Today, President Chen Shui-bian received Mr. Michel Rocard, the former French prime minister and a current member of the European Parliament. After a most cordial welcome, the two leaders discussed issues regarding the European Union and cross-Strait relations.
President Chen explained that since 1992, Mr. Rocard's last visit here, Taiwan has experienced rapid changes. In 1992, the entire Legislature was popularly re-elected. In 1994, county and city mayors were popularly elected. The first direct election of the president was held in 1996, and 2000 was the first ever change in political party in power. In 2004, the first referendum was held and this year, elections were held for the first ad hoc National Assembly to reform the constitution. These events happened for the first time in Taiwan's history, and such democratic growth and development harmoniously reflect the spirit of the French Republic -Freedom, Equality and Fraternity.
President Chen stated that as the representative of the government and the people of Taiwan, he wanted to express his deepest respect and gratitude to Mr. Rocard who in 1989 was the French Prime Minister during the Tiananmen Square massacre and had approved the sale of naval patrol vessels to Taiwan. In April this year, as member of the European Parliament, Mr. Rocard sent a letter to Dr. Lee Jong-wook, the Director General of the World Health Organization, expressing his concern and support for Taiwan to gain an observer status in the World Health Assembly. Even though only the day before, Taiwan was denied such a status for the ninth time, President Chen still wanted to properly thank Mr. Rocard for his assistance.
The President said that he is truly able to respect and understand French President Chirac's position and his behavior meant to protect France's national interest, but has actually been harmful for Taiwan. For example, in January 2004, President Chirac publicly opposed the call to referendum in Taiwan. However, in reality referendums are commonplace in France with at least ten national referendums held during the period of its Fifth Republic. The duration of the French presidential term has even been subjected to popular vote, and on May 29, the French people will hold a referendum on the European Constitution. In light of these, it is surprising for President Chirac to oppose referendums in Taiwan. Fortunately, the election held a few days ago for the ad hoc National Assembly showed that 83 percent of the electorate decided in favor of a constitutional referendum. In the future, the Taiwan people, like the French, will be empowered to hold a referendum on their own constitutional amendments.
Regarding President Chirac's support to lift the embargo on weapons sales to China, President Chen said that in truth, after the Tiananmen Square massacre, China has, even till this day, found no way to improve its human rights. The United States and other countries have also held the opinion that it is not the right time especially with the passage of China's Anti-separation Law. If the embargo against weapons sales to China were lifted, it would be tantamount to sending the wrong message, or the uncalled-for endorsement to China in its attempts to make use of non-peaceful means to settle differences across the Taiwan Strait. President Chen expressed his strong disagreement with this on behalf of Taiwan's 23 million people.
The President thanked the European Parliament for their long-term friendship and assistance to Taiwan including support for the many attempts to gain observer status in the WHA, demanding that China abandon the use of force against Taiwan and adopt peaceful means such as open dialogue to solve disputes, as well as opposition against the European Union's lifting of the weapons sales embargo against China. President Chen stressed that lifting that ban at this time would be equal to encouraging undemocratic China to attack democratic Taiwan, clearly a violation of the ideals of the French Republic.
Mr. Rocard then asked President Chen his views on the visits to the Mainland by opposition leaders at the invitation of China. The President replied that all of the various analyses and conclusions should be appropriately taken into consideration. For example, some people believed that China's President Hu Jintao issued the invitations in an effort to defuse the reaction and international pressure caused by their passage of the Anti-separation Law. Others said that this was a scheme of China's united front tactics in order to divide Taiwan and isolate its government and its president. And some have said the opposition parties tried to turn the visits into a trump card to meet domestic political consumption, including playing the so-called "cross-strait card" in the May 14 ad hoc National Assembly election.
President Chen said that taking Taiwan's failure yesterday to join the WHA as the focal point, if China health minister Gao Qiang's statement proved to be true in claiming that both opposition leaders talked of Taiwan having no sovereign rights and leading China to adopt this obstructive action, then their visits to China not only failed to gain Taiwan greater international presence, but on the contrary and to our regret, deepened the belittling, marginalizing and localizing of Taiwan.
The President said that China is not actually that intelligent at all, misjudging the situation, failing to understand and underestimating the Taiwan society. The peace bridge built by the two opposition leaders with great effort has now come to a bad state of affairs after the WHA outcome. If China, during that period, had shown any goodwill, perhaps things might be different, but now all had come down to nothing. The President emphasized that China's oppressive actions against Taiwan would only continue to alienate the Taiwanese people, making the gap between the people of both sides even more distant. However, we will not give up in our efforts to reach cross-strait reconciliation and dialogue despite this incident. No matter how big the differences, we should resolve the disputes through peaceful dialogue.
Regarding the successful formation of the European Union, President Chen said that it was the outcome of three principles: Democracy, Reciprocity and Peace. It would not have been possible with one of these elements missing. In the process of forming the Union, if the member states had differences and lacked reciprocity, threatened with the use of force and did not respect the members' rights to democratic options, the European Union would not have been successful. The future of cross-Strait ties should also adhere to these three principles, every one of them. The President expressed his hope that French President Chirac would articulate these three principles to Chinese President Hu Jintao so they could use them as reference points for future reconciliation.
Finally, President Chen said that he stood alongside President Chirac during the April 8 Funeral Mass for Pope John Paul II. He asked Mr. Rocard to convey his warmest regards to President Chirac and expressed his wish to meet with him again.
Mr. Rocard responded that he was impressed by President Chen's incisive and insightful assessment of international affairs and that he would bring all of these observations back to France. He said that indeed, the process of forming the European Union involved some very sophisticated principles that enabled the member states to engage in close cooperation. But it was not easy and entailed paying a high price. Mr. Rocard said he hoped that both sides of the Taiwan Strait would soon reach such cooperation without paying such a high price. In view of his firm political convictions, he personally has a high regard and interest in Taiwan even though cross-Strait relations experience some difficulty on the international stage. He expressed belief that with patience, persistence and prevention of conflicts, anticipated outcomes could be obtained.
Vice Foreign Minister Ou Yang-ruey accompanied Mr. Rocard on his visit to President Chen. Mr. James C.F Huang, the Deputy Secretary General of the Office of the President, was also present during the meeting.