Taipei, Taiwan – As Taiwanese opposition leader Cheng Li-wun meets with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing later this week, the Taiwanese public will be watching closely to see how the two leaders discuss Taiwan’s disputed political status, in a make-or-break moment for Cheng’s political career.The recently elected chairperson of the Kuomintang (KMT) travelled to Shanghai on Tuesday, accompanied by a delegation of party members. Cheng told a media briefing before her six-day trip that she aims to show that Taiwan and China “are not destined for war, nor do they need to remain on the brink of military conflict”.Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of listCheng’s trip will take her to Nanjing, the capital of China’s eastern Jiangsu province, to visit the mausoleum of Chinese revolutionary leader Sun Yat-sen – revered on both sides of the Taiwan Strait as the “father of modern China” – before heading to Beijing for her summit with Xi at the end of the week.President Ma Ying-jeou, also from the KMT, was the last sitting Taiwanese leader to meet with Xi at a 2015 summit in Singapore. However, the pair met again in 2024, when Ma travelled to China as a private citizen.Cheng’s trip is taking place in a very different context for the KMT as Taiwan’s political landscape has “shifted drastically” over the past decade, according to Sanho Chung, a political scientist at Taiwan’s National Cheng Kung University.Taiwanese nationalism has …
