President Chen Shui-bian received Mr. Arthur Sulzberger Jr., chairman and publisher of the New York Times Company, and his wife this morning. The president expressed his welcome to the visitors and exchanged views with them on issues of common interest.
The president said that Sulzberger's grandfather, the third generation publisher of the New York Times, visited Taiwan in 1952 and 1957. During these two visits, he was received at the presidential residence. This time, he chose this historical place, the 104-year-old Taipei Guest House, to welcome Chairman Sulzberger. The place they met is also of historical significance. On February 24 this year, he and James Soong, chairman of the People First Party, met at the same site in a historical government-opposition reconciliation, and four days later, a meeting took place there between him and former U.S. President Bill Clinton in his first visit here after leaving office.
The president also commended Sulzberger for leading the New York Times to eminence in the U.S. media world and winning the Pulitzer's Prizes. The New York Times Company was ranked No. 1 for five consecutive years in Fortune Magazine's list of America's Most Admired Companies. Besides that, the New York Times also has a cooperation agreement with the local United Daily News under which sections of the Sunday NYT are published in the Chinese-language daily every Monday.
The president pointed out that Sulzberger was still quite young when he was appointed chairman of the New York Times in 1992. But he made the New York Times a vivid and dazzling publication. Taking himself as an example, the president said he wasn't even 50 when he was running for the presidency. Many people labelled him as being too young, but in fact, young leaders, including Mr. Sulzberger, are the trend of the time.
The president agrees with chairman Sulzberger's statement made the day before and said the newspaper is definitely a mirror of a politician. Though he could not agreed with some of the reports, as a politician, he still humbly accepted the criticisms. He said it is only under the severe monitoring and criticism could he know how to make improvement.
The president said that he absolutely defends the freedom of press. He also said before that if the freedom of press and national security were in confricts, he would rather sacrifice national security for freedom of the press. Maybe some people wouldn't agree with that, but he believes that protecting the press' freedom is of paramount importance.
The president mentioned that tomorrow, June 4 will be the 16th anniversary of the Tienanmen Incident. During these past 16 years, even the European Union has not lifted the arms embargo against China, clearly showing that mainland China is still doing not enough in protecting human rights, deepening democracy and upholding freedom. For example, before the change-over of leadership in September last year, China arrested NYT's Beijing reporter for "leaking national secrets." And just a few days ago, a Singaporean reporter surnamed Cheng was detained for engaging in "espionage."
The president is pleased that Taiwan could be listed, just like the United States, in the list of the countries in the world where people enjoy the freedom of press. According to statistics made by 'Freedom House' on 194 countries in the world in May over press freedom, Taiwan has advanced its ranking from the 50th to the 44th slot. Still there is room for improvement. However, China is listed in the register among countries where there is no freedom of press. China became the 177th country as compared to the 173rd position it held last year. The president believes that defending the freedom of press, protecting the freedom of speech and freedom of religion is the right path that Taiwan has to follow.
Replying to the president's remarks, Chairman Sulzberger said that every person who is concerned about Taiwan and democracy would be happy to learn about its improvement in the freedom of press, which is helpful for its economic success and future political developments.
The president said that before he was involved in politics, he once worked as a journalist and a human rights lawyer for the publication workers. The biggest irony was, he was put into jail for libel after he launched a magazine critical of the authorities and calling for freedom of the press. Because of that, he has deep conviction that he would rather overdo in seeking press freedom than doing inadequately in the attempt. Even when freedom of press and national security are in conflicts, he would rather sacrifice national security to defend freedom of the press.
Commenting on the cross-strait issue, the president emphasized that Taiwan is not at all afraid of engaging in negotiations and dialogue with China, and will never sacrifice its sovereignty or surrender.
The president considers that in Taiwan's democratization process, its 23 million people never stopped making history and re-writing history. At the end, it achieved democracy, successfully lifted the martial law, abolished the ban on political parties and media organizations, the parliament was entirely renewed and the president directly elected by the people. Especially, the first change of ruling party occurred in the year 2000, the first referendum was held in 2004 and the constitutional reform will be accomplished this year, resulting in recasting the parliamentary mechanism and integrating the referendum in the constitution.
