On Tuesday, the state-run Global Times stated that a Taiwan Relations Office spokeswoman promised to help Ma. Ma, who governed Taiwan from 2008 to 2016, will visit China from March 27 to April 7, becoming the first former Taiwan leader to visit China since the nationalist government relocated to Taipei after the civil war in 1949. Ma Ying-jeou Foundation head Hsiao Hsu-tsen told reporters that Ma’s trip was largely about student exchanges and seeing his ancestors in China. Hsiao stated the trip was to central China, not Beijing.
When asked if Ma may meet Chinese President Xi Jinping, he did not rule out talks with senior officials but said they did not expect it. “We’re guests,” Hsiao added. China’s Taiwan Relations Office observed that ancestor worship was a “shared heritage” and that student exchanges might “inject new vigour into peaceful cross-Straits development”. China has increased pressure on Taiwan, which it claims as its territory, leading to the visit. China views Tsai Ing-wen, who succeeded Ma and won a landslide in 2020, as a “separatist” who wants Taiwan’s independence. Tsai will go to the US about the same time as Ma heads to China and meet House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, breaching an unspoken norm that Taiwanese presidents do not visit American politicians in the US. KMT claims the finest Beijing-Taiwan connection. In February, its vice chairman, Andrew Hsia, visited China for the second time in six months and met top authorities. In August 2022, after former US Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan, he also visited.
The KMT hopes its promises of a less tense relationship with Beijing would appeal to people tired of political turmoil in Taiwan’s January 2020 presidential election. Tsai cannot run after two terms. Vice President William Lai declared last month he will run in the party primaries for president. As he declared his candidature, DPP chairman Lai underlined the party’s China policy. “We must be unified to build Taiwan, stay to the democratic camp and protect Taiwan’s security” in the face of rising Chinese “sabre rattling” and “unscrupulous diplomatic bullying,” he added.