New Delhi: Chinese President Xi Jinping, during a historic meeting with former Taiwanese president Ma Ying-jeou Wednesday, asserted that no “foreign interference” can prevent the “family reunion” between China and Taiwan.
“Compatriots on the two sides are both Chinese. There is no problem that cannot be resolved. No problem that cannot be talked through. And there are no forces that can separate us,” Xi is reported to have said during his opening remarks.
He added that external interference would not stop “the historical trend of reunion of the country and family,” according to Taiwanese local media.
The talks between Xi and Ma are the first time that the leadership of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has received a former or serving president of Taiwan – which Xi claims as China’s province and has sworn to annexe. By force, if necessary.
A growing majority of Taiwan’s people and its government, however, have rejected the prospect of Chinese rule.
Ma, the president of Taiwan between 2008 and 2016 from the Kuomintang Party (KMT), is the first former Taiwanese leader to visit China after its government fled to the island in 1949. This is his second visit to mainland China after his first just over a year ago.
Since 1 April, Ma has been on an eleven-day tour of “peace and friendship” to China. In his opening remarks Wednesday, Ma is reported to have said: “If there is a war between the two sides, it will be unbearable for the Chinese people… Chinese on both sides of the (Taiwan) strait absolutely have enough wisdom to handle all disputes peacefully and avoid heading into conflict.”
Ma’s KMT, which is now in Opposition in Taiwan, has also rejected reunification but wants closer ties with China.
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Ahead of the closed-door talks, Ma and Xi shook each other’s hands for 80 seconds. While Ma was serving as president in 2015, he met with Xi at a historic summit in Singapore. The summit was the first ever between the leaders of the PRC and Taiwan.
Neither the PRC nor Taiwan recognise each other as countries. Over 180 countries of the world recognise the PRC’s ‘One-China Policy’ and its claims of sovereignty over Taiwan. India is among the countries that recognise the aforementioned policy.
The US, however, does not support Taiwan’s independence, advocating cross-Strait dialogue to resolve differences by peaceful means, free from coercion.
Since Ma has left office, ties between China and Taiwan have deteriorated with the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) winning three consecutive presidential elections, including the recent polls this January.
Lai Ching-te, the president-elect of Taiwan, has been seen as a “troublemaker” by Beijing as his position leans towards the island’s independence. Ties across the strait have been simmering since then.
In a call with US President Joseph Biden last week, Xi had made it clear that the “Taiwan question is the first red line that must not be crossed in US-China relations”, according to the Chinese readout.
“In the face of ‘Taiwan independence’ separatist activities and external encouragement and support for them, China is not going to sit on its hands,” the readout quoted Xi as saying. While there is no mention of the DPP or the current regime in Taiwan, the implication is that they were spearheading independence activities.
However, Xi’s policies on Taiwan face a roadblock – 67 percent of the island’s population consider themselves exclusively as “Taiwanese”, with only 3 percent thinking they were “Chinese,” according to a report by the Pew Research Center.
(Edited by Tikli Basu)
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