Talk of Xi meeting rife as Ma begins 'journey of peace'

Taiwan's former president Ma Ying-jeou is visiting the mainland to help build social and cultural links on a trip that might include a meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping despite heightened tensions.

Ma left Taipei yesterday with a student group on an 11-day trip that underlines continued interactions in education, business and culture despite Beijing's threat to use military force against the self-governing island democracy to achieve unification.

Toward the end of his second term in 2015, Ma held a historic meeting with Xi in Singapore, which has close contacts with both sides. The meeting - the first between the leaders of China and Taiwan in more than half a century - produced few tangible outcomes and Ma's Kuomintang Party lost the next presidential election to Tsai Ing-wen of the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party.

Current Vice President Lai Ching-te, despised by Beijing for his opposition to unification, was elected as Tsai's successor in January.

Ma's itinerary includes a visit to Beijing, where there is heavy speculation he might meet with Xi, who says he remains open to Taiwanese politicians who proclaim that the island and the mainland, which split during a civil war in 1949, belong to a common Chinese nation.

Taiwan's official Central News Agency quoted Hsiao Hsu-tsen, who directs Ma's foundation, as saying he hopes Ma will have the chance to meet with "an old friend," but gave no details.

Taiwanese are largely opposed to political unification with China, and the island is boosting military relations with allies such as the US and Japan while maintaining close economic ties with the mainland.

Ma is calling the trip a "journey of peace" aimed at cooling cross-strait tensions.

Beijing has intensified pressure on Taipei ever since Ma was succeeded in 2016 by Tsai, who rejects Beijing's claim to the island.

Tensions have further risen since January, when Tsai's deputy Lai - whom Beijing regards as a "dangerous separatist" - was elected to succeed her.

"I hope that when the situation across the Taiwan Strait is tense, we can convey the sentiments of the Taiwanese people that they love peace, hope for cross-strait exchanges and hope to avoid war," Ma told reporters at the airport before his departure.

Ma added that he aimed to promote youth exchanges and to "reduce hostility and accumulate goodwill."

Outside the airport, a handful of demonstrators protested against the visit, urging Ma "not to sell out Taiwan."

Last year, Ma made the first visit to China by a current or former Taiwanese leader in more than seven decades in a bid to improve the "cross-strait atmosphere."

Yesterday, he said that trip "proved that this method is feasible and we can resolve cross-strait confrontation through building friendship between young people on both sides."

Ma is leading a delegation of 20 Taiwanese students, and will visit tech companies, universities and historical sites in Guangdong and Shaanxi provinces before arriving in Beijing on Sunday.

Asked to comment on Taiwanese media reports that Ma might meet with Xi again during the visit, the former leader's spokesman said it remained to be seen.

"Since we have the opportunity to go to Beijing, former president Ma also hopes to meet old friends. But everything depends on the mainland side's arrangements since we are guests," Hsiao said.