The Breadcrumbs widget will appear here on the published site.
President Xi Jinping on Wednesday reasserted China's territorial claim on democratic Taiwan, likening it to a "family reunion," in a meeting with former Taiwan President Ma Ying-Jeou, who is currently on a controversial tour of China. "Differences in systems don't change the fact that we belong to one nation and one people," Xi told Ma, according to video footage of the meeting broadcast by Taiwan's TVBS. "Our reunification cannot be prevented by external interference," Xi said during a meeting with Ma at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. Xi, who referred to Ma as "Mr. Ma Ying-Jeou" rather than as Taiwan's former president, said there was no topic that was off the table in discussions with Taiwan. The meeting comes as Xi's administration has refused government-to-government talks offered by Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen, who has repeatedly said the island won't be giving up its sovereignty or democratic way of life to be ruled by Beijing, which hasn't ruled out the use of military force to annex Taiwan. Ma, whose Kuomintang party, or KMT, once ruled China, fled to Taiwan after losing a civil war to Mao Zedong’s communists in 1949 and ruled as an authoritarian dictatorship for several decades before being voted out in democratic elections in 2016, arrived in China on April 1 for an 11-day visit aimed at promoting peace. He told Xi that both sides of the Taiwan Strait believed in the "one China" policy, a position that nods to Beijing's claim, but doesn't specify how or when "unification" might happen. He called on people on both sides of the Strait to "oppose Taiwan independence, seek common ground while reserving differences, shelve disputes, and create a win-win situation in which both sides jointly pursue peaceful development." Anger back home
But Ma's trip has sparked anger back home. Taiwan has never been ruled by the Chinese Communist Party, nor formed part of the 73-year-old People’s Republic of China, and most of its 23 million people have no wish to give up their sovereignty or democratic way of life to be ruled by China, according to multiple public opinion polls in recent years. Last year, Tsai and her officials criticized an earlier China trip by Ma for undermining the island's government, because the former president's insistence on a “Chinese” identity for Taiwan shores up Beijing’s territorial claims. Ma first met Xi in Singapore in late 2015 for a landmark summit shortly before the current Taiwan president, Tsai Ing-wen, won a landslide election victory in January 2016. The ruling Democratic Progressive Party in January won a third presidential election in a row in a further endorsement of Tsai's approach. Lunghwa University of Science and Technology assistant professor Lai Jung Wei said Ma's trip has been packed with symbolic visits designed to play to Chinese nationalistic sentiment, which insists that Taiwan is a renegade province awaiting "unification," including a ceremony at the Mausoleum of the Yellow Emperor, a mythical figure from whom all Chinese people are said to be descended. "Xi Jinping's 'Chinese dream' is full of nationalism ... and the idea of the celestial dynasty [destined to rule China through the ages] has a long history," Lai told RFA Cantonese. "Politically, his approach and the Chinese dream of Xi Jinping ... work together." "[Ma] is also very unhappy with the current leadership under the Democratic Progressive Party and its pushback against Chinese in recent years." He said Ma has shed tears in public several times during the current trip, in a bid to appeal to nationalistic emotionality. The Blog Tags Widget will appear here on the published site.
Tags:
The Recommended Content Widget will appear here on the published site.
|
Archives
May 2024
Categories
All
|
4/11/2024
0 Comments