Taiwan’s opposition party Kuomintang (KMT) Chairperson Zheng Liwen departed for mainland China on April 7 for a multi-day visit. Her itinerary includes Shanghai, Nanjing, and Beijing, with a meeting planned this Friday in Beijing with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Zheng described the trip as a “peace journey,” emphasizing its goal of promoting stability in cross-strait relations.
According to the schedule, Zheng will arrive in Shanghai and then proceed to Nanjing, where she will visit the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum the following day. She will return to Shanghai before traveling to Beijing on April 9 to meet Chinese officials. Reports indicate that Song Tao, head of the Taiwan Affairs Office of the Chinese Communist Party, will personally receive her upon arrival.
This marks the first visit by a KMT chairperson to the mainland in nearly a decade and includes high-level KMT-CCP meetings. The last comparable visit was in 2016, when former KMT Chairperson Hung Hsiu-chu met with Chinese leaders.
However, the visit occurs amid ongoing tensions across the Taiwan Strait. Beijing has recently increased military pressure, while domestic debates over Taiwan’s defense policy remain intense. The KMT and the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) have exchanged criticisms on social media: the KMT advocates dialogue to promote peace, whereas the DPP questions whether the visit might weaken Taiwan’s defensive stance.
In addition, Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council has publicly stated that Beijing should cease military intimidation and respect the right of the Taiwanese people to determine their own future during the exchange process. Regarding the issue of “unification,” Zheng responded that it is “not the right time” to discuss related matters, stressing that stabilizing cross-strait relations should take priority.
Analysts note that Beijing has recently stepped up messaging toward Taiwan, emphasizing the potential benefits of “peaceful unification,” including energy and economic considerations, in an effort to influence public perception in Taiwan. Against this backdrop, the upcoming meeting is seen as an important indicator of the direction of cross-strait interactions.