Le Vif is one of the leading news weeklies in French-speaking Belgium — the Belgian equivalent of L’Express or Le Point. In its May 14 edition, the magazine publishes a feature article on the divisions among Taiwan’s political parties over China, under the headline “Taiwan’s parties divided — a windfall for Beijing?”

What the article covers

The article takes as its starting point the April 2026 visit to Beijing by Kuomintang (KMT) chairwoman Cheng Li-wun, using it to examine the two competing visions that define Taiwan’s political debate on its relationship with China. On one side stands President Lai Ching-te’s Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), which prioritises asserting Taiwanese sovereignty and strengthening the partnership with the United States. On the other stands the KMT, which holds that Taiwan’s survival depends on deeper dialogue with Beijing.

The article also shines a light on the legislative deadlock over defence spending — with the KMT and the TPP blocking a $40 billion budget increase — and weighs the respective risks of each approach.

The analyses quoted

Barthélémy Courmont, professor at the Institut catholique de Lille, offers an important perspective. He cautions that viewing the KMT as straightforwardly pro-reunification is a misleading oversimplification, and argues that Taiwan’s two main parties hold divergent but not necessarily irreconcilable positions on the China question.

My own analysis is also featured, commenting on the rhetoric adopted by Cheng Li-wun during her Beijing visit and on the three-variable balance that has conditioned Taiwan’s status quo since 1979: Taiwan’s own capacity for self-defence, the credibility of the American commitment, and Beijing’s strategic patience.

→ Read the article on Le Vif