Taiwan's main opposition leader landed in China Tuesday for a rare visit aimed at building cross-strait "peace", as the government warns Beijing will seek to stop U.S. arms sales to the democratic island.
Kuomintang (KMT) chairwoman Cheng Li-wun, who is the party's first leader to visit China in a decade, has insisted on meeting Chinese President Xi Jinping before she visits the U.S., Taiwan's main security backer.
The KMT supports closer relations with China.
Cheng, whose unexpected rise to the top of the KMT drew a congratulatory message from Xi in October, has been accused by critics, including inside the party, of being too pro-China.
Before her departure for Shanghai, Cheng told journalists that Taiwan "must do everything in our power to prevent war from breaking out."
"To preserve peace is to preserve Taiwan," Cheng told a news conference at KMT headquarters in Taipei.
"Goodwill must be built up and mutual trust needs to be expanded, step by step, by both sides."
Ahead of the trip, Taiwan's top China policy body warned Beijing would attempt to "cut off Taiwan's military purchases from the U.S. and cooperation with other countries", which the KMT denies.
"This trip is entirely for cross-strait peace and stability, so it has nothing to do with arms procurement or other issues," Cheng said last week.
Taiwanese lawmakers have been at loggerheads over the government's plan to spend TWD $1.25 trillion ($39 billion) on defense, which has been stalled for months in the opposition-controlled parliament.
Cheng will be in China for six days, visiting Shanghai, Nanjing and Beijing where she hopes to meet Xi.
While KMT party members regularly fly to China for exchanges with officials, its last leader to visit was Hung Hsiu-chu in 2016.
China severed high-level contact with Taiwan that year after Tsai Ing-wen of the Democratic Progressive Party won the presidency and rejected Beijing's claims to the island.
Cross-strait relations have worsened since then as China ramped up military pressure with near daily deployments of fighter jets and warships near Taiwan and regular large-scale military drills.
Cheng's trip to China comes a month before U.S. President Donald Trump is scheduled to visit Beijing for a summit with Xi.
The U.S. has been piling pressure on Taiwanese opposition lawmakers to back a proposal for defense purchases, including U.S. weapons, to deter a potential Chinese attack.
