KMT Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun Arrives in Shanghai — 'Journey for Peace' Begins; First KMT Chair China Visit in ~10 Years

KMT Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun and a KMT delegation arrived in Shanghai at noon local time on April 7, 2026, kicking off a high-stakes April 7–12 mainland visit that is the first by a sitting KMT party chair in approximately a decade. Xinhua reported Cheng called the trip a 'journey for peace.' The itinerary includes stops in Jiangsu Province, Shanghai, and Beijing, with the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum in Nanjing scheduled for April 8 — a venue chosen by Beijing to position the KMT within a Chinese national heritage frame. A confirmed meeting with President Xi Jinping in Beijing remains the trip's political centerpiece. The visit is unfolding 37 days before the planned Trump-Xi Beijing summit (May 14–15), a timing that Taiwan's DPP government and US national security officials have flagged as a deliberate Beijing diplomatic maneuver. Focus Taiwan noted that reaction in Taiwan was mixed: DPP officials described the visit as creating an 'illusion of unification momentum,' while internal KMT divisions — documented by Taiwan News on April 6 — continued, with party members split between viewing the trip as a legitimate peace initiative versus an exercise that risks being exploited by Beijing for propaganda. The Washington Times reported Cheng's stated goal of 'extending kindness, building mutual trust, and ushering in a new spring in cross-strait relations.'