The first former and incumbent president after defeat in the civil war
Intention to support pro-China candidates in next year’s presidential election
Against the US-led ‘Democracy Summit’
China to hold ‘Boao Forum’ from the 28th
Former Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou arrived in China on the afternoon of the 27th, the state-run Xinhua News Agency reported. Taiwan’s Nationalist Party was defeated in a civil war with the Chinese Communist Party and was defeated in 1949 from the mainland. He will stay in China until the 7th of next month and visit Nanjing, Wuhan, Changsha, and Chongqing.
His visit to China draws special attention as it coincides with the current President Tsai Ing-wen’s visit to New York and Los Angeles from the 29th to the 5th of next month via Guatemala and Belize in Central and South America. The proxy war between the US and China over Taiwan is intensifying as the anti-China President visits the US and the pro-China President Ma visits China.
Ma arrived in Shanghai on an afternoon flight and headed straight to Nanjing. Officials from the Taiwan Affairs Office in charge of Taiwanese affairs in the Chinese Communist Party and Shanghai City officials greeted him. Ding Xuexiang (丁薛祥), Vice Premier of the State Council, sixth in the ranking of the Communist Party of China, who was initially known to appear at the airport, did not appear.
Former President Ma will not meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping during this visit. He was the first sitting president to hold a summit meeting with President Xi in Singapore in 2015, during his tenure. Analysts say that even if he does not have to meet with Xi, former President Ma’s visit to China itself shows China’s intention to support the Kuomintang in the presidential election in January next year.
The schedule of his visit to China included many of the former ties of the Kuomintang. In particular, Nanjing was the capital of China when Chiang Kai-shek, the first president of the country, led the Kuomintang, and there is the tomb of Sun Yat-sen, who is revered as the ‘Father of the State’. Wuhan is where the ‘Wuchang Uprising’ took place in 1911, which is considered the starting point of the Xinhai Revolution.
President Tsai is expected to meet House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, third in power, during his visit to the United States. Since Honduras, a Latin American country that had established diplomatic ties with Taiwan since 1941, abruptly established diplomatic ties with China and severed ties with Taiwan on the 26th, attention is focused on what kind of results President Tsai will be able to achieve during his visit to Latin America and the United States.
The diplomatic war between the US and China to attract countries around the world as allies is also hot. The United States, South Korea, and the Netherlands will jointly host the ‘Democracy Summit’ on the 29th and 30th, which will be held via video with 110 countries participating. The Democracy Summit will be attended by President Yoon Seok-yeol, US President Joe Biden, and Dutch Prime Minister Martin Rutte. U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris will also visit Africa from the 26th to the 29th, where China and Russia are rapidly expanding their stride.
China also decided to hold the ‘Boao Forum’, called the Chinese version of the Davos Forum (World Economic Forum), in Hainan Province from the 28th to the 31st. Leaders of major countries, including Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, and Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, are reportedly expected to attend.
In addition to establishing diplomatic ties with Honduras, China is rapidly expanding its influence in the Middle East, where US involvement has declined since the aftermath of the war in Ukraine. China recently brokered the normalization of diplomatic relations between rival Saudi Arabia and Iran.
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Source: Donga
Mark Jones is a world traveler and journalist for News Rebeat. With a curious mind and a love of adventure, Mark brings a unique perspective to the latest global events and provides in-depth and thought-provoking coverage of the world at large.