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Ma Ying-jeou of the opposition KMT held a second meeting with Xi Jinping, his first as a private citizen, during an 11-day vacation in China.
Former Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou waves as he departs for China, at Taoyuan International Airport in Taoyuan City, northern Taiwan, April 1, 2024.
Chinese President Xi Jinping and former Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou met at p. m. on April 10 at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.
Earlier media reports reported that Ma and Xi would meet on April 8. There has been speculation that the original date of the assembly was replaced so that Ma and Xi would meet on the same day as a summit between U. S. President Joe Biden and the Japanese prime minister. . Kishida Fumio, who is in Washington, D. C. , on a state visit. Chinese government spokesmen have denied there are plans for Ma to meet Xi on April 8. Ma’s spokespeople also denied that the reports were classified disinformation.
Ma is said to be on an 11-day trip to China with a delegation of students. This follows a trip by Ma to China in March last year, which he also took up under the auspices of a student delegation. In 2023, Ma made him the first former head of state. of the Republic of China (ROC) to make a stopover in mainland China since the Chinese Civil War. During the 2023 series, he stopped at cultural sites similar to the history of the Republic of China and his family’s tomb in Hunan, and delivered a speech in Hunan.
It is widely believed that Ma’s first holiday, which took place before the January 2024 presidential election, was intended for the political narrative that the Kuomintang (KMT) is the only political party in Taiwan capable of maintaining cross-Strait relations with the Chinese Communist Party. Party. Paint the town. Some of Ma’s current vacation destinations may also have been political signals, as he has visited tech corporations sanctioned or investigated in the United States and the European Union.
Ma did not meet Xi during his vacation in 2023, which took place in a similar time frame on a layover in the United States through President Tsai Ing-wen. While Ma first said he would not meet with senior Chinese officials last time, he nevertheless met later last year with the director of Taiwan’s affairs office, Song Tao.
However, Ma had already met with Xi Jinping in November 2015, some time before he stepped down as president. The meeting between Xi and Ma was the first time that the heads of state of the Republic of China and the People’s Republic of China (PRC) had met since the Chinese Civil War and held in Singapore, as impartial ground.
This time, Ma met with Xi as a personal citizen and traveled to China to do so. The official Chinese government does not give Ma a title, nor does it mention any positions held through Ma.
For the most part, the discussion between Ma and Xi focused on a similar topic to past meetings. Both Ma and Xi emphasized the cultural ties between Taiwan and China, describing Taiwan as connected to 5,000 years of Chinese culture. In fact, Ma continually referred to the Taiwanese as “descendants of the Yellow Emperor” during his vacation in China, in several emotional moments that saw him break down in tears.
Ma stressed the importance of bringing Taiwanese scholars to enjoy a direct connection to Chinese culture through trips to China, while Xi expressed goodwill towards young Taiwanese. The KMT has struggled to raise awareness among young people in recent years, as Taiwanese identity continues to grow among young people and Chinese identity is in decline. By extension, China’s efforts to politically appeal to young Taiwanese have also been unsuccessful.
More importantly politically, Xi and Ma reiterated their opposition to Taiwan independence and their commitment to the 1992 Consensus. This underscores that the 1992 Consensus remains the CCP’s preferred forum for achieving cross-Strait relations, despite the backlash against the 1992 Consensus. in recent years it has led successive KMT leaders – including the party’s current chairman, Eric Chu – to recommend that they would like to abandon the concept or move away from it.
The KMT’s 2024 presidential candidate, Hou Yu-ih, was also reluctant to devote himself fully to the 1992 Consensus. However, Ma may see the 1992 Consensus as a component of his political legacy, hence his emphasis on it as the basis of Strait Relations.
Taiwanese media were prevented from covering the assembly. Only five Taiwanese media outlets were allowed to cover the assembly from Beijing, namely United Daily News, CtiTV, China Television, TVBS and ETToday. These are normally pan-blue mediums. Journalists were not allowed to bring their phones to the assembly, only some media outlets were allowed to take photos, and a CtiTV live broadcast was interrupted along the way by security, as was a live broadcast of Ma-Xi’s 2015 convention in Singapore.
