Taiwan leader’s visit shows China’s growing influence

Chinese Communist Party leaders hosted Cheng Li-wun, the leader of Taiwan’s Kuomintang party, for a six-day visit that ended on Sunday, another assertion of Chinese Communist power against democratic Taiwan. The first such visit by a Kuomintang leader since 2015 included a widely publicized 14-second handshake between Cheng and Chinese General Secretary Xi Jinping. The Kuomintang party has not ruled Taiwan for more than a decade, but many voters support it for its policy of favoring engagement over military resistance. The Chinese Communist Party favors it for the same reason. The Trumpet maintains its forecast of over two decades that China will ultimately seize control of Taiwan, with the deciding factor being weakness and unfaithfulness from Taiwan’s democratic ally, the United States.