China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) Director Song Tao (宋濤) yesterday accompanied former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) to Changsha, China, where Ma visited his mother’s former school.
The two took a high-speed train from Wuhan to the capital of Hunan Province, sitting across from each other with reporters on either side.
Song introduced the design features of the train, to which Ma replied: “It’s very spacious, very comfortable.”
Photo: CNA
Ma was on his way to visit Zhounan High School, his late mother’s alma mater. The visit was not open to the media.
Ma is expected to travel to his ancestral home of Baishi in Hunan’s Xiangtan County today, where he would pay respects to his ancestors.
During their previous meeting on Thursday, Song emphasized shared cultural links with Ma, the first former Taiwanese president to travel to China.
Song also called for “boosting the peaceful development of cross-strait relations,” while opposing “foreign interference,” a veiled reference to US support for Taiwan.
The comments underscored China’s efforts to bolster ties with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) ahead of next year’s presidential and legislative elections.
Last month, Song met KMT Vice Chairman Andrew Hsia (夏立言) while he was visiting China.
Beijing is trying to counter perceptions that it is becoming reckless amid increased geopolitical tensions.
Chinese Premier Li Qiang (李強) told business and government leaders at the Boao Forum for Asia on Thursday that his nation was committed to peace.
On Tuesday, China Central Television (CCTV) censored all mentions of the Republic of China (ROC) Ma made during his visit to Nanjing.
During his visit to the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum, Ma mentioned the ROC four times: once during a tribute to ROC founder Sun Yat-sen (孫逸仙), once in a public statement he gave in the compound, and twice when stating the dates of his visit and Sun’s passing.
At the mausoleum, he also displayed a piece of calligraphy he created, which he dated 2023, as well as 112, the equivalent year on the ROC calendar.
Those parts were not shown in CCTV’s coverage of Ma’s visit to the mausoleum.
Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) of the Democratic Progressive Party said that at a meeting between Ma and Jiangsu Chinese Communist Party Municipal Committee Secretary Xin Changxing (信長星), Ma was referred to as a “former leader of the Taiwan region” and “Mr Ma” after Ma called himself a “former Taiwan president.”
Xin belittled the nation and its former president, Chen said.
KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) on Wednesday described those criticisms as “nitpicking.”
Ma highlighted the ROC on several occasions and called himself a former president and therefore stood his ground, Chu said.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
RSS