Reporters only got confirmation that Ma would meet Xi on the day of the meeting. Specifically, journalists were asked to take two COVID-19 tests by noon and meet at the Great Hall of the People at 2:45 p. m. it is only necessary on occasions when Xi is present, this indicates that the more sensible Chinese leader would probably meet with Ma.
There have been differences between the pan-blue and pan-green camps over where Xi would meet Ma in the Great Hall of the People. Initial reports suggest that the assembly would be held in either the Taiwan Hall or the Fujian Hall of the Great Hall of the People. The people were presented through the panverde camp as suggesting that Xi did not care about the assembly. This dovetails with how pan-green critics of Ma’s 2023 China vacation have warned that Ma was snubbed by Xi and not given dignity. that a former head of state deserves to get during a vacation abroad.
When the convention was held in the East Hall of the Great Hall of the People, the all-blue media noted that vital occasions such as China’s accession to the World Trade Organization were being celebrated there.
Meanwhile, the holiday’s pan-green critics rarely scoffed at the five times of its stopover in which Ma broke down in public tears, or a gaffe of his comments with Xi in which Ma referred to the Republic of China. it is rarely avoided, adding its holidays in 2015, given the sensitivities of relations between the People’s Republic of China and the Republic of China.
Compared to the 2015 assembly, reactions to the 2024 Ma-Xi assembly have been much quieter in Taiwan. The 2015 assembly took place in a tense atmosphere after the 2014 Sunflower Movement, the student-led movement that affected the month. Taiwan’s legislature has made a long profession to protest an industrial deal that Ma’s leadership had hoped to sign with China. The deal would have allowed China to invest in Taiwan’s sector.
The protests preceded the 2015 Ma-Xi meeting, with several thousand more people gathered outside government buildings such as the legislature and the Ministry of Economic Affairs. Similarly, on the night Ma’s plane was scheduled to take off for Singapore, several dozen protesters, led by former Sunflower Movement student leader Chen Wei-ting, attempted to prevent the plane from taking off, storming into Songshan International Airport before being blocked by police.
Moreover, some analysts at the time believed that Ma would try to present his 2015 with Xi as having led to a new political consensus that replaced the 1992 consensus. After all, the talks that led to the 1992 Consensus were led by lower-ranking officials. , and it is not unthinkable that the Ma-Xi assembly was presented as having led to a new agreement.
That didn’t happen. Similarly, it was hypothesized last year that meetings between KMT Vice President Andrew Hsia, who has been sent to China on normal trips to meet with Chinese government officials since the then-U. S. government. to Taiwan in August 2022) would possibly have taken place. House Speaker and CCP ideologue leader Wang Huning may also devise a new political formula that would update the 1992 Consensus. Still, the KMT doesn’t seem to be moving away from the 1992 Consensus at this point.
Party chairman Eric Chu said Vice President Sean Lien will be sent to the Strait Forum in June on behalf of the KMT. This indicates that the KMT will continue its efforts to conduct relations with the CCP in a way that circumvents the current Progressive Democratic Party. (PPD). In doing so, the KMT would rely on its classic claim that it is the only party in Taiwan capable of maintaining strong cross-Strait relations.
At the same time, one wonders whether the unpopularity of the 1992 Consensus or Ma’s questionable reputation may be a hindrance to the KMT at a time when the party seems to be looking to replace its pro-China image. It comes with the reorganization of the party to diminish the strength of Huang Fu Hsing’s ideologically hard-line, pro-unification wing, which is composed mainly of former veterans.
Shortly before the 2024 elections, in an interview with German public broadcaster Deutsche Welle, Ma called for “trusting Xi Jinping. “His comments provoked a backlash to the point that he was not invited to the KMT’s latest election rallies. However, at its current assembly with Xi, the KMT has generally put forward a united front with Ma, even if that’s not necessarily what Chu wants. As such, Ma’s vacation to China may complicate the KMT’s unresolved internal contradictions at present, even if the vacation may simply serve as a way for the KMT to be a private party.
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Chinese President Xi Jinping and former Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou met at p. m. on April 10 at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.
