Former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday arrived in China with a student delegation on an 11-day trip, which he said would deliver a message of friendship and peace.
Unlike his visit to China last year, this time he plans to stop in Beijing, which has sparked speculation that he could meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). Reuters has reported that such a meeting is to take place on Monday next week.
Speaking to reporters before boarding his flight at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, Ma said that amid current cross-strait tensions, he would try to convey Taiwanese’s love of peace, and voice hope that the two sides can increase exchanges and avoid war.
Photo: Chiang Ying-ying, AP
“This is a trip of peace and a trip of friendship,” he said.
Having left the presidency eight years ago, and holding no government or political office, “I can only do my best as an individual to promote cross-strait student exchanges, and help reduce enmity and build goodwill between the two sides’ people,” Ma said.
Last week, the Ma Ying-jeou Foundation said that the former president would lead a group of 20 students on a trip to China until Thursday next week.
Photo: Zhao Yan, AFP
The visit is to include meetings with Chinese students, company tours, and trips to sites of historical or cultural significance, it said.
Ma met with China’s Taiwan Affairs Office Director Song Tao (宋濤) shortly after arriving in Shenzhen yesterday.
Song relayed a “kind regard to Mr Ma” on Xi’s behalf, while Ma in response said he could feel that between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait “blood is thicker than water.”
Photo courtesy of Ma’s office via CNA
Ma added that peace and stability are needed in cross-strait relations to ensure the well-being of the people on both sides.
The delegation is to spend three days in Guangdong Province, before traveling to Shaanxi Province tomorrow night and Beijing on Sunday, the foundation said.
Ma, who was president from 2008 to 2016, held a historic meeting with Xi in Singapore in 2015, the first gathering of leaders from the two sides of the Taiwan Strait since the Chinese Civil War in 1949.
Asked last week about the possibility of another such meeting, foundation director Hsiao Hsu-tsen (蕭旭岑) said that Ma hopes there will be an opportunity to “see an old friend,” but would leave the exact arrangements up to the Chinese side, as they are his hosts.
Commenting on Ma’s visit, Kuo Yu-jen (郭育仁), a professor at the Institute of China and Asia-Pacific Studies at National Sun Yat-sen University, said that to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), Ma is working right into its “united front” strategy targeting Taiwan.
The Taiwan Statebuilding Party also criticized Ma in a news conference in Taipei yesterday, saying that the former president no longer has the mandate of voters and is now a mouthpiece of the CCP.
Additional reporting by Chen Yu-fu
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