TAIPEI (Reuters) – Former Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou will visit China this month, his office said on Sunday, the first time a Taiwanese leader, former or current, has visited China since the defeated Republic of Taiwan government China fled to the island in 1949.
The trip will come at a time of heightened tensions between Beijing and Taipei, as China maintains its political and military pressure to try to get democratically elected Taiwan to accept Chinese sovereignty.
Ma, who remains a senior member of Taiwan’s opposition Kuomintang (KMT) party, held a historic meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Singapore in late 2015, shortly before Taiwan’s current President Tsai Ing-wen , be elected.
Ma’s office said he will visit China from March 27 to April 7 and visit the cities of Nanjing, Wuhan, Changsha, Chongqing and Shanghai.
He will meet students and visit sites related to World War II and China’s conflict with Japan, as well as those related to the 1911 revolution that overthrew the last Chinese emperor and inaugurated the Republic of China, his office said.
The Republic of China remains the official name of Taiwan.
It was not known whether he would meet any Chinese officials or leaders, including Xi.
(Reporting by Ben Blanchard)