Rare Beijing Visit Shifts Calculations on US-China War

The leader of Taiwan’s main opposition party arrived in Shanghai on Tuesday at Beijing’s invitation on a five-day trip she says aims to reduce the risk of a devastating conflict. It is the first trip to China by a major Taiwanese party head in a decade. Cheng Li-wen, who heads the Kuomintang (KMT), or the Chinese Nationalist Party, has dubbed the delegation a “peace mission.” Cheng has said she hopes to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping before she visits the United States, Taiwan’s most important supporter and defense supplier. Relations across the Taiwan Strait have soured since 2016, when…