Former Taiwan president meets with Xi Jinping during visit to China – The Diplomat

At 4 pm on April 10, President Xi Jinping met with former Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.

Previous media reports stated that Ma Ying-jeou will meet on April 8. summit U.S. President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who is on a state visit to Washington, D.C.Chinese government spokesman Denied Ma Ying-jeou had planned to meet with Xi Jinping on April 8. also deny Such reports are false information.

Jack Ma is ostensibly leading a student delegation to China on an 11-day visit.Prior to this, Jack Ma had visited China In March last year, This was also conducted under the auspices of a student delegation. Jack Ma’s 2023 visit makes him the first former head of state of the Republic of China to visit mainland China since the Chinese Civil War. During his trip in 2023, he visited cultural sites related to the history of the Republic of China. his family’s graves In Hunan, he gave a speech in Hunan dialect.

Ma Ying-jeou’s first overseas trip, ahead of the January 2024 presidential election, is widely believed to be aimed at reinforcing the political narrative that the KMT is the only party in Taiwan capable of pursuing cross-strait relations with the Chinese Communist Party.Some of the destinations on Jack Ma’s trip may also have sent political signals, as he visited Tech companies subject to sanctions or investigations by the United States and the European Union.

Ma Ying-jeou did not meet with Xi Jinping during his 2023 trip, which coincided with President Tsai Ing-wen’s transit through the United States.And horse initial statement Last year he said he would not meet with senior Chinese officials, but he later met Song Tao, Director of the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council despite this.

However, horse seen before In November 2015, he met with Xi Jinping shortly before he stepped down as president. The meeting between Xi Jinping and Ma Ying-jeou was the first meeting between the heads of state of the Republic of China and the People’s Republic of China since the Chinese Civil War, and was held in Singapore, which is a neutral ground.

This time, Jack Ma met Xi Jinping as an ordinary citizen and traveled to China. The official announcement from the Chinese government did not give Ma any title or mention any positions he held.

For the most part, the conversation between Ma Ying-jeou covered similar ground to previous meetings. Both Ma Ying-jeou and Xi Jinping emphasized the cultural ties between Taiwan and China, linking Taiwan with China’s five thousand years of culture.In fact, Jack Ma mentioned Taiwanese many times “Descendants of the Yellow Emperor” During his ongoing trip to China, there were many emotional moments that brought him to tears.

Ma stressed the importance of allowing Taiwanese students to directly connect with Chinese culture through travel experiences to China, while Xi Jinping expressed his goodwill toward young Taiwanese people.KMT has struggled with youth outreach In the past few years, regarded as Taiwanese continue to rise Young people’s sense of Chinese identity is declining. By extension, China’s efforts to politically engage Taiwan’s youth have also been unsuccessful.

More importantly in terms of policy, Xi Jinping and Jack Ma reaffirmed their opposition to Taiwan independence and pledged to abide by the 1992 Consensus. This clearly shows that the 1992 Consensus remains the CCP’s preferred framework for handling cross-Strait relations, although strong opposition to the 1992 Consensus in the past few years has led to the deterioration of cross-Strait relations. Successive leaders of the Kuomintang – include Current Party Chairman Zhu Lilun – Indicates that they want to give up on the idea or distance themselves from it.

Hou Yuyi, the KMT’s 2024 presidential candidate, was also initially hesitant to fully abide by the 1992 Consensus.Nonetheless, Ma Ying-jeou may regard the 1992 Consensus as part of his political legacy, thus emphasizing it as the cornerstone of cross-Strait relations

Taiwanese media were restricted from reporting on the meeting.only Five branches in Taiwan Media approved to cover the conference from Beijing include Lianhe Daily, Zhongtian TV, China Television, TVBS and ETToday. These are usually bluish outlets.Journalists are not allowed to bring mobile phones to the meeting, and only some media are allowed to take photos, and Zhongtian TV live broadcast It was interrupted by security in the middle, which also happened during the live broadcast during the 2015 meeting between Ma and Xi in Singapore.

