Former President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) will visit China from March 27 to April 7. He will be the first former Taiwan president to visit China.
The Presidential Office said it received Ma’s application and respects Ma’s plan to pay respects to his ancestors. Ma’s parents originate from Hunan, China. Ma, who is 72, has also passed the period where his travels are restricted by the government. The travels of former presidents are restricted for six years from when they leave office due to national security concerns.
Ma will visit Nanjing, Wuhan, Changsha, Chongqing, Shanghai and other cities. The director of the Ma Ying-Jeou Foundation Hsiao Hsu-tsen (蕭旭岑) said Ma will not go to Beijing out of respect and concerns for national security. Traveling with Ma will be 30 students who will visit Fudan University, Wuhan University and Hunan University for student exchanges.
Hsiao said he hopes the trip will help reduce cross-strait tensions and act as a gesture towards cross-strait peace. Hsiao said that exchanges between young people on both sides is an effective way to reduce tensions. Hsiao also said the biggest cross-strait problem is that animosity has increased between the people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait.
Ma’s trip will overlap with President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) trip to the United States and Latin America. Hsiao acknowledged this and said he knows there will be criticisms that Ma’s visit was timed for political reasons. However, Hsiao insisted this was not the case. He said that Ma originally planned to visit his ancestors in 2021, but the COVID-19 pandemic made it impossible. He added that the timing of the visit was due to the fact that Ma is about to turn 73 years old.
DPP Spokesman Chang Chih-hao (張志豪) criticized the trip, saying that visiting China at this moment sends the wrong message, and that Ma is embracing appeasement. Chang pointed to recent Chinese aggression in the Strait, the upcoming Xi-Putin visit, and Honduras’ recent move to recognize Beijing in questioning the visit's timing. He added that a visit at this time makes Ma a pawn in the CCP’s plan to encourage reunification.