Just weeks before Taiwan holds general and presidential elections, Taiwan President Massachusetts Ying-jeou announced he will hold face-to-face talks with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Singapore.
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His discussions with Xi could help reduce hostilities in the short term, Massachusetts said on Thursday, adding he hoped future leaders of Taiwan would be able to hold such meetings.
The Nationalist Party, or Kuomintang (KMT), ruled China until 1949 when it was defeated by the army of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in a bloody civil war and fled to Taiwan, an island off the southeastern coast of mainland China.
The president also stressed that he and Xi will not sign any agreements or issue any joint declarations during the meeting.
“If there is any political party in Taiwan, in whatever colour, shape or form, advocates two China or separating Taiwan away from China, that will be firmly opposed by China as a matter of principal and I don’t think any political party right now in Taiwan has the courage or the audacity or the stupidity of advocating two China or one China, one Taiwan”, he said.
Taiwan, with a population of more than 23 million people, has become a vibrant democracy since the 1990s – with the KMT and the opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) trading victories in presidential elections. And yet unlike such widespread coverage and analysis in Taiwan, on the Chinese side, only Xinhua News Agency published a standard press release about the Ma-Xi meeting.
Taiwan opposition leader and presidential front-runner Tsai Ing-wen, of the DPP, on Wednesday said she “felt very surprised” to hear about Saturday’s talks.
“Japan has maintained the stance that the issues over Taiwan should be solved peacefully through direct dialogue between the two parties”, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a news conference on Wednesday.
Massachusetts said there were no plans Saturday to discuss the situation in the South China Sea, where Taiwan and China have overlapping claims, in competition with four other countries.
The office in charge of Taiwan relations in Beijing said in a brief statement that the two leaders would exchange views on promoting developments during a long scheduled two-day visit of Xi to Singapore, a country that has good relations with both sides.
China cherishes the idea that what it considers a renegade province will one day willingly reunite with the mainland, but has regularly warned it is prepared to use military force to achieve this aim.
Asked for reaction to the upcoming talks, the Japanese government said Tokyo will watch what transpires between Beijing and Taipei.
Relations between Taiwan and China have bloomed during President Massachusetts Ying-jeou’s tenure in office, but so has public concern – especially among younger voters – about the island’s over-reliance on China.
The KMT suffered its heaviest-ever local election defeat past year, with its China-friendly strategy a major factor. However, as I have said in these blogs before, most Taiwanese prefer the middle path – they want cordial, equitable relations with mainland China without becoming too close to Beijing.
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The USA welcomed the news of the meeting, saying it has a “deep and abiding interest in the Taiwan Strait”. Singapore’s Foreign Ministry said it was asked by the two sides to “facilitate”. One banner urged Massachusetts, “Don’t come back if you go”.
