Taiwan’s New Mission to China: A Calm Visit Amid Rising Tensions

Cheng Li‑wun, the head of Taiwan’s biggest opposition party, set out for China on Tuesday, claiming her trip is a peace‑building mission. Her stay will last until Sunday and she might sit down with President Xi Jinping. The visit comes as Beijing has stepped up its military drills and political pressure on the island. The history of Taiwan and China is long and tangled. After losing a civil war in 1949, the Republic of China government fled to Taiwan while Mao Zedong’s communists established the People’s Republic of China. Over a hundred thousand refugees crossed over, and for decades both sides claimed to be the legitimate Chinese government. In 1979 China stopped shelling nearby islands and opened a channel for talks, but Taiwan only relaxed travel restrictions in 1987 after lifting martial law. The island became a full democracy in 1996 with its first direct presidential election. During the 2008‑2012 period, Taiwan’s Kuomintang president Ma Ying‑jeou signed trade and tourism deals with China and even met Xi in Singapore. However, when the Democratic Progressive Party took power in 2016 under Tsai Ing‑wen and later Lai Ching‑te, Beijing refused to engage, labeling them “separatists. ” China has regularly flown fighter jets and sent warships near Taiwan, increasing the risk of conflict.

Both Taipei and Beijing once fought over who could claim to be China. After 1971, most countries switched recognition from Taipei to Beijing at the United Nations. China insists Taiwan is a province and rejects any notion of “two Chinas. ” The 1992 Consensus, born from talks in Hong Kong, suggested both sides agreed there was one China but could interpret it differently. Today the meaning of that agreement is hotly debated, especially regarding whether Taiwan’s Republic of China still exists as a separate entity. Militarily, the two sides have almost gone to war several times since 1949. China’s large‑scale war games around Taiwan began in August 2022 after a U. S. delegation visited Taipei, and have continued since then. The United States, under the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act, must help Taiwan defend itself, yet its official stance remains vague, leaving the exact nature of U. S. support uncertain.

Actions