Earlier media reports reported that Ma and Xi would meet on April 8. There has been speculation that the original date of the assembly was replaced so that Ma and Xi would meet on the same day as a summit between U. S. President Joe Biden and the Japanese prime minister. . Kishida Fumio, who is in Washington, D. C. , on a state visit. Chinese government spokesmen have denied there are plans for Ma to meet Xi on April 8. Ma’s spokespeople also denied that the reports were classified disinformation.
Ma is said to be on an 11-day trip to China with a delegation of students. This follows a trip by Ma to China in March last year, which he also took up under the auspices of a student delegation. In 2023, Ma made him the first former head of state. of the Republic of China (ROC) to make a stopover in mainland China since the Chinese Civil War. During the 2023 series, he stopped at cultural sites similar to the history of the Republic of China and his family’s tomb in Hunan, and delivered a speech in Hunan.
It is widely believed that Ma’s first holiday, which took place before the January 2024 presidential election, was intended for the political narrative that the Kuomintang (KMT) is the only political party in Taiwan capable of maintaining cross-Strait relations with the Chinese Communist Party. Party. Paint the town. Some of Ma’s current vacation destinations may also have been political signals, as he has visited tech corporations sanctioned or investigated in the United States and the European Union.
Ma did not meet Xi during his vacation in 2023, which took place in a similar time frame on a layover in the United States through President Tsai Ing-wen. While Ma first said he would not meet with senior Chinese officials last time, he nevertheless met later last year with the director of Taiwan’s affairs office, Song Tao.
However, Ma had already met with Xi Jinping in November 2015, some time before he stepped down as president. The meeting between Xi and Ma was the first time that the heads of state of the Republic of China and the People’s Republic of China (PRC) had met since the Chinese Civil War and held in Singapore, as impartial ground.
This time, Ma met with Xi as a personal citizen and traveled to China to do so. The official Chinese government does not give Ma a title, nor does it mention any positions held through Ma.
For the most part, the discussion between Ma and Xi focused on a similar topic to past meetings. Both Ma and Xi emphasized the cultural ties between Taiwan and China, describing Taiwan as connected to 5,000 years of Chinese culture. In fact, Ma continually referred to the Taiwanese as “descendants of the Yellow Emperor” during his vacation in China, in several emotional moments that saw him break down in tears.
Ma stressed the importance of bringing Taiwanese scholars to enjoy a direct connection to Chinese culture through trips to China, while Xi expressed goodwill towards young Taiwanese. The KMT has struggled to raise awareness among young people in recent years, as Taiwanese identity continues to grow among young people and Chinese identity is in decline. By extension, China’s efforts to politically appeal to young Taiwanese have also been unsuccessful.
More importantly politically, Xi and Ma reiterated their opposition to Taiwan independence and their commitment to the 1992 Consensus. This underscores that the 1992 Consensus remains the CCP’s preferred forum for achieving cross-Strait relations, despite the backlash against the 1992 Consensus. in recent years it has led successive KMT leaders – including the party’s current chairman, Eric Chu – to recommend that they would like to abandon the concept or move away from it.
The KMT’s 2024 presidential candidate, Hou Yu-ih, was also reluctant to devote himself fully to the 1992 Consensus. However, Ma may see the 1992 Consensus as a component of his political legacy, hence his emphasis on it as the basis of Strait Relations.
Taiwanese media were prevented from covering the assembly. Only five Taiwanese media outlets were allowed to cover the assembly from Beijing, namely United Daily News, CtiTV, China Television, TVBS and ETToday. These are normally pan-blue media. Journalists were not allowed to bring their phones to the assembly, only some media outlets were allowed to take photos, and a CtiTV live broadcast was interrupted along the way by security, as was a live broadcast of the assembly. Ma-Xi 2015 in Singapore.
Reporters only got confirmation that Ma would meet Xi on the day of the meeting. Specifically, journalists were asked to take two COVID-19 tests by noon and meet at the Great Hall of the People at 2:45 p. m. it is only necessary on occasions when Xi is present, this indicates that the more sensible Chinese leader would probably meet with Ma.
