Xi, Ma meeting achieves little

George Chau

Taiwan’s Ma Ying-jeou has fulfilled a wish by meeting with President Xi Jinping in Beijing.

The former Taiwan president was guided to a meeting with Xi in Beijing after bowing before a memorial honoring an uprising against the Qing emperor in Guangzhou, paying homage to Chinese people’s legendary ancestor Yellow Emperor in Shaanxi and singing a song about the war against the Japanese invaders.

However, people may remember Ma’s emotional tears more readily than anything else from his 11-day tour across the mainland.

It’s not that the Beijing meeting was not symbolic, but information made known to the public about the conversation did not yield anything new beyond those made in 2015 when the two last met in Singapore.

At that time, Ma was still in office as Taiwan’s elected president. Now, he is only a civilian.

In his opening remarks, Xi heaped praise on Ma for opposing Taiwan independence, making efforts to promote cross-strait exchanges and insisting both sides belong to “one China.”

As Xi spoke, CCTV played soft music in the background of its broadcast in an apparent effort to set an amicable tone for the event. The setting was carefully calibrated.

It was then time for Ma to speak. The ex-Taiwan leader mentioned the Republic of China, but quickly corrected it with a reference to the Chinese nation.

Was the mention deliberate or a slip of the tongue? If the latter, it would not be the first time he had made such a blunder.

People may tend to remember Ma’s readiness to shed tears since the messages from the cordial meeting were similar to those that people have been familiar with since 2015 – hence the status quo which may also mirror the current situation.

It is in the interests of both Taiwan and the mainland to see the status quo maintained. No one wants to see a war break out in the Taiwan Strait and every effort must be made to avert such a catastrophe.

Later this month, Lai Ching-te of Taiwan’s Democratic Progressive Party will be sworn in to take over from Tsai Ing-wen as Taiwan’s next president following January’s election.

This will be the DPP’s third term in power.

Although Lai is expected to continue Tsai’s policy to maintain the status quo rather than veer from it to advance towards independence, his administration will continue to be closely monitored by all, including the United States.

Lai knows Washington also wants to see the status quo unchanged.

For now, Ma’s wish for a high-level meeting with Xi has been fulfilled after he bowed and sang all the way from the south to the north in China and he can take pride in his contribution to cross-strait relations.

In 2005, then-Kuomintang leader Lien Chan became the first politician from Taipei to represent the pan-blue camp in Taiwan to visit the mainland to break the ice with Beijing.

While Ma cannot alter history, can he expect to inherit the legacy left by Lien to become the new pan-blue leader?

If this was Ma’s aspiration, he well may have secured it after the meeting in Beijing.