China on Monday welcomed the imminent go to of former Taiwan president Ma Ying-jeou to the mainland later this month, the primary time a former or contemporary chief of the island is touring the us of a after the defeated Republic of China authorities fled to the island in 1949.
Ma`s go to, which become introduced with the aid of using his workplace in Taiwan overdue on Sunday night, comes withinside the backdrop of hysteria among Beijing and Taipei as China swiftly escalates army interest across the self-dominated democracy to place stress over Taiwan to simply accept the mainland`s sovereignty.
Calling it a breakaway region, Beijing has in no way dominated out using pressure to merge it with the mainland.
“The mainland welcomes the go to of Mr. Ma Ying-jeou,” the Communist Party of China`s (CPC), Taiwan Affairs Office stated in a announcement on Monday.
“Ma Ying-jeou will lead a delegation to the mainland on March 27 to pay homage to his ancestors and change ideas,” the announcement stated.
Ma pays homage to ancestors in advance of the Qingming or Tomb Sweeping pageant whilst Chinese preserve prayer conferences to provide recognize to ancestors.
It wasn`t straight away recognized whether or not Ma will meet absolutely everyone from China`s pinnacle leadership; The itinerary posted with the aid of using his workplace does now no longer contain a go to to Beijing.
Ma Xiaoguang, spokesperson of the mainland`s Taiwan workplace, stated it welcomes Ma to pay homage to his ancestors and lead a scholar change programme.
“The Qingming Festival ancestral worship is a not unusualplace custom of compatriots on each facets of the Taiwan Strait,” the spokesperson stated, adding, “We are inclined to offer the essential help for Mr. Ma Ying-jeou`s go to and desire him all of the fine on his journey.”
Former president Ma`s workplace in Taiwan stated that he could go to China from March 27 to April 7 and visit the towns of Nanjing, Wuhan, Changsha, Chongqing and Shanghai, placed in central, southwest China and jap China.
“Ma, who stays a senior member of Taiwan`s Kuomintang (KMT) competition birthday birthday celebration, held a landmark assembly with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Singapore in overdue 2015, rapidly earlier than contemporary Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen become elected,” Reuters mentioned from Taipei.
According to the Ma Ying-jeou Culture and Education Foundation, Ma`s journey to China is “…aimed toward worshipping his ancestors at some point of the imminent Qingming or Tomb Sweeping Festival, and he’s going to lead a delegation produced from Taiwanese college students to make exchanges with their Chinese counterparts, in addition to go to historic webweb sites associated with the Revolution of 1911 led with the aid of using Republic of China (ROC) Founding Father Sun Yat-sen, and the Sino-Japanese War from 1937-1945”.
Last month the KMT`s deputy chairman Andrew Hsia visited Beijing and met senior CPC birthday birthday celebration chief Wang Huning, member of the CPC politburo status committee.
The go to is in all likelihood to be politically milked with the aid of using the Chinese authorities, stated Zsuzsa Anna Ferenczy, assistant professor at National Dong Hwa University in Taiwan
“With Taiwan`s presidential elections arising early subsequent year, Beijing will are seeking to instrumentalise the go to of former president Ma to similarly undermine and intervene in Taiwan`s democracy and positioned stress on its democratically elected political leadership,” she advised HT over email.
“Beijing already makes use of a extensive variety of equipment to intimidate Taiwan, specifically thru monetary coercion. With the elections, however, I assume Beijing to select to persuade in preference to coerce Taiwan, for the reason that quit recreation for Beijing is to take Taiwan, regardless of what, regardless of who leads it politically,” she stated.