Where Was Former Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou Born?

Why does it matter?

Taiwan's former president, Ma Ying-jeou (C), speaks to journalists before his visit to China from the Taoyuan international airport in Taiwan on March 27, 2023. Ma's travel to China is the first cross-strait visit by a current or former leader of Taiwan in more than 70 years, though he will not visit Beijing and has no current plans to meet Chinese government officials, his spokesman said on March 20. Sam Yeh/AFP via Getty Images

Commentary

In 2009, a controversy arose during then-President Ma Ying-jeou’s administration (2008–2016) concerning his Taiwan birthplace. Due to his supposed first visit to communist China last week, questions about this story are returning. How will this story play out during his visit?

This article will lay out the historical background and ask important questions about Ma and the future of Taiwan.

Why Bring This Topic Up Now?

The Chinese city of Shenzhen had a curious announcement on March 21. The Shenzhen Daily said the following in English on its website:

“Spokesperson extends welcome to Ma Ying-jeou.

“A mainland spokesperson yesterday extended a welcome to former Taiwan leader Ma Ying-jeou, who will visit the mainland March 27.

“Ma Xiaoguang, a spokesperson for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, said the mainland is willing to do its part to facilitate Ma Ying-jeou’s visit, and wished him a good journey.

“Ma Ying-jeou will visit the mainland to pay respects to his ancestors ahead of the Qingming Festival, or Tomb-sweeping Day.

“In the meantime, he will lead a group of Taiwan students who will come to the mainland for communication and exchanges.

“Paying respects to ancestors around the Qingming Festival is a tradition shared by people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait, said Ma Xiaoguang. He added that by enhancing communication, young people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait can create new impetus for the peaceful development of cross-Strait relations.

“'Ma Ying-jeou will visit Nanjing, Wuhan and Changsha, as well as other cities, said Hsiao Hsu-tsen, director of the Ma Ying-jeou Foundation, at a press conference in Taipei yesterday.’”

Why would the Shenzhen Daily post a welcome message in English before Ma’s visit to China? Is there a special relationship between Ma and Shenzhen? Let us look at the historical background.

A man sets up his camera as he looks across Deep Bay toward the Chinese mainland city of Shenzhen's (back) skyline from Hong Kong on Sept. 12, 2018. Anthony Wallace/AFP via Getty Images

1 Birth Certificate: 2 Discrepancies

On Nov. 24, 1980, Ma’s first daughter was born in Massachusetts while he was studying law.

When someone is born in the United States, the state requires the parents to provide their names, occupations, ages, where they were born, and other information, and to testify that the information is correct by signing the birth certificate. In this example, Ma signed the birth certificate and testified that he was born in Shenzhen.

In the same birth certificate that Ma signed, he certified “that the information provided in this form is true and correct,” former First Lady Christine Mei-Ching Chow’s birthplace is listed as “Nanking, China.” However, Chow claims that she was born in Hong Kong in 1952. Chow is also a lawyer who graduated from the New York University School of Law.

Additional Evidence That Ma Was Born in Shenzhen

According to press reporting in 2009, at least three different documents showed that Ma had claimed his birthplace was Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, not Hong Kong under UK rule. DPP Legislator Chai Trong-rong argued that Ma had lied about his birthplace.

According to Taipei Times, “Chai said that between 1981 and 1982, Ma signed three documents that proved he was not born in Hong Kong. Ma wrote in his first unpublished autobiography and on the birth certificate of his daughter Lesley Ma (馬唯中) that he was born in Shenzhen. In a second autobiography, Ma wrote Guangdong Province as his birthplace. Shenzhen is in Guangdong Province.”

“Showing copies of the three manuscripts at a press conference yesterday, Chai told reporters that Ma’s signatures on the three documents were identical, hence the documents were authentic,” the report said.

Shenzhen is next to Hong Kong, but by 1949, communist China controlled Shenzhen.

Michael Richardson, a Boston Examiner investigative reporter, points out in a recent article that “If Ma was really born in China, as he certified in 1980, that makes his Hong Kong story a deliberate falsification for political purposes. If Ma was really born in Hong Kong, then one is forced to ask why would Ma have lied on his daughter’s birth certificate?”

Ma’s Official Record

According to the official Republic of China (ROC, Taiwan’s official name) Presidential website, Ma’s family was “originally from Hengshan County in Hunan Province on the Chinese mainland, and born in Hong Kong”—Yau Ma Tei, British Hong Kong on July 13, 1950. According to his former office’s website, his family escaped Hengshan County in Hunan Province to Hong Kong, where he was born. A year later, his family moved to Taiwan.

What Other Information Is Available?

Ma’s presidential spokesperson Wang Yu-chi traveled to Hong Kong and claimed that he was able to find Ma’s Hong Kong birth certificate showing that Ma was born in Hong Kong.

According to Baidu, the dominant internet search engine in China, Chow was born in Hong Kong and is a native of Nanjing. This might explain her notation that she is “from” (ancestral home) Nanjing, as she wrote on her first daughter’s birth certificate. Ma’s biography on the same website states that his ancestral home is Hengshan County, Hunan Province, which is over 397 miles away from Hong Kong or Shenzhen.

