Mainland Chinese students arrive in Taiwan for visit aimed at easing tensions

The group, invited by former Taiwanese president Ma Ying-jeou, is the first major academic delegation to travel to the island in three years
The trip is expected to be closely monitored by Taipei authorities amid fears of potential espionage by Beijing

Taiwan

Lawrence Chungin Taipei

Published: 7:00pm, 15 Jul 2023

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A group of mainland Chinese students arrived in Taiwan on Saturday for a nine-day visit, becoming the first major academic delegation from the mainland to travel to the island in three years.

The group of 37 students and faculty members from five prominent mainland universities was invited by former Taiwanese president Ma Ying-jeou to promote understanding between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait.

“This is the first visit by a major university student delegation from the mainland since cross-strait exchanges were suspended and [relations worsened] to the point of the brink of war under the rule of the government of [Taiwanese President] Tsai Ing-wen,” Hsiao Hsu-tsen, director of the Ma Ying-jeou Foundation, said on Saturday.

Hsiao, who greeted the mainland visitors upon their arrival, said at the airport their trip served to alleviate the escalating tensions and was conducive to promoting cross-strait peace.

Mainland China to send academic group to Taiwan after 3-year pause

Beijing claims sovereignty over Taiwan and has vowed to bring it under its control, by force if necessary. Most countries, including the United States – Taiwan’s biggest informal ally – do not recognise the island as an independent state, but oppose any unilateral change in the cross-strait status quo by force.

Cross-strait hostilities have grown since Tsai was elected the island’s leader in 2016 and refused to accept the one-China principle, which subsequently led Beijing to suspend official exchanges with Taipei and step up sabre-rattling against the island.

Questions about whether the island faces a potential cross-strait attack have dominated headlines in recent years, and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine sparked renewed speculation about Beijing’s military intentions concerning Taiwan.

Hsiao said that in Ma’s first visit to the mainland at the end of March, he hoped to reduce the chances of a cross-strait conflict by increasing exchanges and understanding between young people from the two sides.

Hsiao said Ma believed young people held the future of cross-strait ties, which was why the foundation invited the group to visit and gain a better understanding of the local situation.

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Ma, Taiwan’s first democratically elected leader to have visited the mainland, led a group of Taiwanese students on a 10-day trip to several mainland cities from March 27, during which he paid tribute to his ancestors in the central province of Hunan and met students from Wuhan University, Hunan University and Fudan University.

In addition to students from those three universities, Ma’s foundation also invited students from Peking University and Tsinghua University to meet Taiwanese peers from National Chengchi University, Chinese Culture University and National Taiwan University in Taipei as well as National Dong Hwa University in eastern Taiwan’s Hualien county.

The group, led by Hao Ping, a former mainland vice-minister of education and former president of Peking University, started its first day with a tour of the TSMC Museum of Innovation run by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co – the world’s largest contract chip maker – in Hsinchu south of Taipei.

The delegation also includes Ding Ning, a 2016 Olympic gold medallist in table tennis, who was among the representatives from Peking University.

They will visit several major tourist spots and night markets in Taiwan before returning to the mainland on July 23, according to the foundation.

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In a Facebook post on Thursday, Ma, who turned 73 that day, said the visit was the gift he wanted most for his birthday as he believed the trip would help improve cross-strait relations and exchanges and promote peace.

The group’s visit is expected to be closely monitored by authorities, including security and immigration units as well as the Mainland Affairs Council – Taiwan’s cross-strait policy planner – amid fears of potential espionage by Beijing.

It took Taiwanese authorities until Tuesday to finally approve the group’s visitor applications sent on June 8.

As relations between the two sides have soured, Taiwan has been strict about allowing mainland groups to visit the island, especially those with official status since the outbreak of Covid-19 on the island in early 2020.