Former Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou is "at his host's disposal" when it comes to meetings with senior leaders during a trip to China this month, but there are no plans for him to visit Beijing, a senior official from Ma's office said Monday.
Ma will be the first former or current Taiwanese president to visit China since the defeated Republic of China government fled to Taiwan in 1949 at the end of a civil war with the communists, where it remains to this day.
The trip comes at a time of heightened tensions between Beijing and Taipei as China keeps up its military and political pressure to try and get democratically elected Taiwan to accept Chinese sovereignty.