The Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) has dispatched its first formal delegation to mainland China since its founding in 2019, aiming to maintain peace across the Taiwan Strait through dialogue amid heightened tensions with Beijing.

The nine-member delegation, led by Lee Wei-hwa, chairman of the TPP Central Review Committee, departed for Shanghai on Tuesday, July 14, 2026, for a four-day visit. The trip focuses on youth exchanges, urban governance, artificial intelligence (AI), technological innovation, and entrepreneurship.

“The trip aims to build goodwill and mutual trust through pragmatic engagement, reduce misunderstandings across the Taiwan Strait and explore a more stable and sustainable model for exchanges,” the TPP said.

Lee described the visit as a milestone for the party founded by former Taipei mayor Ko Wen-je. He emphasized the delegation’s guiding principle to “build goodwill through exchanges and replace confrontation with dialogue,” while upholding the party’s long-standing position supporting “Taiwan’s autonomy and cross-Strait peace.”

Acknowledging the complex historical, political, and security disputes between Taiwan and mainland China, Lee noted these challenges make it even more critical to find pragmatic paths to reduce conflict risks.

Huang, a TPP representative, affirmed that the party’s core cross-Strait strategy remains anchored in Ko’s platform of “Taiwan’s autonomy and cross-Strait peace” and the party’s “five mutuals” of mutual recognition, understanding, respect, cooperation, and accommodation.

The delegation includes three party cadres and five youth wing members, marking the first formal visit organized by the TPP to mainland China since its establishment.

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