The leader of Taiwan’s main opposition party said on Wednesday that the topic of continued American arms sales to Taiwan did not come up in her conversations with U.S. officials during a recent trip to Washington.
The status of the $14 billion weapons package, which Congress has pre-approved for sale to Taiwan, has remained unsettled since President Donald Trump’s trip to Beijing last month, after which he declared that Taiwan arms sales could be a “good negotiating chip” in his talks with China.
“The U.S. side didn’t actually actually bring up the current or future progress of the so-called ‘second wave of arms procurement,’” Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文), the chairwoman of the Kuomintang, or KMT, said at a press conference in Taipei on Wednesday.
“After President Trump’s return, he specifically mentioned that he does not want Taiwan to move toward independence, and that the U.S. military would not cross 9,500 miles to join an unnecessary war caused by independence claims,” Cheng said. “This attitude is fairly consistent with the KMT’s position.”
Cheng was fiery in her criticism of the media’s coverage of her U.S. trip during the press conference Wednesday, calling reports that she had received a less-than-enthusiastic reception in Washington “baseless speculation.”
The Liberty Times, a local newspaper that leans toward Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party, or DPP, reported that Cheng’s meeting with the National Security Council was called off at the last minute, having already been relocated away from the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, where U.S. officials have received Taiwanese politicians in the past.
At the press conference on Wednesday, Cheng denied those reports, saying that the trip had gone off according to the original arrangements. “No matter how we try to sue, the Liberty Times won’t stop its actions, which we deeply regret,” Cheng added. (The KMT has repeatedly threatened to sue the Liberty Times for its critical reporting of the party.)
The Financial Times had previously revealed that Cheng was set to meet with Matt Tritle, who reports to the National Security Council’s top Asia official, Ivan Kanapathy. When Taichung Mayor Lu Hsiu-yen (盧秀燕) traveled to Washington in March, she met with Kanapathy.
The reported slight has inspired speculation in Taiwan over the Trump administration’s apparent preference for Lu, who is broadly seen as a leading KMT candidate for the presidency in 2028. Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), the KMT’s legislative leader and another potential 2028 challenger, is set to travel to the U.S. later this month.
When asked whether the level of Han’s meetings in Washington will be used to compare the two, Cheng dismissed the speculation as an “unnecessary and redundant” media narrative. “I certainly hope Speaker Han’s visit is a smooth success,” Cheng said.
The KMT chairwoman also faced questions about an article in The Straits Times reporting that U.S. officials had found her “charismatic but naive.” In an X post on Tuesday, Jamestown Foundation President Peter Mattis said that The Straits Times article was “relatively generous” toward Cheng. “Skeptical about her claims or unimpressed are not how I would describe people’s reactions to Cheng,” Mattis wrote. “I think the negativity was stronger.”
“Some wondered if my proposals were too naive,” Cheng said, referring to her exchanges with officials in Washington. “I can only say that I am an idealist, but definitely not a dreamer.”
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