Former Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou will visit China next week, in what a spokesman called a bid to ease tensions between the self-ruled island and the mainland
TAIPEI, Taiwan -- Former Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou will visit China next week, in what a spokesman called a bid to ease tensions between the self-ruled island and the mainland.
Ma presided over a period of warm ties with Beijing, but left office under a cloud after a trade deal with the mainland failed to win approval amid the island's largest protests since the 1990s.
Ma's proposed visit comes as China's People Liberation Army sends fighter jets towards Taiwan on a near daily basis, and as official communications between the two governments have broken off. China's ruling government claims Taiwan is part of its national territory, but Taiwan's current ruling government says it's already a sovereign state that is not part of China.
Ma, who’s a member of the opposition Nationalist Party (Kuomingtang), will lead a delegation of academics and students as well as his former presidential staffers from March 27 to April 7, his office said Sunday.
The office of President Tsai Ing-wen said Ma had notified the office of his plans Monday and that they “hoped Ma, in his role as the former head of state...can show the value of Taiwan’s democracy and freedom and the position of equality and dignity in cross-Straits exchanges.”
He will visit Nanjing, Wuhan and Changsha, as well as other cities, said Hsiao Hsu-tsen, the director of the Ma Ying-jeou Foundation on Monday, at a press conference in Taipei.
Hsiao also announced that he would bring college students from Taiwan to meet with students from Shanghai's Fudan University and Changsha's Hunan University.
“He strongly believes as both sides of the Straits have entered this frozen situation in recent years, allowing young people to have an exchange will help reduce tensions,” Hsiao said, referring to the former President. “I think no matter how many weapons we buy, it's not as good as having young people from both sides understand each other, and deepen their exchange.”
Ma will not go to Beijing, China's capital, Hsiao said.The visit was also confirmed by China’s Taiwan Affairs Office.During Ma’s terms in office, Taiwan and China increased contacts. Ma negotiated a trade pact with Beijing in 2010 and Chinese tourists flocked to Taiwan.
As both sides opened their borders to each other, concerns grew that Taiwan was falling inescapably into Beijing's orbit, eventually leading to a national protests over a proposed trade deal with Beijing in 2014. The protests, known as the Sunflower Movement, sparked a rally that drew more than 200,000 protesters and a 24-day occupation of Taiwan’s Parliament by students.