Taiwanese opposition leader Tsai Ing-wen extends lead in post-Xi-Ma summit opinion poll

Taiwan's opposition presidential candidate retains a big lead ahead of forthcoming elections, according to two opinion polls released on Monday, despite a historic summit between President Ma Ying-jeou and President Xi Jinping.

The breakthrough meeting on Saturday was the first by the leaders of the two sides since the Chinese civil war ended in 1949, but it has stoked public debate over the island's ties with its giant neighbour in the lead-up to presidential and parliamentary elections in January.

The independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party, or DPP, has accused Ma of trying to revive the chances of the governing Kuomintang in the elections with the surprise summit. An opinion poll by Taiwan's Cross-Strait Policy Association on Sunday showed 48.6 per cent of 1,014 people surveyed supported DPP leader and candidate Tsai Ing-wen while 21.4 per cent backed KMT candidate Eric Chu.

That compared with support of 45.2 per cent for Tsai in mid-October and 21.9 per cent for Chu in an earlier poll by the association, which is comprised of prominent scholars and bipartisan figures.

"The Ma-Xi meeting wasn't aimed at interfering in Taiwan's elections. It is to set the tone for the cross-strait relationship in the post-Ma generation," Pang Chien-kuo, a member of the association, said on Monday.

Tsai has been critical of the summit, saying she was disappointed Ma made no direct mention of Taiwan's freedoms and democracy.