KMT hopes Ma can meet with Xi on trip to China

The party’s chairman said the visit would hopefully help stabilize cross-strait relations, and China’s TAO said it hoped ‘Mr Ma’s’ trip would be productive

The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) applauded former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) planned visit to China from Monday next week to April 11, and would be glad if Ma happens to meet with “old friend” Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), KMT Vice Chairman Andrew Hsia (夏立言) told a meeting of the KMT’s Central Standing Committee yesterday.

The KMT said it has always supported cross-strait interactions to promote regional peace, and greatly commended Ma, who holds no official position within the party, for being willing to visit China amid fraught cross-strait tensions.

Ma’s choice to visit around

International Youth Day is significant as it connotes passing the torch between generations, Hsia said.

It is hoped that Ma’s trip runs smoothly and helps stabilize crossstrait relations, Hsia said.

Asked for comment at a weekly news conference yesterday, China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) spokesman Chen Binhua (陳斌華) said that the TAO would ensure that “Mr Ma’s” visit is arranged appropriately.

It hoped that his trip would be fruitful, Chen said.

China welcomes members from all political parties and other sectors to visit China and jointly maintain regional peace on the basis that they support the “1992 consensus” and oppose Taiwanese independence, Chen said.

The “1992 consensus” — a term that former Mainland Affairs Council chairman Su Chi (蘇起) in 2006 admitted making up in 2000 — refers to a tacit understanding between the KMT and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) that both sides of the Taiwan Strait acknowledge that there is “one China,” with each side having its own interpretation of what “China” means.

Ma enjoys stipends and other benefits as a former head of state, but has always touted the so-called “1992 consensus” and has rarely spoken up for Taiwan, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Wang Mei-hui (王美惠) said.

If Ma finds China to be so good, he should move there instead of making a spectacle of himself and cheapening Taiwan’s democracy and liberties, Wang said.

Premier Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) on Tuesday urged Ma to tell Xi that

“Taiwan is a sovereign independent nation.”

Chen Chien-jen’s comments advocate Taiwanese independence and run counter to the Constitution of the Republic of China, Ma Yingjeou Foundation director Hsiao Hsu-tsen (蕭旭岑) said yesterday.

“Taiwan is not a country; it is part of the Republic of China,” he said.

Hsiao said the greatest danger facing Taiwan is that the DPP refuses to follow the Constitution, constantly saying that it is preserving the “status quo,” but secretly passes policies supporting an independent Taiwan while being unwilling to amend the Constitution to legalize its own actions.

Taiwan will continue to live in chaos as long as the DPP is unwilling to amend the Constitution and continues to issue unconstitutional comments to sway public opinion, he added.