Kuomintang (KMT) Chairperson Cheng Li-wun speaks to the media forward of her journey to China, in Taipei, Taiwan on March 30, 2026
| Photograph Credit score: Reuters
The chief of Taiwan’s largest opposition occasion, the Kuomintang (KMT), will go to China in April after being invited by Chinese language President Xi Jinping, a visit that may come a month earlier than U.S. President Donald Trump goes to Beijing for his personal summit.
Former lawmaker Cheng Li-wun gained election as KMT chairwoman in October and has signalled a swing in direction of even nearer ties with Beijing than her predecessor Eric Chu, who didn’t go to China throughout his time period as chairman that started in 2021.
China, which views democratic Taiwan as its personal territory, refuses to talk to the federal government of President Lai Ching-te, who it calls a “separatist”, however repeatedly welcomes senior KMT officers, and Ms. Cheng had mentioned she was planning on going.
In a press release on Monday (March 30, 2026), the KMT mentioned that Cheng was grateful for the invitation and had “gladly” accepted it.
Ms. Cheng “expressed hope that the 2 events [the KMT and China’s Communist Party] would work collectively to advertise the peaceable growth of cross-strait relations, strengthen cross-strait exchanges and cooperation, safe peace within the Taiwan Strait, and improve the well-being of the individuals”, it added.
Chinese language state information company Xinhua mentioned that Cheng would go to from April 7 to 12 and go to Beijing, Shanghai and the jap province of Jiangsu.
The announcement comes at a time when Mr. Lai’s authorities is attempting to get Taiwan’s opposition-majority Parliament to approve an additional $40 billion in defence spending.
The KMT has mentioned it helps strengthening Taiwan’s defences but it surely is not going to signal “clean cheques” and needs extra particulars from the federal government.
Mr. Trump, whose administration has strongly backed Taiwan’s elevated defence spending plans, is due in China in mid-Might for a gathering that was postponed from early April because of the U.S. and Israeli conflict on Iran. China has but to substantiate the journey.
Each Xinhua and the KMT referred to Mr. Xi by his title as common secretary of the Communist Celebration fairly than as head of state.
The defeated Republic of China authorities, led on the time by the KMT, fled to Taiwan in 1949 after dropping a civil conflict with Mao Zedong’s communists. No peace treaty or armistice has ever been signed and neither formally recognises one another’s authorities.
In late 2015, Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou, additionally from the KMT, held a landmark assembly with Mr. Xi in Singapore.
Revealed – March 30, 2026 11:16 am IST