Former Taiwan president Ma leaves for China, likely to meet Xi

TAIPEI – Former Taiwan president Ma Ying-jeou left on April 1 for an 11-day trip to China, where he is expected next week to have his second meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, at a time of simmering tensions across the Taiwan Strait.

Mr Ma, who was president from 2008 to 2016, in 2023

became the first former Taiwanese leader to visit China.

Since the defeated Republic of China government fled to Taiwan in 1949 after losing a civil war to Mao Zedong’s communists, no serving Taiwanese leader has visited China.

China regards the self-governing Taiwan as its territory to be reunified, and has ramped up military and political pressure to assert those claims. Taiwan rejects China’s sovereignty claims.

On April 1, Mr Ma arrived in the southern Chinese technology hub of Shenzhen, where he met with China’s Taiwan Affairs Office head Song Tao, the official Xinhua news agency said.

Both sides of the Taiwan Strait should “strengthen exchanges and cooperation in various fields, especially among young people, to push forward the development of cross-Straits relations,” Xinhua cited Mr Ma as saying.

He also visited Shenzhen-based Chinese drone manufacturer DJI Technology Co and Tencent Holdings, the world’s largest video game company and operator of China’s WeChat messaging platform, according to Phoenix TV.

Mr Ma met Mr Xi in Singapore in late 2015

for a landmark summit shortly before the current Taiwan President, Ms Tsai Ing-wen, won the election.

Mr Ma and China’s government have not confirmed the meeting with Mr Xi, which has been widely reported in Taiwanese media. Three sources familiar with Mr Ma’s trip, speaking on condition of anonymity given the sensitivity of the issue, told Reuters it was expected to take place in Beijing on April 8.

“This is a trip of peace as well as of friendship,” Mr Ma said at the airport in Taiwan before flying to the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen in Guangdong province.

He said he hoped to convey a message that Taiwan’s people love peace and hope to avoid war.

China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO), which calls him “Mr Ma Ying-jeou” rather than “former president”, given that neither the Chinese nor Taiwanese government recognise each other, would only say last week when asked about a meeting with Mr Xi that it wished Mr Ma a smooth trip.

Mr Ma is a senior member of Taiwan’s main opposition party, the Kuomintang (KMT) – which in January lost for the third time in a row the presidential vote – but has no official party position. The KMT advocates close ties with China and dialogue, but strongly denies being pro-Beijing.

Ms Tsai and her ruling Democratic Progressive Party have repeatedly offered talks with China but have been rebuffed, as Beijing views them as dangerous separatists. REUTERS, XINHUA