President Ma Ying-jeou met on the afternoon of October 22 with a delegation of high-ranking administrators from the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana, USA. In addition to recounting the heroic deeds of the ROC military during the War of Resistance Against Japan, the president also explained the progress and achievements of ROC-US relations in a variety of areas over the past few years.
In remarks, the president stated that the University of Notre Dame is a renowned private university in the US, with graduates from the university having distinguished themselves in many fields. That includes former US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and former American Institute in Taiwan Taipei Office Director Christopher J. Marut, two of the school's many talented graduates. In addition, the university in July of 2013 established the Liu Institute for Asia and Asian Studies, which not only commemorates Tireco Inc. Chairman Robert Liu's (劉偉民) father, General Liu Fang-wu (劉放吾, 1898-1994), a legendary general in the ROC army during World War II, but also promotes the cultivation of talent in Asia-related research, he said.
President Ma remarked that in April of 1942, General Liu led a force of less than 1,000 men, the 113th Regiment of the 38th Division of the ROC Army, into Burma. There they joined forces with Allied troops and inflicted heavy losses on technically advanced and better-equipped Japanese troops, rescuing over 7,000 British soldiers. That encounter, which became known as the Victory at Yenangyaung, generated enormous publicity in China and overseas, marking the ROC military's first major victory outside of China's borders. At the time, national leaders in the ROC, the US, and Great Britain paid tribute to General Sun Li-jen (孫立人) and General Liu, and in 1992 during a visit to the US, former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher also paid her respects to Regiment Commander General Liu.
President Ma explained that following the Battle of Yenangyaung, the United Kingdom and the US decided to relinquish their extraterritorial privileges in the ROC. One year later they also abolished unequal treaties with the ROC, and in 1943 they invited Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) to attend the Cairo Conference. In fact, the president noted, it was the Cairo Conference where the ROC recovered territory it had lost—four provinces in northeastern China, Taiwan, and Penghu. Consequently, the historical significance of that battle was enormous, and showed how important the ROC was in World War II.
Commenting on ROC-US relations, the president said that since he took office in 2008 there have been many positive developments in bilateral cooperation. As for multilateral economic and trade negotiations, he stated that the ROC has been America's closest cooperative partner as it actively pursues negotiations on an Information Technology Agreement Expansion (ITA II), Trade in Services Agreement, and Environmental Goods Agreement under the World Trade Organization framework.
Discussing ROC-US trade relations, the president pointed out that last year, Taiwan vaulted past India and Saudi Arabia to become the 10th largest trading partner of the United States, while the United States outpaced Japan to become Taiwan's second largest trading partner. In the areas of culture and education, he noted that Taiwan was included in the US Visa Waiver Program beginning in November of 2012, becoming the 38th country in the program—and the only one with which the US does not maintain formal diplomatic ties. The US is the largest destination for students from Taiwan studying overseas, with over 21,000 students studying there last year.
President Ma also explained that the government has strengthened ROC-US cooperation in higher education via the Taiwan-United States Sister Relations Alliance and the Taiwan Fellowship program, as well as the signing of cooperative memoranda with many state governments in the US.
He commented that in November of 1947, pursuant to the Fulbright Act of 1946 passed by the US Congress, the ROC and the US jointly established the world's first Fulbright Program, with the ROC becoming the first nation in the world to participate. Since 1957 when the project was resumed in Taiwan, about 1,300 American scholars have received funding to come here to engage in research and deliver lectures, while roughly 1,500 scholars from Taiwan have gone to the US for advanced studies. This program has been extremely important in promoting academic, educational, and cultural interaction between the two countries, the president said.
Also in the delegation were University of Notre Dame's Provost Thomas G. Burish, Assistant Provost for Internationalization Jonathan S. Noble, CA Media's founder and CEO Paul F. Aiello, and Far Eastern Group Chairman Douglas Tong Hsu (徐旭東).