Taiwan president's meeting could be a warning to opposition, analyst says

TAIPEI, Taiwan, Nov. 5 (UPI) -- Protests were held in Taiwan after President Ma Ying-jeou announced a historic summit for Nov. 7 with Chinese President Xi Jinping, and Taiwan's press and the anti-Beijing opposition party have expressed their doubts about the meeting.

"What right does [Ma] have to make such an important decision about Taiwan's safety and future when he has [an] approval rating of only 9.2 percent?" Chiu Hsien, an opposition candidate, said, according to the Taipei Times.

Ma has served two terms as president, and in that time Taiwan has grown economically closer to the mainland. But the political maneuvers of Ma's ruling party, the Kuomintang, have led to its waning popularity among voters, and Ma's critics have said the outgoing president wants to burnish his legacy and send a subtle message to the opposition, TIME reported.

Jeffrey Wasserstrom, a history professor at the University of California, Irvine, said that the "meeting too can be seen as a representation of the two sides coming together against a common enemy: Taiwan's opposition Democratic People's Party."

The DPP, Wasserstrom wrote, has favored independence and less reconciliation with China. Taiwan and China claimed separate sovereignties in 1949, and each side claims legitimacy even after Taiwan was expelled from the U.N. as a member state in 1971.

Ma's announcement has placed him in an uncomfortable position in Taiwan, but Taiwan's Central News Agency reported that Ma said he is meeting with Xi for the "happiness of future generations."

From Beijing's perspective, the meeting could be an opportunity for Xi to "subtly consolidate his party's narrative of speaking for all people of Chinese descent the world over," according to Wasserstrom.

"Beijing applauds Ma Ying-jeou's contribution," said George W. Tsai, professor at Chinese Culture University in Taiwan.