Taiwanese authorities have declined a request by former president Ma Ying-jeou to attend a speaking engagement in Hong Kong.
Ma, who led the island nation of 24 million from 2008 to 2016, was supposed to give a keynote speech on Wednesday at the Society of Publishers in Asia (SOPA) award presentation dinner in Hong Kong, where he was born in 1950.
Taiwan's Presidential Office cited several reasons, including that Ma had only recently left office, lack of preparation time, and the "sensitivity" between Taiwan and the semi-autonomous Chinese territory of Hong Kong.
"As Ma submitted his request just 13 days after he left office, at such short notice, it is unlikely that the new government could discover what kind of classified information he'd accessed and whether he had returned all those documents and completed clearance procedures," Huang said, adding that the lack of precedent of security cooperation between Hong Kong and Taiwan made "risk control difficult."
Under Taiwan's Classified National Security Information Act, former government officials with access to classified information are subject to travel restrictions for three years after leaving office.
Ma left office on May 20 after his mainland-friendly Kuomintang Party (KMT) lost the presidential elections to Tsai Ing-wen of the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). Ma is the first former Taiwanese president to apply for a visit outside the country since the act came into effect in 2003. If approved, he would have been the first former leader of Taiwan to visit Hong Kong since 1949.
A spokesman from Ma's office said the decision showed "disrespect" toward the former leader and "damages Taiwan's democratic image in the world."
KMT vice-chairman Hau Lung-bin decried the "lack of self-confidence and goodwill" from the newly elected President Tsai.
Since returning to Chinese rule in 1997, Hong Kong has enjoyed rights and freedoms not seen in the mainland, thanks to an agreement known as "one country, two systems." But Beijing's increasing presence in Hong Kong has made the Tsai administration wary of security concerns.
The island effectively separated from the mainland in 1949 following China's civil war. Beijing insists that Taiwan still falls under its rule and has vowed to retake the island by force if necessary.
Tsai's DPP has long ruffled feathers in Beijing by refusing to acknowledge that Taiwan is part of China. In contrast, Ma spent his two terms building ties with the mainland at the expense of alienating many of the independence-leaning voters.
Ling Chong-pin, a professor at Tamkang University's Graduate Institute of International Affairs and Strategic Studies in Taipei, said the government's rejection of Ma's trip is likely due to Tsai appeasing the pro-independence hardliners within her party.
"There are growing sentiments questioning [Tsai's] ideals," Lin told Time in a report posted on Monday. "Because everyone believed that her conviction was for Taiwanese independence, but she has been very pragmatic since she was inaugurated. Therefore, internal mistrust is growing."
Yang Lixian, deputy secretary of the National Society of Taiwan Studies in Beijing, said the decision was aimed toward the mainland.
"If the destination was the U.S. or Japan, would she [Tsai] reject it? If Tsai really hopes to improve relations with the mainland, she should have dealt with this in a different way," Yang told the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post newspaper.
SOPA said a video link will be arranged for Ma to speak at the dinner remotely.
"We are disappointed that Mr. Ma cannot be with us in person," SOPA editorial committee chairwoman SK Witcher said in a statement.