President Ma Ying-jeou met on the afternoon of June 15 with Harvard University Henry Ford II Professor of the Social Sciences Emeritus Ezra F. Vogel. In addition to extending a warm welcome to Dr. Vogel on his visit to Taiwan, the president also explained the progress and accomplishments in relations between the ROC and the United States, Japan, and mainland China over the past four years.
The president stated that during the past four years, in order to create more breathing space for Taiwan in the international community, he has strived to improve Taiwan's ties with the United States, Japan, and mainland China, and to establish mutual trust with them. President Ma pointed to a host of accomplishments in this regard. For instance, progress has been seen with the United States on cultural, economic, and military cooperation, he said. With Japan, many breakthroughs have been achieved on the cultural, transportation, and economic fronts, he added, including plans by Taiwan's National Palace Museum to hold an exhibition of selected works of art from its collection in Japan in three years. President Ma also said that the two countries have signed the Taiwan-Japan Bilateral Investment Arrangement. Meanwhile, Taiwan has opened a representative office in Sapporo, and direct flights have been commenced between Taipei's Songshan Airport and Tokyo's Haneda Airport, he stated. Lastly, the improvement in relations with mainland China means that the cross-strait relationship is no longer a barrier to Taiwan's development, but rather is now a benefit to Taiwan. All of these achievements prove that the road he selected is viable over the long run, the president said.
The president mentioned that the issue of US beef imports to Taiwan has created difficulties for Taiwan and the United States in their trade relationship. President Ma said he hopes that obstacles can be overcome as soon as possible so that economic and trade negotiations can be resumed with the United States. This will afford Taiwan greater opportunity to participate in regional economic integration and to make progress toward signing economic cooperation accords or free trade agreements with its major trading partners around the globe.
President Ma remarked that the signing of the Cross-Straits Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement has created opportunities for Taiwan to engage in economic cooperation with other nations. He pointed to the example of the signing of the Taiwan-Japan Bilateral Investment Arrangement, as well as current talks that Taiwan is holding with Singapore and New Zealand to enter into economic cooperation agreements. The president also said that a number of countries in the European Union and Southeast Asia have also expressed their willingness to discuss similar arrangements, which would provide Taiwan greater developmental opportunities in the global economy. President Ma stated that enabling Taiwan to exist in a peaceful and prosperous environment that is conducive to social development, is an extremely important goal of his presidency. This is the only way to forge a cooperative yet competitive relationship with mainland China, he said.
The president noted that Dr. Vogel served as Director of the Fairbank Center for East Asian Studies and praised him as a towering figure in scholarship on mainland China and Japan. In addition to his fluency in Chinese and Japanese, Dr. Vogel some 32 years ago published Japan as Number One and that book is still a bestseller. The president pointed out that Dr. Vogel's most recent book, Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China, is a path-breaking masterpiece, adding that he hopes Dr. Vogel will exchange opinions on a broad range of topics with scholars here regarding relations between the US, Taiwan, Japan, and mainland China.
Dr. Vogel was accompanied to the Presidential Office by Founder & Chairman of Global Views Monthly and CommonWealth Publishing Group Charles H. C. Kao (高希均) to meet President Ma. Also attending the meeting were National Security Council Secretary-General Hu Wei-jen (胡為真) and Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Tung Kuoyu (董國猷).