Ma Ying-jeou, Taiwan’s former president, will visit China this month in the first visit by a current or former leader since the defeated Nationalist
Ma Ying-jeou, Taiwan’s former president, will visit China this month in the first visit by a current or former leader since the defeated Nationalist Chinese government fled to the island at the end of the civil war in 1949.
The high profile visit has been presented by Ma and his party, the opposition Kuomintang (KMT), as a chance to boost friendly cross-strait exchanges at a time of extreme disconnection, which has been driven by Beijing’s plans to annex Taiwan and exacerbated by the pandemic. However it is also likely to fuel domestic political division between the KMT and ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) over relations with China.
Ma’s office said the trip was scheduled for 27 March to 7 April, with stops in Nanjing, Wuhan, Changsha, Chongqing and Shanghai. However, local media reported that Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council has not yet received a report about the planned trip, as required of former presidents.
The visit by Ma, who served as president of the Republic of China – Taiwan’s formal name – from 2008 to 2016, comes amid increasing efforts by Beijing to have Taiwan subsumed into the People’s Republic of China as a province. Through military and diplomatic pressure, Beijing hopes to achieve what it calls “reunification” peacefully, but has not ruled out using force. Taiwan’s people and government – both the ruling DPP and Ma’s former Kuomintang party, now in opposition – reject the prospect of Chinese rule.
Representatives for Ma, and the KMT party, have emphasised the trip’s purpose as one of ancestor worship – a traditional Chinese practise of paying respect to deceased ancestors – and strengthening non-government and student exchanges between Taiwan and China.
“Former president Ma believes that young people on both sides of the Strait understand each other,” said Hsiao Hsu-tsen, executive director of the Ma Ying-jeou Foundation. Hsiao said such exchanges were increasingly urgent given the hostilities between the two governments.
“The more contact between students, the more friendship between the two sides. The deeper the friendship, the lower the chance of conflicts.”
The KMT party is a proponent of friendlier ties with China, but opposes reunification and denies it is pro-Beijing. The DPP, currently led by Tsai Ing-wen in her second and final presidential term, have been labelled “separatists” by Beijing but they say Taiwan is already a sovereign nation with no need to declare independence.
Ma’s proposed visit will occur around the same time that Tsai is scheduled to visit the US and is expected to meet US speaker of the house Kevin McCarthy. That visit, confirmed earlier this month, is expected to aggrieve Beijing, which opposes any act which could lend legitimacy to Taiwan’s sovereignty. After the former US speaker, Nancy Pelosi, visited Taiwan last year, the People’s Liberation Army surrounded the main island with days of live fire military exercises.
Ma’s planned visit sparked headlines and debate in Taiwan, ahead of a presidential election early next year, and coming shortly after a controversial visit to Beijing by the KMT’s deputy chairman Andrew Hsia in February. Hsia was accused by members of the ruling DPP of “courting the Communists”.
The delegation will also visit sites related to the second world war, the 1911 revolution, and the Sino-Japan war, Ma’s representatives said. Hsiao would not rule out Ma meeting with senior Chinese officials.
“The trip is to central China, we have not arranged to go to Beijing,” Hsiao said. “As guests, we are at our hosts’ disposal.”
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