President Ma Ying-jeou on the morning of January 1 attended the opening of an exhibit at the Taipei Guest House focusing on the increasing conveniences provided to the public when traveling overseas. The president also personally presented new ROC passports embedded with an electronic chip to the first 10 people who applied for the travel document.
President Ma first thanked ROC diplomatic personnel stationed overseas for their efforts to increase the number of countries that include Taiwan in their visa-waiver programs. The number of such countries, he said, has risen from 53 when he took office in 2008 to 96 today, or an 81% rise over the past two-plus years. These countries represent 94% of the most frequently visited countries by ROC citizens. This sharp rise marks an important milestone for the ROC and symbolizes the increasing respect commanded by the ROC in the international community, the president remarked.
The president stated that foreign affairs are an extension of domestic policy and that the key to winning inclusion in visa-waiver programs rests with the nation's image and the quality of its citizens. Soft power is responsible for a nation's people winning respect, not guns and other military hardware, he said. The ROC is determined not only to be a peacemaker, a provider of humanitarian aid, a promoter of cultural ties, and a creator of new technologies and business opportunities, but also to serve as the standard-bearer at the leading edge of Chinese culture.
President Ma stressed that the government's main concern in pursuing flexible diplomacy is not national defense, but rather the need for other nations to sense how the ROC's existence is beneficial to them. NGOs from the ROC won global recognition for rescue and relief work in Haiti, and the people of Taiwan provide financial assistance to some 280,000 underprivileged children via World Vision Taiwan and the Taiwan Fund for Children and Families, with 180,000 of these children being overseas. People affiliated with Taiwan's Tzu Chi Foundation do charity work around the globe, successfully promoting Taiwan on the international stage. The president pointed to all of these as examples of Taiwan's soft power. He also commented on significant progress in relations with Japan over the past year, including the establishment of a Taiwan representative office in Sapporo in December 2009, the passage of a bilateral memorandum of cooperation in April of 2010, and the subsequent commencement of direct flights between Tokyo's Haneda Airport and Taipei's Songshan Airport on October 31, all made possible by the ROC's pragmatism and flexibility. The president expressed respect for efforts by ROC diplomatic personnel overseas, who have displayed wisdom and courage in turning a new page in ROC diplomacy despite the nation's delicate situation.
The president noted that the ROC in 1943 signed the so-called "equal treaties" with the US and the UK, citing this as an example of how "when a nation is respected, its people will have dignity." He mentioned that when he studied international law in the US, he read a judgment made by a US court in Shanghai. Americans then enjoyed extraterritoriality there, so foreign courts of law had jurisdiction within China. It was disturbing for him to read this. It was not until after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor and the allies declared war on Japan that extraterritoriality was abolished in 1943. The reason was that the ROC had already been fighting alone against Japan for four years and had won the respect of the Allies. Consequently, it was able to sign the equal treaties with the US and the UK. January 11 was designated as Justice Day, and this also happens to be the day that the European Union's decision to include the ROC in its visa-waiver program will take effect, he said.
Lastly, President Ma quoted Article 141 of the ROC Constitution, which provides as follows: "The foreign policy of the Republic of China shall, in a spirit of independence and initiative and on the basis of the principles of equality and reciprocity, cultivate good-neighborliness with other nations, and respect treaties and the Charter of the United Nations, in order to protect the rights and interests of Chinese citizens residing abroad, promote international cooperation, advance international justice and ensure world peace." The president said that at this moment, as we begin celebrations marking the nation's centenary, we can look back at the spirit of the Constitution set forth back in 1946 and sense its true meaning. President Ma encouraged all those engaged in diplomacy to not only seek more breathing room for the ROC in the international community and boost services domestically, but also to afford the public a visceral appreciation for the fact that "when a nation is respected, its people will have dignity."