Taiwan opposition leader to visit China

The leader of Taiwan’s opposition Kuomintang party will visit China just before Beijing hosts US President Donald Trump for a high-stakes summit where the future of the self-ruled island is expected to be discussed.

Cheng Li-wun has long advocated for closer ties between Taipei and Beijing, and has opposed the Taiwanese government’s plans to boost defense spending, proposals advocated by Trump.

Though some analysts believe that China may be weighing an invasion of Taiwan — which it claims as its own — the mainland’s calculus appears to have shifted recently: “Beijing wants to make resistance feel so costly and so tiring that, eventually, Taipei and Washington simply give up,” The Wall Street Journal’s chief China correspondent wrote.