Delegations from China and the United States met for trade talks in South Korea, Chinese state media reported Wednesday, hours before US President Donald Trump is due to arrive in Beijing.

The talks were taking place at Incheon International Airport, near Seoul, Xinhua news agency said, without providing further details.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent had said he would be meeting Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng, both of whom have led previous rounds of negotiations.

The officials are likely to put the finishing touches on any announcements made during Trump’s summit with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

See also: Trump brushes aside Taiwan concerns ahead of meeting with Xi

Washington and Beijing last year slapped tit-for-tat tariffs on each other’s exports, with levies exceeding 100 percent.

Trump and Xi agreed on a year-long trade truce at their October meeting in South Korea.

“Economic security is national security,” Bessent said as he announced his South Korea trip on social media.

Bessent will then travel to Beijing for the Trump-Xi summit, he added.

More than a dozen business executives including Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and Tesla boss Elon Musk are also travelling to China with Trump.

By William Patterson

Claw machine lover Neiki Lee carefully lowers the metal jaws of a crane with a joystick into a pool of prizes, only to have the small toy slip from its clutches again and again.

Dozens of stores filled with claw machines have sprung up on streets and in malls across Hong Kong’s finance hub in recent years, promising players a treasure trove of prizes and a sense of fulfilment.

The colourfully lit machines, often seen drawing people like moths to a flame, have come under regulatory scrutiny this month, as officials raised addiction concerns over the seemingly harmless games.

Lee, 48, admitted that she was “totally hooked” and that “this is definitely gambling”, adding that she bets at least five Hong Kong dollars every time she attempts to win a higher-value plush toy.

‘Sunk cost fallacy’

An office clerk, Lee said she has spent around HK$100,000 (US$12,800) on claw machines over two years — roughly half her annual salary.

“For a HK$70 toy, you might eventually spend 700, or even 1,700, and still not be able to grab it,” Lee told AFP.

“I really want to give it up. Every day I scold myself and tell myself to quit: no more, no more.”

Player Tommy Yu, 23, said he sometimes spends hundreds of dollars a day on it despite saying some machines have “traps” built in.

“When you put money in but don’t get anything back, you feel like you’ve lost out,” he said.

“Yet it keeps driving you to play.”

Gambling counsellor Chu Ho-ming told AFP that “the more (the players) invest, the harder it is to leave empty-handed and walk away”.

“This is the sunk cost fallacy,” he said, adding that “it keeps the addictive behaviour loop”.

Chu said his team have noticed an increase in youth playing games with “gambling elements”.

Too late?

Claw machine operators have been able to expand and operate largely unrestricted, after a court ruled in 2022 they are not required to possess public entertainment licenses.

But after a sharp rise in the number of public complaints related to so-called claw machine gambling over the last two years, Hong Kong authorities proposed this month to tighten regulations over prize-based arcades, calling the situation after the 2022 ruling “not ideal”.

The design and business models of such gaming machines are “extremely diverse”, officials said, adding that they were committed to tackling the “deep-seated issues”.

Some lawmakers have suggested capping the prize value at HK$300 or below, in line with countries including Britain and Singapore.

Matthew Chan, who owns three claw machine shops in town, told AFP tighter regulation was needed as the industry “was heading in the wrong direction”.

Chan bemoaned the government’s slowness to act, citing that Taiwan’s machines must offer a “guaranteed prize” if a certain amount of money is spent.

“The market already saw a downsize… (Hong Kong’s) consumers have lost confidence in it,” he said, adding that some machine operators were ramping up the difficulty and keeping players hooked.

But player Lee said she believed operators would find ways to evade any regulation enacted.

“It’s impossible that a law… can be applied in a way that is both flawless and fair” for the industry, she said.

“It is difficult to root out addiction problems simply by passing a law.”

By Montira Rungjirajittranon

Two Chinese Uyghur men were sentenced to death Thursday for carrying out a 2015 attack on a Bangkok shrine that killed 20 people, a long-awaited verdict in Thailand’s deadliest bombing case.

