Why is Xi meeting Ma?
Why has the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) changed its mind and agreed to a meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九)?
There have been several opportunities for such a meeting during past APEC summits, but China has consistently refused to set up such a meeting with Ma at an international venue. Despite that, they are now setting up a meeting between the two in Singapore, a third nation. This alone has given Ma a certain amount of face. Of course, there must be a deeper reason behind all this for the CCP to cede this point to Ma.
First, China is becoming increasingly lonely in the international arena. Although Xi is traveling the world and leaving a trail of money behind him, the beneficiaries are not taken in and they still do as they please.
Consider the issue surrounding the South China Sea. As the US, Japan, Australia, India, Vietnam and the Philippines are all keeping an eye on China, the CCP would be pushing Taiwan toward Beijing’s enemies if it applies a lot of pressure on Taipei. Could it really be that the CCP does not understand this?
Furthermore, the CCP has realized that there would be a political change in Taiwan next year. The fact that the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) — a party the CCP to some extent can still communicate with — is fading away is making China unhappy and it is therefore finally lending a helping hand to its “old buddy.” The only way they can think of doing this was to quickly set up this meeting in an attempt to improve the standing of the KMT and Ma and help the party maintain its legislative majority.
It can be said with certainty that no substantial breakthrough would come from this meeting.
If the CCP thinks Taiwanese would be taken in by the Ma-Xi meeting, they are wrong.
For one, Ma is a lame duck president and he is entangled in corruption allegations — he is no longer able to lead the nation out of its problems. In addition, the KMT is divided internally and people are falling over each other as they are rushing to abandon the party. Would anyone pin their hopes on such a party?
Some say that shaking hands with Ma brings bad luck, so one can only hope for Xi’s own good that he would follow the example of the British queen and wear gloves as he shakes hands with Ma.
If he does not, then our only hope is that when Hong Kong’s chief executive is traveling to Singapore to meet with Ma ahead of his meeting with Xi, they would shake hands for a long time and that they would embrace in a big hug so that he can absorb as much bad luck from Ma’s as possible to make sure that no harm comes to Xi.
Ke Chuan
Hong Kong
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