Former Taiwan president Ma Ying-jeou has been barred by the new government from a landmark visit to Hong Kong this week.
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The decision was made by a special task force that was assigned to review Ma’s application, said Presidential Office spokesman Alex Huang (黃重諺).
Ma was invited by the Society of Publishers in Asia (SOPA) in his capacity as “the former President of Taiwan” to deliver the society’s 2016 Awards Gala Dinner Keynote.
These reasons included national security concerns, as Ma was privy to some of the country’s most sensitive state secrets during his time in office.
Analysts said earlier that the visit had become a political dilemma that would test the wisdom of the Tsai Ing-wen administration.
According to Taiwan’s security information protection act, former government officials with access to classified information, including former presidents and vice presidents, are subject to travel restrictions for three years after leaving office.
The group cited four reasons to reject Ma’s travel plan in its report, including the continued need for the substantial amount of national classified information the former president had managed or handled to remain confidential and a longer period of time to examine the information. Huang also said that numerous nation’s classified documents from Ma’s term must undergo scrutiny.
Ma’s office responded to the decision on Sunday evening by saying that it was “disrespectful to the former leader” and it will harm Taiwan’s global image as a free, democratic country.
The Hong Kong visit by Ma, 65, would’ve capped a career of milestone trips.
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In response, Ma’s office issued a statement criticizing the Presidential Office’s decision as being disrespectful to retired heads of state.