A Bangkok court convicted Yusufu Mieraili and Bilal Mohammed of premeditated and attempted murder for their role in planting a bomb at the popular Erawan Shrine in the capital’s commercial heart.

The blast tore apart the site where worshippers and tourists had gathered, wounding more than 100 people and leaving the shrine to the Thai representation of Brahma littered with motorbike fragments and singed debris.

Seven Chinese tourists were among the fatalities when explosives — apparently left in a backpack — detonated.

“The defendants committed a single act that violated multiple laws. The court therefore imposed the harshest penalty available under the law, the death sentence,” one member of the four-judge panel said Thursday as the lengthy verdict was read out.

The defendants — both Chinese nationals who arrived in court in prison garb — were acquitted of charges stemming from a separate bombing at a Bangkok pier.

Following the verdict, Mieraili said: “RIP Thailand’s justice system. I don’t accept any of this. I didn’t do anything wrong.”

Choochat Kanpai, the defendants’ lawyer, told reporters they “will appeal the ruling because there are many aspects of the case that the court has not fully considered, including the treatment of the defendants during the proceedings”.

The decade-long trial was beset by delays due to coronavirus disruptions and problems securing translators.

The blast came weeks after Thailand’s then-ruling junta forcibly repatriated 109 Uyghurs to China, prompting speculation that it was part of a revenge plot.

Beijing welcomed the death sentences.

“The attackers were totally inhumane and extremely heinous,” foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian told reporters.

“China supports Thailand in conducting the trial in accordance with the law and severely punishing the murderers.”

Delays and drugs

Shortly after the bombing, police named 17 suspects, but only Mieraili and Mohammed were initially apprehended.

Thailand’s junta authorities were criticised for a murky investigation that appeared to wind down shortly after the arrest of the two men.

They went on trial in 2016, accused of planting the explosives.

But the proceedings — which have involved hundreds of witness testimonies — have been delayed multiple times, once because the translator for the accused was hit with drugs charges.

In 2017 a Thai woman called Wanna Suansan was detained on arrival in Bangkok on a warrant linked to the shrine blast — making her the third named suspect arrested by police.

She was charged with attempted murder, associated murder and possession of bombs and weapons, but was acquitted in 2024.

The Uyghurs, a Turkic minority, primarily hail from China’s westernmost region, Xinjiang.

Beijing has been accused of detaining more than a million Uyghurs and other Muslims since 2017, part of a campaign that the United Nations previously said could constitute crimes against humanity.

China vehemently denies these allegations, saying its policies have rooted out extremism in Xinjiang and boosted economic development.

Thailand deported dozens of Uyghurs to China in February 2025 despite warnings from human rights groups that they would face persecution on their return, drawing swift condemnation from the United Nations.

The Erawan Shrine remains a popular draw for Chinese and other tourists to the Thai capital, and dozens of visitors made traditional offerings of marigold garlands and incense as usual on Thursday.

Devotee and online vendor Satiwan Phobangwai, 45, approved of the sentences.

“As a Buddhist, I was taught to only do good deeds and good things, right? It’s like karma, as the saying goes, ‘you reap what you sow,'” she said.

“So they must face the consequences of the wrongdoing they committed.”

Germany’s industrial decline is taking a painful toll on communities that have long relied on local manufacturing titans for jobs, prosperity and a sense of a secure future.

Among the places affected by the downturn is Ludwigshafen, a company town of chemical giant BASF, which has shed thousands of jobs while shifting its focus to China.

“The mood is obviously not good,” Sinischa Horvat, chairman of BASF’s works council, which represents staff interests, told AFP during a visit to the city of about 175,000 people.

“The entire market is currently so weak. When you watch the news, you hardly hear any positive messages.”

BASF is among Germany’s manufacturing heavyweights in sectors ranging from autos to steel and factory equipment that have been cutting back in their domestic markets.

