As U.S. President Donald Trump plans to do diplomacy with Xi Jinping in Beijing in May, the current chairman of the Kuomintang, Cheng Li-wun, plans to meet with the dictator first. She has an advantage over members of her country’s ruling party. Xi’s government has long refused to speak to leaders of the Republic of China’s Democratic Progressive Party government (Reuters, March 30, 2026).
Former lawmaker Cheng Li-wun won election as KMT chairwoman in October and has signalled a swing towards even closer ties with Beijing than [had been promoted by] her predecessor Eric Chu, who did not visit China during his term as chairman that began in 2021.
China, which views democratic Taiwan as its own territory, refuses to speak to the government of President Lai Ching-te, who it calls a “separatist”, but regularly welcomes senior KMT officials, and Cheng had said she was planning on going….
The announcement comes at a time when Lai’s government is trying to get Taiwan’s opposition-majority Parliament to approve an extra $40 billion in defence spending.
The KMT has said it supports strengthening Taiwan’s defences but it will not sign “blank cheques” and wants more details from the government.
Trump, whose administration has strongly backed Taiwan’s increased defence spending plans, is due in China in mid-May for a meeting that was postponed from early April due to the U.S. and Israeli war on Iran. China has yet to confirm the trip.
Cheng hopes that her meeting with Xi will usher in a “new spring of the two sides of the Taiwan Strait and this would be the first step for both sides to extend kindness and build mutual trust. We will work hard for cross-strait peace and stability, making positive efforts, and let the whole world feel at ease.” Thus, if Cheng achieves her goals for the meeting, the CCP will become or take the first step toward becoming kind, trustworthy, a friend of peace and stability, and positive in its efforts—enabling the world to relax.
The secretary-general of the Democratic Progressive Party, Hsu Kuo-yung, would like Cheng to add a couple of things to the agenda.
He wants her to to tell Xi that “Taiwan is a sovereign, independent country.” Also, to “make one thing especially clear: In Taiwan, we elect our own president. And she should also ask Xi Jinping, When is China going to elect its president?”
