By JIa Feimao | 2026-04-03

The chair of Taiwan's main opposition party is set to visit China, possibly for a high-profile meeting with Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Xi Jinping.

Kuomintang (KMT) Party chairwoman Cheng Li-wun is planning to lead a delegation to China from April 7 to 12. Since taking office six months ago, she has repeatedly expressed interest in talks with Xi, telling the Economist that Taiwan's people should accept they are all "Chinese."

Cheng has adopted a controversial stance close to Beijing's even though Taiwan is having local elections this year. KMT insiders are wary of a potential voter backlash, since fewer than 3% of Taiwanese in polls now say they are "primarily Chinese."

Hung Hsiu-chu was the last KMT chair to go to China, back in 2016.

No meeting with Xi confirmed

Chinese state broadcaster CCTV reported March 30 that Xi had extended the formal invitation. Cheng is set to arrive in Beijing on April 9, though neither side has released details on whether Xi will receive her.

Announcing the trip, Cheng stated the visit is based on the 1992 Consensus, a framework where both sides recognize one China but maintain separate interpretations of its meaning.

While the CCP has never ruled Taiwan, Beijing claims the island of 23 million as its own and has repeatedly threatened to seize it.

Cheng's upcoming visit has sparked debate at home on its timing and Beijing's strategic intent.

Chinese strategic ruse

Beijing aims to treat Taiwan as an internal Chinese matter and thereby persuade Washington to stop delivering arms to Taiwan, Mainland Affairs Council Deputy Minister Liang Wen-chieh said.

The timing is particularly sensitive as US President Donald Trump is expected to confer with Xi in mid-May. Beijing is using the Cheng-Xi discussion, if one occurs, to shape the narrative ahead of that summit, say analysts.

Beijing is signaling to Washington that the KMT is its primary interlocutor in Taipei rather than President Lai Ching-te, Chang Chun-hao, a political science professor at Tunghai University in Taichung, Taiwan, told the BBC.

Lai's party is the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).

During his summit with Trump, Xi could say that US military aid to Taiwan is "undermining an already stabilizing regional status quo" forged by Xi and Cheng, Hsu Hsiao-chiang, an analyst at the Taiwan Strategic Simulation Society, wrote in United Daily News.

Wrangle over defense spending

The visit intersects too with a fierce domestic battle over defense spending. Lai has proposed a 1.25 trillion TWD ($39.1 billion) special defense budget for US arms purchases over eight years, which remains blocked by the opposition-controlled legislature.

The KMT has countered with a smaller 380 billion TWD package ($11.9 billion) focused on previously approved weapons. The DPP accuses the opposition of trading national defense for political access to Beijing.

The party's traditional balance between Washington and Beijing has tilted toward China under Cheng's leadership, say critics.

Cheng's KMT is aligning with Beijing's strategy of "using Taiwan to counter the US," Sung Kuo-cheng, a senior researcher at National Chengchi University (NCCU) in Taipei, wrote in Up Media.

Beijing "waited a decade" for a KMT chair to be so pro-Beijing and so skeptical of Washington, Yeh Yao-yuan, a professor of political science at the University of St. Thomas in Houston, Texas, told Focus.

Pitfalls for the KMT

But debate inside the KMT and consistently hostile poll findings could derail Cheng's effort to promote an agenda sympathetic to Beijing.

The shift toward China has intensified internal divisions within the KMT.

Taichung Mayor Lu Shiow-yen, a KMT member and a potential 2028 presidential contender, has espoused a more hawkish line on defense. She recently traveled to the United States to discuss arms procurement and has said the proposed special defense package should range between 800 billion and 1 trillion TWD ($25 billion and $31.3 billion), the Central News Agency reported.

Meanwhile, public opinion in Taiwan shows little enthusiasm for pan-Chinese identity. A survey last July by NCCU found that only 2.3% of respondents identified as Chinese -- the lowest figure ever measured in NCCU's polling, dating back to 1992. In contrast, 62.9% identified as Taiwanese.

Furthermore, an April 1 poll by My Formosa revealed that 56.1% of respondents say a Cheng-Xi meeting will hurt the KMT's electoral prospects, with 54.5% distrusting Cheng.