Office of the President Republic of China(Taiwan)

Chairman Barkey of the European Chamber of Commerce Taiwan;
Members of the ECCT;
Representatives of EU member states;
Ladies and gentlemen:

Good evening!

It’s really a great honor to be here today for this Europe Day celebration reception. Well, this is my sixth or seventh time. Let me take this opportunity to thank the European Chamber of Commerce Taiwan. We appreciate your long-term contribution to substantive relations between the Republic of China and the European Union. Also, on behalf of the government and people of the ROC, I’d like to congratulate the European Union and its 28 member states on the 65th anniversary of the European Union.

This year marks the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II. And many European countries have recently held commemorative activities to mark that historic event. It is also the 70th anniversary of the ROC’s victory in the War of Resistance against Japan and the retrocession of Taiwan, after Taiwan’s 50 years of Japanese colonial rule. During World War II, 1.5 million Chinese servicemen were lost or missing, 1.7 million wounded, and over 20 million civilians were killed. Oxford University professor Rana Mitter recently described the ROC defensive war against Japan as, and I quote:

“a poor and underdeveloped country holding down some 800,000 troops from one of the most highly militarized and technologically advanced societies in the world.”

And at one critical juncture in April 1942, British troops in Burma were surrounded by Japanese troops, but the ROC’s 113th Regiment of the New 38th Division, led by Regiment Commander Liu Fang-wu (劉放吾) broke through the encirclement, and rescued the trapped troops and 500 missionaries and journalists in what became known as the Great Victory at Yenangyaung (仁安羌大捷). General Liu was decorated by the governments of the Republic of China, the United States, and the UK for his brilliant performance. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher even paid a special trip to Chicago in 1992 to see him on the 50th anniversary of that battle.

The horrors of World War II gave the countries of Europe cause for deep reflection, and they dedicated themselves to ensuring that continental Europe would never again face the specter of war. That meant facing, accepting, and dealing with the past, and the German language provided a word that means all those things, a very good word: Vergangenheitsbewältigung. What it means is “we have come to terms with our past.” That word reflects Germany’s ability to come to grips with the crimes of Nazi aggression and atrocities.

On December 7, 1970 during a state visit to Poland, West German Chancellor Willy Brandt fell to his knees in front of the commemorative wreath at the Monument of Ghetto Heroes in Warsaw. There, in the heart of the Jewish Quarter, he observed a moment of silence for the victims who lost their lives in an uprising against their Nazi occupiers. That same day, West Germany and Poland signed the Warsaw Pact. The following year, in 1971, Willy Brandt was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, and this silent gesture—the kneeling at Warsaw—became an important milestone in the post-World War II rapprochement between West Germany and Eastern Europe.

To promote post-war restoration, in 1952 the countries of Europe founded the European Coal and Steel Community, which thereafter developed into the European Community, and later expanded into the European Union. That expansion from economics to politics, and the subsequent gradual shift to deeper and broader integration, created perhaps the greatest political and economic union in the history of humankind.

Well, the previous speaker talked about the European School. When I was mayor of Taipei City, I tried my best to help that school and I understand that it’s probably the only school of its kind in the world, with German, French, and British students. And I always told the then-principal of the school, Mr. Nixon, that “you have done much better integration here than in Europe.”

What the Europeans did in Europe also paved the way to sustainable peace, established democracy and respect for human rights in Europe, and played a major role in shaping a new world order. The EU’s organic structure and successes are an inspiration to other nations and similar regional organizations, making the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to the European Union in 2012, a well-deserved honor.

For many years, the Republic of China has drawn on ideas and policies promoted by EU members. One example is the Basic Agreement—they called it Grundlagenvertrag in German—between East and West Germany in 1972. At that time, both sides acknowledged the other’s authority to govern, but replaced the idea of “sovereignty” (主權) with the concept of Hoheitsgewalt, or “supreme power” (統治高權). The two Germanies ’ acceptance of that concept also became an important source of inspiration to me in the development of cross-strait relations. The two sides of the Taiwan Strait are currently cooperating based on the concept of “mutual non-recognition of sovereignty, and mutual non-denial of governing authority,” (主權互不承認，治權互不否認) which has fostered peaceful, stable cross-strait relations.

The relationship between two neighboring nations also forms the backdrop for a short story entitled “The Last Class,” (La Dernière Classe) written by French author Alphonse Daudet in 1873. As you know, that story depicts the situation in France following the Franco-Prussian War, when the Alsace and Lorraine provinces were ceded to the German Empire, and German replaced French as the language of instruction in elementary schools. The French teacher, in the last class, kept telling his students that French is the most beautiful language in the world. Finally, he wrote on the blackboard “Vive la France” and quit the class. Profoundly touching, the story provides food for thought, and helps readers understand just how precious peace can be. Following the Second World War, France and Germany actively promoted a massive student exchange program that allowed students from both countries to interact more frequently through homestays, and thus become friends.

Having seen what happened between French and German students, following my inauguration in 2008 as president of this country, I promoted a policy that would allow more mainland students to study in Taiwan. In 2007, before I took office, there were only 823 mainland students studying here. The number has now increased 40 times to 32,900. I do feel it is important to let students from both sides of the Taiwan Strait start to get to know each other early in life. That way they can interact and communicate on a daily basis, reduce misunderstandings, and establish friendships. Well, this is surely one of the most effective ways to foster cross-strait peace.

