Taiwan Opposition Leader Arrives in China Amid Beijing’s Military Threats

The trip comes as President Lai Ching-te’s $40 billion special defense budget is stalled in the opposition-controlled parliament.

Taiwan's Kuomintang (KMT) chairperson, Cheng Li-wun, speaks to the media ahead of her trip to China, in Taipei, Taiwan, on April 7, 2026. Ann Wang/Reuters

TAIPEI, Taiwan—Taiwan’s opposition leader arrived in China on April 7 for a six-day visit, a trip that has sparked debates amid the Chinese regime’s escalating political and military coercion against the island.

Cheng Li-wun, chairwoman of Taiwan’s largest opposition party, the Kuomintang (KMT), led a delegation arriving at the Hongqiao Airport in Shanghai on Tuesday afternoon (local time), welcomed by a group of Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials that included Song Tao, director of the China’s Taiwan Affairs Office, according to the KMT’s Facebook page.