Ma Ying-jeou to Visit China This Month... First Among Former and Current Taiwanese Presidents

Ma Ying-jeou, former President of Taiwan

Former Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou is reported by major foreign media on the 19th to be visiting China later this month. He is the first among former and current Taiwanese presidents to visit China.

According to major foreign media, Ma's office announced that he plans to visit Nanjing, Wuhan, Changsha, Chongqing, and Shanghai in China from the 27th of this month to the 7th of next month. If he visits China, he will be the first former or current Taiwanese president to do so since Chiang Kai-shek, who retreated to Taiwan after losing the Chinese Civil War in 1949.

During this visit to China, he is also scheduled to visit sites related to World War II and the Second Sino-Japanese War.

However, Ma's office has not specifically disclosed whether he will meet with Chinese officials or leaders, including Chinese President Xi Jinping, during this visit.

The Kuomintang (KMT), to which Ma belongs, is pro-China and has maintained closer ties with China compared to the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). During Ma's eight years in office, relations between China and Taiwan maintained a reconciliation mood. In November 2015, near the end of his term, he held the first cross-strait summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Singapore.

However, cross-strait relations began to deteriorate after the pro-independence DPP's Tsai Ing-wen took office in January 2016.

In this context, Taiwan is preparing for the presidential and Legislative Yuan (parliamentary) elections scheduled for January next year. In this Legislative Yuan election, with President Tsai, who has been in power for eight years, barred from running due to term limits, cross-strait relations are expected to be a major election issue.

Last month, KMT Vice Chairman Shawn Shieh visited China and met with Wang Huning, the 4th-ranked member of China's power hierarchy and a member of the Politburo Standing Committee.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.