Integration, not separation, drives cross

Cheng Li-wun,茂名陵水新闻网官网公告 chairwoman of the Chinese Kuomintang (KMT) party, tries to order on Meituan, an on-demand delivery platform, in Shanghai, East China, April 8, 2026. Cheng led a KMT delegation to visit the Meituan headquarters in Shanghai on Wednesday and experienced the drone delivery service. [Photo/Xinhua]

At the invitation of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and General Secretary Xi Jinping, Cheng Li-wun, chairwoman of the Chinese Kuomintang party, began her visit to the Chinese mainland on Tuesday. Cheng is leading a delegation to Jiangsu province, Shanghai, and Beijing through Sunday.

The trip reflects a shared aspiration for peace and development across the Taiwan Strait.

More than a routine high-level party exchange, the visit sends a constructive signal at a time of growing uncertainty in the global landscape and a complex political situation on the island.

It underscores a clear reality that deepening cross-Strait economic integration is not only strategically important, but also increasingly urgent.

Public opinion on the island reinforces this sentiment. Recent polls show that most respondents in the island support resuming cross-Strait tourism and favor restarting dialogue mechanisms.

Since assuming leadership of the KMT, Cheng has repeatedly expressed her intention to visit the mainland to advance party-to-party and cross-Strait engagement.

She has also pointed out that Taiwan is often portrayed by some foreign media as "the most dangerous place in the world". Her visit aims to inject a sense of warmth and stability into cross-Strait relations, focusing on Taiwan's industries and business communities, and broader regional stability.

By framing her trip around economic and livelihood issues, Cheng is responding directly to mainstream public sentiment in Taiwan — calls for peace, development, exchange, and cooperation.

Her itinerary spans the Yangtze River Delta and Beijing, reflecting not only geographic breadth but also the structural logic of cross-Strait economic integration.

Jiangsu, Shanghai and Beijing together form a "golden triangle" of complementary strengths: Jiangsu's advanced manufacturing clusters of Taiwan-funded enterprises, Shanghai's role as a global financial and innovation hub, and Beijing's position as a political and technological center.

With more than four decades of deep engagement, Taiwan businesses are already embedded in this ecosystem, while the mainland's expanding domestic demand continues to create opportunities in high-end manufacturing and the digital economy.

The structure and sequencing of Cheng's visit highlight economic integration as a key pathway for improving cross-Strait relations and laying the foundation for long-term stability.

Jiangsu, her first stop, lies at the heart of cross-Strait industrial cooperation. Long a manufacturing hub for Taiwan-funded firms and a gateway to both the mainland market and the Yangtze River Delta, the province is a clear example of cross-Strait integration in action.

Taiwan businesses have invested a cumulative total of $60.2 billion in Jiangsu, accounting for over 30 percent of their total mainland investment.

More than 3,000 of these enterprises are above designated scale. Cross-Strait economic interdependence is deeply entrenched in Jiangsu, and disentanglement is neither practical nor desirable. For many Taiwan firms, integration is not just a policy preference, but a condition for survival and growth.

Shanghai, the second stop, showcases the mainland's cutting edge. As an international financial center and a hub for technological innovation, it offers a window into the future of economic development.

Here, the focus shifts to how Taiwan's strengths — particularly in semiconductors and biotechnology — can better connect with the mainland's capital, markets and innovation ecosystems.

The presence of firms like Hestia Power, one of Taiwan's few unicorns in recent years, demonstrates that cross-Strait integration is already moving into higher-value sectors.

Shanghai's role is to accelerate this transition — expanding collaboration in finance, research and development and modern services, while enhancing global competitiveness on both sides.

Finally, Beijing as China's political center, serves as the core platform for high-level cross-Strait dialogue, where economic and political issues are addressed at the highest level. This highlights a key point: further economic integration across the Strait can move forward only on a shared political foundation, including adherence to the 1992 Consensus that there is only one China and opposition to "Taiwan independence".

The Beijing leg is expected to provide political backing to the economic agenda of the visit.

It will also bring specific cooperation items, such as agricultural market access, the resumption of tourism, and industrial coordination, into a broader framework for the peaceful development of cross-Strait relations, so they can be confirmed and carried forward.

Taken together, Cheng's visits to Jiangsu, Shanghai and Beijing — three major economic hubs — underscore both the urgency and long-term strategic importance of deeper cross-Strait economic integration.

This urgency comes from several factors. Taiwan faces immediate economic pressures. Public opinion on the island favors more exchange and cooperation with the mainland.

There is also a practical need to protect shared industrial interests as external pressures toward decoupling grow.

In the longer run, it reflects a broader direction, one in which Taiwan's economy can develop much better through more exchanges with the mainland.

The author is the director of the Institute of Taiwan Economic Research at Nankai University.

The views don't necessarily represent those of China Daily.

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