Overview
- Cheng Li-wun, who departs Tuesday for Jiangsu, Shanghai and Beijing, will be the first sitting KMT chair to visit the mainland in a decade and may seek a meeting with Xi Jinping.
- Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council says Xi invited Cheng to help cut off U.S. weapons purchases and to frame cross-strait ties as China’s domestic issue rather than an international one.
- The trip lands as Taiwan’s parties fight over a special defense budget, with the DPP pushing NT$1.25 trillion and the KMT caucus backing about NT$380 billion, while some senior KMT figures call for NT$800 billion to NT$1 trillion.
- A U.S. Senate delegation recently urged Taipei to pass the funding, and reporting notes $11 billion in U.S. arms were approved in December while another $14 billion package is on hold ahead of May’s Xi–Trump summit.
- Beijing is reviving party-to-party outreach after official talks stalled in 2016, a channel that can let China showcase KMT engagement and claim momentum for its views even as Taiwanese public opinion trends away from unification.