Let me just give you a good example. Three years ago, when I won re-election as president of this country, I read a very interesting piece, a story in the New York Times. It reported that a Taiwan student talked to his mainland friends in Taiwan. The Taiwan student said, “Look, in Taiwan, we have very efficient election systems. We cast the vote in the morning, and we get the result in the evening.” The mainland student responded by saying that, “Oh, that’s nothing. It is not advanced enough. Back home, we cast the vote in the morning, but we knew the result the day before.”

Another example of European influence is drawn from the 1960s, when European countries resolved maritime territorial disputes in the oil-rich North Sea through peaceful means. That “North Sea Experience,” where sovereignty remained indivisible, but resources were shared, inspired me in 2012 to propose the East China Sea Peace Initiative. That initiative calls on all parties in the region to shelve sovereignty disputes and negotiate provisional arrangement to share natural resources through peaceful means. Soon after, in 2013, Taiwan signed a fisheries agreement with Japan that resolved bilateral disputes that had been simmering for over four decades. That agreement also enhanced regional peace and stability, and was widely acknowledged by the international community. So we were happy to learn something from the North Sea Experience, and duplicate it in East China Sea.

Now the catch in that maritime zone of high-value fish, such as the bluefin tuna, in the Diaoyutais area in the last two years has increased several times, much to the satisfaction of Taiwanese and Ryukyu fishermen.

The EU is the Republic of China’s fifth-largest trade partner, and in 2014 Taiwan-EU trade totaled US$50.9 billion, up 3.7% from the previous year. The EU was also Taiwan’s largest source of foreign investment, totaling US$33 billion by the end of last year. And if you compare the three-year periods before and after 2011, ROC enterprise investments in the EU jumped 520%.

And our relationship is also thriving in other areas over the past year or so. We have seen numerous cooperative developments, such as the opening of the Taiwan market to Spanish pork imports in September, and French pork and poultry imports in November. We also signed a memorandum of cooperation in agriculture with Hungary last September, and in March of this year an air-transfer agreement with Poland. In November of last year, the ROC and Austria came into an agreement on youth working holiday program that took effect on January 26 of this year. When I first came into office in 2008, the Republic of China had youth working holiday agreements with only two countries. Now, we have 13. And by July of this year, 142 countries will be offering Republic of China citizens visa-free courtesies and other visa conveniences. So we added 88 countries and territories to the original 54. And in this matter, we want to thank the European countries very much because you took the lead to offer us that, and other countries followed suit. Over the past several years, promoting trade liberalization and pursuing economic and trade alliances have been important policy objectives for the ROC government. And so the visa-free treatments actually were a big help.

I remember a woman writer once wrote she was going to Europe. But by the time she got to the airport, she said, “I forgot something! I forgot to do something!” By the time she was on board, “Ah… I didn’t arrange the visa.” She didn’t have to anymore, but she just forgot. Another friend of mine, after retirement he organized a trip to Europe and found that it’s so convenient passing through the passport control. He said, in the past the customs people would examine his passport. It took at least five minutes. But now when they look at the passport from the Republic of China (Taiwan), the only words they say are, “Have a nice day!”

These efforts have allowed us to sign a series of cooperative trade and investment agreements with our major trading partners including mainland China, Japan, New Zealand, and Singapore. We have also resumed negotiations with the US under the 1994 Trade and Investment Framework Agreement, while actively seeking to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP).

These developments in ROC-EU investment made me recall a speech I gave, at NATO headquarters in Brussels back in 1992, which was subsequently published in the NATO Review in April 1993.

I think I brought this copy with me today just to show you what I thought at that time and what I did now. So please allow me to quote myself:

“One way for European countries to capitalize on this seemingly irreversible trend is to provide more support to European firms doing business in Taiwan and encourage them to look at new forms of joint ventures, strategic alliances or other forms of cooperation which will then allow more European firms to be a part of Taiwan's efforts to pry open the mainland market of 1.2 billion increasingly affluent people.

Indeed, European firms can benefit more by going one step further and setting up regional operating centers here in Taiwan to sharpen their competitiveness. In other words, these firms can make good use of Taiwan as a base for the expansion of operations into other parts of Asia.”

As you can see, I am doing what I said 20 years ago. In 2006, as the mayor of Taipei City, I also held an enterprise investment forum in Brussels to propose that ROC and EU firms join together to develop the mainland China market and create new business opportunities.

Since I gave that speech in Brussels over 20 years ago, the ROC-mainland China relationship has vastly improved. So today, this meeting gives me the perfect opportunity to renew my call. I am therefore proposing that the governments of all EU member states take concrete action—soon—and urge the European Commission to start negotiations with Taiwan on bilateral investment and economic cooperation agreements—BIAs and ECAs. Those agreements will then have a synergistic effect with our existing Cross-Straits Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) that will allow the ROC, and all the members of the EU, to share the benefits of the growing cross-strait “peace dividend.”

The ROC shares many core values with the countries of Europe, including freedom, democracy, human rights, peace, and the rule of law. Having so much in common, we understand our mutual advantages and challenges. We firmly believe that going forward, our mutual understanding, and our ongoing substantive exchanges in many areas, give us a firm foundation for even broader cooperation that will take our long-standing partnership to new heights.

Let me close by once again congratulating the European Union on today’s anniversary. May our friendship endure, and our partnership continue to prosper.

Thank you and bon appétit!