This content was originally published by Radio Free Asia, and it is now being reprinted with permission.
According to a person with knowledge of the situation, former Chinese president Ma Ying-jeou may join with Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping this week while he is already on a contentious tour of China in an effort to calm tensions across the Taiwan Strait.
A conference had been scheduled for Monday, but has now been pushed up to Wednesday, culminating with the U. S. Japan- Philippines officials ‘ summit in Washington, a man acquainted with the negotiations told RFA Mandarin. According to a Chinese political analyst, the celebration also coincides with the signing of Beijing’s opposition to the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act.
Ma, whose Kuomintang party previously ruled China, fled to Taiwan after losing a civil war to Mao Zedong’s socialists in 1949 and ruled as an authoritarian dictator for many years before being , voted out in political elections , in 2016. He made an 11-day attend to China on April 1 to promote peace.
” The conference between Ma and Xi is at China’s offer, it was Xi Jinping who decided they had meet”, a person familiar with the situation said.  ,
According to the person, the meeting takes place as China attempts to improve relations with key political partners and end its growing global isolation.
Beijing is evoking the possibility of a discourse between Beijing and Taiwan, according to them in their appointment with Ma Ying-jeou.
Taiwan has never been ruled by the Chinese Communist Party, nor formed part of the 73- year- ancient People’s Republic of China, and most of its 23 million people , have no wish , to give up their sovereignty or political way of life to become ruled by China, according to various public , opinion polls , in recent years.
He will join with Xi, but neither Ma nor Chinese authorities have given a date.
Beijing has criticized Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wan and her ruling Democratic Progressive Party ( DPP ) as “dangerous separatists” and turned down the government-to-government discussions the Tsai administration had suggested as a prerequisite for cross-Straits negotiations.
Visits criticized
However, Ma’s repeated trips to China include been , criticized by Tsai and her officials , as undermining the region’s government, because his conviction on a” Chinese” identification for Taiwan coasts up Beijing’s regional says.
Beijing wants to counteract the person’s “wolf-warrior” diplomacy of recent years by inviting Taiwanese politicians to visit China last year on the condition that they do n’t reject Beijing’s territorial claim to the island, the person said.
Ma visited the traditional Marco Polo Bridge on Monday, where the first shots fired during the Chinese invasion, and expressed her desire to cry when she saw the bravery of the Chinese people who fought against it.
” There are no victors in battle, and there are no losers in peacefulness”, he told reporters at the site. ” Mistakes in war may be forgiven, but historical truth ca n’t be forgotten” . ,
Ma next met Xi in Singapore later in 2015 at a historic summit, just before former Tsai won a sweeping majority in the 2016 presidential election.
He continues to be a top part of the Kuomintang, or KMT, which lost its second consecutive election to the DPP in January, but he has no official position in Japanese politics.
Ma’s explore this quarter coincides with the world-famous Qing Ming grave-sweeping event, and the original democratically elected president appealed to the island’s young persons to “remember their Chinese origins,” provoking censure in Taiwan.
He is even taking a tour of a number of sites connected to the Kuomintang government’s and Mao Zedong’s makes ‘ uneasy alliance that turned into a civil war after Japan surrendered in 1945.
In a Facebook post posted on April 4th, DPP lawmaker Wang Ting-yu said,” You do n’t grieve Taiwan’s earthquake disaster, instead you are a thousand miles away crying over the Japanese invasion of World War II. You are a thousand miles away.
” ]Yet you ] ignore the fact that the Chinese Communist Party to this day has n’t renounced the use of force against Taiwan”, Wang wrote, accusing Ma, who served two terms as president from 2008- 2016, of “echoing” Beijing’s propaganda.
” Evelynce politics”
Soong Kuo- yang, a scientist at Taiwan’s National Chengchi University, said the day for Wednesday’s meeting had good been properly chosen.
” It’s not just about disregarding the U. S. Japan summit in Washington, but also, this date marks the 45th anniversary of the signing of the Taiwan Relations Act”, said Soong, referring to the 1979 Act that requires the U. S. government to take steps to defend Taiwan against aggression, including allowing arms sales.
” For 45 years, China has regarded the Taiwan Relations Act as an anti- China law aimed at protecting Taiwan”, he said. ” Moving the date for the Ma- Xi meeting to April 10 is anniversary politics”.
After the United States cut off diplomatic ties with Taiwan and gave way to Beijing, the Act has been referred to as the “gift to Taipei” of the United States Congress.
Following the termination of formal diplomatic ties, it was passed” to help maintain peace, security, and stability in the Western Pacific and to promote the foreign policy of the United States” by authorizing the continuation of commercial, cultural, and other relations between Taiwan’s citizens.
Additionally, it defines any threat to Taiwan as a threat to the United States ‘ interests.
Beijing saw the law as a betrayal of U. S.commitments to its “one China” policy.
Soong said that Taiwanese people are deeply Sinocentric because of Ma’s repeated admission that they have a common ancestry with Chinese people.
” Ma Ying- jeou is foolish to say that blood is thicker than water”, Soong said. Ma is the only person crazy enough to believe that not only can we trust them, but that we also can thank them when the rest of the world perceives the Chinese Communist Party as an enemy and Biden refers to Xi Jinping as a dictator.
