Taiwan opposition leader accepts Xi's invitation to visit China

TAIPEI, Taiwan: The leader of Taiwan’s main opposition party accepted an invitation from Chinese leader Xi Jinping to visit in April, her party and Chinese state media reported Monday.

Kuomintang (KMT) chairperson Cheng Li-wun, who took up her role in November, has insisted on meeting Xi before she makes an official trip to the United States, drawing criticism from inside and outside her party that she is too pro-China.

The KMT advocates closer relations and more exchanges with China, which claims Taiwan is part of its territory and has threatened to use force to seize it.

Cheng “gladly accepted” the invitation to lead a delegation to China, her party said in a statement, confirming a Xinhua report.

Cheng “looks forward to joint efforts by both parties to advance the peaceful development of cross-Strait relations, promote cross-Strait exchanges and cooperation, and work for peace in the Taiwan Strait and greater well-being for people on both sides,” the statement said.

Chinese state media said the delegation would visit the eastern province of Jiangsu, Shanghai and Beijing from April 7-12, but did not specify if Cheng would meet with Xi, which she has been publicly pushing for.

Speaking after the announcement, Cheng said she hoped to prove that “the two sides of the strait are not doomed to war”.

It will be the first visit to China by a sitting KMT chairperson since November 2016 when then KMT leader Hung Hsiu-chu met with Xi in Beijing.

There are concerns within the KMT that a Cheng-Xi meeting could trigger voter backlash in Taiwan’s district elections later this year.

While the KMT has long supported friendlier relations with Beijing, Cheng has been accused by President Lai Ching-te’s Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) of doing Beijing’s bidding by stalling the government’s defence spending plans.

But speaking to foreign media last week, Cheng said talks with Xi would carry “significant symbolic meaning” and could be a “foundation” for peaceful relations across the Taiwan Strait.

“I do not believe a single meeting can resolve all the issues that have been accumulating for nearly a century,” Cheng said.

“But… I hope I can successfully build such a bridge.”

Taiwan’s parliament is debating proposals for special defence spending aimed at boosting the island’s military capabilities against a potential Chinese attack.

Lai’s government has proposed NT$1.25 trillion ($39 billion) in spending on critical defence purchases, including US arms, while the KMT wants to allocate NT$380 billion for US weapons with the option for more acquisitions.

But some KMT lawmakers are pushing for a much higher budget than the one proposed by the party, signalling an internal split over defence.

Recently back from a US visit, Lu Shiow-yen, who is the mayor of Taiwan’s manufacturing hub Taichung and widely seen as a potential KMT presidential candidate in the 2028 elections, has told local media “the reasonable amount to be passed and allocated should be between NT$800 billion and NT$1 trillion”.

Cheng’s trip to China was announced as a US bipartisan Congressional delegation visits Taiwan, dialling up pressure for greater military spending.