People on both sides of the Taiwan Strait are ethnically Chinese and share the same ancestor, former Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou said Tuesday at the start of a historic visit to China that Taiwan's ruling party has criticized.
Ma, in office from 2008 to 2016, is 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.
He is visiting amid heightened tension as Beijing uses political and military means to try and pressure democratically governed Taiwan into accepting Chinese sovereignty.
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