XI Jinping met former President of Taiwan, said- no one can stop family reunification

Chinese President Xi Jinping met with former Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou on Wednesday and told him that external projections cannot prevent family reunification between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait and there is no issue that cannot be discussed. Could. The meeting is significant because no serving Taiwanese leader has visited China since the defeated Republic of China government fled to Taiwan in 1949.

Ma, president from 2008 to 2016, last year became the first former Taiwanese leader to visit China and is now on his second visit to the country at a time of rising military tensions across the strait. Ma was widely expected to meet Xi this time, having first met Xi for a historic summit in Singapore in late 2015, shortly before current Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen won the election. Had happened.

At the meeting held at the Great Hall of the People in the Chinese capital Beijing, Xi told Ma that people on both sides of the strait are Chinese. In comments reported by Taiwanese media, Xi said outside interference could not stop the historical trend of reunification of the country and family. China claims the island nation of Taiwan as part of its mainland and has vowed to reclaim it by force if necessary. Ma follows a long line of politicians from the Nationalists, also known as the KMT (Kuomintang).