"We are all Chinese"

Former Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou set the tone for his historic 12-day trip to China by calling for calmer relations between Taipei and Beijing.

"We are all Chinese"

Former Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou set the tone for his historic 12-day trip to China by calling for calmer relations between Taipei and Beijing.

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EPA/RITCHIE B. TONGO

He also pointed to the common origin of the two peoples.

"We are all Chinese," Ma said Tuesday in Nanjing, where he spoke in front of the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum. "The people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait are Chinese and both are descendants of the Yan and Yellow Emperors", he added.

Ma became the first current or former Taiwanese head of government to visit the mainland when his plane arrived in Shanghai on Monday afternoon. He is traveling amid heightened tensions with China, which stepped up military exercises in the Taiwan Strait last year and vowed to reunite with the island, by force if necessary.

Taiwan's ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) criticized Ma's trip to China - noting that it came just days after China ousted Honduras, one of the island's few ruling allies - and accused his opposition Kuomintang (KMT) of supporting "Chinese Communists", RT reported.