Taiwan’s Former President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) finished his 11-day trip to China and arrived in Taiwan on Thursday. Ma’s trip included a meeting with China’s President Xi Jinping (習近平) on Wednesday. This is the second time Ma and Xi have met, after their previous meetup in Singapore in 2015.
Ma says people in Taiwan and China could resolve their differences peacefully, as long as both sides base communications on the 1992 Consensus. During his presidency from 2008 to 2016, KMT’s Ma adopted the 1992 Consensus as his guiding approach to cross-strait relations. According to the consensus, Taipei and Beijing had a tacit agreement over the “One China” baseline while the two sides hold respective interpretations of what “China” entails.
Ma said on Thursday that the meeting with Xi was positive as Xi encourages peace between Taiwan and China. Xi also expressed condolences for lives lost during the recent earthquake in Taiwan. Ma says he hopes to see more cultural and educational exchanges between young people from Taiwan and China.
In recent years, China has continued to ramp up pressure against Taiwan including upgrading missile systems aiming at Taiwan as well as several live-fire military drills.