WASHINGTON (AP) — Taiwan’s Beijing-friendly opposition leader said Friday that her party is committed to the defense of the self-ruled island that China views as its own but that peace is possible by taking permanent secession off the table.Cheng Li-wun told reporters during a trip to Washington that the Kuomintang Party she chairs shares common ground with President Donald Trump, who said after his May trip to Beijing that he was not “looking to have somebody go independent” or fight a war thousands of miles away.“I think our basic stances are the same — that is peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait and to avoid any unnecessary war,” Cheng said after a three-day visit to the nation’s capital, where she met American lawmakers and scholars. Cheng said she also met Trump administration representatives but would not offer more information.
The visit, as part of her two-week trip to the U.S. to promote her party’s approach to the Taiwan Strait, has come at a time of rising uncertainty in U.S.-Taiwan relations. Chinese leader Xi Jinping has warned of a possible clash if the U.S. does not properly handle the issue of Taiwan, a self-governing island that Beijing has vowed to seize by force if necessary to achieve what it considers reunification.
