Cheng Li-wun’s visit to China, expected to take place in April, would be the first by a sitting leader of Taiwan’s main opposition party in a decade.
The leader of Taiwan’s largest opposition party is set to visit China in April after accepting an invite from Chinese President Xi Jinping.
In a statement on Monday, Kuomintang (KMT) said its chairperson, Cheng Li-wun, was “grateful” for the invitation and had “gladly” accepted it.
Cheng “expressed hope that the two parties (the KMT and China’s Communist Party) would work together to promote the peaceful development of cross-strait relations, strengthen cross-strait exchanges and cooperation, secure peace in the Taiwan Strait, and enhance the well-being of the people,” her party said.
It’s not unprecedented, a KMT leader has visited the mainland at least once before, about 10 years ago.
But the sad reality under this move currently seems to be: Trump has shown that the current US administration is not only unwilling to defend allies based on principle (mostly dumping Ukraine), but also fairly incapable of defending allies (Arab countries), and certainly not effective at defending a place on the doorstep of the PRC, against the PRC.
Taiwan has poor options: dependence on imported energy (vulnerability to blockade), limited distance from China (within drone swarm reach), no strategic deterrent (no nuclear weapons).
The PRC views gaining control over Taiwan as an important thing to do - to the point of building a replica of the Taiwanese presidential compound for special forces to practise in, holding air force trainings with over a hundred of planes in a threatening flight pattern, and practising a naval blockade. It continues to build up military capabilities, and some of these are really convincing, even if sea introduces a factor of luck (seas have ruined invasions before).
In such conditions, Taiwanese politicians will likely view it as reasonable to start up diplomacy with the PRC to reduce tensions and also buy time to adapt - in the hope that their strategic ally recovers (e.g. gets a sane president and reliable foreign policy) and independence can be retained against pressure and threats.
If the US does not get over Trump and develop sane administration practises and predictable principles soon, Taiwan may find itself negotiating favourable terms of surrender. Currently, it’s not so bad yet - they will be negotiating to normalize relations.
It’s really sad. The US population was manipulated to elect an insane president, and this individual has already caused irreversible global damage to long-standing alliances and partnerships.
Just to note that not only is it in the article, it’s in the bolded top sentence of the submission. :)