Former Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou will visit China next week. In an effort to defuse hostilities between the self-governing island and the mainland, according to a spokesman.
Ma presided over a time of cordial relations with Beijing, but he was forced from office after a trade agreement with the mainland. Which was rejected amid the largest anti-government demonstrations on the island since the 1990s.
Despite the former president’s private visit, the journey has political overtones due to his status as a former leader.
Ma’s planned trip occurs at a time when Taiwan is regularly targeted by fighter jets from China’s People Liberation Army and when official communication between the two administrations has ceased. The governing Democratic Progressive Party of Taiwan disputes China’s assertion that Taiwan is a portion of Chinese territory. And asserts that Taiwan is already a sovereign state separate from China.
Ma, a member of the opposition Nationalist Party (Kuomingtang)Taiwan, will lead a delegation of academics and students as well as his former presidential staffers from March 27 to April 7, his office said Sunday.
The office of President Tsai Ing-wen said Ma had notified her of his plans on Monday.
Ma will visit Nanjing, Wuhan and Changsha, as well as other cities, Hsiao Hsu-tsen, the director of the Ma Ying-jeou Foundation on Monday, told a news conference in Taipei.
Ma’s trip was also confirmed by China’s Taiwan Affairs Office.
Any results are likely to be symbolic, and will mostly benefit China, said Hoo Tiang Boon, a professor at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore who studies Chinese foreign policy. “Then they can then show they are not against Taiwan, they are not against the Taiwanese people,” he said. “It’s the DPP and what they deem as separatists causing provocations in cross-strait relations.”
Hoo added that he didn’t think it was likely the trip would influence Taiwan’s presidential elections next year.
