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Taiwan-China Urged to Do Everything Possible to Avoid War. PHOTO/Reuters
BEIJING – Taiwan and China must do everything possible to avoid war and it is the responsibility of the leaders of both sides to ensure peace. This was revealed by the former President of Taiwan, Ma Ying-jeou to a senior Chinese official, Thursday (30/3/2023).
As reported by Reuters, Ma arrived in China earlier this week. The visit is the first visit by a former or sitting president of Taiwan to mainland China since the government of the defeated Republic of China fled to Taiwan in 1949 after losing a civil war with communist Mao Zedong.
Meeting with Song Tao, head of China’s Taiwan Affairs Office, in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, Ma said maintaining the peaceful and stable development of relations is the “general mainstream view of Taiwanese people”.
“It is the joint responsibility of the “principals” on both sides of the Taiwan Strait to pursue all opportunities conducive to promoting peace,” Ma said, according to a transcript of his comments provided by Ma’s Taipei office.
“Both sides should maintain exchanges, cooperate together, and do everything possible to avoid war and conflict,” he continued.
China’s official Xinhua news agency quoted Song as telling Ma that people in China and Taiwan should “resolutely oppose Taiwan independence separatist activities and interference from external forces, and jointly safeguard the peace and stability of the Taiwan Strait”.
Ma is visiting China at a time of rising tensions between Taipei and Beijing, as China increases military and diplomatic pressure to try and force the democratically ruled island to accept Chinese sovereignty.
Ma, who served from 2008 to 2016, met Chinese President Xi Jinping in Singapore in late 2015, shortly before Taiwan’s current President Tsai Ing-wen was elected.
He is not scheduled to meet Xi on this trip, but Ma’s office says he is open to any meeting China has.
(esn)
