Executive Director Vocke of the Foundation for Scholarly Exchange;
Acting Director Christensen of the American Institute in Taiwan;
Deputy Secretary General Chang of the National Security Council;
Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Shih;
Fulbright recipients;
Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen:
Good afternoon!
It's really a great pleasure to meet with you here today. It's my third time to meet with Fulbright grantees, and it has always been a very pleasant experience. I hope during your stay here you will gain new perspectives on the Republic of China on Taiwan and its relations with mainland China and the rest of the world. I was a grantee of the International Visitors Program of the U.S. State Department 43 years ago and that makes me a very strong believer in the exchange program, which I later facilitated, not only the international student programs, but also between Taiwan and the Chinese mainland. Today, I want to let you know about some of the policies of this country in relation to mainland China, and to the rest of the world.
First, you may be interested in our defense policy in regard to mainland China. It's a policy of "three lines of defense" vis-à-vis the Chinese mainland. The first line of defense is the institutionalization of rapprochement with the Chinese mainland. Through massive and intensive cross-strait exchanges, we can enhance mutual understanding and reduce the possibility of miscalculation. Obviously, we have to maintain a deterrent force, but with the first line—the institutionalization of rapprochement with the mainland—anyone on either side of the Taiwan Strait would not think about using force to settle differences because doing that would incur a prohibitively high cost. As for the second line of defense, Taiwan is acting as a peacemaker, a provider of international humanitarian aid, a promoter of international cultural exchange, a creator of new technologies and business opportunities, and finally, the standard-bearer of Chinese culture. This is a huge job for us, but it is very important for us to implement the objectives that I just mentioned. The third line of defense is, of course, the military. But we want to make sure that we will only deter potential attack from outside. We will continue to purchase defensive arms from abroad that we cannot manufacture here, to replace our aging arsenal.
You might have noticed that last month, on February 11, Minister Wang Yu-Chi (王郁琦) of our Mainland Affairs Council, which is the agency in charge of Taiwan's relations with the Chinese mainland, went to Nanjing, in mainland China, to meet with his counterpart, Zhang Zhijun (張志軍) , of the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council. They met and addressed each other by their official titles. This was the first meeting of this kind since 1949. This was significant in terms of institutionalization of cross-strait rapprochement, and it highlights the Republic of China's determination to promote regional peace.
So, let me just briefly describe what we have accomplished with respect to the objectives that I have just mentioned. Peace across the Taiwan Strait is the cornerstone of stability and prosperity in East Asia. Based on a consensus that we reached with the Chinese mainland back in 1992—we call it the "1992 Consensus," meaning "one China, respective interpretations"—using that as a basis, we've been able to push ahead with the programs we now have. Some people joke about the 1992 Consensus. They say that "one China, respective interpretations" seems to be a masterpiece of ambiguity. Well, ambiguous or not, it is working. And it has been working well for the past six years. We have been able to conclude 21 agreements covering a wide range of issues, including direct flights, which were non-existent six years ago, but now there are 280 flights per day. And, as for exchange programs, which I just mentioned, when I took office six years ago there were only 823 exchange students from the mainland, but by last year the total number of degree students and exchange students had gone up to 24,000—about a 30-fold jump. And there are a number of other things which I don't have the time to mention, but what I'm trying to say is, with the 1992 Consensus as the basis, we have been able to shelve our differences and pursue our common ground. This has been the most important element of success to flow from that idea.
Another issue has to do with sovereignty over the disputed islands in the East China Sea. This has troubled mainland China, Japan, and Taiwan for over 40 years. Actually, I devoted at least a chapter of my doctoral dissertation to this subject, so I did have some ideas in mind when I took office. But we had already had 16 rounds of negotiations with the Japanese over a period of 17 years without completing anything, so I decided that we should try something else. I proposed the East China Sea Peace Initiative two years ago, at a time when Japan had just nationalized the Diaoyutai Islands, giving rise to demonstrations—some were pretty violent—in 20 cities in mainland China. Our idea is that all sides concerned with the issue should scale down their confrontation and try to have a dialog with each other, first on a bilateral basis, which would mean three sets of bilateral talks, between mainland China and Japan, between Japan and Taiwan, and between Taiwan and mainland China. Then, once they have "cooked" enough, then we could have trilateral negotiations. So we tried this approach first with our Japanese friends, and were able to resume the fisheries talks, and in April of last year we concluded a fisheries agreement with Japan. Now, fishermen from either country can operate in an area about twice the size of Taiwan without any interference from the other side. That keeps the territorial claims of each side intact, but they are free to catch whatever fish they want. That has led to a very pleasant result. Taiwanese fishermen are able to catch many tuna and other high-value species, but we didn't really made any concession on the sovereignty issue. That is actually the basic idea of the East China Sea Peace Initiative. What is that idea? I believe that national sovereignty cannot be compromised or divided, but natural resources can be shared. This has happened before, in the North Sea and other parts of the world. There is no reason to let natural resources, living or non-living, stay on the seabed or under the subsoil for so many years, when all the coastal states of the East China Sea are oil-thirsty. This is simply not very reasonable.
