Taiwan’s Ma wants China’s Xi to ease island’s isolation
TAIPEI (AP) — Taiwan’s president said yesterday he hopes this weekend’s historic meeting with China’s leader can ease Beijing’s hard- line stance on diplomatic relations with Taiwan, which is now recognized by just 22 countries.
President Ma Ying-jeou also insisted that his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping was not a political move to boost his party’s chances in Taiwan’s January elections. Ma’s ruling Nationalist Party has been trailing in polls.
”The object of our decision is not the next election,” Ma said at a news conference. “It’s the happiness of the next generation.”
Saturday’s meeting in Singapore is the first between the leaders of the two formerly bitter Cold War foes since Taiwan split from mainland China in 1949 during the Chinese civil war. It’s being hailed as a historical watershed, though both sides have said there will be no formal agreements signed or joint statements issued.
The highly sensitive issue of Taiwan’s marginalization in international society was one of the few concrete discussion points Ma raised during the hour-long news conference at the Presidential Office Building in the heart of the capital, Taipei.
”Taiwan has for quite some time encountered no small amount of trouble participating in international events and we frequently hear from the public about this, especially non-governmental organizations,” Ma said.
” Therefore, at this Ma- Xi meeting, we will raise the issue and hope to come to some agreement about it and allow Taiwan to have an expanded international space.”
China refuses to acknowledge the island as anything other than a breakaway province, and pressure from Beijing keeps Taiwan out of the United Nations and other major multinational organizations.
Most of the world’s countries recognized Taiwan in the 1960s, but only 22 do now: all relatively small Latin American, Caribbean, African and Pacific island nations, plus the Vatican. The US, though still a key supporter, severed official ties in 1979.
Taiwan is allowed to compete at the Olympics, but under the name “Chinese Taipei.”
One subject not planned for discussion Saturday, according to Ma, is the South China Sea, where Taiwan and China have overlapping claims, in competition with four other countries. Tensions have been rising over China’s increasingly robust assertions of its claims, but Taiwan has largely remained aloof from the matter.
Taiwan’s main opposition Democratic Progressive Party and others on the island have questioned Ma’s motivations and the timing of the meeting.
The Nationalists are forecast to lose the presidency in the Jan. 16 to the DPP and are struggling to hang on to their majority in the legislature. A successful meeting could give the Nationalists a boost, but could also cost them further support if voters see Ma as pandering to Beijing.