President Ma Ying-jeou met on the afternoon of March 17 with a delegation from the Harvard Asia Law Society, and expressed his hope that the visitors would gain a better understanding of Taiwan during their stay here and become a strong bridge between Taiwan and the United States.
The president stated that this year marks the ROC's centenary and that many activities celebrating the occasion will be held, including events commemorating the many who have sacrificed their lives for the ROC. Taiwan has an advanced economy and enjoys social harmony, and we are especially proud of our democratic liberties, which afford our people greater freedom and democracy than in any other ethnic Chinese commuity in the world, he said.
The president said he feels that it is difficult for a place that doesn't have peace to maintain freedom and democracy. With this in mind, he explained, in the two-plus years since taking office in May 2008, he has made efforts to improve relations with mainland China. The two sides have already signed 15 agreements that have helped peace and prosperity to emerge on both sides of the Taiwan Strait. In fact, the two sides were still in a tense military standoff up until 1979, he commented. Today, however, there are 370 commercial flights between Taiwan and the mainland each week, and bilateral trade last year exceeded US$150 billion. Mainland China is Taiwan's largest trading partner, and last year Taiwanese made over five million trips to mainland China, while mainland visitors to Taiwan topped 1.6 million, both of which were record highs.
President Ma also mentioned that he thinks back fondly on his time at Harvard Law School, and noted that an education in law in the United States trained him to become an academic, an intellectual, and even a head of state. In particular, he said, learning about America's system of freedom and democracy, as well as the value of respecting the rule of law and human rights, prompted him after taking office as president to sign the instruments of ratification of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which the ROC signed back in 1967. He expressed his hope that the ratification of the covenants will bring human rights protections in Taiwan up to world standards.
The delegation visited the Presidential Office in the afternoon to meet the president. Also in attendance was National Security Council Deputy Secretary-General Chih-kung Liu.