They are battling surging energy costs, fierce competition from China, and weak demand at a time when Europe’s biggest economy is mired in a long stagnation.

Some 2,500 jobs have been axed since 2022 in Ludwigshafen, which is dominated by sprawling chemical plants that stretch along the river Rhine, and more cuts are set to come.

A recent decision to sell off thousands of company-owned apartments, many occupied by current and former workers, has added to unease.

“The sale of these apartments sends a signal to the city and to the people who live here and, in some cases, work at BASF — BASF is scaling back its operations,” Patrick Thiel, who lives in one of the apartments and works at the firm, told AFP.

“There is growing concern that this won’t stop at the apartments but will also affect the main plant,” added the 29-year-old, who also ran as a candidate in recent local polls for far-left party Die Linke.

China push

Horvat said having BASF staff in the properties helped created a “symbiosis” between company and community.

“This has fostered an understanding of chemistry and shaped the relationship with BASF in the city,” he said.

BASF — a supplier of base inputs to the agricultural, automotive and pharmaceutical sectors — says the proceeds will go to bolstering its core businesses, but acknowledged that the sale had “raised uncertainties”.

A company spokeswoman however insisted that it would handle the sale responsibly, adding: “No one has to fear losing their home.”

“We will continue to see ourselves as an integral part of the local community in the future,” she said.

Underlining its commitment to Ludwigshafen, where the group has over 30,000 employees — around a third of its global workforce —  BASF has agreed to hold off on compulsory redundancies there until at least 2028 and continue investing.

But as it cuts back at home, the world’s biggest chemical firm is investing heavily overseas, last month inaugurating a vast 8.7 billion euro (US$10 billion) complex in China, its biggest ever single investment project.

It insists that building up its presence in China, the world’s biggest chemical market, is crucial.

Job losses

BASF is far from the only German company suffering.

Last year industrial companies cut 124,000 jobs, around double the figure in 2024, with hefty losses in particular found in the struggling auto sector, a study by consultancy EY showed.

Germany’s manufacturing sector shrunk to a share of 19.5 percent of the country’s economy in 2025, according to official figures — its lowest level for many years.

“The loss of industrial jobs in Germany has accelerated in the past two years,” Marcel Fratzscher, president of the DIW economic institute, told AFP.

“Companies that used to be the pride of Germany are suffering.”

Areas that have already suffered industrial job losses see greater social problems and offer fertile ground for fringe parties, such as the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), to pick up support, experts warn.

Still, Fratzscher said that Germany had undergone economic upheavals before, and urged politicians and companies to try to ensure the economy emerges stronger.

The current economic transformation should be seen “as an opportunity to move into sectors that have better margins, better jobs,” he said.

“The biggest mistake we can make is to try to cement the status quo, to keep all companies exactly the same. That would lead to a much bigger deindustrialisation.”

China’s Wu Yize won the World Snooker Championship for the first time with a dramatic 18-17 victory over Shaun Murphy in the final on Monday.

Wu held his nerve to seal his thrilling triumph in a tense last frame shoot-out at Sheffield’s Crucible Theatre.

The 22-year-old is the second Chinese player to win the world title after Zhao Xintong beat Mark Williams to make history as the first Asian to lift the trophy last year.

Wu is also the second youngest player to be crowned world champion at the Crucible after Stephen Hendry, who was 21 when he won in 1990.

“I have been trying to go for this for ages. For the past few months, I have been living the same life. I’m so happy that I could play well today,” Wu said.

Wu’s father and mother wiped away tears of joy before joining him for the trophy presentation.

“My parents are the true champions. Since I made the decision to drop out of school, my dad has been by my side,” Wu said.

“My mum has also been going through a lot over the years, they are the source of my strength, I love them so much.”

Asked how he will celebrate, Wu said: “I just want to have a good sleep. I have been feeling nerves all the time since before the match, so now I just want to go to bed!”

