TAIPEI, Dec 18 (AFP): Former Taiwanese president Ma Ying-jeou headed to China on Wednesday for a trip he said was aimed at building "a bridge for peace", after Beijing last week intensified military drills around the island.
Ma, who belongs to the Beijing-friendly main opposition party Kuomintang, was president of the democratic island from 2008 to 2016.
He oversaw warmer relations between Taiwan and China which culminated in a 2015 summit between him and Chinese President Xi Jinping-a rare meeting of Beijing and Taipei's leaders.
Tensions soared after Ma's successor Tsai Ing-wen of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) took office in 2016 and rejected China's claim of sovereignty over the self-ruled island.
Ma, who is leading a student delegation for the trip, said exchanges between young people in China and Taiwan were important when "cross-strait relations are far more tense than when we were in power."
He said he hoped such contact would help to "build a bridge for peace across political danger".
"I often say that there will be fewer conflicts between the two sides in the future with more cross-strait youth exchanges and deeper understanding between them," Ma told reporters at Taipei's international airport before his flight to Shanghai.
The group will visit the northeastern city of Harbin and the southwestern city of Chengdu, Hsiao Hsu-tsen from the Ma Ying-jeou Foundation said previously.
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