The president pointed out that although politics and life style are different between Taiwan and China, we are all very willing to start contacts and engage in dialogue with China. However, this has to be done under the persistency on the principles such as our national sovereignty, dignity, security and the people's well-being. Therefore, we must not only consider our aspiration. As to the opposition leaders' visits to China, the president also said that he just takes this as 'testing the water,' but this is not done for his personal trip to China. It is just an attempt to better understand if the Chinese leaders are sincere to ameliorate the cross-strait relations. In fact, Beijing did not change its stand because of these visits. But the president will not give up. He will keep on persisting on Taiwan identity in any future dialogue between the two sides.
The president also borrowed a sentence that is often used by Taiwan's political rival, which goes like 'looking forward to engage in talks, but would not be bothered by protracted negotiations.' He regreted that the Beijing regime had missed the 'Window of Opportunity' in 2000. He believes that 2005 and 2006 will be another 'Window of Opportunity.' If Beijing misses them, we will have to wait until 2008 or even to 2010. The president said that he is willing to meet with the Chinese leader Mr. Hu Jintao in a third country to shake hands, reconcile and conduct dialogue. He doesn't expect any result from the first meeting. If there won't be results following the first meeting, then there should be a second, a third or even an Nth meeting. If there won't be any thing coming out from the first year, maybe we have to wait till many years later to obtain a satisfying or acceptable result. But that wouldn't matter. The president believes that the problem with the opposition leaders' visit to China is that they were too anxious to get immediate response from these ice-breaking trips and bringing back valuable gifts. This is where the problem lies.
After listening to the president's views on the relationship between Taiwan and China, Sulzberger also quoted an old American saying that goes 'Only Nixon can visit china.' Sulzberger hopes that if this saying could be applied to the current cross-strait situation, may be it could be said that 'only President Chen can visit China.' If President Chen has the opportunity in meeting the Beijing leader, it would be something that the world would look forward to.
The president said that President Nixon, who was the strongest anti-communist leader, turned out to become the first one to open China's door. Therefore, he hopes that the leaders on both sides of the Taiwan Strait could use their creativity and wisdom, but this is a matter concerning the two sides and as such should not be rushed or done according to the will of just one party.
The president also pointed out that U.S. President George W. Bush called the Chinese state chairman Hu Jintao in person on May 5 in an attempt to convince him to have dialogue with Taiwan's leader who was chosen legally according to democratic process. The president is very anxious to see it would happen soon. Under the principle of democracy, peace and equality, he hopes that the leaders from both sides could shake hands and make reconciliations. He also hopes that this 'first time' could be realized in a third country, and the United States of America could be the best venue or platform for this event.
The president said that he will have three main tasks to do right away, including ameliorating the cross-strait relations, achieving the constitutional reform and other reforms. The tax reform that he recently proposed is a structural reform, which is a difficult one and we might have to pay a price for it. But the president thinks that reform in itself is something that is painful, but he still persists on the path of reform that he has taken.
The president mentioned that Taiwan would be able to accomplish the work of parliamentarian reform by next Tuesday. He also hopes to launch a follow-up constitutional reform. The three-branch U.S. government system is also a model that Taiwan could adopt. The president emphasized that constitutional reform still has to follow current legal procedures, which is to be approved by three-quarters of the legislative Yuan's lawmakers and finally pass through a strict referendum organized for the 23 million people. Therefore, such a high threshold does not easily approve some delicate issues relevant to national sovereignty or national territory modification. The president said that the constitutional reform is aimed at providing a better management for the government, upgrade the country's competitiveness so that it can prevail. Some people fear that the constitution's reform will lead to a 'de jure independence,' but this is not going to happen.
The president reiterates that he is absolutely sincere and shows his good will to promote dialogue between the two sides no matter who will become the leader of this country because no one can stop the mainstream thinking. National sovereignty has to be preserved and Taiwan shall never be invaded or annexed. The president said that China is talking with an insistence on Chinese nationalism while the 23 million people of Taiwan persist with the ideas of democracy and freedom to win their sovereignty. The president believes that a solution would be difficult to come by in the short term. Therefore, if the leaders of both sides persist in making sovereignty the central point of negotiations, then government-to-government dialogues would never be possible. Because of this hurdle, unless both sides agree to have no pre-conditions, the "Chen-Hu Summit" could not take place.