(MENAFN) Former Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou has embarked on a 12-day tour of China. His visit comes just a day after Taiwan lost one of its 14 diplomatic partners to China. While Ma is visiting in a private capacity, the trip is politically significant. During his presidency, Ma's policies brought Taiwan and Beijing closer than ever before. However, his successor has focused on defending Taiwan's autonomy, and China has been putting pressure on the island nation in a variety of ways, including poaching its diplomatic allies and flying military fighter jets towards the island frequently. Ma's visit is meant to improve cross-strait relations through people-to-people exchange.
Ma, who is a member of the opposition Nationalist Party, will visit several cities in China and bring a delegation of academics, college students, and family members. He will also meet with fellow students from Fudan University and Hunan University. Ma hopes that the visit will lower tensions between Taiwan and China and improve cross-strait relations. While the trip has not caused much controversy in Taiwan, some political opponents and activists have criticized it. A former mainland student leader in the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests called on Ma to cancel his trip. Wang Dan, a Chinese dissident who previously lived in Taiwan, said that if Ma had any affection for Taiwan, he would cancel the trip.
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