It was not until the day of the meeting that reporters received confirmation that Jack Ma had indeed met with Xi Jinping.Specifically, the reporter learned that Get two COVID-19 tests before noon and assemble at the Great Hall of the People by 2:45 p.m.

There is some debate between the pan-blue camp and the pan-green camp where to practice Will meet with Jack Ma at the Great Hall of the People. It was initially reported that the meeting would be held in the Taiwan Hall or Fujian Hall of the Great Hall of the People, but the pan-green camp falsely accused Xi Jinping of thinking the meeting was unimportant. This is in line with pan-Green criticism of Jack Ma’s 2023 visit to China, arguing that Jack Ma has been snubbed by Xi Jinping and that he is not treated with the dignity that a former head of state deserves during a trip abroad.

When the meeting was held in the East Hall of the Great Hall of the People, Pan-Blue media emphasized that this was the place where important events such as China’s accession to the World Trade Organization took place.

Beyond this, pan-Green criticism of the trip sometimes mocked five times Jack Ma openly wept during the visit, or Gaffe Ma Ying-jeou mentioned the Republic of China in his speech with Xi Jinping.References to ROC are generally avoided, including His 2015 tripGiven the sensitive nature of relations between the People’s Republic of China and the Republic of China.

Compared with the 2015 meeting, the response to the 2024 Ma-Xi meeting in Taiwan was much milder. The 2015 meeting took place amid tensions following the 2014 Sunflower Movement, a student-led movement that involved a month-long occupation of Taiwan’s legislature to protest a trade deal the Ma government wanted to sign with China. The deal will allow China to invest in Taiwan’s services sector.

Protests before the 2015 Ma-Xi meeting with thousands Gathered outside government buildings including the Legislature and the Ministry of Economy.Likewise, on the night Jack Ma’s plane was preparing to fly to Singapore, there was a dramatic attempt to stop the plane from taking off dozens of demonstrators Led by former Sunflower Movement student leader William Chan, he stormed Songshan International Airport before being cordoned off by police.

In addition, some analysts at the time believed that Jack Ma was trying to portray his relationship with Xi Jinping in 2015 as leading to new political consensus This consensus replaces the 1992 consensus. After all, the negotiations that led to the 1992 consensus were conducted by lower-level officials, and it is not inconceivable that the meeting between Ma and Xi would be considered to have reached a new agreement.

This didn’t happen.Likewise, there was speculation last year that a meeting between KMT Vice Chairman Andrew Xia (who has been sent to China to meet regularly with Chinese government officials since the then Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives visited Taiwan in August 2022) and the CCP’s chief ideologue Wang Huning could lead to new political model This consensus will replace the 1992 consensus. However, the KMT did not seem to abandon the 1992 consensus at this time.

Party Chairman Eric Chu said today that Vice Chairman Sean Lien will be sent to attend In June, he represented the Kuomintang in the Straits Forum. This shows that the Kuomintang will continue to work hard to handle relations with the CCP in a way that bypasses the DPP government. In doing so, the KMT would lean into its traditional claim that it is the only party in Taiwan capable of maintaining stable cross-strait relations.

At the same time, it is worth questioning whether the unpopularity of the 1992 Consensus or Ma’s own controversial reputation might become a stumbling block for the KMT at a time when it appears to be trying to change its pro-China image. Chu’s recent moves include Reorganize the party weakening the hard-line, pro-unification Huangfuxing branch, which is largely composed of former military veterans.

Shortly before the 2024 election, Jack Ma called for “trust in Xi Jinping” in an interview with German public broadcaster Deutsche Welle.His comments sparked such a backlash that he was not invited The final election rally of the Kuomintang. However, in this meeting with Xi Jinping, the KMT basically presented a united front with Ma Ying-jeou – although this was not necessarily Zhu’s wish. Ma Ying-jeou’s trip to China is therefore likely to complicate the KMT’s currently unresolved internal conflicts, although given that Xi Jinping considers Ma Ying-jeou an important enough figure to meet in person, the visit is likely to solidify his position within the party.