Improving China ties does not mean being anti-US, Taiwan opposition leader says

TAIPEI, March 23 (Reuters) – Improving ties with Beijing does not require being anti-U.S., while Taiwan’s survival depends on stable relations with China, the leader of Taiwan’s largest opposition party said on Monday.

Former lawmaker Cheng Li-wun won election as chair of the Kuomintang (KMT) in October and has signalled a swing towards even closer ties with Beijing than her predecessor Eric Chu, who did not visit China during his term as chairman that began in 2021.

China, which views democratic Taiwan as its own territory, refuses to speak to the government of President Lai Ching-te, who it calls a “separatist”, but regularly welcomes senior KMT officials, though Cheng has yet to visit since being elected.

That has opened her up to criticism from Lai’s Democratic Progressive Party, which says the KMT wants to sell out Taiwan’s freedoms and democracy to Beijing and is taking orders from China to block defence spending and pull Taipei away from Washington.

Speaking to the Taiwan Foreign Correspondents’ Club, Cheng said the party had been subject to “misunderstanding and prejudice” about its positions, reiterating her support for buying arms from the United States while adding such proposals had to be properly costed.

“In terms of the overall narrative, the KMT has long maintained very good relations with the United States. This does not affect our desire to improve relations with the mainland,” she said. 

“There is no contradiction between the two, and there is no need to choose one over the other,” Cheng added. “Why does improving relations with mainland China have to mean being less pro-American?”

She said it was all the more important to have good ties with China “whose relationship with Taiwan directly affects Taiwan’s survival”.

Cheng has expressed a desire to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping, though did not directly answer when asked how those plans were progressing.

The KMT and its small ally the Taiwan People’s Party hold a parliamentary majority, giving them an outsized political role in blocking government plans and advancing their own proposals.

All three main political parties are gearing up for mayoral and county chief elections in late November, a key gauge of support ahead of the next presidential election in early 2028.

China has stepped up its military pressure on Taiwan and has never renounced the use of force to bring the island under its control.

Asked about her attitude to any possible future union across the Taiwan Strait, Cheng said the time is still far from ripe for discussing an ultimate solution.

“What we need to deal with now is how to create peaceful and stable cross-strait relations.”

Lai and his government reject Beijing’s sovereignty claims.        

(Reporting by Ben Blanchard)