Former Taiwan leader Ma Ying-jeou to return to mainland China despite warnings

Former Taiwanese leader Ma Ying-jeou is set to lead a delegation to mainland China, despite repeated warnings from Taiwanese authorities.

On Wednesday, the Ma Ying-jeou Foundation announced that Ma, who is a former chairman of Taiwan’s main opposition Kuomintang (KMT), would lead a student visit to mainland China from Saturday.

He would conclude his trip on June 27 after attending the Straits Forum in Xiamen, a city that faces Taiwan across the Taiwan Strait, and travelling to the northwestern province of Gansu to attend a ceremony honouring Fuxi, one of the legendary ancestors of the Han Chinese, according to a statement.

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Beijing describes the annual Straits Forum as the largest platform for “people-to-people exchanges” between the two sides of the strait. But Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has repeatedly warned that the forum is a “united front tool” while banning related events in Taiwan and forbidding its government officials from attending.

Last year, the KMT delegation was led by vice-chairman Sean Lien Sheng-wen.

Wang Huning, the fourth-ranked member of mainland China’s ruling Communist Party and head of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference – the country’s highest political advisory body – is expected to deliver a speech at the opening ceremony on Sunday and announce Beijing’s latest policy on Taiwan.

On Wednesday, Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council released a statement saying Ma’s decision to attend the forum was “inappropriate and inconsistent with his position, and the government deeply regrets and finds it incomprehensible”.

The same day, DPP spokesman Wu Zheng accused Ma of “playing along with” Beijing’s show, adding that his visit would “put the Taiwanese people in an unjust situation”.

South China Morning Post