Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) yesterday said that President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) in Singapore is unlikely to yield any surprising results and that he is more concerned about Ma’s future political dealings across the Taiwan Strait as a former president.
Ko made the remarks at the sidelines of a forum on youth entrepreneurship.
He said that with the announcement about the meeting coming so suddenly, the meeting’s outcome probably would not be too surprising.
Asked whether he thinks Ma would ask Xi to withdraw the missiles targeting Taiwan, Ko said: “They would definitely not talk about that this time.”
“My guess is that they will probably dine and take photographs. That is it,” he said.
“What matters is the next time [Ma meets a Chinese president]. What Ma hopes to achieve on both sides of the [Taiwan] Strait with his status as a former president will be very crucial,” Ko said.
Although it is still premature to say what the outcome of the meeting will be, his experience with Chinese officials during his visit to Shanghai in August suggests that “everything will go strictly by the schedule,” Ko said.
Asked if he would meet with a Chinese president if he were to become president, Ko said: “If it brings benefits, I would. If not, I would not.”
Ko said that Ma was getting ahead of himself, referring to a remark the president made during a news conference yesterday about “normalizing” visits by leaders of the two sides of the strait.
“With the outcome of the meeting stil unknown, it is unnecessary to talk of normalizing. Just act naturally,” Ko said.
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