Taiwan: The former Taiwan President, Mr. Ma Ying-jeou, will visit China, the first visit by a current or former leader since the defeated Nationalist Chinese government fled to the island at the end of the civil war in 1949.

The landmark visit has been presented by Mr. Ma and his party, the opposition Kuomintang (KMT), as a chance to enhance friendly cross-strait exchanges at a time of extreme disconnection.

The visit is also likely to fuel domestic political division between the KMT and the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) over relations with China.

According to Mr. Ma’s office,the trip was scheduled for March 27–April 7, with stops in Nanjing, Wuhan, Changsha, Chongqing, and Shanghai. However, local media reported that Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council has not yet received a report about the planned trip, as required of former presidents.

The visit by the former President comes during increasing efforts by Beijing to have Taiwan subsumed into the People’s Republic of China as a province.

Representatives for Mr. Ma and the KMT party have emphasised the trip’s purpose as one of ancestor worship and strengthening non-government and student exchanges between Taiwan and China.

“Former President Mr. Ma believes that young people on both sides of the Strait understand each other,” Mr. Hsiao Hsu-tsen, Executive Director of the Ma Ying-jeou Foundation, commented. According to Mr. Hsiao, such exchanges were increasingly urgent given the hostilities between the two governments.

“The more contact between students, the more friendship between the two sides. The deeper the friendship, the lower the chance of conflicts,” the Executive Director noted.

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