By Ben Blanchard / Reuters, TAIPEI

Improving ties with Beijing does not require being anti-US, while Taiwan’s survival depends on stable relations with China, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) said yesterday.

Cheng won election as chair of Taiwan’s largest opposition party in October last year, and has signaled a swing toward even closer ties with Beijing than her predecessor, former KMT chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), who did not visit China during his term as chairman, which began in 2021.

China refuses to speak to the government of President William Lai (賴清德), who it calls a “separatist,” but regularly welcomes senior KMT officials, though Cheng has yet to visit since being elected.

Photo: Chen Yi-kuan, Taipei Times

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 defense spending and pull Taipei away from Washington.

Speaking to the Taiwan Foreign Correspondents’ Club, Cheng said the party has been subject to “misunderstanding and prejudice” about its positions.

She reiterated her support for buying arms from the US, while adding that 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 said. “Why does improving relations with mainland China have to mean being less pro-American?”

It is all the more important to have good ties with China, “whose relationship with Taiwan directly affects Taiwan’s survival,” she said.

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

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

All three main political parties are gearing up for local elections on Nov. 28, 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 nation under its control.

Asked about her attitude to any possible future union across the Taiwan Strait, Cheng said that 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,” she said.