President Ma Ying-jeou of Taiwan on Friday defended his decision to meet with President Xi Jinping of China, rejecting accusations that he had undermined Taiwan’s sovereignty.
At a news conference that was at times tense and impassioned, Mr. Ma said that he had no regrets about his meeting with Mr. Xi in Singapore last week. It was the first encounter between leaders of the two sides since the Chinese civil war ended in 1949 with a Communist victory, and with Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalist forces retreating to Taiwan.
“We are smarter than our ancestors,” Mr. Ma told journalists gathered at the presidential palace in Taipei. “We must first seek common ground while accepting differences.”
Mr. Ma, whose term as president ends next year, has faced criticism in Taiwan for having agreed to meet Mr.
Xi.
Critics lampooned their roughly minute-long handshake, before flashing cameras, saying Mr. Ma was too eager to curry favor with mainland China.
Beijing claims Taiwan as a province and has not renounced the use of force to achieve its unification with the mainland. In a sign of the intensity of the antagonism, Mr. Ma’s political opponents this week blocked him from speaking about his meeting before the Taiwanese legislature.
At Friday’s news conference, Mr. Ma again faced questions about whether his gesture had damaged Taiwan’s interests. He said it was necessary for Taiwan to forge closer ties with the mainland to improve the economy and maintain peace, noting that the two sides had worked together to crack down on telephone scams.
Mr. Ma praised Mr. Xi as “very candid, very flexible and very fast at making decisions,” though he said the two had made no plans to see each other again.
The meeting between Mr. Ma and Mr. Xi is expected to weigh heavily on next year’s presidential election in Taiwan. Tsai Ing-wen, the leader of Taiwan’s main opposition party and the front-runner in the race to succeed Mr. Ma next year, has criticized Mr. Ma’s decision to meet with Mr. Xi, saying he did not use the occasion to defend Taiwan’s democratic system.
In response, Ms. Tsai’s Facebook page in recent days has been flooded with critical comments from mainland Chinese.
One person accused people of Taiwan of “forgetting their ancestors,” treating Japan — not China — as their motherland. Another said Taiwanese saw themselves as “superior” to mainlanders.
Ms. Tsai countered by welcoming the commenters from the mainland, where Facebook is blocked.
“I hope the new experience will help our ‘new friends’ to learn more about a democratic, free and diverse Taiwan,” she wrote. “Welcome to the world of Facebook!”
A commenter from Taiwan warned a mainlander against breaching China’s vast Internet censorship apparatus, known as the Great Firewall, to access Facebook.
“It’s very dangerous outside the wall,” the user, identified as Chen Yingan, wrote. “Only the Communist Party, your mother, can protect you. Do not climb over the wall again.”
Zhang Tiantian contributed research.
Follow Javier C. Hernandez on Twitter at @HernandezJavier.