Tsai's administration said on Sunday it had barred Ma from
travelling to Hong Kong to give a speech at a Society of Publishers in
Asia media awards ceremony.
Taiwan
president Ma Ying-jeou answers a question during a news conference
after his trip to the disputed Itu Aba or Taiping island in the South
China Sea, in Taipei, Taiwan, January 28, 2016.
Taiwan's opposition Nationalist
Party slammed the self-ruled island's new government as "suppressive"
for barring former president Ma Ying-jeou from travelling to Chinese-controlled Hong Kong on the grounds of national security.
Ma's China-friendly Nationalists lost landslide elections in January to President Tsai Ing-wen and her Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), which has traditionally leant towards independence from China.
They
said barring Ma from visiting the former British colony of Hong Kong
was "completely unhelpful for Taiwan's internal political reconciliation
and social harmony".
"This suppressive style of the just-sworn-in DPP government is naked to all the people," it said.
Tsai's
administration said on Sunday it had barred Ma from travelling to Hong
Kong to give a speech at a Society of Publishers in Asia media awards
ceremony.
"Based on the international situation
faced by Taiwan and in consideration of national security and interests,
Hong Kong is a highly sensitive area (when it comes to) maintaining our
national security," the Presidential Office said in a statement, adding
that it would be difficult to control the risks of such a visit.
It also said Taiwan and Hong Kong authorities had had no time to coordinate on preparations.
The
DPP has traditionally been more wary of China than Ma's Nationalists.
Its caution comes after a group of Taiwanese were forcibly deported from
Kenya to China for suspected fraud in China in April, a case that
enraged Taiwan.
Some comments on Taiwan social
media at the time questioned whether a precedent was being set of
Taiwanese abroad being "taken away" by China, drawing a parallel with
the case of five booksellers in Hong Kong who temporarily went missing
in mysterious circumstances.
The Society of
Publishers in Asia said in a statement on its website it was
disappointed Ma would not be able to attend but that it planned for him
to speak via a video link.
China has claimed sovereignty over Taiwan since 1949, when Mao Zedong's
forces won the Chinese civil war and Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalists
fled to the island. Communist Party rulers in Beijing have vowed to
bring Taiwan under its rule, by force if necessary.
Hong
Kong returned to Chinese rule in 1997 under a "one country, two
systems" formula which guarantees wide-ranging autonomy for the
financial hub but was the scene of lengthy and sometimes violent
anti-China street protests in 2014 calling for fully democratic
elections.
China had put forward the "one country, two systems" formula as a model for Taiwan to follow, which island leaders rejected.
China
has also repeatedly warned Taiwan of negative consequences if they fail
to recognise Taiwan is a part of China under Beijing's "one China"
principle.
Tsai has said she will maintain the status quo with China, but has not repeated the "one China" principle.
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