Murphy, who has lost four World Championship finals since winning in 2005, added: “I hate being right, but we had a great game in China earlier this season. I came out afterwards and said he would be world champion one day.

“It’s just a real shame that it was today, but I couldn’t have given it any more. I played the best shots I could. I just didn’t get my chance.”

Wu’s title march

Wu led 10-7 after Sunday’s play and was 13-12 up following the first session on Monday.

But England’s Murphy pushed Wu all the way to the finish line, levelling at 16-16 with a gritty century break.

Wu recovered from 45-0 down to record a brilliant 91 clearance to go 17-16 ahead.

He moved 43-0 up with the title in his sights, but a missed black gave Murphy the chance to draw level again with a 75 break.

The balance of power in the final frame tipped Wu’s way when Murphy left a difficult red that the Chinese player stroked into the middle pocket, kick-starting a break of 85 that took him to the title.

It was the first World Championship final to go to the deciding frame since Peter Ebdon beat Hendry 18-17 in 2002.

From Lanzhou in the north-west of China, Wu turned professional aged 17 and made a transformative move to England three years ago to join the growing stable of Chinese players based in Sheffield.

Initially living in a windowless flat and sleeping on the same bed as his father, Wu’s switch eventually paid dividends.

Runners-up finishes at the English Open and Scottish Open in 2024 laid the foundations for the emerging star’s march to the world title.

He beat John Higgins in the International Championship last year to clinch his first ranking title.

The youngest player in the world’s top 16, his run at this year’s World Championship included eye-catching wins against Mark Selby and Mark Allen.

Ronnie O’Sullivan once labelled Wu a “more dynamic” version of the legendary Steve Davis.

Like O’Sullivan and Davis, Wu can now call himself a world champion.

By Joy Chiang

Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te said Tuesday the democratic island has the “right to engage with the world”, after he returned from a trip to Africa that Taipei has accused Beijing of trying to derail.

Taiwan said China applied “intense pressure” to Seychelles, Mauritius and Madagascar to revoke overflight permits for Lai’s original trip to Eswatini — Taipei’s only ally in Africa — which had been scheduled for April 22-26.

China claims Taiwan is part of its territory and opposes the self-governed island’s participation in international organisations and exchanges with other countries.

“Taiwanese people are people of the world; Taiwanese people have the right to engage with the world,” Lai told reporters at Taipei’s international airport after his flight home on the Eswatini king’s plane.

Lai flew on the king’s aircraft to Eswatini on Saturday.

“We will not shrink back because of suppression,” Lai said, flanked by Eswatini Deputy Prime Minister Thulisile Dladla, who had flown to Taiwan with him and his delegation.

“Mutual visits between heads of state should be the most ordinary thing, just like when we go out to visit friends, and are a basic right of every country.”

The United States slammed China’s “intimidation campaign” after Lai’s trip was delayed. The remarks were rejected by China’s foreign minister as “baseless accusations”.

On Saturday, China’s foreign ministry accused Lai of making a “stowaway-style escape farce” that made him “an international laughing stock”.

‘Sanctions’

Eswatini, a small enclave kingdom formerly known as Swaziland, is one of 12 countries that still recognise Taiwan. China has persuaded other nations to break diplomatic ties with the self-ruled island.

Lai had planned to visit Eswatini from April 22 to 26 for the 40th anniversary of King Mswati III’s accession and his 58th birthday.

Taiwan’s Foreign Minister Lin Chia-lung went instead after Lai’s trip was postponed.

A Taiwanese security official, who requested anonymity in order to speak to the media, said previously that China had threatened “to revoke substantial debt relief granted to (Seychelles, Mauritius and Madagascar), halt financing and impose further economic sanctions”.

On May 1, China extended a zero-tariff policy to all African countries except Eswatini under a policy announced last year.

Lai’s last official overseas trip was in November 2024, when he visited Taiwan’s Pacific allies and transited through the US territory of Guam.

