Sawt Falasteen - Taiwan opposition leader makes rare visit to China

Kuomintang (KMT) chairwoman Cheng Li-wun, who will become the party's first leader to visit China in a decade, has insisted on meeting Chinese President Xi Jinping before she visits the United States -- Taiwan's main security backer.

The KMT supports closer relations with China, which claims Taiwan is part of its territory and has threatened to use force to seize it.

But Cheng, whose unexpected rise to the top of the KMT drew a congratulatory message from Xi in October, has been accused by critics, including inside the party, of being too pro-China.

Before departing with a delegation for Shanghai, Cheng told journalists that Taiwan "must do everything in our power to prevent war from breaking out".

"To preserve peace is to preserve Taiwan," Cheng told a press conference at KMT headquarters in Taipei.

"Goodwill must be built up and mutual trust needs to be expanded, step by step, by both sides."

Ahead of the trip, Taiwan's top China policy body warned Beijing would attempt to "cut off Taiwan's military purchases from the US and cooperation with other countries", which the KMT denies.

"This trip is entirely for cross-strait peace and stability, so it has nothing to do with arms procurement or other issues," Cheng said last week.

Taiwanese lawmakers have been at loggerheads over the government's plan to spend NT$1.25 trillion ($39 billion) on defence, which has been stalled for months in the opposition-controlled parliament.

Cheng will be in China for six days, visiting Shanghai, Nanjing and Beijing where she hopes to meet Xi.

While KMT party members regularly fly to China for exchanges with officials, its last leader to visit was Hung Hsiu-chu in 2016.

- US pressure -

China severed high-level contact with Taiwan that year after Tsai Ing-wen of the Democratic Progressive Party won the presidency and rejected Beijing's claims on the island.

Cross-strait relations have worsened since then as China ramped up military pressure with near daily deployments of fighter jets and warships near Taiwan and regular large-scale military drills.

Cheng's trip to China comes a month before US President Donald Trump is scheduled to visit Beijing for a summit with Xi.

The United States has been piling pressure on Taiwanese opposition lawmakers to back a proposal for defence purchases, including US weapons, to deter a potential Chinese attack.

Cheng has railed against the government's proposal, insisting "Taiwan isn't an ATM" and instead backed a KMT plan to allocate NT$380 billion for US weapons with the option for more acquisitions.

But she faces deepening divisions inside her party over how to counter China's military threats, with more moderate senior figures in the party pushing for a much higher budget.

While the United States has long been ambiguous about its willingness to defend Taiwan, Washington remains Taipei's biggest arms supplier, which angers Beijing.

The United States approved the sale of $11 billion worth of arms to Taiwan in December. More deals are in the pipeline, but there have been doubts about whether they would proceed after Xi warned Trump against sending weapons to Taiwan.

Cheng has insisted she supports Taiwan having a strong defence, but said the island does not have to choose between Beijing and Washington.

D.Khalil--SF-PST