TAOYUAN, Taiwan: Tension with China has escalated under Taiwan’s government and the island will in future have to choose between “peace and war”, former Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou said on Friday (Apr 7) at the end of a landmark visit to China.
Ma is the first former Taiwanese president to ever visit China. Since the defeated Republic of China government fled to Taiwan in 1949 after losing a civil war to Mao Zedong’s communists, no serving island leader has visited China.
“Our administration continues to lead Taiwan to danger. The future is a choice between peace and war,” Ma told reporters at Taiwan’s main airport after arriving from Shanghai at the end of his 12-day visit to China.
Ma was president from 2008 to 2016 as the head of a Kuomintang (KMT) government. The party, now in opposition, favours close ties with China, which claims the island as its own.
Ma’s visit came at a time of heightened tension with China’s anger roused this week by a meeting between Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen and US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, during a stopover by the Taiwan leader in the United States.