Trump’s administration reportedly denied Lai permission to transit through New York last year as part of an official trip to Latin America. Taiwan’s foreign ministry denied that he was blocked.

Though Hong Kong has overtaken Switzerland as the number one in cross-border wealth management, rather than enter panic mode, Swiss banks seem unruffled — feeling it bolsters the case against looming tighter banking regulations.

Hong Kong is now the world’s largest cross-border booking centre thanks to inflows from mainland China, strong initial public offering activity, and equity market gains, said a study published last week by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG).

Hong Kong had US$2.95 trillion of cross-border assets under management in 2025, while Switzerland had US$2.946 trillion.

Rapid advances in technology innovation and artificial intelligence sectors are “expected to open up greater scope for development within Hong Kong’s asset and wealth management industry”, said the semi-autonomous Chinese city’s Financial Secretary Paul Chan.

More than 60 percent of the external capital comes from mainland China, the BCG 2026 Global Wealth Report said, adding that Hong Kong was “cementing its role as China’s gateway to global markets”.

“Uncertainties around US-China tensions are the main reason they are moving capital and managing wealth in Hong Kong,” Gary Ng, senior economist at Natixis Corporate and Investment Banking, told AFP.

However, China’s market regulator announced a sweeping investigation in May against some brokers running cross-border trading, as it launched a two-year crackdown on investment leaving the mainland.

On Monday, China’s cabinet unveiled new rules due to enter force in July, aimed at curbing outbound investment and deals with foreign entities which might transfer restricted technology, services and data overseas without authorisation.

“Investors engaging in foreign investment and related activities… shall not endanger China’s national security or harm national interests,” authorities said.

Ng noted that if Beijing “truly wants to accelerate” the internationalisation of China’s yuan currency, “it will need to accept freer cross-border capital movement”.

Tougher Swiss regulations planned

The Swiss Bankers Association told AFP that Hong Kong had been directly benefiting from exceptionally strong asset growth in China.

But it said Swiss banks too had a successful presence in key Asian growth markets.

“For Switzerland, competitive framework conditions are particularly crucial for the future. It is essential that regulation remains targeted and internationally coordinated so that both stability and competitiveness are strengthened,” it said.

Switzerland’s biggest bank UBS is currently at loggerheads with the government, which wants to tighten banking regulations following the implosion of Credit Suisse in 2023.

UBS was strongarmed into a quickfire takeover of its closest domestic rival to prevent a major blow to Switzerland’s financial stability.

Bern now wants stronger safeguards, given the merged megabank’s size relative to the Swiss economy.

Hong Kong overtaking Switzerland “shows that international competitiveness must remain at the heart of the discussions,” the Association of Swiss Private Banks, which represents wealth management firms, told AFP.

During debates on the government’s proposals, “parliament will have to keep this in mind”, it added.

‘Playing half the game’

Andreas Venditti, an analyst with Swiss investment managers Vontobel, said Hong Kong’s rise to the top had been coming because growth rates were stronger in Asia.

“As Swiss banks are among the largest wealth managers in Asia — with UBS the largest in the region by very far — they clearly benefit from the higher growth rates,” he told AFP.

UBS’s assets under management in the Asia-Pacific region amounted to US$781 billion at the end of March, he noted.

Cross-border wealth grew by 10.7 percent in Hong Kong in 2025, compared to 7.6 percent in Switzerland, said BCG.

Dean Frankle, a managing director and financial institutions specialist at BCG, said Hong Kong overtaking Switzerland is primarily down to “the rise of Asia”.

For wealthy Asian clients, “why would you go to Europe” when Hong Kong is “at your doorstep”, he said, hence the importance for Swiss banks to be competitive in the Asian market.

“If you’re not serving both markets, you’re only playing half the game,” he told AFP.

The Philippines defence minister was defiant on Friday after Beijing sanctioned him for what it termed “irresponsible remarks” as the two nations grapple over the disputed South China Sea.

