Taiwan Affairs Office spokesman gets new role

Ma Xiaoguang, a spokesman for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, has become a deputy head of the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait recently, according to the association's website.

Ma, also head of the Taiwan Affairs Office's publicity bureau, was born in 1963 and graduated from Peking University. He has long been involved in cross-Strait negotiations and research on Taiwan question.

He has served as the head of the research department of the association, and the association's secretary general.

At the end of 2013, he was appointed as head of the TAO's publicity bureau, and in early 2014, he made his first public appearance as a spokesperson, becoming the fifth spokesperson of the TAO.

Huang Wentao, director of the TAO's exchange bureau, has also become a deputy head of the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait.

Huang, born in April 1963 in Changsha, Hunan province, graduated from Xiamen University. He has extensive experience in Taiwan affairs and previously served as director of the TAO's research bureau.

The Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait was established in Beijing as a public organization on Dec 16, 1991.

According to the ARATS Charter, it aims to boost exchanges across the Taiwan Strait, advance the peaceful development of cross-Strait relations, and realize peaceful reunification of the motherland.