By Wayne Chang, Will Ripley, John Mees, CNN
Taipei, Taiwan (CNN) — As Washington pressures Taiwan to spend big on defenses against a potential Chinese attack, one of the island’s most outspoken politicians is arguing the opposite approach: less confrontation and more dialogue.
Fresh from holding talks with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Beijing, and days before US President Donald Trump will do the same, the head of Taiwan’s largest opposition party told CNN that weapons alone will not keep Taiwan safe.
“Taiwan does not want to become the next Ukraine,” warned Cheng Li-wun, chair of the Kuomintang, or KMT.
Her comments came in an interview just hours before Taiwan’s opposition-controlled legislature passed a watered-down version of President Lai Ching-te’s proposed defense package, slashing the roughly $40 billion plan by about a third after months of political deadlock.
The approved package preserves billions of dollars in US arms purchases. But it cuts funding for parts of Taiwan’s domestic defense buildup, including portions of the island’s growing drone industry, at a moment when the Trump administration is pressuring allies across Asia to shoulder more responsibility for deterring China.
For months, American officials and military analysts questioned whether Taiwan’s opposition intended to obstruct urgently needed military upgrades despite China’s intensifying military pressure around the island democracy that Beijing claims as its own.
But the KMT “is the solid staunch supporter of Taiwan’s national defense,” Cheng said.
“A lot of that $40 billion budget is very vague,” she added. “It is impossible for us to just blankly authorize the entire package.”
In a commentary published in local media, Matt Pottinger, a deputy US national security adviser during the first Trump administration, called on Taiwan’s opposition to “seriously reflect” on why it is cutting funding for drones. “These are cheap and effective capabilities that superpowers struggle to defend against,” he wrote.
The debate is unfolding as Trump and Xi are expected to meet in the Chinese capital –where they will likely discuss Taiwan, a topic always high on Beijing’s agenda during bilateral summits.
In Taipei, Cheng spoke to CNN just steps away from the towering bronze statue of former KMT leader Chiang Kai-shek, whose defeat by communist forces during the Chinese civil war eight decades ago led to his retreat to the island – sowing the seed of tensions across the Taiwan Strait ever since. Beijing has vowed to “reunify” Taiwan with the mainland, by force if necessary, viewing US support for the island as the main obstacle.
Cheng argued Taiwan should not be forced to choose between Washington and Beijing.
“Being friendly to the US does not necessarily mean there’s animosity toward China,” she said.
Just weeks earlier, Cheng had traveled to Beijing for a rare and carefully choreographed meeting with Xi, the first high-level meeting in a decade between China’s ruling Communist Party and Taiwan’s main opposition.
Few would have imagined that Cheng, once a fiery student activist who denounced the KMT’s “tyranny” and supported Taiwan independence, would one day head the very party she once condemned, much less sit face to face with Xi in Beijing.
Now, she openly embraces the “One China” framework that Beijing insists is the basis for any political dialogue across the strait.
“It may seem that I have a common language with Xi Jinping,” Cheng said. “But because there are so many differences between the two sides of the strait, it is critical that we find a common foundation. I believe this is the only way where we can avoid war.”
Critics accuse Cheng of parroting Beijing’s talking points at a d