Gilberto Teodoro as well as his spouse and child will be banned from entering China’s mainland, Hong Kong and Macau, an unnamed foreign ministry spokesperson said in an online statement on Thursday.

It added that “organisations and individuals in China” will not be allowed to “engage in any transaction, cooperation or other activities with him and his spouse and child”.

The two countries have in recent years regularly dealt with flare-ups in tensions over the disputed South China Sea.

Beijing claims the strategic waterway nearly in its entirety, despite an international ruling that said its assertions are baseless.

In a statement early Friday, Teodoro said he had been sanctioned for “speaking truth”.

“Their own countrymen and the others under their control suffer far worse,” he said. “I will just keep doing my duty and uphold our nation in the face of the wickedness they are committing here and even in our seas.”

Manila reacted to the sanctions late Thursday by saying that “the Philippines views it as an unfriendly act that further complicates the bilateral relations”.

China regularly deploys navy and coast guard vessels to bar the Philippines from important reefs and islands in the area.

The Chinese statement said Teodoro’s rhetoric “undermines China’s legitimate interests and sabotages China-Philippines relations”, without specifying to which remarks it referred.

At a summit in Singapore last month, Teodoro criticised Beijing’s activities in the disputed waters, saying Manila “will not sacrifice our territorial integrity and sovereignty”.

Asked last week about Teodoro’s remarks at the summit, Beijing’s foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said that he “is known to vilify China”.

“All he cares is selfish personal gains to the point that he would perform political theatrics even when people’s well-being is at stake,” Mao said.

President Donald Trump will visit China from May 13 to 15, Beijing confirmed on Monday, with the US leader expected to discuss Iran and trade with his Chinese counterpart.

Washington and Beijing have been at loggerheads over key issues ranging from trade tariffs to the Middle East war and Taiwan, which China claims as part of its territory.

Trump was originally meant to visit in late March or early April, but postponed his trip to focus on the Iran war.

“At the invitation of President Xi Jinping, President of the United States of America Donald J. Trump will pay a state visit to China from May 13 to 15,” a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said.

Trump is expected to push Xi on Iran while aiming to ease trade tensions, according to US officials.

China is a key customer for Iranian oil, mainly through independent “teapot” refineries that rely on discounted crude from the Islamic republic.

“This will be a visit of tremendous symbolic significance,” US Principal Deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly told reporters on a call.

“But of course, President Trump never travels for symbolism alone. The American people can expect the president to deliver more good deals on behalf of our country.”

Trump’s first trip to China in his second term will feature pomp and ceremony including a tour of the Temple of Heaven in Beijing and a lavish state banquet, the White House said.

This is the first visit by a US president to China since 2017.

A Chinese military court handed suspended death sentences on Thursday to two former defence ministers for corruption, state media said.

They are the harshest sentences that Beijing has slapped on high-ranking military officials as part of President Xi Jinping’s sweeping anti-corruption campaign.

Wei Fenghe and Li Shangfu’s sentences will be “commuted to life imprisonment” after a two-year reprieve, the Xinhua state news agency reported.

See also: Chinese Defence Minister Dong Jun under investigation for corruption – report

The ex-ministers, who served between 2018 and 2023, were also former members of China’s powerful Central Military Commission, which oversees the military, and frequently appeared on television.

Wei was convicted of accepting bribes and Li was convicted of accepting and offering bribes, Xinhua said.

The pair were also stripped of their political rights for life as well as their personal property.

A US jury convicted a man on Wednesday for his role in running a clandestine Chinese “police station” in New York as part of a campaign to monitor US-based dissidents.

“Harry” Lu Jianwang, 64, faces up to 30 years in prison for acting as an illegal agent of the Chinese government in setting up and running the “overseas police station” in Manhattan’s Chinatown, the Justice Department said in a statement.

Lu and another man, Chen Jinping, were arrested in April 2023 and accused of operating the secret police station, which operated from an office building, on behalf of China’s Ministry of Public Security.

