President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and president-elect Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) are to hold a closed-door meeting at the Taipei Guest House tomorrow to exchange views on national issues, the Presidential Office said yesterday.
“President Ma and president-elect Tsai are scheduled to meet at the Taipei Guest House at 10am on Wednesday. They are to broadly exchange opinions on national matters at the meeting, which is expected to last for an hour,” Presidential Office spokesman Charles Chen (陳以信) said.
Chen said the time and location of the Ma-Tsai meeting were decided after Presidential Office Secretary-General Tseng Yung-chuan (曾永權) and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Secretary-General Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) met to discuss the details in Taipei earlier yesterday.
The Taipei Guest House, constructed in 1901 during the Japanese colonial period, is mostly used by the government to receive state guests or hold celebrations.
Chen said Tseng and Wu also reached several other agreements during the meeting, including that Ma and Tsai would each give a short, three-to-five-minute opening remarks before meeting behind closed doors.
“Following the closed-door meeting, Tseng and Wu are to hold separate news conferences at the Taipei Guest House and DPP headquarters respectively,” Chen said.
Both sides will be accompanied by three staff members. On Ma’s side are Tseng, Chen and Presidential Office Deputy Secretary-General Hsiao Hsu-tsen (蕭旭岑). The president-elect will be accompanied by Wu, DPP Deputy Secretary-General Jason Liu (劉建忻) and DPP Department of News and Information director Alex Huang (黃重諺).
Tsai’s office also issued a statement announcing the details of the meeting.
According to sources familiar with the matter, the Presidential Office initially proposed that the Ma-Tsai meeting be conducted openly, but the DPP hoped only part of meeting where both sides deliver their welcome remarks be open to the public.
As for the venue, the Taipei Guest House and the Presidential Office building were both considered, but Ma’s and Tsai’s aides decided to go for the former.
The date for the Ma-Tsai meeting was set on Wednesday last week.
Additional reporting by CNA
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