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TAOYUAN, Taiwan — Former Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou departed for a tour of China on Monday, in what he known as an try to scale back tensions a day after Taiwan misplaced one in all its few remaining diplomatic companions to China.
The ex-president is visiting in a personal capability, bringing a delegation of lecturers and faculty college students for exchanges, in addition to members of his household, however the journey is loaded with political which means.
Ma’s insurance policies introduced Taiwan and Beijing to their closest relationship ever, however his exit from workplace was overshadowed by large protests towards a commerce cope with the mainland and his successor has targeted on bolstering ties with the U.S. and defending the autonomy of the democratically ruled island that China claims as a part of its personal territory.
Present President Tsai Ing-wen is predicted to launch a 10-day diplomatic tour of her personal Wednesday, ostensibly to go to the island’s remaining allies in Latin America. She’s going to cease within the U.S., Taiwan’s largest unofficial associate and provider of arms.
Ma’s go to comes amid rising tensions. Beijing has stepped up strain towards Taiwan in recent times, poaching its diplomatic allies whereas additionally sending army fighter jets flying in the direction of the island on a close to day by day foundation. On Sunday, Honduras established diplomatic relations with China, leaving Taiwan with solely 13 nations that acknowledge it as a sovereign state.
Ma, a member of the opposition Nationalist Occasion (Kuomingtang), will land in Shanghai earlier than beginning his go to in close by Nanjing. He’s anticipated to tour the mainland from March 27 to April 7, stopping in Wuhan and Changsha, in addition to different cities. He’s bringing faculty college students from Taiwan to satisfy with fellow college students from Shanghai’s Fudan College and Changsha’s Hunan College.
Ma has framed the go to as a bid to decrease the tensions in cross-strait relations by way of individuals to individuals trade. “I hope by way of the passion of the youth and their interactions to enhance the cross-strait temper, so carry peace quicker, and earlier,” he mentioned to reporters forward of his departure on Monday afternoon. He additionally mentioned it might be his first time visiting China.
His journey has not drawn a lot controversy in Taiwan, the place the general public is used to seeing Kuomingtang politicians go to China. Nevertheless, it has been criticized by some political opponents and activists.
A former mainland scholar chief within the 1989 Tiananmen sq. protests known as on Ma to cancel his journey. “When you have even a strand of affection for Taiwan … it is best to announce the cancellation of your journey,” mentioned Wang Dan, a Chinese language dissident who beforehand lived in Taiwan, on his Fb web page.
A handful of protesters from a pro-independence group held an illustration on the departures space at Taoyuan airport earlier than Ma’s departure. “Ma Ying-jeou is humiliating our nation and forfeiting its sovereignty,” they shouted earlier than police carried them out. “You’re a smelly beggar.”
On the opposite facet, a small group of individuals from the pro-unification camp additionally got here to the airport to indicate their help. “Cross-strait relations are like flowers blossoming in spring and each side are a household,” they shouted.
The journey can be an opportunity for him to honor his ancestors, forward of Tomb Sweeping Day on April 5. In the course of the competition, which is well known in Taiwan and China amongst different nations, households go to ancestral graves to keep up the burial grounds and keep in mind the lifeless.
Ma is not going to go to Beijing, however might meet with Chinese language officers.
Ma met with Chinese language President Xi Jinping in Singapore in 2015, whereas he was nonetheless in workplace. The assembly was the primary between the leaders of the 2 sides since Taiwan break up from mainland China in 1949 in the course of the Chinese language civil battle, however was thought of extra symbolic than substantive.
In 2016, the independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Occasion gained nationwide elections and Beijing reduce off contact with Taiwan’s authorities, citing Tsai’s refusal to endorse the concept that Taiwan and China are one nation.
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Wu reported from Taipei.
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