From Rebel to Rebuilder

Can Cheng Li-wen’s rise nudge the Taiwan Strait back toward stability?

Donald Trump and Xi Jinping did not talk about Taiwan—constitutionally named the Republic of China—in their recent summit in South Korea, but that didn’t stop the island from dominating headlines on the mainland in the past two weeks. The reason was not a new military flare-up, but a political one: the Kuomintang’s election of Cheng Li-wen, a former independence activist turned reformist, as its new chair.

In an age of political fatigue within Taiwan’s major parties, Cheng’s rise to the helm of the Kuomintang (KMT) in late 2025 feels like more than routine succession. A lawyer by training, she studied law at National Taiwan University and Temple University in the United States, and later completed a master’s degree at the University of Cambridge. Early in her career she built credentials within the rival Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)—including activism in Taiwan’s student movement for democratization—before switching allegiance to the KMT. The significance of that shift cannot be overstated: few Taiwanese politicians have traveled the full arc from pan-green independence activism to leading the island’s principal pan-blue party, which favors steady engagement with the mainland.

What makes Cheng distinctive is not only her transformation but her clarity of tone. At 55 she is markedly younger than the KMT’s ageing elders, offering a rare sense of renewal for a party long seen as tired. She has also embraced a dual identity—calling herself both Taiwanese and Chinese—casting herself as a bridge rather than a barricade across the Strait. Her message of “engagement with confidence,” delivered in the language of peace and pragmatism, hints at a return to dialogue after years of deadlock. For the first time in a while, Taiwan’s oldest party sounds less like a relic of the past and more like a possible custodian of calm.

For all her freshness, Cheng inherits a party with a century-long lineage and deeply rooted habits. The Kuomintang remains anchored in business networks and local factions, while younger voters have grown up in a more assertive democratic age. Her task will be to give new meaning to the KMT’s long tradition of engagement. Yet if she can turn renewed intimacy with the mainland into a source of reassurance rather than fear—restoring genuine connection across the Strait and linking Taiwan’s self-confidence to a shared sense of destiny—Cheng Li-wen may help steer the two sides away from confrontation, perhaps even back toward peace, or at least check the spiral into danger.

The following is her inauguration speech as KMT party chair on Saturday, November 1, 2025.

This is the worst of times. The Taiwan Strait is in grave danger of war, and the whole world is watching closely. The trade and economic rules that we have long followed and upheld, and under which we created an eye-catching economic miracle for the whole world, are undergoing fierce and major changes. The challenges come not only from the outside; within our society, as a result of the DPP’s long-term rule, those now in power are bit by bit eroding the democratic and law-based society that we so painstakingly built. Today’s ruling party completely despises the most important democratic core rule of majority in the national legislature. Today the ruling party controls most of the media and keeps spreading rumors, smearing people, and creating unnecessary confrontation and hatred. Today the ruling party even goes so far as to use the judiciary as a tool to attack those with different views and to carry out political oppression. Taiwan’s democracy is in grave danger; Taiwan’s security may at any time face the threat of war; Taiwan’s economic and trade miracle, Taiwan’s “sacred mountain protecting the nation”, may be being quickly moved out and hollowed out. In such a time, how the Kuomintang can revive what has declined and set right what has gone wrong is not only what Taiwan’s 23 million people worry about, but also what all those in the world who care about the future of the Republic of China and who care about democratic politics worry about and pay attention to.

Fellow party members, how heavy is the burden on our shoulders? Today the Party is full of wounds. Many of the lawsuits borne by many party staff sitting here come from the DPP’s judicial hunt. Last night, we saw two party staff who had just been released on bail and returned to Taipei; yesterday we even had a first-level party affairs executive indicted. However, the Kuomintang becomes braver the more setbacks it faces; today we are exactly “even with broken bones, we become even braver.”

