Former Taiwan President Ma is willing to meet with leaders on China’s historic trip

TAIPEI (Reuters) – Former Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou is “at the disposal of his host” when it comes to meeting top leaders during a trip to China this month, but there are no plans for him to visit Beijing, one of the top officials. An official from Ma’s office said on Monday.

Ma will be the first former or current Taiwanese president to visit China since the defeated Republic of China government fled to Taiwan in 1949 at the end of a civil war with the Communists, where it remains to this day.

The visit comes at a time of heightened tensions between Beijing and Taipei as China maintains military and political pressure to try to persuade democratic Taiwan to accept Chinese sovereignty.

Ma met Chinese President Xi Jinping in Singapore in late 2015 shortly before Taiwan’s incumbent president, Tsai Ing-wen, won the election.

Ma Ying-jeou Hsiao Hsu-tsien, director of the Ma Foundation, told reporters that the trip from March 27 to April 7 was mostly about exchanging students and paying respects to Ma’s ancestral tombs in China.

“The trip is to central China, and we haven’t arranged to go to Beijing,” Hsiao said.

He did not rule out meetings with senior officials when asked if he might hold another meeting with Xi, though he said they did not expect it.

“As guests, we are at the disposal of our hosts,” Hsiao said.

Taiwan’s presidential office said it had been informed of and “respected” Ma’s plans, noting that the visit coincided with a “sensitive moment” of global focus on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Chinese military activities around Taiwan.

The presidential office said it hoped to show “Taiwan’s values ​​of democracy and freedom” during his visit.

Ma will speak to the students and visit sites related to World War II, China’s conflict with Japan, as well as those related to the 1911 revolution that toppled the last Chinese emperor and led to the Republic of China.

Given that the governments of Taiwan and China do not recognize each other, Hsiao said, Ma would simply be referred to as “Mr. Ma Ying-jeou” while in China.

Ma is a senior member of Taiwan’s main opposition party, the Kuomintang (KMT), which favors close ties with China though he vehemently denies being pro-Beijing.

The KMT says engagement with China is needed now more than ever given the tension across the Taiwan Strait.

“He believes that the two sides have entered into an ice-packing situation in recent years. If young people can communicate and have dialogue, it will definitely reduce the current tensions,” Hsiao said of Ma’s thoughts on the visit.

China rejected Tsai’s repeated calls for talks, believing them to be separatist. She says that only the people of Taiwan can decide their own future.

(Reporting by Ben Blanchard). Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan, Robert Bircell

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