‘External interference’ cannot block Taiwan’s unification with China: Xi

Chinese President Xi Jinping said on Wednesday that “external interference” would not stop Beijing from unifying with Taiwan, as he met the selfruled island’s former leader in a rare display of crossstrait dialogue.

Taiwan’s former President Ma Yingjeou is in China as part of what he has called a “journey of peace” to calm tensions with Beijing, which claims the island as its own territory and has never renounced the use of force to bring it under its control.

‘Connected by blood’ Mr. Xi welcomed a delegation headed by Mr. Ma to Beijing on Wednesday afternoon, Chinese and Taiwanese media reported, in a rare meeting between current or former leaders in Beijing and Taipei, and the first since a landmark summit between the two men in 2015 when Mr. Ma was still in office.

“The Chinese nation has written the indivisible history of both sides of the Taiwan Strait and engraved the fact that our compatriots... are connected by blood,” Mr. Xi saids.

“There is no force that can separate us... Differences in systems cannot change the objective fact that we belong to one nation and one people,” Mr. Xi was shown telling Mr. Ma.

“External interference cannot stop the historic cause of our reunion,” Mr. Xi said.

Mr. Ma has been leading a delegation of 20 Taiwanese students and has visited technology firms, universities and historical sites since arriving in China last week.

In his remarks to Mr. Xi, Mr. Ma said “young people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait represent the future of the Chinese nation”.

“Chinese people on both sides of the strait absolutely have ample wisdom to peacefully handle disputes and avoid conflicts,” Mr. Ma said, adding that they should also “oppose Taiwan independence”.