Liberty Times
During his 2012 presidential campaign, Ma Ying-jeou had stated in November 2011 that if reelected, he would "absolutely never meet with mainland leaders over the future four years". However, Ma's administration had repeatedly proposed a meeting between him and Xi Jinping since November 2012, after Xi was elected General Secretary of the Communist Party of China (Paramount leader). The 2015 meeting was proposed by Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) Director Zhang Zhijun during a discussion on cross-strait affairs with Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Minister Andrew Hsia in Guangzhou, China in October 2015. Initially, Hsia proposed that the meeting take place during the APEC Philippines 2015 in Manila, Philippines. However, Zhang found the recommendation to be unsuitable. Later, Hsia suggested the meeting occur in Singapore, where the Wang–Koo summit was held on 27–29 April 1993, the first cross-strait negotiation after a meeting one year earlier in British Hong Kong. Details of the meeting were leaked by Taiwanese newspaper "Liberty Times" on 3 November 2015, and were officially confirmed over the following days.