When Li-wen ran for party chair, I solemnly promised that I would at the earliest moment form a legal-justice lawyer relief group, I would set up a fund of tens of millions, and I would give our full support and relief to all our party members and party staff friends who are subjected to judicial hunting. We will absolutely not let you be alone. We also must not let the DPP look down on us and treat the Kuomintang as “soft soil to be dug deep.” We still have such a heavy responsibility; the people of Taiwan are still waiting for us; all industries are depressed, the future is bleak—where is the future of young people in Taiwan? Where is the future of Taiwan’s farmers? Where is the future of the workers?

My friends, we must turn the worst of times into the best of times. I, Li-wen, have always been thinking: in these years of the Kuomintang’s transformation, how can the Kuomintang become stronger and stronger in the future? How can we attract all the outstanding talents in Taiwan from the very bottom to the very top of the pyramid? How can we attract one generation after another of young people to join and identify with us? In fact, I have always taken Tzu Chi as an object to learn from; it is undeniable that it is Taiwan’s brightest name card in the whole world, because compassion and great love know no borders, so not only in Taiwan but even in the whole world, across racial, national, and even religious barriers, in the places where human beings suffer the most, in the poorest places, in the places that most need warmth, we can see Taiwan’s Tzu Chi. Even in the hardest places people can show a smile and can be full of hope for the future.

Li-wen would like to report to all comrades present: after I was elected, I went to Hualien to call on the Tzu Chi Master. I explained to the Master that in the Kuomintang, K stands for Kind, for goodness; M stands for Mindfulness, for right mindfulness; T stands for Team, for team. All living beings are equal. Within our Kuomintang, every party member is equal, is indispensable, and is the most important. Therefore I hope that in the future the Kuomintang will not only be the most important and largest political group, but will also be Taiwan’s most important and most influential public-interest group. Each one of us, upholding goodness and right mindfulness and giving full play to the spirit of teamwork, will, in the community where each of us is, assist and help Taiwan’s disadvantaged and help the people of Taiwan.

My friends, during the election I said that we must turn the Kuomintang from a flock of sheep into a pride of lions. For so many years, the DPP has split Taiwan into pieces; in Taiwan’s politics there has been nothing but vicious struggle, leading to 20 or 30 years of internal friction and idling. Taiwan has no time left; we cannot continue to sink; we cannot continue to let hatred spread. I believe that only love can prevail over hatred; I believe that only goodness can defeat evil. Therefore I said we are a pride of lions, we are not a pack of wolves, we do not use violence to control violence, we do not become a second DPP. What is a pride of lions? We are the kings on the grassland, we must build a new order, we must look after all the weak, we must make the grassland a place where dreams can be pursued and where there is fairness and justice, so we will become a pride of lions, we will become the rulers of Taiwan, we will let Taiwan rebuild a new democratic order, we will let Taiwan restore goodness and justice.

In the future, when each of us goes out, we will not only represent the Kuomintang, we will also represent the true Taiwan spirit and Taiwan values; it is absolutely not the Bluebird, not the Kuma, nor the DPP. This is the mission to set right what has gone wrong.

My friends, we will certainly, when the people of Taiwan are suffering the most, when the people of Taiwan are in the greatest danger, when Taiwan needs us the most, always stand firmly together with the people of Taiwan. Everyone, this is the Kuomintang’s most solemn commitment to the 23 million people: whenever the people need us, they will be able to find the Kuomintang, we will be standing at the people’s side, we are the people of Taiwan.

Everyone, all those present today are delegates of the Kuomintang, you are the representatives of this Party. I hope that all of you will go out, to every corner of Taiwan, and even to every corner of the world, and let the whole of Taiwan see, and let the people of Taiwan feel, Taiwan’s positive energy, Taiwan’s energy of believing in goodness and great love, and Taiwan’s spirit of believing in democracy, freedom, the rule of law, and inclusiveness.

