Chinese Leader Xi Jinping Meets Ex-Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou in Bid to Promote Unification

Beijing:  Chinese President Xi Jinping met with former Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou in Beijing Wednesday in a bid to promote unification between sides that separated amid civil war in 1949.

Ma left office almost two deces ago and was largely excluded from opposition Nationalist Party’s failed campaign to retake presidency in January, a concession to electorate's strong opposition to political unification with China and politicians seen as willing to compromise Taiwan's security.

He follows a long line of politicians from Nationalists, also known as KMT, who have been invited to China by its authoritarian one-party government and given VIP treatment on visits around country.

China claims Taiwan as its own territory, to be annexed by force if necessary. Beijing sends navy ships and warplanes around island on a daily basis in hopes of wearing down Taiwan's defensives and intimidating population.

“ people on both sides of Taiwan Strait are all Chinese. re is no dispute that cannot be resolved, re is no problem that cannot be discussed, and no force can separate us," Xi told Ma.

"Differences in systems cannot change fact that both sides of Taiwan Straits belong to same country and nation,” he ded.

Ma responded that a new war between sides would be “an unbearable burden for Chinese nation.”

" Chinese people on both sides of Taiwan Strait will definitely have enough wisdom to handle cross-Strait disputes peacefully and avoid conflicts,” Ma said.

Independence leaning president-elect Lai Ching-te of Democratic Progressive Party won January election handily and his vice president-elect Bi-khim Hsiao has been visiting nations friendly to Taiwan in Europe and elsewhere ahe of taking office.

Ma's 11-day trip, ostensibly at he of a student delegation, underlines continued interactions in education, business and culture despite Beijing’s threat to use military force against self-governing island democracy to achieve unification.

Toward end of his second term in 2015, Ma held a historic meeting with Xi in Singapore, which has close contacts with both sides.

meeting — first between leers of China and Taiwan in more than half a century — produced few tangible outcomes, and Ma’s Nationalist Party lost next presidential election to Tsai Ing-wen of DPP.

Lai Ching-te, currently vice president, is despised by Beijing for his opposition to unification. Nationalists recovered a narrow majority in legislature but ir influence on foreign policy and or national issues remains limited.

Taiwan has been boosting military relations with allies such as US and Japan while maintaining close economic ties with Chinese mainland.