Canada and several European governments have cracked down on similar “police stations,” whose existence was first revealed by Spain-based rights group Safeguard Defenders.

They often operate with little or no indication they are there, though US officials said the Manhattan office had been visited by officials from the Chinese consulate in New York.

According to Safeguard Defenders, the stations have been involved in pressuring nationals to return home to face criminal charges.

“Lu Jianwang used a police station in New York City to target PRC (People’s Republic of China) dissidents in furtherance of the Chinese government’s political agenda,” said FBI Assistant Director in Charge James C. Barnacle Jr.

FBI agents first searched the outpost in October 2022 and found a blue banner reading “Fuzhou Police Overseas Service Station, New York, USA,” referring to a city in southeastern China.

“The New York police station was part of a global initiative by the MPS (Ministry of Public Security) to establish overseas police service stations all over the world,” the Justice Department said.

“Lu was tasked by his MPS handler with collecting information on behalf of the Chinese government, such as locating a pro-democracy advocate who had fled from China and moved to the US,” it added.

Beijing said in December last year that there was no “so-called police station.”

“China is a country governed by the rule of law and has always strictly abided by international law and respected all countries’ judicial sovereignty,” said foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian when asked about the case at a regular news conference.

Lu’s co-defendant Chen Jinping is awaiting sentencing.

Taiwan’s main opposition leader said Monday she hopes to “gain deeper trust” from the United States, before departing for the country where she is expected to be grilled over her party’s stance on China and defence spending.

Kuomintang chairwoman Cheng Li-wun’s trip comes two months after her “peace” visit to Beijing, where she met Chinese President Xi Jinping — the first such meeting in a decade — and weeks after US President Donald Trump’s summit with Xi in the Chinese capital.

It also comes after the KMT recently thwarted the Taiwanese government’s plan to spend nearly US$40 billion on critical weapons, including US arms and domestically produced drones.

Speaking to reporters before departing for the United States — Taiwan’s most important security backer — Cheng said she hopes her party can play a key role in regional peace efforts and “gain deeper trust from the US”.

“Only the KMT is truly serious and responsible in taking on the most important role of maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait,” Cheng told a press conference.

Cheng has rocked Taiwanese politics since her unexpected rise to the top of the party last year and drawn criticism for being too pro-China.

The KMT has long advocated closer relations with China, which claims Taiwan is part of its territory and has threatened to use force to seize it.

But Cheng’s cross-strait rhetoric has gone beyond the comfort zone of many people in her own party and caused unease among foreign partners, including Washington.

‘Sharper questions’

Over the next two weeks, Cheng will visit San Francisco, Boston, New York, Washington and Los Angeles. She plans to meet with US lawmakers, government officials, think tanks and supporters, according to her itinerary.

Analysts told AFP that US government officials and lawmakers are likely to interrogate Cheng on the KMT’s position on China and its decision to slash the government’s special defence budget.

While Taiwan has its own defence industry, it remains heavily reliant on the United States for weapons to deter a potential attack by China.

But there are concerns in Taipei over Washington’s commitment after Trump recently suggested arms sales to the island could be a bargaining chip with China.

Compared with her trip to China, Cheng can expect “far less pomp and far sharper questions” in the United States, said Ryan Hass, an expert on China and Taiwan at the Washington-based Brookings Institution.

“Her challenge will be to persuade Washington that the KMT’s engagement with China can coexist with strong deterrence,” Hass wrote in a recent opinion piece in the Taipei Times newspaper.

Jason Hsu, senior fellow at the Hudson Institute think tank and former KMT lawmaker, said Cheng will face “a lot of serious questioning from the administration and Congress for KMT’s leaning toward Beijing”.

The KMT and Taiwan People’s Party, which together control parliament, recently passed a US$25 billion defence spending bill limited to US weapons.

It excluded the procurement of drones made in Taiwan, which the government has said is critical for developing domestic production capacity to sustain its forces during a war.