Former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) on Tuesday invoked Sun Yat-sen (孫逸仙) in a call for cooperation between both sides of the Taiwan Strait during a visit to the Republic of China (ROC) founding father’s former home in Guangdong Province, China.
Ma, who is leading a delegation of Taiwanese students on a visit to China from Monday to Thursday next week, began the second day of his trip with a tour of electric vehicle maker BYD Auto’s offices in Shenzhen, accompanied by China’s Taiwan Affairs Office Director Song Tao (宋濤).
Photo: EPA-EFE / Ma Ying-jeou Culture and Education Foundation
Later in the day, Ma’s delegation visited the former residence of Sun — founder of the ROC and the first leader of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) — in the neighboring city of Zhongshan.
In remarks delivered after a tour of the home, Ma said he had long idolized Sun, who lived at a time when China was weak and dejected, bullied and forced by foreign powers to sign agreements forfeiting its sovereignty.
At that time, much of China was economically unequal, illiterate, lacking in the rule of law, socially backward and many people had no hope, he said.
The revolution that Sun led, by contrast, was one that promised Chinese freedom, democracy, economic equality and a unified China, he said.
Ma said he hoped people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait would heed Sun’s dying words, when he spoke of “peace, struggle [and] saving China.”
“I deeply hope that both sides of the Taiwan Strait can cooperate with each other, avoid war, and ... achieve peace and prosperity together,” Ma said.
This is also “the greatest hope of this generation of Chinese,” he said.
In Taiwan, media outlets were quick to note that Ma did not specifically mention the ROC during the remarks — as he did last year during a visit to Sun’s mausoleum in Nanjing — although he did alude to the founding of the ROC in 1911 by referencing events “113 years ago.”
Ma’s delegation yesterday was scheduled to spend one more day in Guangdong before traveling to Shaanxi Province and then Beijing on Sunday.
Multiple news outlets, including Reuters, have reported that Ma would meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on Monday next week.
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