Ma’s Recent Trip to China

If Ma goes to Shenzhen to visit his relatives, this action will reinforce the previously held argument that it is Ma’s birthplace. If nothing happens in Shenzhen, then the official story could hold true. The question remains as to why Ma wrote Shenzhen as his birthplace on at least three documents prior to his presidency.

Could it be that he and his wife did not want to claim their birthplace as Hong Kong on these documents because they did not want to acknowledge that a part of China was controlled by a foreign colonial power, the United Kingdom?

KMT Party Fears Ma’s Trip Will Help the Opposition

Several Koumintant (KMT) leaders have stated that Ma’s visit to China could have a negative effect on national elections in January 2024 by reminding voters that the KMT wants “reunification” sooner rather than later. In contrast, the majority of the population does not want any sort of Chinese annexation, even a Hong Kong “light version.” The messaging coming from Ma during his visit, as well as how the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) describes his visit, may be key to the 2024 election.

According to the December 2022 survey of Taiwanese citizens’ political views about unification and independence conducted by the Election Study Center, National Chengchi University, only 1.2 percent of those surveyed want unification as soon as possible, and 6 percent want to maintain the status quo and move toward unification. In other words, only 7.2 percent want any sort of unification; 87.2 percent prefer the status quo or move toward independence. And 5.6 percent had no response. The current public opinion indicates the KMT faces challenges in the 2024 elections, especially if it appears too focused on unification or if the DPP forces the political discourse in this area. Ma’s visit to the mainland will not help the KMT.

Then-Taiwan President of the ruling Kuomintang Party Ma Ying-jeou and his wife Chou Mei-ching smile as they step on stage after voting results showed that he won the election at his campaign headquarters in Taipei on Jan. 14, 2012. Aaron Tam/AFP/Getty Images

Other KMT Mistakes

The KMT downplays Ma’s historical record of decreasing Taiwan’s national security in several areas during his eight years in office, such as removing mandatory conscription to an all-volunteer military force in 2014, reducing service time from one year to four months by 2016, and destabilizing Taiwan’s defense budget.

Taiwanese national security experts I interviewed argue Ma reduced the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ budget, and eviscerated the Ministry of National Defense’s Political Warfare Department and the Psychological Warfare Department that did so much to counter CCP propaganda and cognitive warfare.

Ma’s Massive Intelligence Failure

Ma’s opening of Taiwan to communist China brought about the “dark decade” due to the massive CCP espionage against Taiwan—the worst national security crisis since the establishment of the ROC. Peter Mattis, an intelligence expert, explained:

“From 2006 to the present [2016], more than 40 Taiwanese citizens were prosecuted for espionage and espionage-related crimes involving China, including serving and retired officials, military officers, and businesspeople. ... No part of the Taiwan government has been exempt, including the Office of the President, the National Security Bureau, the Ministry of Justice, and the military. ... The cost was not just to Taiwan’s national security, but to its reputation for integrity and probably the willingness of foreign partners to collaborate in addressing shared intelligence and counterintelligence concerns related to China.”

Even Ma’s office was not exempted from Mattis’s indictment. Authors I. C. Smith and Nigel West, in their book, “Historical Dictionary of Chinese Intelligence” (2018), noted that in “2009 a presidential aide, Wang Jen-ping, was convicted of having sold more than 100 confidential documents to the MSS [China’s Ministry of State Security] over the previous two years.”

Divide and Conquer

While in China, Ma parroted the CCP anti-Japanese propaganda by highlighting the trauma that Imperial Japan caused during World War II when he visited the Nanjing memorial. Taiwanese people, companies, and government all have friendly relations with Japan.

Ma’s incitement of anti-Japanese sentiment aligns with the CCP anti-Japanese propaganda infused in daily life in China, and is reflected in contemporary movies like “Ip Man.” Another example was the intense anti-Japanese sentiment expressed on Weibo shortly after former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s assassination. The CCP could have, but did not, shut down this virulent discourse.

The CCP’s endorsed anti-Japanese propaganda, a divide and conquer tactic, contributed to bad feelings between Japan and Taiwan during perilous times—a possible kinetic war against Taiwan.

Reversing the Trend

The current DPP government is successfully reversing the damage done by the KMT to Taiwan’s national security. Over the past several years, the DPP has consistently increased the national defense budget from a low of $9.663 billion in 2016 to $12.958 billion by 2021.

The DPP continued to increase the defense budget in 2022 to $16.9 billion when accounting for the additional special budget and planned to grow to $18.1 billion (using a compound annual growth rate) by 2026, along with a fortuitous loan of $2 billion from the United States during the 2023–2027 period.

This $2 billion loan guarantee in the 2023 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) allows Taiwan to purchase weapons via the Foreign Military Financing Loan and Loan Guarantee Authority (FMF) for the first time.

The $2 billion in aid allows Taiwan to increase its deterrence against CCP aggression and sends a message that the United States is willing to make a financial commitment, military hardware sales, and a moral commitment to Taiwan.

Conclusion

When former President Ma returns to Taiwan, will anyone ask him how he helped the island nation maintain its democracy and freedoms (as clearly delineated in the ROC Constitution) and enhance Taiwan’s security?

The answer is he will not have done any of these things, and he has consistently degraded Taiwan’s democracy, freedom, and national security.

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.