Trans-Pacific View | Diplomacy | East Asia

KMT Chair Returns From Her US Tour

Cheng Li-wun’s two-week trip to the U.S. didn’t see the high-profile White House meetings she sought, but still served as a signal of her political ambitions.

KMT Chair Cheng Li-wun poses for a photo in front of the flags of the United States and the Republic of China during a visit to the Massachusetts Governor’s Office, June 5, 2026.

Kuomintang (KMT) chair Cheng Li-wun returned to Taiwan on June 16, ending a two-week trip to the United States. The trip comes shortly on the heels of Cheng’s meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing in April, which significantly boosted Cheng’s international profile. Her meeting with Xi took place a month before U.S. President Donald Trump’s own summit with the Chinese leader. 

Although Cheng stated ahead of time that she hoped to meet with Trump, this ultimately did not occur. Before traveling to Washington as part of her trip, Cheng aimed to flatter the U.S. president, stating that he could be the “greatest statesman of the 21st century” if he was able to resolve tensions in the Taiwan Strait. President Lai Ching-te of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) also previously sought to flatter Trump by suggesting that he would deserve a Nobel Peace Prize if he was able to convince Xi to renounce the use of force against Taiwan. 

Taiwan’s ties with the United States have been questioned after the Trump-Xi summit, particularly after Trump seemed to echo Xi’s language on Taiwan in the wake of the meeting. However, comments by Trump suggesting that he is still weighing arms sales to Taiwan, as well as his affirmation that he opposes Taiwanese independence, also indirectly echo Cheng. 

After her meeting with the KMT chair, with Cheng suggested that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and KMT could find common ground on their shared opposition to independence. Trump’s present holding up of arms sales to Taiwan also echoes Cheng’s current claim that the KMT will only approve further defense spending for Taiwan if the United States provides notification of arms sales. 

Cheng’s trip to Washington let her meet with policymakers, politicians, and think-tankers, including House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Brian Mast, and Defense Priorities’ Asia Program director Lyle Goldstein. 

Much media attention in Taiwan focused on a suddenly canceled meeting between Cheng and the National Security Council. Before the meeting was to have taken place, the venue had already been downgraded from the White House to the Washington offices of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT), the United States’ representative office in Taiwan in the absence of formal diplomatic relations. In the end, Cheng met with lower-level U.S. government officials than Taichung mayor Lu Shiow-yen did during her own trip to the United States in March.

Cheng also did not meet with AIT’s Washington director, Ingrid D. Larson, who met with Lu. 

Speculation is that this may be reprisal over a previous spat between the KMT leadership and the AIT. Amid calls by the United States for Taiwan to pass defense spending, which was blocked by the KMT in the legislature, Cheng’s deputy chair, Hsiao Hsu-tsen, hit out at AIT director Raymond Greene for his advocacy for defense spending. Hsiao called Greene no higher than a section chief. 

Unsurprisingly, Cheng was questioned over the KMT’s defense policy during her trip. The KMT and its partner, the Taiwan People’s Party, have repeatedly blocked and cut defense spending, most recently passing a supplemental budget stripped of nearly all funding for indigenous defense programs, most notably drone research and development. Cheng claimed........

© The Diplomat