Former Taiwan president Ma Ying-jeou to visit China in landmark trip

TAIPEI – Former Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou will visit China this month, his office said on Sunday, the first time a former or current Taiwanese leader is making the trip since the defeated Republic of China government fled to the island in 1949. The trip will be 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. Mr Ma, who remains a senior member of Taiwan's Kuomintang (KMT) opposition party, held a landmark meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Singapore…