Xi Jinping said “external interference cannot prevent family reunion” with Taiwan

Chinese President Xi Jinping told former Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou on Wednesday that outside inferences cannot prevent “family reunions” across the Taiwan Straits and that there are no issues that cannot be discussed.

No current Taiwanese leader has visited China since the defeated Republic of China government fled to Taiwan in 1949 after losing civil war to Mao Zedong’s communists.

Ma Ying-jeou, who served as president from 2008 to 2016, became the first former Taiwanese leader to visit China last year, making his second trip amid simmering military tensions across the Taiwan Strait.

Ma is widely expected to meet Xi Jinping, whom he first met in Singapore in late 2015 and held a landmark summit shortly before Taiwan’s current President Tsai Ing-wen won the election.

Meeting Ma at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, where foreign leaders usually hold talks with senior Chinese officials, Xi said people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait are Chinese.

“External interference cannot stop the historical trend of national and family reunion,” Xi said in comments reported by Taiwanese media.

Xi did not elaborate, but in Chinese terms, external interference in Taiwan typically targets the support Taipei receives from Western countries such as the United States, especially arms sales that anger Beijing.

Xi Jinping pointed out that compatriots on both sides of the Taiwan Strait are all Chinese.

“There is no grudge that cannot be resolved, no issue that cannot be discussed, and no force can separate us.”

China has never renounced the use of force to bring democratically governed Taiwan under its control and has stepped up military and political pressure to assert its sovereignty claims.

Ma Ying-jeou told Xi that the tensions had caused uneasiness among many Taiwanese.

“If there is a war between the two sides, it will be unbearable for the Chinese people,” Ma said, using the term referring to people of Chinese descent rather than nationality.

“Chinese people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait are absolutely wise enough to handle all disputes peacefully and avoid falling into conflict.”

In response to the meeting, Taiwan’s Mainland Policy Development Committee said it deeply regretted that Ma Ying-jeou did not publicly express the Taiwanese people’s insistence on defending the sovereignty and democratic system of the Republic of China. The Republic of China remains Taiwan’s official name.

Beijing should stop intimidating Taiwan and resolve its differences with Taipei through respectful, rational dialogue.

“MR MA YING-JEOU”

Given that neither the Chinese government nor the Taiwanese government officially recognizes the other, Xi Jinping refers to Ma Ying-jeou as “Mr. Ma Ying-jeou” rather than the former president. Jack Ma calls Xi Jinping the leader of the Communist Party of China—General Secretary.

Tsai Ing-wen and her government reject China’s territorial claims, saying only the people of Taiwan can determine their future.

China said it would talk to Tsai Ing-wen only if she recognized that both sides of the Taiwan Strait were part of “one China,” but Tsai Ing-wen refused to do so.

Xi Jinping has made few public remarks on the Taiwan issue in recent months.

In early April, during a phone call with US President Joe Biden, Xi Jinping urged Washington to translate “Biden’s commitment not to support ‘Taiwan independence'” into concrete actions.

Xi Jinping has also made no public comment on Taiwan’s January presidential election, which was won by current Vice President Lai Ching-te, considered a dangerous separatist by Beijing, and took office on May 20.

Ma remains a senior member of Taiwan’s main opposition Kuomintang party, which lost its third consecutive presidential election in January, but has no formal party position.

The Kuomintang advocates maintaining close ties and dialogue with China but strongly denies being pro-Beijing.