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Taiwan’s opposition leader, once for independence, turns towards China
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Kuomintang leader Cheng Li-wun has said she is willing to meet China's leaders.
PHOTO: AFP
Chris Buckley and Amy Chang Chien
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TAIPEI – Back in her days as a Taiwanese student activist, Ms Cheng Li-wun gave fiery speeches urging the island to sever its Chinese bonds and declare independence. She lashed out at the Nationalist Party, which had ruled over Taiwan for decades after fleeing defeat in China, casting it as the latest coloniser to oppress the island.
Now Ms Cheng is, to the astonishment of many, the leader of the very Nationalist Party that she once despised, after winning the party’s leadership election in October. She recently bowed in respect at the grave of Chiang Kai-shek, the draconian Nationalist Party leader whom she once reviled. These days, she says that Taiwan’s people should proudly declare that they are also Chinese.
