President Ma Ying-jeou met on the morning of June 6 with Professor Jerome A. Cohen, co-director of the U.S.-Asia Law Institute at the New York University School of Law. President Ma briefed his visitor on Taiwan's human rights achievements and the state of ties between Taiwan and the United States, and expressed hope that joint investigations by Taiwan and the Philippines under their Agreement on Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters will reveal what exactly happened in the Guang Da Xing No. 28 shooting incident in which a Taiwanese fishing boat came under fire from a Philippine government vessel, resulting in the death of a Taiwanese fisherman and heavy damage to the fishing vessel.
In remarks, President Ma stated that Professor Cohen is an expert in East Asian legal research and in recent years has focused especially on mainland China's legal system. The president remarked that Professor Cohen back in 1968 published a book on criminal process in mainland China. This was pioneering work at that time, he said.
President Ma stated that in recent years Taiwan has chalked up many achievements in its democratic development and pursuit of human rights. For instance, he pointed out, in February of this year, Taiwan invited 10 international human rights experts, including Professor Cohen, to Taiwan to review the ROC's first national human rights report. The experts released a report on March 1 that put forward 81 recommendations, one of which was to include the recommendations of the Taiwan Alliance to End the Death Penalty and other private groups, he said. The president mentioned that the recommendations provided by the experts have greatly helped Taiwan to move toward achieving an advanced level of human rights protections.
President Ma remarked that in his recently released observations on the 24th anniversary of the June 4th Incident, he mentioned that in April of this year Taiwan released a report on its implementation of two United Nations covenants, namely the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), while mainland China has only ratified the ICESCR. The president said it would be a very positive development if both sides of the Taiwan Strait could each consider how well both sides have been implementing these two covenants, and even engage in a healthy competition in this regard. He noted that some people might say he is being overly idealistic, but the president expressed confidence that in the future the content of these covenants can gradually be implemented.
With respect to relations between Taiwan and the United States, the president stated, early this year the ROC and the United States completed the most comprehensive revision of the bilateral Agreement on Privileges, Exemptions and Immunities since 1980. These changes are designed to afford greater protections to ROC diplomatic personnel stationed in the United States. Furthermore, he said, Deputy US Trade Representative Demetrios Marantis in March of this year led a delegation to Taiwan to hold talks under the Trade and Investment Framework Agreement between Taiwan and the United States. President Ma commented that this was a good start toward solidifying the cooperative economic and trade relationship between Taiwan and the United States, and represents advancement in friendly relations between the two sides, he said.
The president also briefed Professor Cohen on the fisheries agreement signed in April of this year between Taiwan and Japan, and the Guang Da Xing No. 28 shooting incident. While the fisheries agreement deals only with fishing, it does touch upon the territorial dispute, which is the most sensitive issue between the two countries. Consequently, this is the most important agreement between the two countries in the last 40 years. The signing of the agreement not only guarantees the rights of fishermen of the two countries to operate in specified waters, thereby increasing the area of high quality fishing grounds for Taiwanese fishermen by 4,530 square kilometers, but also has helped reduce tension in the East China Sea. This is therefore an extremely important agreement, he said.
On May 9, the president noted, the Guang Da Xing No. 28 fishing boat from Taiwan was pursued by a Philippine government vessel, which sprayed the unarmed Taiwanese fishing boat with weapons fire, resulting in the unfortunate death of a Taiwanese fisherman and causing heavy damage to the fishing boat, rendering it unable to sail. The ROC government immediately condemned the event and demanded that the Philippine government issue an apology at once, carry out an investigation to determine who was responsible for the incident and punish those responsible, provide compensation, and engage in fishing negotiations with Taiwan as soon as possible.
President Ma furthermore stated that Taiwan and the Philippines in April of this year signed an Agreement on Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters. Consequently, investigators from each side over the past several weeks have travelled to Taiwan and the Philippines in order to examine both witnesses and evidence. The president said that these investigations are being carried out to find out what happened, and expressed hope that each side will come to a fair legal conclusion. He emphasized that this is the first case to be handled under the agreement. If the matter can be concluded in a reasonable manner and justice be carried out, Taiwan will withdraw the 11 sanctions that it has instituted against the Philippines. The president noted that this would also help enhance the relations between the two sides, and he expressed hope that this is the direction that developments regarding this incident will take.
Professor Cohen was accompanied to the Presidential Office by Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Ting Joseph Shih (石定) to meet President Ma. Also attending the meeting was National Security Council Secretary-General Jason C. Yuan (袁健生).