What Taiwan ex-president Ma Ying-jeou’s historic trip to China is all about

BEIJING – Taiwan’s former president Ma Ying-jeou will make history when he sets foot in China this week – a trip that is as much about the past as it is about the future of the self-ruled democratic island that Beijing claims as its own.

Mr Ma will

fly to Shanghai on March 27 for a 12-day visit

amid simmering tensions, but he will not travel to Beijing, ostensibly to prevent pro-independence nationalists from politicising his trip.