Taiwan’s opposition Kuomintang (KMT) - the Chinese Nationalist Party - has said its chairwoman, Cheng Li-wun, will visit mainland China following an invitation from the Communist Party head and president for life, Xi Jinping.

In a statement issued on March 30 through media channels in Taiwan, the KMT said Cheng had accepted the invitation and would lead a delegation to China.

According to the KMT, Cheng said she hoped the visit would help advance the peaceful development of cross-Strait relations, strengthen exchanges and co-operation, and contribute to stability in the Taiwan Strait and the well-being of people on both sides.

The announcement comes two days after the KMT also issued a statement titled KMT Chairperson Cheng Li-wun: No One Should Be Judged as Friend or Foe by Birthplace. Let the Taiwan Strait Become a Source of Peace, Hope, and Happiness under which Cheng reportedly stated that in the Taiwan of today, “we should not decide whether someone is a friend or an enemy based on where they were born or where they come from” – a comment seen as somehow aimed at appeasing China on the back of recent efforts by Beijing to intimidate Taiwan with People’s Liberation Army naval vessels and aircraft encircling the island on a daily basis.

According to KMT sources, Cheng also “warned against the use of political persecution to create unnecessary hatred and division, stressing that such practices distort the nature of politics, erode ethical values, and undermine social cohesion”. Her comments were seen as somewhat contradictory to the state of play in Taipei given long-standing KMT leanings towards China and efforts by the party in recent months in particular to counter moves by the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) on increasing defence spending for Taiwan when she “emphasised that Taiwan must not allow internal conflict to weaken its unity.”

Her comments, released by the party 48-hours before the invitation was revealed came after Cheng attended a military dependents event. Cheng, a military dependent herself as a child, was raised in a dependents’ village in Southern Taiwan’s Tainan City by her mother, a local Taiwanese woman, and her Chinese born father who arrived in Taiwan in the 1950s.

While the March 28 event saw Cheng state that the Taiwan Strait has long been associated with stories of family struggles, but that Taiwan in 2026 must use the Strait as a ‘symbol of peace, hope, and stability’ according to a KMT release, her comments could be seen by opposition supporters as another effort by the KMT to bring Taiwan ever closer to China – a significant worry on the part of many Taiwanese given China’s intimidation tactics and suggestions over the past year that Beijing was planning to invade the country by 2027 at the latest.

However, with Reuters now citing a US intelligence agency report earlier in March that said “China, despite its threat to use force to compel unification if necessary and to ⁠counter what it sees as a US attempt to use Taiwan to undermine China's rise, prefers to achieve unification without the use of force, if ​possible,” it appears that at least for now Taiwan is safe.

But with US intelligence also stating “Chinese leaders do not currently plan to execute an invasion of Taiwan in 2027, nor ​do they have a fixed timeline for achieving unification.” the concept of bringing Taiwan into Beijing's orbit is still clearly on the table for China under Xi Jinping.