Ma Ying-jeou, leading a delegation from Taiwan, arrived in Shanghai on Monday afternoon (March 27) to start a visit to the Chinese mainland until April 7, making him the first former leader of the island to visit the mainland.
He was welcomed at a Shanghai airport by senior members of the Communist Party of China Central Committee's Taiwan Work Office and Shanghai Committee. According to Xinhua News Agency, the team departed for Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, on Monday afternoon.
Ma will lead the young Taiwan students to strengthen exchanges with their counterparts on the mainland and offer prayers to his ancestors on the occasion of Tomb Sweeping Day while on the trip. The delegation will also stop by Wuhan, Changsha, and Chongqing on the mainland.
Ma stated that it was his first trip to the mainland in a brief address at a Taoyuan, Taiwan, airport prior to his departure, according to the island's Chinatimes.com website.
"In fact, when I was 37 years old, I dealt with cross-Straits affairs in the government. I am 73 years old now, and I have waited 36 years for the opportunity to visit the mainland. It was indeed a long time, but I am glad I can go there," he said.
The mainland welcomes Ma's visit and is willing to provide necessary assistance, Ma Xiaoguang, spokesman for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, said in a statement earlier this month.
"It's a Chinese tradition to pay careful attention to ancestor worship, and it's also a common custom of the compatriots on both sides of the Taiwan Straits to do such things on Qingming," he said.
Ma served as the island leader between 2008 and 2016, during which the two sides of the Taiwan Straits saw wide exchanges and cooperation on the basis of adhering to the 1992 Consensus, which embodies the one-China principle, and opposing "Taiwan independence".
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