Cheng Li-wen Arrives in Shanghai for Visit, Song Tao, Director of CPC Central Taiwan Affairs Office, Greets Her at Airport

Cheng Li-wen's flight arrived in Shanghai at approximately 1:35 PM. After disembarking, Cheng Li-wen waved to the greeters and then shook hands with CPC officials, including Song Tao, Director of the CPC Central Taiwan Affairs Office, and Jin Mei, Director of the Shanghai Taiwan Affairs Office.

Cheng Li-wen's visit to mainland China is scheduled from April 7 to 12, lasting six days. According to the arrangements, after arriving in Shanghai, she will directly take the high-speed rail to Nanjing, where she is expected to pay respects to the Father of the Nation, Sun Yat-sen, at the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum on the morning of the 8th. In the afternoon of the 8th, she will take the high-speed rail back to Shanghai. On the morning of the 9th, she is expected to hold discussions with Taiwanese businesspeople. After concluding her Shanghai itinerary, she will travel to Beijing on the same day.

Cheng Li-wen's visit comes against the backdrop of differing positions between the ruling and opposition parties on the US arms purchase case. Her personal political background is 'from green to blue,' having participated in student movements in the past and previously expressed pro-Taiwan independence views, thus being regarded as an atypical Kuomintang chairman. How the CPC will receive Cheng Li-wen and further signal its work on Taiwan through this visit has become a focus of external attention; Cheng Li-wen's cross-strait discourse will also influence the Kuomintang's cross-strait policy and the year-end elections.

Cheng Li-wen entered politics in 1988, joining the Democratic Progressive Party. In 2002, she was suspended from the DPP due to controversies related to the 'ear-licking incident' and subsequently withdrew from the party. In 2005, she was invited by then-Kuomintang Chairman Lien Chan to join the KMT. Cheng Li-wen personally experienced the Lien-Hu meeting, serving as the KMT spokesperson at the time.

The CPC announced through Song Tao, Director of the CPC Central Taiwan Affairs Office, that the CPC Central Committee and General Secretary Xi Jinping welcome and invite Cheng Li-wen to lead a Kuomintang delegation to visit.

The scale of this announcement is higher than the arrangements for then-Kuomintang Chairmen Eric Chu and Hung Hsiu-chu's visits to mainland China in 2015 and 2016, and is comparable to then-Kuomintang Chairman Wu Poh-hsiung's visit in 2008.

The mainland side believes that Cheng Li-wen's visit has an important positive impact on peace in the Taiwan Strait and meets the needs of cross-strait relations development. The Mainland Affairs Council, however, hopes that Cheng Li-wen can loudly demand that Beijing face the existence of the Republic of China and immediately cease military aircraft flights around Taiwan. The last blue-camp politician to visit mainland China as Kuomintang Chairman was Hung Hsiu-chu in 2016. (Editor: Chu Chien-ling) 1150407