The planned meeting between former Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou and Chinese leader Xi Jinping will now be held on April 10th. The meeting was originally scheduled to be held on April 8th, after Ma and the student delegation he is leading arrived in Beijing.
However, the delegation received notice of the new itinerary on April 6th during their visit to the city of Xi’an.
Sources say that the reason for the meeting between Ma and Xi is to increase publicity on Taiwan Strait issues before the summit between Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and U.S. President Joe Biden, scheduled to be held on April 10th. The meeting also occurs before the April 11th trilateral U.S.-Japan-Philippines summit, which will focus on regional issues such as the Taiwan Strait and the East China Sea.
The reason why China rescheduled the meeting to April 10th is likely to take attention away from both summits as well as increase coverage of China’s narrative about Taiwan.
