Cheng Li-wun, chairwoman of Taiwan's main opposition Kuomintang, used a two-week US trip to correct what she called "many misperceptions" about her pro-engagement approach to China amid sharp criticism from hawks in Washington. The trip followed her April visit to China, where she met President 
Xi Jinping, per Channel News Asia. Cheng told reporters she met nine members of the US Congress from committees on finance, defence and foreign affairs, as well as academics and think-tank representatives.
What's the Washington criticism about? Cheng's KMT — which together with its small ally the Taiwan People's Party holds a majority in parliament — has faced sharp criticism for cutting by a third the government's plan to spend an extra US$40 billion on arms, per Channel News Asia. Taiwan's opposition-controlled legislature last month passed a US$25 billion special defence budget to fund major US arms purchases, down from the original $40 billion proposed.
What did Senator Sullivan say? China hawks say the spending is essential to strengthen Taiwan's defences, with Republican Senator Dan Sullivan warning that the KMT was "playing with fire". The "playing with fire" line is the sharpest publicly-attributed Washington criticism of the KMT's defence-budget posture to date and frames the constituency Cheng is working to neutralise.
Why is the Xi meeting the awkward backdrop? Cheng's April meeting with Xi was the first by a KMT chair in office in recent years and gave Beijing a high-profile symbolic visit. The Washington trip layered on top frames the KMT as actively working both capitals — a deliberate parallel-track positioning ahead of Taiwan's next electoral cycle.
What's the KMT's position on US arms? Hong Kong Free Press positioned Cheng as seeking to maintain US defence cooperation rather than reduce it — a distinction from the $40bn-to-$25bn budget cut, where the KMT line is that the package was re-scoped, not abandoned. That is the substantive defence she is making in Washington meetings to differentiate her party from the "playing with fire" critique.
What's the procedural read going forward? The post-trip framing — that the perceptions were corrected and the cooperation lane is intact — gives the KMT a Washington-engagement story to tell domestic Taiwanese audiences in the next electoral cycle, while Beijing's April-meeting symbolism remains in place. The dual-capital validation is the political deliverable.
Figures referenced: Cheng Li-wun, Xi Jinping. — JudgeMarket.
