Ma Ying-jeou's historic visit to mainland China.

Former Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou, a senior member of Taiwan’s Kuomintang opposition party, will visit mainland China next week, the first such trip by a former Taiwanese leader since the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949. While the trip is ostensibly a private one, it is filled with historic symbolism and comes at a time of deepening tensions over the future of Taiwan. China’s leader Xi Jinping has ramped up economic, diplomatic and military pressure on Taiwan ever since the Democratic Progressive Party took power in 2016.