Brian Hioeby Brian Hioe
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Photo Credit: Cheng Li-wun/Facebook
KMT CHAIR CHENG LI-WUN’S trip to the US, surprisingly, was mostly overshadowed in domestic politics by other news events. To this extent, post-mortems on Cheng’s trip from the DC perspective largely come to the view that Cheng was not as successful in her charm offensive toward the US as she might have hoped.
Cheng’s trip to the US–which involved stops at five cities–is probably a major sign that Cheng has presidential ambitions. KMT presidential candidates usually travel to the US ahead of presidential runs, as do DPP presidential candidates.
Sometimes this is thought of as a “job interview,” especially for DPP candidates, given that the DPP is the major political party in Taiwan that is closer to the US. Nevertheless, this is also to seek support from wealthy overseas Taiwanese communities that can provide campaign donations.
Likewise, whether KMT or DPP, presidential candidates of both political parties would aim to reassure the public that they can maintain stable relations with the US. Even if the KMT has traditionally campaigned on the basis of the political platform that it is the only party in Taiwan able to maintain stable cross-strait relations with China, it also has to reassure that it can maintain relations with the US.
As a hardline political leader for the KMT, Cheng has distinguished herself from the last KMT chair to express such views–Hung Hsiu-chu–through her willingness to travel to the US. Hung initially did not wish to travel to the US during her stint as KMT presidential candidate, but eventually did so.
Cheng was probably hoping to appeal to the isolationist wing of the Trump administration with the claim that the KMT could bring peace to the Taiwan Strait. Cheng, too, would be capitalizing on the wave of publicity she received after her meeting with Xi Jinping in April. Moreover, Cheng was probably hoping that there would be a similar wave of publicity in Taiwan for her trip to the US, the way that there was during her trip to China.
Cheng could also have been conscious of her hardline reputation in the US and aiming to moderate that. After all, Cheng could be undercut by sabotage from the US expressing lack of faith in her, similar to how Tsai Ing-wen saw interference during her first run for president. Reporting by the Financial Times that Washington did not have faith in Tsai, on the basis of a phone call from the White House by an undisclosed individual, was a major blow against Tsai’s electoral chances ahead of 2022 elections. As a candidate of the KMT–which is now the party that is more distrusted in Washington compared to the DPP–Cheng might be seeking to avoid similar sabotage.
The cancellation of a planned meeting with the National Security Council (NSC) was widely reported on in Taiwan. News reports suggested that the NSC was not happy about Cheng leaking the details of the meeting to the press before it took place. If some have suggested that Cheng met with relatively few lawmakers, Cheng has claimed that more meetings that could not be publicized took place. Cheng also met with lower-level US government officials compared to Taichung mayor Lu Shiow-yen during her trip to the US in March.
Otherwise, Cheng’s trip was marred by a number of confrontations with Chinese political dissidents at public events. The spectacle of such individuals being removed from events by force does not reflect well on Cheng, seeing as this reminds of the loss of freedoms that Taiwan could suffer under Chinese rule.
News reporting now indicates that Legislative Yuan president Han Kuo-yu will soon travel to the US. Though some have framed this trip as intended to clean up after Cheng, Han probably also has presidential ambitions. Compared to his previous 2020 run, Han has now aimed to rebrand himself as a political moderate–as have other historic KMT hardliners, including media personality Jaw Shaw-kong, in light of the significant controversy caused by Cheng. With Taipei mayor Chiang Wan-an and Taichung mayor Lu Shiow-yen having previously traveled to the US in recent memory, it seems likely that the 2028 presidential race will be a crowded one–continuing the pattern of the KMT being unable to settle on any single candidate, but instead losing elections due to internal divisions.