TAIPEI (TVBS News) — Kuomintang Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) departed Tuesday (April 7) for China carrying two contradictory burdens: the template of a 2005 peace mission that opened dialogue after decades of hostility, and the knowledge that the geopolitical conditions enabling that success have vanished.
Cheng is scheduled to meet Chinese Communist Party General Secretary Xi Jinping (習近平) on Friday in Beijing, marking the first meeting between KMT and CCP leaders since former Chairperson Hung Hsiu-chu's (洪秀柱) November 2016 visit. At a pre-departure press conference, Cheng framed the stakes in global terms. "We must ensure nothing happens in the Taiwan Strait, and then the world will be at peace," she said. "Preserving peace means preserving Taiwan."
The 2005 Lien-Hu Meeting occurred during what analysts describe as a period of U.S.-led unipolar stability, when Beijing still needed to consider Washington's attitude and cross-strait conflict remained a "controllable risk." Today's geopolitical landscape differs sharply. Intensified U.S.-China competition has positioned Taiwan directly on the front line of great power confrontation — a structural shift that constrains what any single diplomatic initiative can accomplish. The U.S. government has not publicly commented on Cheng's visit.
Former Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) appeared in 2005 as an "ice-breaker," carrying the symbolic weight of KMT-CCP civil war reconciliation and public expectations for cross-strait economic opening. Cheng, by contrast, is attempting to open a crack in what one analyst described as a "pressure cooker," while facing domestic accusations of serving as a tool for Beijing's united front tactics.
At her press conference, Cheng made a pointed appeal: "Without a Lai-Cheng meeting, there probably cannot be a Lai-Xi meeting," she said, referring to the possibility of a summit between President Lai and Xi Jinping. "I really hope we can meet in Taipei. Is it really that difficult?" The Presidential Office has not publicly responded to this characterization.
The KMT remains in opposition, meaning any consensus reached at the meeting cannot be implemented without the ruling Democratic Progressive Party's (民進黨) cooperation. The 2005 visit produced direct flights and tourism opening only after the KMT won the 2008 election and converted party agreements into government policy.
Cheng acknowledged this constraint directly, noting that cross-strait exchanges have been "obstructed and cut off" over the past decade, causing hardship across industries. "Concrete policy opening and the comprehensive resumption of normal cross-strait exchanges will naturally begin after our party takes power in 2028," she said.
The ruling party responded with sharp criticism. Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) invoked the 1949 "Beiping Model (北平模式)" — General Fu Zuoyi's (傅作義) surrender of Beijing to communist forces — to characterize the KMT's approach. "I do not believe anyone in Taiwan can accept this kind of lying-flat model," Cho said, using a term that plays on the KMT's recent campaign slogan.
Mainland Affairs Council (陸委會) Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) warned Cheng to demand in person that Beijing immediately stop military aircraft and vessel activities around Taiwan. He urged her to reject the "one China framework trap" that leaves no room for the Republic of China's survival.
Cheng's six-day itinerary takes her first to Shanghai, where Song Tao (宋濤), director of the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee Taiwan Affairs Office (中共中央台辦), Beijing's agency handling Taiwan policy, will receive the 14-member delegation. She will visit Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum (中山陵) in Nanjing on Wednesday to pay respects to the KMT founding father before traveling to Beijing. KMT officials indicated she will express "Republic of China" naturally at the mausoleum. "Whatever was done before will be done now," a party official said.
Outside Taipei Songshan Airport, supporters and opponents staged dueling demonstrations. New Party (新黨) supporters — members of a pro-unification party that split from the KMT in 1993 — raised slogans calling for a "Third KMT-CCP Cooperation" and "Creating New Peace in the Taiwan Strait." Members of the Economic Democracy Union (經民連), a civil society coalition opposing closer China ties, gathered across the walkway in opposition.
Cheng struck a hopeful note at her press conference, invoking generational stakes. "We are absolutely in time to prevent future wars, to ensure this generation and the next are forever spared the devastation of conflict," she said. "Peace always has a chance. Peace always has hope. As long as we do not give up."
If the 2005 Lien-Hu Meeting was a strategic pivot enabled by favorable structural conditions, the Cheng-Xi meeting represents what one analyst called "a strategic probe against the current" — an attempt to find openings when the broader structure works against reconciliation. "When the structure itself is unfavorable," the analyst wrote, "how far can a single political action go?" Cheng's answer will unfold over six days. The structure's answer may take considerably longer. ◼