Cheng-Xi meeting seen as Beijing signal to Trump on Taiwan: Scholars

Taipei, April 11 (CNA) A recent meeting between Kuomintang (KMT) Chair Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) was viewed by scholars as a signal from Beijing to U.S. President Donald Trump on Taiwan ahead of their expected talks.

Cheng met Xi in Beijing on Friday during a trip first announced on March 30, after the White House said Trump's planned late-March visit to China had been postponed to May 14-15 amid the Iran war.

● Xi, Cheng vow to bring people across Taiwan Strait 'closer'

John Lim (林泉忠), a project researcher at the University of Tokyo's Institute for Advanced Studies on Asia, said that Xi aimed to send a message to Trump ahead of their meeting.

With Taiwan a key flashpoint in U.S.-China relations, Trump is likely to use support for Taiwan as leverage, Lim told CNA on Saturday.

Through the meeting, Xi sought to signal that a significant force in Taiwan supports Beijing's policy and shares values across the Strait, Lim said, adding that the move was meant to limit Trump's ability to use Taiwan as a bargaining chip.

Chang Kuo-cheng (張國城), an international relations scholar at Taipei Medical University, said the meeting could give China additional leverage in negotiations with the United States.

As Taiwan's main opposition party controlling most local governments, the KMT's stance could weaken Washington's Taiwan card, Chang said at a Taipei forum on the meeting's implications.

During the meeting, Cheng and Xi reaffirmed the "1992 consensus," opposition to Taiwan independence, and what they described as shared national interests.

The "1992 consensus" refers to a tacit understanding between Beijing and Taiwan's then KMT government in 1992 that there is "one China," with each maintaining their own interpretations of what "China" means.

Kharis Templeman, a research fellow at the Hoover Institution, said the meeting followed a familiar pattern, but that Cheng appeared "a more willing partner."

"She is more willing to say things that Beijing wants to hear than past KMT leaders," he said.

Templeman added that while Xi is often portrayed in U.S. media as aggressive on cross-strait issues, that image was not reflected in this meeting and may offer some reassurance to the U.S. side.

Separately, Bonnie Glaser, managing director of the Indo-Pacific Program at the German Marshall Fund, noted that Cheng did not raise concerns about China's military pressure on Taiwan.

That omission could be read as implying Beijing's actions are justified if framed as targeting "separatists," Glaser said in a post on social media platform X.