During an interview with Japan's Mainichi Newspapers, President Ma Ying-jeou presented Taiwan's stance on mainland China's demarcation of an East China Sea Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ), and commented on Taiwan's relations with Japan and the United States.
With respect to mainland China's announcement of an East China Sea ADIZ, President Ma acknowledged that the move has triggered strong concerns, including in the ROC. He remarked that the mainland's ADIZ includes the Diaoyutai Islets, which is part of ROC territory. He said that on the same day that mainland China announced its ADIZ, the ROC issued a statement reiterating its sovereignty over the Diaoyutais. The ROC, he noted, will vigorously defend its sovereignty over the islets and will also protect the rights of its fishermen to operate in that region.
President Ma stated that the Diaoyutais have been the subject of heightened tensions in the East China Sea since the spring of last year, which has caused instability in the region. It was with this in mind that he unveiled his East China Sea Peace Initiative on August 5 last year, urging all sides to avoid action that would escalate the conflict. The initiative, he said, also called on all parties to resolve the dispute through peaceful dialogue.
President Ma pointed out that the third point of the statement issued by the ROC indicates that the mainland's ADIZ partially overlaps with the ROC's in an area of about 23,000 square kilometers, but training exercises involving the ROC's military aircraft will continue as normal in the area. The president said that Taiwan has used various avenues to express its serious concern to mainland Chinese authorities, adding that the ADIZ announcement by the other side is not conducive to positive cross-strait relations.
President Ma further explained that the Taipei Flight Information Region (TFIR) is administered by the ROC's Civil Aeronautics Administration. At present, he said, 14 international aviation routes pass through the skies over Taiwan. He noted that if an airline whose flights pass through the TFIR requests Taiwan to forward its flight plans to mainland China, Taiwan will provide this service. He added that in fact when civilian aircraft from Taiwan are to pass through Japan's Flight Information Region, Taiwan provides flight plans to the Japanese authorities, as the ADIZs of the two countries overlap by one degree of longitude, or about 60 nautical miles. When aircraft from Taiwan head to Dalian or Qingdao in mainland China, they pass through this overlapping area, he commented. The reporting of flight plans to another nation has long been practiced, so Taiwan is willing to forward flight plans to mainland China if any airline flying through the TFIR requests it. President Ma stated that the foremost priority of Taiwan is to ensure the safety of civil aircraft. The United States, he said, has similarly suggested that its own airlines provide flight plans to mainland Chinese authorities for the sake of aviation safety.
The last point of the statement urged all parties with overlapping ADIZs in the East China Sea to resolve the issue through bilateral negotiations. Taiwan, the president remarked, has adopted this same stance vis-à-vis mainland China. In the future, Taiwan will inform mainland China of its position that the latter should not further establish an ADIZ in the South China Sea.
After he unveiled the East China Sea Peace Initiative on August 5 of last year, the president remarked, Taiwan and Japan held fishing negotiations in late November, and on April 10 of this year signed a fisheries agreement covering roughly 70,000 square kilometers of seas around the Diaoyutai Islets. As a result, the operations of fishermen in the area will not be restricted by either country, he noted, adding that this was an important breakthrough that resolved a 40-year fishing dispute in the Diaoyutais. The ROC government and Japan had previously held 16 rounds of negotiations without any result, the president said. He noted that the signing of the fisheries agreement between the two was an extremely important step that is helping to minimize the dispute. This is proving to be one of the most effective means of promoting peace, he said.
As for the bilateral economic relationship, President Ma stated, economic, trade, and investment ties between the ROC and Japan date back 60 years, and enormous strides have been seen in recent years. Two years ago, for example, Taiwan and Japan signed the Taiwan-Japan Bilateral Investment Arrangement, which has done much to promote two-way investments. Then, on November 5 of this year, the two sides signed a series of financial and economic agreements covering such matters as speedy review of patent applications and cooperation in the exchange of electronic documents. Noting the enormous volume of trade between the two sides—Japan is Taiwan's second largest trading partner and Taiwan is Japan's fifth largest—the president expressed hope for progress toward an economic cooperation agreement or an economic partnership accord.
President Ma described the "building block" approach that Taiwan has adopted in pursuing economic cooperation agreements with other nations. Noting that Japan has already decided to enter the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and in the future will play an important role in the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, which links it with ASEAN, the president said the ROC also would be pleased to participate in the two regional economic integration initiatives, and therefore an economic cooperation agreement between Taiwan and Japan would be in the interests of both sides.
Asked about his stance on the military balance of power between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait and measures that the ROC is taking, President Ma stated that since he took office in 2008 his administration has worked actively to improve relations with mainland China, the United States, and Japan. Taiwan and mainland China have signed 19 agreements, and mutual trust is gradually being built up between the two sides, he said.
The ROC government has consistently sought, under the framework of the ROC Constitution, to maintain the status quo of "no unification, no independence, and no use of force" in the Taiwan Strait, and to promote peaceful cross-strait ties under the "1992 Consensus," whereby each side acknowledges the existence of "one China" but maintains its own interpretation of what that means, he said. In addition, the president pointed out, the priority of issues for the two sides to address would be "pressing matters before less pressing ones, easy matters before difficult ones, and economic matters before political ones."
As for political topics, President Ma mentioned, Taiwan and mainland China have not gone out of their way to avoid such issues in negotiating the 19 agreements over the past five years. For instance, he noted, the Cross-Strait Joint Crime-Fighting and Judicial Mutual Assistance Agreement signed in 2009 touches on the issue of judicial jurisdiction, which is quite politically sensitive. However, Taiwan did not avoid discussing this topic, he remarked.
The president said Taiwan and mainland China are presently negotiating an agreement that would pave the way for the establishment of cross-strait representative offices. Again, he commented, this is a politically sensitive issue, but Taiwan is not avoiding it. The main principle in such negotiations, the president said, is whether such agreements would help to promote cross-strait relations and involve an urgent need to protect the wellbeing of the people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait. Where there is urgency, Taiwan will advance the timetable based on the principle of "pressing matters before less pressing ones, easy matters before difficult ones, and economic matters before political ones."
As for the US strategy of "rebalancing toward Asia" and the importance of ensuring security in the Asia-Pacific region, President Ma stated, the ROC has always been a peace-loving nation, and the US "rebalancing" policy, is intended to maintain regional peace and stability, so the ROC in principle supports the rebalancing. He commented that Taiwan and the United States have maintained close contact on matters of importance, and the United States has welcomed the stances adopted by Taiwan. Examples include the unveiling of the ROC's East China Sea Peace Initiative last year, he said, and the recent announcement by mainland China of its ADIZ in the East China Sea.
Asked about his view of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's active push for a change in the interpretation of the Japanese constitution so as to ease restrictions on Japan's participation in collective self-defense, President Ma commented that since the end of World War II, the United States and Japan have established a relationship that emphasizes security assurance. Their Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security, he said, has made an important contribution to stability and peace throughout Asia. The ROC, the president remarked, has also consistently expressed support for this. With respect to Prime Minister Abe's position on Japan's constitution and other possible steps, President Ma called on Japan, as a mature democracy, to consider the reactions and feelings of its neighbors and adopt the wisest course of action.