President Ma Ying-jeou held discussions on the morning of June 30 at the Presidential Office with a delegation of Taiwanese political scientists residing in the United States. The president expressed a cordial welcome to the group on behalf of the government and people of the ROC.
President Ma stated that Taiwan has experienced many changes over the past two years. On the economic front, he and Vice President Vincent C. Siew during their campaign mapped out the policy objectives of expanding domestic demand and promoting the “i-Taiwan 12 Projects,” and the government adopted many measures to counter the effects of the global financial crisis, helping to effectively stabilize Taiwan's economy. The president noted that improving cross-strait relations has also been an important policy of the government. He made preparations in this regard prior to his inauguration and this policy has gradually been implemented. The steps taken by the government are not a matter of "cozying up to mainland China and selling out Taiwan" as some in the media have alleged. Rather, after eight years of dithering on this front, it is high time that Taiwan got moving in the right direction. In fact, he said, even though mainland China poses a threat to Taiwan, it also presents an opportunity. The key is that the government needs to carefully design and implement policy to minimize the threat while maximizing the opportunity.
The president furthermore pointed out that after he took office, the first meeting between Chairman Chiang Pin-kung of Taiwan's Straits Exchange Foundation and Chairman Chen Yunlin of mainland China's Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait was held on June 13, 2008. Less than one month later on July 4, the two sides liberalized direct cross-strait weekend charter flights. Earlier this week on June 29, Chiang and Chen met for the fifth time and signed an Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) and an agreement on intellectual property rights, bringing to 14 the number of agreements signed between the two sides. In the future, he said, the two sides will continue to work on an investment protection agreement and other matters. He said he hopes that an improvement in cross-strait relations will create a peaceful external environment for Taiwan to promote the transformation of its economic structure and carry out other work.
On the political front, President Ma said that when he set forth the idea of a second stage of democratic reform three years ago, his original intention was to carry out a review after two years in office to identify where it might be possible to reform parts of the political system with a bearing on the constitution. The president cited Taiwan's "single-member district, two-vote" system and semi-presidential system as areas where difficulties might be experienced. He said that while there might be constitutional problems associated with these systems, there is no urgent need to amend the constitution in order to solve them. The president said that other means to ensure the smooth operation of constitutional government here, such as amending laws, establishing constitutional conventions, and seeking constitutional interpretations by the Justices of the Constitutional Court.
President Ma stressed that the viewpoint of quite a few American scholars with regards to cross-strait relations is much the same as that of the ROC government, perhaps because cross-strait ties are viewed through the lens of the current international political situation. He said that it is very difficult for all three sides in the Taiwan-US-mainland China relationship to always be satisfied, and it is inevitable that trade-offs must be made. The ROC's basic principle is to maintain the status quo of "no unification, no independence, and no use of force" under the framework of the ROC constitution. In addition, he said that an important basis for the resumption of cross-strait negotiations was the consensus reached in 1992 regarding "one China, respective interpretations." President Ma said that two years ago after he was elected president, mainland China's leader Hu Jintao and US President George W. Bush talked over the phone, at which time Hu stated that the two sides both accept the principle of one China but the two sides define "China" differently. This was the first time that a leader of mainland China had made such a clear statement on this issue, President Ma said. The following day, mainland China's Xinhua News Agency reported this in its English news. This means that a consensus was indeed reached between the two sides, and we are not just engaging in wishful thinking on this point. President Ma also pointed out that Vice President Vincent Siew on April 11, 2008 attended the Boao Forum for Asia on Hainan Island in mainland China, turning a new page in cross-strait relations.
The president said that last year marked the 30th anniversary of the implementation of the Taiwan Relations Act. Renowned American scholar and diplomat Winston Lord stated that the trilateral relationship between Taiwan, the United States, and mainland China is better now than it has ever been in the past 60 years. He said that the three sides all embrace the objective of peace and prosperity, and hope that this will improve relations and maintain regional stability. In the wake of the improvement of cross-strait ties, the president said that the ROC's relationships with Japan, the European Union, New Zealand, Australia, and Southeast Asian nations have also improved. Meanwhile, trust has been re-established at the highest levels with the United States and Japan, and communication are smooth and effective, he said.
President Ma commented that shortly after he took office, the financial crisis triggered a serious economic downturn here. The government thus adopted a series of economic stimulus measures to not only help many of Taiwan's small- and medium-sized enterprises to make it through the crisis, but also underpin a steady recovery of the domestic economy, he said.
The president said that Taiwan does not have diplomatic relations with any of its major trading partners, but he hopes that the signing of the ECFA with mainland China will help to establish a level playing field for Taiwan and will generate more opportunities to engage in multilateral trade negotiations. This would be a boon to Taiwan's exports, he said. In the future, Taiwan's ability to sign free trade agreements with its major trading partners will depend on economic considerations and the complementary nature of such deals. President Ma stated that the people of Taiwan are very tenacious and proactive. Just like Taiwan's tennis sensation Lu Yen-hsun, who made it to the quarterfinals at Wimbledon, as long as Taiwan is given the opportunity, it will without a doubt demonstrate its excellence.
The delegation of political scientists was accompanied to the Presidential Office in the morning by Deputy Foreign Minister Lyushun Shen and former National Security Council Secretary-General Su Chi to meet President Ma. Also attending the meeting were Deputy Presidential Secretary-General Kao Lang and National Security Council Secretary-General Hu Wei-jen.