TAIPEI, Taiwan, March 26 (UPI) -- Taiwanese President-elect Ma Ying-jeou said he wants to visit Japan, the United States and Singapore before taking office, his party officials said.
Though Taiwan has close ties with those countries, it doesn't have formal diplomatic relations with them, and Chinese officials who administer Taiwan, are unlikely to let Ma make those visits once he takes office, Central News Agency, the state news agency of the Republic of China (Taiwan), said Wednesday.
Ma's aides say it's too early to say whether he will be able to make the visits before taking office considering no other Taiwanese president-elect has ever made a similar trip.
Further complicating the issue, CNA said, was a 1995 speech by former President Lee Teng-hui at Cornell University in New York that contributed to a military escalation between the United States and China in the Taiwan Strait.
Washington rejected appeals by past Taiwan presidents, but some analysts said Ma might be able to visit the United States because of the appeal of his platform on Taiwan-Chinese relations.
