By Chris Wang / Staff reporter
President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) needs to clarify to Taiwanese about his intentions and the agenda behind the proposed meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) at the APEC leaders’ meeting in Beijing in November, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said yesterday.
“The meeting could be discussed, but the president must explain to Taiwanese the objective for the meeting. Does it serve Taiwanese’s interests or his own?” Tsai said to media on the sidelines of an event in Greater Kaohsiung.
“If the meeting serves Taiwan’s interests, Ma also has to explain what benefits there are. More importantly, what price has Taiwan sacrificed to make the meeting happen,” she added.
While several political analysts observed that the possibility for a Ma-Xi meeting would be slim with Ma’s low approval ratings and Xi’s recent meeting with People First Party Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜), Ma still seems keen to pursue the meeting in Beijing.
In an interview published by the Japanese newspaper the Yomiuri Shimbun published on Saturday, Ma was quoted as saying that he still viewed the APEC as “the best occasion” to meet with Xi and his administration, and has been in full gear to make it happen.
Ma has also been reported as saying that his meeting with the Chinese leader would be monitored by the legislature.
However, Tsai said that the legislative monitoring should be “a substantial monitoring” rather than a rubber-stamp process, adding that the people have always questioned the legislature’s capability to supervise the administrative branch since Ma took office in May 2008.