We also used this approach to try to strike an agreement with the Philippines. A month after we signed the agreement with Japan, a Taiwanese fisherman was shot dead in the overlapping economic zone between Taiwan and the Philippines. We immediately demanded that the Philippine government give the family an apology and compensation, that they punish the perpetrators, and that they promise not to allow that sort of incident to happen again. After three months of vigorous negotiations, we were able to get almost everything that we wanted. Most importantly, we reached an agreement on the method of law enforcement. First of all, no force can be used. Second, when either side wants to start an enforcement action, it has to notify the other side. And number three, once somebody is arrested or taken into custody, he has to be released as soon as possible. Since we reached this agreement, we haven't seen any big fisheries dispute in either the East China Sea or the South China Sea. So this is a very important example of how international law or diplomatic negotiations can settle an international dispute. And I'm very glad because at least my doctoral dissertation can be put to use, which I didn't know when I wrote it.
I also want you to know about the second role I want my country to play in the international community—that is, a provider of international humanitarian aid. Just two months ago I visited Sao Tome and Principe, a small country in West Africa. What impressed me the most was our people there. There was "Dr. Mosquito"—Professor Jih-Ching Lien (連日清)—he was able to help that country almost eliminate malaria. In that country, at that time, many children had no names. Why? Because their parents didn't give them a name until they were sure they could survive past age five. Many children could not get to the age of five because of malaria. But the prevalence rate has been reduced from 47% to less than 4%. So "Dr. Mosquito," Professor Jih-Ching Lien, is regarded almost as God. That really impressed me, so much so that I've come to believe that our medical help can change the fate of a country.
Another example I want to mention, also in Africa and the South Pacific, is a project we've carried out in Burkina Faso and the Marshall Islands. We became aware that they have a shortage of electricity. In many cities they do not have electricity during the night, and the students—particularly the elementary students—have to use streetlights to study. When our people there found out about that, they decided to invent a solar-powered lamp. We put the solar-powered sets in the schools. When fully charged, they can be used for four and a half hours, so the kids can use them to study, and the mothers can use them to do household chores. And if they want to get their lamps recharged, they have to go to school, so that is also a very important aspect. When I visited Burkina Faso two years ago, I went to the homes of students, and was really moved. They crouched on the ground to write their French lessons, and when I used my broken French to ask them how many lamps they needed, their simple answer was: "Beaucoup, monsieur"—a lot! The next day I visited the elementary school where the children went. The teacher told us that since they started using the solar lights in the evening to study, the performance of the students in their monthly tests has improved remarkably. I later found out that their Prime Minister Tiao, who was their ambassador to France, used to study under the streetlight when he was in high school. He pointed out to me that streetlights were installed only along big roads and intersections, not everywhere. This is something we feel very proud of, because, as you know, Taiwan is very strong in solar energy products. There are now companies in Burkina Faso manufacturing the lights, not only for that country, but also for neighboring countries.
Earlier, the vice minister also mentioned our donations to Japan after it was devastated by an earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear accident. Actually, as you know, Japan is rich enough, and didn't really need the aid. But I was also very surprised by the amount of the money we raised. Altogether, it was US$230 million, which was higher than the total donations made by all the 93 other counties combined. The Japanese were very appreciative of what we did. For almost two years, every time we saw a Japanese group visiting Taiwan, they would unfold a banner that said, "Thank you, Taiwan." I've never seen that before. Even when I went out, and ran across groups in hotel lobbies, they would stop me, take a picture with me, and say, "thank you, Taiwan." This has been tremendously helpful for our friendship with the Japanese.
I just told you that we had an unpleasant incident with the Philippines in May of last year, but in November, when they were badly hit by Typhoon Haiyan, we were the first to come to their rescue. We sent 18 military cargo flights and a ship, carrying 680 tons of relief supplies. So, we were actually the first ones to distribute supplies to the victims and their representatives. I think this is very important, because more than 6,000 people were killed. Some of them were ethnic Chinese, but they were primarily Filipinos. And the same thing happened also in Palau, another ally of the Republic of China. They made a very special request. They wanted us to provide them with prefabricated housing units. Before Christmas, the prefabricated housing units were completed. So this is something we feel that we should do. As Taiwan is an important member of the international community, and our per capita GDP has reached US$20,000, I think we are obligated to provide this kind of service to other parts of the world. I don't know whether you are aware that Taiwanese families now sponsor 340,000 children around the world, and 230,000 of them are outside Taiwan. This is very interesting, because the number of children sponsored abroad constitutes fully 1% of our population. And certainly we will continue to do that.
In the area of cultural exchange, we've done very much, but it doesn't need to be mentioned.
