Students from seven leading mainland Chinese universities, including two Olympic champions, will visit Taiwan later this month at the invitation of the island’s former leader Ma Ying-jeou.
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According to Ma Ying-jeou Foundation director Hsiao Hsu-tsen, the 40-strong delegation of students and faculty members will arrive in Taiwan on November 27 for a nine-day visit.
The second such trip since July last year comes at a time of soaring tensions across the Taiwan Strait, with people-to-people exchanges at historic lows.
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The students from Peking University, Tsinghua University, Fudan University, Sun Yat-sen University, Zhejiang University, Fujian Normal University and Beijing Sport University will meet their peers from six Taiwanese universities, according to the island’s media.
The delegation will include table tennis legend Ma Long, a six-time Olympic champion who will represent Beijing Sport University, and shooter Yang Qian, a Tokyo Olympics double gold medallist who studies at Tsinghua University.
“In the face of unprecedented tension in cross-strait relations and the need for people-to-people exchanges, the visit of students from these prestigious mainland universities to interact with university students in Taiwan will help to ease the cross-strait atmosphere and amplify the message of peace,” Hsiao told reporters in Taipei.
A similar visit organised by the foundation last year had yielded positive outcomes, Hsiao said, adding that fostering more youth exchanges “is crucial for the development of cross-strait relations”.
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