By Zheng Wang
Ma Ying-jeou may be the last Taiwanese president to embrace a “one China” mentality.
Mr. Xi Jinping just met Mr. Ma Ying-jeou in Singapore, an event many media members have praised as historic.
On one level, this is no doubt true; it is the first meeting of the top leaders of Taiwan and China since the start of the Chinese Civil War in 1945. However, the meeting had more symbolic effects than actual results. It was not a meeting to open a better relationship between the two sides. Actually, many have predicted that cross-strait relations will turn hostile again after Taiwan’s presidential election in January 2016, when the more independence-minded Democratic Progressive Party will likely come back to power.
This was also not a meeting that will define the future trend of bilateral relationship. While Xi is becoming more and more powerful and will decide China’s future direction, Ma, on the other hand, no longer represents Taiwan’s future orientation. Actually, Taiwan will go in a quite different direction after his departure from office in several months. If this meeting is historic, it is for a different reason: it is a chance to say farewell to Ma, who will most likely be the last president elected in Taiwan who still has a “one-China” mentality. This meeting is a farewell to the old tradition and paradigm of cross-Strait relations.
Read the full story at The Diplomat
The OTHER view >> The Historic Xi-Ma Meeting: The Bigger Picture