Taiwan's opposition leader arrives in China, 1st in decade, for expected meeting with Xi

Taiwan's main opposition party Kuomintang's chairwoman Cheng Li-wun arrived in China on Tuesday, marking the first visit by a KMT leader in a decade, for an expected meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Cheng’s delegation is scheduled to visit Jiangsu province, Shanghai, and finally Beijing during the visit, which will continue through Sunday, state-run news agency Xinhua reported.

The visit is seen as an important step in dialogue and exchanges between the KMT and China’s Communist Party under the current circumstances.

Cheng is expected to meet with Xi at the end of her visit, according to media reports. The last KMT chief to meet Xi was in 2015, when then-chairman Eric Chu met him in China.

A spokesperson for the State Council Taiwan Affairs Office said that enhancing dialogue between the two parties will have a significant and positive impact on maintaining peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait and promoting the peaceful development of cross-Strait relations.

The visit comes at Xi's invitation.

Cheng had said ahead of the visit that the trip would show that the two sides "are not destined for war."

She said efforts to improve cross-strait relations during her upcoming visit must be based on the "1992 Consensus" and opposition to "Taiwan independence."

The "1992 Consensus" refers to a historic meeting on cross-strait relations between semi-official representatives of China and Taiwan that year, which produced a tacit understanding that there is "one China," with each side interpreting its meaning.

Cheng was elected as the chairwoman of KMT in October 2025.

In November, Taiwanese leader William Lai Ching-te announced an eight-year special defense budget of $40 billion, which was condemned by Beijing.

China considers Taiwan its “breakaway province,” while Taipei has insisted on its independence since 1949.