There have been differences between the pan-blue and pan-green camps over where Xi would meet Ma in the Great Hall of the People. Initial reports suggest that the assembly would be held in either the Taiwan Hall or the Fujian Hall of the Great Hall of the People. The people were presented through the panverde camp as suggesting that Xi did not care about the assembly. This dovetails with how pan-green critics of Ma’s 2023 China vacation have warned that Ma was snubbed by Xi and not given dignity. that a former head of state deserves to get during a vacation abroad.
When the convention was held in the East Hall of the Great Hall of the People, the all-blue media noted that vital occasions such as China’s accession to the World Trade Organization were being celebrated there.
Meanwhile, the holiday’s pan-green critics rarely scoffed at the five times of its stopover in which Ma broke down in public tears, or a gaffe of his comments with Xi in which Ma referred to the Republic of China. it is rarely avoided, adding its holidays in 2015, given the sensitivities of relations between the People’s Republic of China and the Republic of China.
Compared to the 2015 assembly, reactions to the 2024 Ma-Xi assembly have been much quieter in Taiwan. The 2015 assembly took place in a tense atmosphere after the 2014 Sunflower Movement, the student-led movement that affected the month. Taiwan’s legislature has made a long profession to protest an industrial deal that Ma’s leadership had hoped to sign with China. The deal would have allowed China to invest in Taiwan’s sector.
The protests preceded the 2015 Ma-Xi meeting, with several thousand more people gathered outside government buildings such as the legislature and the Ministry of Economic Affairs. Similarly, on the night Ma’s plane was due to take off for Singapore, several dozen protesters, led by former Sunflower Movement student leader Chen Wei-ting, tried to prevent the plane from taking off, storming into Songshan International Airport before being blocked by police.
Moreover, some analysts at the time believed that Ma would try to present his 2015 with Xi as having led to a new political consensus that replaced the 1992 consensus. After all, the talks that led to the 1992 Consensus were led by lower-ranking officials. , and it is not unthinkable that the Ma-Xi assembly was presented as having led to a new agreement.
That didn’t happen. Similarly, it was hypothesized last year that meetings between KMT Vice President Andrew Hsia, who has been sent to China on normal trips to meet with Chinese government officials since the then-U. S. government. to Taiwan in August 2022) would possibly have taken place. House Speaker and CCP ideologue leader Wang Huning may also devise a new political formula that would update the 1992 Consensus. Still, the KMT doesn’t seem to be moving away from the 1992 Consensus at this point.
Party chairman Eric Chu said Vice President Sean Lien will be sent to the Strait Forum in June on behalf of the KMT. This indicates that the KMT will continue its efforts to conduct relations with the CCP in a way that circumvents the current Progressive Democratic Party. (PPD). In doing so, the KMT would rely on its classic claim that it is the only party in Taiwan capable of maintaining strong cross-Strait relations.
At the same time, one wonders whether the unpopularity of the 1992 Consensus or Ma’s questionable reputation may be a hindrance to the KMT at a time when the party seems to be looking to replace its pro-China image. It comes with the reorganization of the party to diminish the strength of Huang Fu Hsing’s ideologically hard-line, pro-unification wing, which is composed mainly of former veterans.
Shortly before the 2024 elections, in an interview with German public broadcaster Deutsche Welle, Ma called for “trusting Xi Jinping. “His comments provoked a backlash to the point that he was not invited to the KMT’s latest election rallies. However, at its current assembly with Xi, the KMT has generally put forward a united front with Ma, even if that’s not necessarily what Chu wants. As such, Ma’s vacation to China may complicate the KMT’s unresolved internal contradictions at present, even if the vacation may simply serve as a way for the KMT to be a private party.
Chinese President Xi Jinping and former Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou met at p. m. on April 10 at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.
Earlier media reports reported that Ma and Xi would meet on April 8. There has been speculation that the original date of the assembly was replaced so that Ma and Xi would meet on the same day as a summit between U. S. President Joe Biden and the Japanese prime minister. . Kishida Fumio, who is in Washington, D. C. , on a state visit. Chinese government spokesmen have denied there are plans for Ma to meet Xi on April 8. Ma’s spokespeople also denied that the reports were classified disinformation.
Brian Hioe is one of the founding editors of New Bloom, as well as a freelance journalist and translator.