Chinese President Xi meets former Taiwan leader Ma Ying-jeou on pro-unification visit

Associated Press

BEIJING (AP) — Chinese President Xi Jinping has met with former Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou in Beijing in a bid to promote unification between the sides that separated amid civil war in 1949. Ma stepped down as president in 2016 and was largely excluded from the opposition Nationalist Party’s failed campaign to retake the presidency in January. He follows a long line of politicians from the Nationalists, also known as the KMT, who have been invited to China and given VIP treatment. China claims Taiwan as its own territory, to be annexed by force if necessary, and sends ships and warplanes around the island on a daily basis. Independence leaning president-elect Lai Ching-te won the Taiwanese election in January.