China’s Xi meets ex-Taiwan leader Ma Ying-jeou in Beijing

CHINESE leader Xi Jinping met former Taiwan president Ma Ying-jeou in Beijing for a landmark sitdown spotlighting the Communist Party’s willingness to talk to the island’s opposition.

The two men shook hands and made brief remarks while seated at a large table in a conference room. Ma was president of the self-ruled democracy from 2008 to 2016, and becomes the first former Taiwan leader to visit the Chinese capital.

While the event is unlikely to lead to any fundamental changes in cross-strait ties, its significance is largely symbolic. It comes as the leaders of the US, Japan and the Philippines gather in Washington to discuss their concern over China’s growing assertiveness.

Holding a Xi-Ma meeting around the same time as the summit might be an effort to contrast Beijing’s “supposedly peaceful handling of cross-strait ties with the defence-oriented components of the trilateral”, said Chong Ja Ian, an associate professor of political science at the National University of Singapore.

Xi may also be trying “to show that people from Taiwan, especially political figures, will be well treated and respected if they are pliant to his wishes”, Prof Chong said.

Xi has pledged to bring Taiwan under China’s control someday, by force if necessary. Beijing frequently flexes its muscles on the issue, most notably by holding unprecedented military exercises around the island after then House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taipei in 2022.

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Chinese officials have also condemned Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party and its incoming president, Lai Ching-te, as “separatists” who risk starting a war. Taiwan has warned China is likely to step up its pressure on Lai, including militarily, before and after he is inaugurated in May.

In contrast, China prefers dealing with the Kuomintang. Cross-strait ties flourished during Ma’s time as president, and he met with Xi in Singapore in 2015, the first summit between the two sides since they fought a civil war early in the 20th century. 

During a visit by Ma to China last year, officials tried to highlight their nation’s cultural links with the island. They have also done that on his current trip. Song Tao, the head of Beijing’s Taiwan Affairs Office, said in a meeting with Ma in the southern city of Shenzhen last week that “compatriots on both sides of the Taiwan Strait are all Chinese”.

Chinese state media has also reported on Ma’s visit to the Great Wall near Beijing, where he sang a song dating to the nation’s war with Japan. It also covered his visit to archives in the northwestern city of Xi’an that is home to texts China says prove it holds sovereignty over disputed islands in the South China Sea. BLOOMBERG