Slow And Steady Wins The Race?
What the Cheng–Xi meeting tells us about Beijing’s real Taiwan strategy
Grüezi!
Taiwan’s opposition leader, KMT chairwoman Cheng Li-wun, just met with President Xi in Beijing. It’s the opening move of a three-player game ahead of a possible Trump–Xi summit.
The real prize for Beijing is stalling a $40 billion defence spending bill in Taipei’s legislature.
Meanwhile, in the same week Xi was selling peace to Cheng, he launched a Mao-era military rectification campaign – and his name may have been quietly dropped from his own ideology.
1. The Audience Isn’t in Taipei
Cheng Li-wun completed her six-day trip to mainland China on Sunday, culminating in the first meeting between the sitting leaders of the CCP and KMT in nearly a decade.
The visit was originally expected to follow Trump’s own China summit. Instead, after Trump’s trip was postponed, Beijing brought Cheng’s forward.
On the surface, this separates the two events and reinforces Beijing’s claim that Taiwan is a purely domestic matter.
In practice, it positions the Cheng–Xí meeting as the opening move ahead of a Trump–Xi summit.
Beijing can now point to active cross-strait dialogue and argue that arms sales destabilise a situation that is trending towards reconciliation.
And the audience for that language isn’t Taipei – it’s Washington.
