The Presidential Office yesterday confirmed that it has received an application from former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) to visit China next week and would be discussing his security detail.
“As the travel restrictions on former president Ma have expired, we respect his plan to pay respect to his ancestors in China,” Presidential Office spokeswoman Lin Yu-chan (林聿禪) said. “We will review his travel plan and consult concerned agencies to assist him in arranging his security detail.”
“We also hope that Ma, as a former commander in chief of Taiwan, acts in a manner that aligns with national interests and does not hurt the feelings of Taiwanese,” Lin said. “He should seek to convey the values of Taiwan’s liberal democracy and reiterate that cross-strait exchanges should proceed in an equal and dignified manner, especially after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and China’s continuous expansion of military operations in the Taiwan Strait and the Indo-Pacific region.”
Photo: Tu Chien-jung, Taipei Times
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said that high-ranking officials still carry certain responsibilities and obligations after leaving office.
Even after the removal of travel restrictions, Ma should still keep in mind local and international reaction to his words and actions when he visits China, and abide by cross-strait laws and regulations to safeguard the nation’s interests, the council said.
Ma’s trip to China would make him the first former Taiwanese president to visit China since 1949, when the Chinese Communist Party took over China after the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government lost the Civil War.
Based on the itinerary released yesterday by the Ma Ying-Jeou Foundation, the former president is to leave for China on Monday next week and return on April 7.
Aside from his sisters, Ma would be accompanied by about 30 Taiwanese students, former Presidential Office secretary-general Tseng Yung-chuan (曾永權), Ma Ying-jeou Foundation director Wang Kuang-tzu (王光慈), and National Chengchi University’s East Asian studies professor Chiu Kun-shuan (邱坤玄) and associate law professor Liao Yuan-hao (廖元豪).
In addition to honoring his ancestors in Hunan Province’s Changsha and Xiangtan cities on Saturday next week, Ma would visit the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum and the Nanjing Massacre Memorial Hall, the Wuchang Uprising Memorial Hall, the Chongqing War Museum and the Sihang Warehouse Battle Memorial, the itinerary shows.
He would also conduct informal discussions with students at Hunan University and Wuhan University, it says.
“The purpose of the former president’s first trip to China is to honor his ancestors and give Taiwanese students an opportunity to meet with their Chinese counterparts. All the places that he would visit are in central China. He is not planning to go to Beijing, nor does he plan to see key figures from Beijing,” Ma Ying-jeou Foundation executive director Hsiao Hsu-tsen (蕭旭岑) said.
Ma is turning 73 in July and is the only high-ranking government official who has yet to visit China, despite having been involved in cross-strait affairs for nearly 40 years, Hsiao said.
“China has lifted its travel restrictions, and we believe we can all identify with former president Ma’s intention of honoring his ancestors in China, as it is a tradition rooted in our culture,” he said.
Asked if the foundation scheduled Ma’s trip to divert public attention from President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) trip to the US, Hsiao said it was pure coincidence.
They were not informed of Tsai’s travel plans, and Ma had begun planning the trip before the Lunar New Year holiday, he said.
China would address the former president as “Mr Ma Ying-jeou,” following the precedent set in the meeting between Ma and Chinese President Xi Jing-ping (習近平) in 2015, he said.
Hsiao added that Ma believes cross-strait tensions could de-escalate if there is dialogue between Taiwanese and Chinese students.
“The more young people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait know each other, the less risk there is of war,” he said. “No amount of weapon can match the value of exchanges among young people.”
China’s Taiwan Affairs Office yesterday said it “welcomes” Ma’s visit and would provide any necessary assistance during his trip.
Additional reporting by CNA
LOYALTY: The 10 active and retired soldiers betrayed the nation and its people by leaking and passing on military secrets to China, the High Prosecutors’ Office said Ten former and current military officers were yesterday indicted on charges of spying for China, including two who allegedly filmed themselves pledging loyalty to Beijing. The High Prosecutors’ Office requested life imprisonment for the suspects in light of the severity of the crime. The 10 active-duty and retired officers included members of the 601st Brigade of the Aviation Special Forces comprising attack helicopter squadrons and elite combat units in charge of defending northern Taiwan, including Taipei. The other suspects came from Huadong Defense Command, in charge of defending the eastern coast; Kinmen Defense Command, in charge of defending Kinmen and Matsu; and one
NO FREE LUNCH: Taiwanese joining the trips to China met TAO and United Front Work officials who urged them to vote for candidates who support closer ties with Beijing The Ciaotou Prosecutors’ Office in Kaohsiung yesterday released two suspects on bail who have been accused of recruiting Taiwanese to join tours to China funded by Beijing and in which they were urged to vote for pan-blue candidates in January’s presidential and legislative elections. The pan-blue camp generally refers to the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), the People First Party, the New Party and the Young China Party, which support closer relations with China. Prosecutors said that a man, surnamed Cheng (鄭), and a woman, surnamed Yeh (葉), who are members of the China Pan-Blue Association, recruited Taiwanese tourists to join tours arranged
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus yesterday slammed a proposal by New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜), the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) presidential candidate, to permit a “significant number” of Chinese students to study and work in Taiwan, saying it would be detrimental to young Taiwanese. At an event on Monday hosted by nine major industrial and business groups, Hou said that if elected, he would reinitiate cross-strait dialogue on the premise that Taiwan’s dignity would not be compromised and that the talks would be held in good faith. The talks would include lifting a ban on Chinese tour groups and
PEACE AND STABILITY: ‘Taiwan can be of tremendous value’ in building resilient supply chains, President Tsai Ing-wen said, as she encouraged closer ties with foreign businesses A Chinese invasion of Taiwan is unlikely for the time being due to the internal challenges and international pressure that China is facing, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) told the New York Times in an interview shown on Wednesday. “My thought is that perhaps this is not a time for them [China] to consider a major invasion of Taiwan,” Tsai said in a prerecorded interview for the DealBook Summit held by the newspaper on Wednesday. Beijing’s leadership is presently “overwhelmed by its internal challenges” on economic, financial and political grounds, while the international community “has made it loud and clear that war is
RSS