BEIJING: As a Trump-Xi summit looms and debate over Taiwan’s defence intensifies, Kuomintang (KMT) chair Cheng Li-wun is heading to China – the first sitting party chair to do so in a decade – in what analysts describe as a politically-charged signalling exercise.
Washington is weighing heavily on both Beijing’s and the KMT’s calculations, analysts told CNA, with the visit likely to be closely scrutinised in Taiwan, China, and the United States.
“Cheng is trying to thread a needle between three audiences,” said Li Yaqi, a research assistant at the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) in Singapore.
Cheng will lead a KMT delegation to Jiangsu, Shanghai and Beijing from Apr 7 to 12 at the invitation of Chinese President Xi Jinping, Xinhua reported, citing Song Tao, head of the Communist Party’s Taiwan Work Office.
Cheng later confirmed that she had “gladly accepted” Xi’s invitation, reiterating opposition to Taiwan independence and adherence to the “1992 Consensus”, an understanding that both sides acknowledge there is “one China” while leaving room for different interpretations of what that means.
She added that she hoped to show Taiwanese that “war across the Taiwan Strait was neither inevitable nor necessary”.
TIMED FOR MAXIMUM IMPACT?
Analysts said the timing of Cheng’s trip is significant, coming before Trump’s expected China visit in May and amid heightened scrutiny over Taiwan’s defence spending and deterrence posture.
Although the KMT has been out of government for ten years, analysts said the visit still carries substantial political weight.
Taiwan-based economist and political commentator Wu Jia-lung said the visit has been inserted into a particularly charged moment in US-China-Taiwan dynamics, giving it added importance beyond a routine opposition outreach trip.
Xi may see a meeting with Cheng as a way to send a message to Washington ahead of the Trump summit, Wu said, especially as Trump has offered Beijing little reassurance – from fresh military backing for Taiwan to exerting broader pressure on China’s partners.
“In my view, this is to show that Xi has a way to penetrate Taiwan’s internal politics and, through the Kuomintang, block the special defence budget,” Wu said.
“Can Trump do the same?”
He also pointed to the Mar 30 visit by US senators to Taipei, where a bipartisan delegation urged Taiwan’s parliament to approve the special defence budget, as further context for Beijing’s decision to elevate Cheng’s trip.
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