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Ma flooded with questions

By Wu Jiao (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-12-04 07:01

Mainlanders may be getting increasingly familiar with media conversations with the central leadership but few of them have talked with the Taiwan leader.

So once they got the chance, the response was overwhelming: 8,412 questions for Taiwan leader Ma Ying-jeou in just a week. The questions kept pouring in after it was announced Ma would give an interview to the Taipei-based Radio Taiwan International (RTI), which would be broadcast live on the mainland.

The questions posted on the Hong Kong-based ifeng.com website, co-sponsor of the radio interview, were on subjects such as cross-Taiwan Straits policies and Ma's daily life, and their tones ranged from affectionate to solemn.

Up to 90 percent of the questions were on the reunification of the island with the motherland, with some mainlanders praising Ma for "his peaceful cross-Straits policy and (for) not been distracted by pro-independence forces". Some people went further, demanding a resolute answer from Ma to "Are you a Chinese?"

Some netizens are worried over the arms sales to Taiwan by the US, and how the island will cope with the current financial crisis.

Others asked whether Ma had relatives on the mainland and if he would allow his daughters to marry mainlanders. Ma has two daughters, who are studying in US universities.

But to the disappointment of many, Ma's response to the question on whether he would visit the mainland was that "time is not ripe yet" and visiting the mainland "is not the most urgent issue" for him now. Ma was born in Hong Kong but his forefathers were from Hunan province.

The other question Ma took was about a hit Taiwan movie, Cape No. 7. He urged the mainland authorities to screen the film.

Last month, the mainland media reported the film would be imported by China Film Group Corporation and probably screened in December. But Taiwan's United Daily News said on Monday that the mainland had reversed its decision.

Yuan Wenqiang, general manager of the China Film Group Corporation's import-export arm, said the company's officials were in talks with the mainland censor board over the film.

The State Film Bureau, the film industry's top regulator, declined to comment.

Some mainland women, like their Taiwan counterparts, have been fascinated by Ma's good looks. They asked the Harvard law graduate how he had maintained his youthful looks despite being 58 years old.

One netizen asked him: "Don't you feel tired after your busy schedule everyday? and What kind of exercises do you do to keep fit?"

Though only two questions raised by the mainland netizens were selected for the interview, mainlanders still felt it was a healthy exercise.

"We should have more such direct dialogues to improve cross-Straits ties further," said a netizen on ifeng.com.

But this is not the first time mainlanders have talked with a Taiwan leader on the radio. Ma's predecessor Chen Shui-bian, of the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party, gave an interview to the RTI after being elected the island's leader in 2000.

Chen, who later angered many with his radical pro-dependence moves, had told mainlanders that his ancestors were from Fujian province and even proposed a visit to the mainland, creating quite a sensation then.