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Ex-President Ma says cross-strait youth exchanges must continue

ROC Central News Agency

04/03/2023 09:32 PM

Taipei, April 3 (CNA) Former President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) told the top Chinese Communist Party official in Chongqing on Monday that both sides of the Taiwan Strait have a responsibility to ensure that exchanges between their young people continue.

Ma, who served as Republic of China (Taiwan) president from 2008 to 2016, is leading a delegation of students from Taiwan to meet their Chinese counterparts and visit historical sites in the country from March 27 to April 7.

In a meeting with Yuan Jiajun (袁家軍), Communist Party secretary of Chongqing on Monday, Ma praised the "modernity" of the southwestern Chinese city, which he predicted would make it an attractive destination for Taiwanese businesspeople and enterprises.

Ma said he was greatly concerned by the fact that exchanges between students from Taiwan and mainland China have all but ceased in recent years, due to the COVID-19 pandemic and cross-strait political turmoil, while the enmity between people on the two sides has grown.

He contrasted this with his own visit, which he said was intended to facilitate exchanges between students from Taiwan and mainland China and reduce the negative feelings on both sides, as is essential for achieving a "real peace."

Judging by his recent visits to Wuhan and Hunan universities, the trip has been a success so far, Ma said, noting that after each event, students from both sides rushed "unstoppably" to get each other's WeChat accounts.

"Secretary Yuan, this is the truest and most genuine face of young people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait, and both sides have a responsibility to ensure these types of exchanges can continue," Ma said.

During the meeting at the Yuzhou State Guest Hotel, Ma explained that Chongqing held special significance for him, as it is where his parents met as students at the city's Central Politics School.

He said his father later joined the ROC Armed Forces and that both his parents had lived through the devastating Japanese bombing of Chongqing, the museum dedicated to which he planned to visit on Tuesday.

Yuan, for his part, noted that "Mr. Ma" had repeatedly spoken out during his visit in support of the "1992 consensus" and increased cross-strait exchanges, and against Taiwan independence, in line with his long-held positions on those issues.

Ma's visit to China -- the first by a former ROC president since 1949, when the ROC government relocated to Taiwan after losing the civil war against the Chinese communists -- has been sharply criticized by Taiwan's ruling Democratic Progressive Party, while members of his party, the opposition Kuomintang, have generally been supportive.

(By Lu Chia-jung and Matthew Mazzetta)

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