Another international role for Taiwan is to act as a creator of new technologies and business opportunities. We have comprehensive high-tech infrastructure and abundant R&D talent. We have achieved considerable success in such areas as solar energy and information and communications technology, transforming Taiwan into a key global supplier of high-tech products. The World Competitiveness Yearbook 2013, by the International Institute for Management Development, located in Lausanne, Switzerland, has ranked Taiwan fifth in the world in terms of "technological infrastructure" and 13th in terms of "scientific infrastructure." This shows that Taiwan's technological achievements have received worldwide recognition, and that there is growing interest among many foreign enterprises in setting up R&D centers in Taiwan.
In addition to that, according to the United Nations' World Investment Report 2013, Taiwan's foreign direct investments totaled more than US$220 billion as of 2012, most of which was invested in other Asian countries. A large chunk, of course, has gone to mainland China, creating at least 10 million jobs over there. So, we do have a role to play in creating business opportunities in many countries in this part of the world.
In an effort to further liberalize our economy and keep up with the pace of regional economic integration, we have decided since I took office to expand our FTA contacts with other regional trading partners. The first one, of course, is mainland China, which became our number one trading partner in 2003. We concluded an Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement—ECFA, for short—in 2010. This was followed in 2011 by an investment agreement with Japan. Japan has invested in Taiwan for over 60 years, and never before had they thought about having an investment agreement with Taiwan. Why did they do this now? Because they wanted to take advantage of ECFA, by jointly manufacturing with Taiwanese counterparts and then exporting to mainland China. And in March 2013, we resumed talks with the United States under the TIFA, the Trade and Investment Framework Agreement, which was concluded in 1994. The dispute over our imports of American beef had prevented TIFA from working in a normal way, but we took care of that by allowing American beef to be imported according to CODEX rules. American beef here occupies about 43% of our market. In addition to that, last year we concluded two FTA-type economic cooperation agreements, first with New Zealand, and then with Singapore. Because the one with New Zealand has already been ratified by both of our countries in December last year, New Zealand's exports to Taiwan increased 37%, and our exports to New Zealand increased 120%. So total bilateral trade increased 73%. This shows what the economists have told us—that FTAs can create trade—well, this time, they're right.
Meanwhile, regarding 2014, I have already said in my New Year's Day Message that we want to make this year a "breakthrough year" for Taiwan's economy. At home, we're pushing the idea of free economic pilot zones, hoping to attract foreign investment in areas that previously had not been open to foreign businesses, so that in the future we can make Taiwan a free economic island. We also want to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership of 12 countries. They are now negotiating the final text. We hope we can join that, because the TPP accounts for 34% of our external trade. We also want to join the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership agreement—RCEP—which is led by the ASEAN countries in Southeast Asia, and mainland China. RCEP accounts for 57% of our trade. We hope we can catch up with other East Asian countries, and not be marginalized in the process of regional economic integration
Ladies and gentlemen, when I took office six years ago, I envisioned a prosperous Taiwan, a peaceful Taiwan Strait, and a friendly international environment. We have actually made noticeable progress on all these three fronts. However, we are still behind our bigger trading partners in certain aspects. So, we have to re-orient our efficiency-driven economy, and make it innovation-driven instead. We need to further liberalize and internationalize our economy to make the Taiwan economy even more attractive, not only to international businessmen, but also to foreign investors.
As you know, ever since 2008, the Taiwan Strait has become a boulevard of peace and prosperity, and we have witnessed unprecedented breakthroughs and positive developments in cross-strait relations, and this is something that the international community has generally recognized and praised. As president of this country, I will continue to lead the country in acting as a peacemaker, a humanitarian aid provider, a promoter of cultural exchange, a creator of new technologies and business opportunities, and finally, the standard-bearer of Chinese culture. By the way, I know many of you from the United States study Chinese language, and most of you study the simplified format. In Taiwan, we have been using the traditional format for many years. We have not changed that format so far, and we won't do that. Even though more than 3 million mainland tourists come to Taiwan each year, we have decided to keep the traditional format. Why? Well, Taiwan is the most populous place in the world that uses the traditional format. We want for you to know how beautiful the traditional format is. And, in our textbooks that we print for overseas schools, for overseas Chinese, we actually use both. Why? Because the simplified format accounts for less than one-third of the frequently used traditional characters. And out of these roughly 2,000 characters, only 468 have been changed so completely as to be unrecognizable to users of traditional format. The other 1,700 or so have only been partially changed, and are easily recognizable. So, I think the traditional format is not that difficult, and we have already published a Chinese dictionary with the help of scholars from both sides. It's called the 常用中文字典, and it shows how each character has been changed. Just by pressing a key, you can change from one to the other. In any case, in Taiwan, when people ask: "What form of Chinese characters do you teach?" We can proudly say: "We teach both!" Thank you very much.