Former Taiwan chief of staff to visit China for the first time since 1949

Former Taiwanese chief of staff Ma Ying-jeou (from 2008 to 2016) will visit several cities in mainland China from March 27 to April 7. He will be the first former chief of staff to make such a trip since 1949, The China Times reported on Sunday.

According to the publication, the politician plans to visit the cities of Nanjing, Wuhan, Changsha, Chongqing and Shanghai. Ma Yingjiu, whose parents lived in the central province of Hunan, intends to perform a ritual of honoring the memory of his ancestors in the city of Xiangtan (Hunan province). The former chief of staff will visit several sites associated with the Xinhai Revolution (1911-1912) and the Resistance War against Japan (1931-1945) with a group of Taiwanese students. In addition, a meeting between Taiwanese students and students from mainland Chinese universities will be organized during the trip.

Ma Ying-jeou promoted the intensification of economic cooperation between Taiwan and mainland China. Taiwan has been governed by its own administration since 1949, when the remnants of the Kuomintang forces led by Chiang Kai-shek (1887-1975) fled there after being defeated in the Chinese civil war. Since then, the island has retained the flag and some other attributes of the former Republic of China, which existed on the mainland before the communists came to power. Beijing considers Taiwan one of the provinces of the PRC.