Ma Ying-Jeou Complains to Xi Jinping Over Weapons and Isolation

Taipei: Taiwan's leader Ma Ying-jeou challenged Chinese President Xi Jinping over missiles trained on the island and complained about its international isolation at their landmark summit Saturday.

The two presidents shook hands and exchanged warm words at the historic meeting -- the first since the two sides' traumatic 1949 split.

No agreements appear to have been reached between two sides that still refuse to formally recognise each other's legitimacy.

But Ma was keen to emphasise that he had raised some of the most pressing China-related issues for the Taiwanese electorate as the popularity of his ruling Kuomintang plummets, partly over his Beijing-friendly policy.

In a press briefing after his hour-long meeting with Xi, Ma said he had challenged him over Chinese missiles -- Taiwan's defence ministry says the mainland has 1,500 trained on the island.

"I told Mr Xi one of the major concerns is the Chinese military deployment on the opposite side of the Taiwan Strait, but Mr Xi replied that those are not targeting Taiwan," Ma told reporters.

"This was the first time such issues were talked about between leaders of the two sides, at least I raised the issues, telling him Taiwan people were concerned about this, and I hope he would pay heed to this."

Ma also argued the island should be brought in from the cold internationally.

Only 22 states formally recognise Taiwan, as an ascendant Beijing is now much more widely seen as China's seat of power.

Taiwan lost its United Nations seat to China in 1971 and has been unable to join other international organisations due to Chinese opposition.

"We want him to know we have been very concerned about this issue," said Ma.

"There should not be an issue over priority -- if both sides can attend, each one of us will benefit."

Public backlash

But analysts said the comments were unlikely to have much impact back home.

"Ma would have known in advance he would not get any substantial concessions from Xi on those issues but he had to do it... otherwise, he could hardly tell his country people that he had done his best in the meeting," said George Tsai, political science professor at the Chinese Culture University in Taipei.

In addition he did not stand up to Xi's response over the missiles, says Jonathan Sullivan, Associate Professor at the University of Nottingham's School of Contemporary Chinese Studies.

"Xi replied that the missiles were not directed at Taiwan. This is clearly ludicrous, but Ma did not challenge him on it. This point was the single most jarring moment for me," Sullivan said.

Hundreds of protesters rallied outside the presidential office in Taipei during the summit voicing their anger that Ma was courting what they called the "enemy".

The overwhelming tone of solidarity was likely to outweigh Ma's attempts to raise issues, analysts said.

"He voiced solidarity with Xi hoping that they could work together to make possible the great renaissance of Chinese people," said Tsai.

"I was surprised he said this under Taiwan's current political circumstances. He may meet severe backlash from the opponents."

The China-sceptic Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is already tipped to win presidential elections in January with the summit seen as a bid by China to boost the KMT ahead of a possible rout.

"In the end it was just a photo opportunity," said Nathan Batto, assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica's Institute of Political Science.

"It probably won't really change the elections very much."