”
Cheng’s trip to China was announced as a bipartisan U.S. Congressional delegation visited Taiwan, increasing pressure to increase military spending.
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