So, because of goodness, because of right mindfulness, because of team spirit, we can, starting today, starting from this very moment, starting from here, take the first step to turn the worst of times into the best of times. No matter if it is a mountain of blades or a sea of fire, no matter if it is full of thorns, because we have goodness in our hearts and have right mindfulness, with our firm steps and firm confidence we will lead Taiwan toward the light and toward hope. This is the mission of our Kuomintang, and it is also what every one of you will keep working on together with Li-wen, day and night, without rest, and we will never give up until we reach the goal.

From the time Li-wen decided to run to the election, there were only two short months. During this period, what moved me the most and what encouraged me the most was that on the very first day I said I was considering running for chair, from all directions, from friends I knew and friends I didn’t know, I heard: if you become party chair, I want to join the Kuomintang; if you are elected chair, I want to return to the Kuomintang. After Li-wen was elected, in less than these two weeks, there were already over a thousand lapsed party members and new friends who returned to the Kuomintang and completed the procedures to rejoin the Party. I know there are still more friends waiting and looking forward to joining the Kuomintang family and becoming part of the Kuomintang team. So Li-wen also wants to report to all of you here: we will work actively to welcome all new friends and old friends back to the Kuomintang. All of you are party delegates of the Kuomintang, each one of you has the public support of hundreds of party members. Today, on the first day the party chair takes office, I want to entrust everyone with an important mission and task: I hope that all the KMT party delegates present, in your future term, each of you can go and find one hundred old friends and new friends to rejoin the Party and join the Kuomintang. I think this is more meaningful than sharing the dues. I hope that every one of our party delegates will in the future become the name card of the Kuomintang, become the spokesperson of the Kuomintang, become the embodiment of the Kuomintang, and that through the existing hundreds of party members and the hundreds of new party members who will join in the future, in every community, every grassroots level, and every corner, they can serve the people and defend the Kuomintang. You are the best megaphones of the Kuomintang, you are the best campaign helpers in future elections, so I see that everyone is eager to try, I see that everyone holds very high expectations, and I also feel everyone’s enthusiasm overflowing. We must use this enthusiasm now, use this sense of mission now, and believe that starting from each of you as the beginning and starting point, radiating outward, you influence 200 people, 200 people can influence 1,000 people, 1,000 people can influence 10,000 people, and our nearly 2,000 national party delegates can in the future increase 200,000 party members. Then, as I said, we can increase by 2 million, 4 million, 5 million, and even win the support of more people across all of Taiwan—this will depend on everyone’s efforts.

Of course, we also hope that the party members and friends you reach will be able to feel the Kuomintang’s values, the Kuomintang’s efforts, and our common goals. In this chaotic era, when we are fighting a bloody battle in the Legislative Yuan, in every controversy, all of you have jointly helped us make the best defense for the party caucus.

Today, we do not believe that truth cannot be called back. As long as we have courage, the source of our confidence is exactly our persistence in truth and great love. Everyone, from today on, the Kuomintang must have aspiration, must have backbone, must strive to prove to the whole of Taiwan that in the future we will become the most solid source of confidence for the 23 million people of the Republic of China.

Finally, I thank Chairman Eric Chu for accompanying the Kuomintang and leading the Kuomintang over the past four years, for holding his post both at moments of victory and at moments of lonely defeat; I also thank Chairman Eric Chu and the entire Kuomintang team he led—over the past four years, you have worked hard. I also know that in the face of the DPP’s ruthless suppression and its attempt to wipe out the Kuomintang, you have been wronged, you have suffered, but we do not have time to feel sorry for ourselves, the country’s future is waiting for us, the people of Taiwan are waiting for us. From this moment on, every wound on our bodies will become our armor in battle; as long as it does not kill us, in the future it will make us even stronger. So we are confident that we will demonstrate an unprecedented power of unity and make a promise to all 23 million people in Taiwan that the Kuomintang will definitely be the one to defend democracy and freedom, the Kuomintang will definitely be the one to rebuild the economic miracle, and the Kuomintang will definitely be the one to create a century of cross-Strait peace and to lead Taiwan.

Thank you all, let us strive together and work together. Thank you.

Meet Cheng Li-wen, the new Chair of KMT