Historic meeting unlikely to bring China, Taiwan closer together

TAIPEI, Taiwan—The leaders of China and Taiwan will meet this weekend in Singapore to discuss cross-strait relations, the first meeting of its kind since the Chinese Nationalists fled to the island of Taiwan in 1949. Chinese President Xi Jinping and Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou have agreed to address each other as “mister” to avoid disagreements about their status. The leaders also announced they will not sign formal agreements or issue any joint statements during the meeting.

Despite its historic nature, the meeting comes at a time when a lasting change in cross-strait relations would be especially difficult to secure. Taiwan is merely two months away from general elections that likely will usher in a president less friendly to Beijing, and public sentiment in Taiwan is largely against closer ties with China, which continues to claim Taiwan as its territory. China believes in an eventual reunification with the island, and is willing to use force if necessary.

In the past eight years, relations between Taiwan and China have improved under the Ma administration. The two regions have started direct flights and signed 23 agreements on trade, investment, and tourism. While Taiwanese businessmen applauded the agreements, younger Taiwanese citizens oppose closer ties with China, fearing they will allow the mainland to extend political control to the island. That upswell of anger resulted in the Sunflower Movement demonstrations in April 2014, when about 500,000 people gathered on the streets to protest a trade pact with China. Ma’s approval rating dipped below 20 percent.

Ma’s beleaguered Kuomingtang (KMT) party is expected to face heavy losses in the upcoming election. Its presidential candidate, Eric Chu, trails behind the Democratic Progressive Party’s Tsai Ing-wen by 20 percentage points. Some in Taiwan, including Tsai, questioned whether Ma chose to “manipulate” the talks ahead of the elections to give his party a boost. Tsai complained such an important meeting came as a surprise rather than through transparent discussions.

“I must point out that Ma’s term as president will soon be ending, we therefore would absolutely not allow him to promise something that he cannot be responsible for to gain political reputation for himself,” Tsai said. “He has no right to do so.”

In response, Ma argued the talks had been in the works for about two years and said he hoped they would set a precedent for contact between the leaders, regardless of who is elected president. He said he hoped meeting with Xi would end Taiwan’s diplomatic isolation in the international community. Under pressure from Beijing, Taiwan is currently excluded from the United Nations and other multinational organizations. It is allowed to compete in the Olympics but only as “Chinese Taipei.” Taiwan is only formally recognized by 22 countries.

“The object of our decision is not the next election,” Ma said at a news conference. “It’s the happiness of the next generation.”

The future relationship between Beijing and Taipei after the elections remains uncertain, as the expected victors have an official platform of promoting Taiwanese independence. Tsai has stuck with a more moderate position of “maintaining the status quo” of de facto independence but has remained vague about what exactly that would look like.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.