Ex-President Ma departs for 'bridge of peace' trip to China

Taipei, Dec. 18 (CNA) Former Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said Wednesday he aims to build a "bridge of peace," as he embarked on his second visit to China this year.

Ma is leading a group of Taiwanese students from an academy under the Ma Ying-jeou Foundation to visit the provinces of Heilongjiang and Sichuan from Wednesday to Dec. 26.

According to the foundation, the group will attend a variety of events, including a "cross-strait youth ice and snow sculpture festival" in Harbin and a visit to the Giant Panda Museum in Chengdu.

Speaking with reporters at Taoyuan International Airport, Ma said that mutual exchanges between young people were "particularly important, especially in a time when wars are frequent worldwide and cross-strait relations are far more strained compared to when I was in office [from 2008 to 2016]."

"We are doing our utmost to promote youth exchanges across the strait, hoping to build a bridge of peace between the two sides," Ma added.

Ma added that it was his "responsibility" as a former president to "transcend political hostility" and convey the shared desire of people on both sides for exchanges.

The trip is Ma's third to China since leaving office.

Asked about meetings with senior Chinese officials, Ma Ying-jeou Foundation CEO Hsiao Hsu-tsen (蕭旭岑) said that their visits have consistently followed an approach in which they defer to their hosts as guests and follow the host's arrangements.

Ma, the former chairperson of the main opposition Kuomintang (KMT), added that the nine-day trip was arranged quickly following a visit to Taiwan by a group of Chinese students and teachers concluded two weeks ago, organized at the invitation of his foundation.

The Chinese delegation was embroiled in controversy after a student referred to Taiwan's national baseball team -- officially competing under the name "Chinese Taipei" -- as a team from "China Taipei" while speaking to Taiwanese media, triggering protests from some students and a pro-independence group.

Meanwhile, Chilly Chen (陳峻涵), the chairperson of the political group Taiwan Republic, led a group in protest at the airport, shouting slogans such as "Ma Ying-jeou must not become a traitor to Taiwan."

Chen criticized the growing exchanges between the KMT and the Chinese Communist Party, arguing they have heightened cross-strait tensions and raised international concerns about whether Taiwan-China relations are ambiguously aligning with "the KMT's agenda."