President Ma Ying-jeou met on the afternoon of October 14 with a delegation from the US National Committee on American Foreign Policy (NCAFP). In addition to explaining the state of Taiwan's relations with mainland China and the US, the president also expressed hope that the ROC and the US will deepen interaction in a wide variety of areas.
In remarks, the president first stated that the prestigious NCAFP was founded in 1974 by Dr. Hans Morgenthau, an international relations theorist, and Dr. George Schwab, President Emeritus of the organization. Grace Kennan Warnecke formally assumed the position of Chairman of the Board in August of this year, and the NCAFP's president is Rosemary DiCarlo, a former US Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations. Both women have distinguished themselves in the fields of diplomacy and international affairs, and President Ma said they will undoubtedly excel and enjoy their new positions at the NCAFP.
Turning to cross-strait relations, the president mentioned that in his 2008 inaugural address he stated that under the framework of the ROC Constitution, his administration would maintain the status quo, defined as "no unification, no independence, and no use of force" in the Taiwan Strait, and promote the peaceful development of 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. And the president reiterated that same stance in his National Day Address this year. He emphasized that both sides of the Taiwan Strait had returned to the 1992 Consensus, an important foundation for good relations over the past seven years.
President Ma went on to explain that some people in the ROC think that mainland China proposed the 1992 Consensus and forced us to accept it, when in fact "we made the initial proposal, and they accepted it." He went on to say that the 1992 Consensus is based on a resolution on the meaning of "one China" that was passed by the eighth plenary session of the National Unification Council (NUC), convened by former President Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) in 1992. An original copy of former President Lee's directive was displayed in the recent "Cross-strait Interaction and Exchange Through the Corridors of Time" exhibit organized by the Mainland Affairs Council, providing important documentary evidence, said the president.
President Ma then pointed out that over the past seven years the two sides of the Taiwan Strait have signed 23 agreements covering economics, public security, medicine, and health. On the crime-fighting and judicial cooperation front, the president said that cross-strait cooperation had successfully cracked many telecom fraud cases, with over 7,000 fraud perpetrators arrested from Taiwan, mainland China, and Southeast Asia. Financial losses through fraud in Taiwan have fallen by 82%, an outstanding achievement. Cross-strait interactions have also become more frequent, and over the past seven years visitors from mainland China have made over 14 million trips to Taiwan, almost four million of them in the past year alone. In addition, the number of mainland students studying in Taiwan jumped from 823 seven years ago to about 33,000 last year, a 40-fold increase. From the APEC meetings in October of 2013 to this past May, the ministers in charge of cross-strait affairs from both sides of the Strait have held six formal meetings where both sides used their official titles. The sixth meeting was held on October 14 in the city of Guangzhou in mainland China. These developments all show that cross-strait relations have moved from conflict and confrontation toward reconciliation and cooperation.
The president then commented on ROC-US relations. He said that over the past seven years he has actively strived to improve cross-relations and enhance Taiwan's relations with the US. His administration has taken a "low key, no surprises" approach in working to restore mutual trust between Taiwan and the US at the highest levels of government, achieving excellent results. There are many examples. For one, the number of agreements signed between Taiwan and the US increased from 90 to 147 in the past seven years. Former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and current Secretary of State John Kerry have also commented on bilateral relations in a positive light. Former Secretary of State Clinton has said that Taiwan is "an important security and economic partner" of the US. In May of this year Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Susan Thornton in an address stressed how good Taiwan-US relations are and referred to Taiwan as a vital partner of the US in East Asia. All of these gestures show just how mutually beneficial and friendly ROC-US relations are.
President Ma also pointed out that an important indicator for close and friendly ROC-US relations is that the US in November of 2012 included Taiwan in its Visa Waiver Program (VWP), making the ROC the only nation of the 38 in the VWP that does not have formal diplomatic ties with the US.
Addressing the topic of bilateral cooperation in the areas of culture and education, President Ma commented that many students from Taiwan choose to study in the US, with Taiwan being the sixth largest source of foreign students in America. The number of Taiwanese students in the US has decreased slightly in comparison with the past, and "we hope that the number will rise again," he said. In December of 2012, the two countries began jointly promoting the Pacific Islands Leadership Program, providing intensive training to young leaders from Pacific Islands with potential in government or NGOs, and a number of concrete achievements have been seen in this respect, he said.
The president then noted that over the past seven years US arms sales to the ROC totaled over US$18 billion, the highest amount in the past two decades. In addition, when screening the budget this past May, both the US Senate and the House of Representatives supported strengthening military interaction between Taiwan and the US, along with inviting Taiwan for the first time to participate in the Rim of the Pacific Exercise (RIMPAC) and Red Flag training exercises. All of these developments are unprecedented.
Moving on to bilateral cooperation in economics and trade, President Ma said that since he took office in 2008, Taiwan has posted an aggregate trade surplus of US$96.4 billion with the US. Taiwan is also working to balance trade with the US, spending US$18.3 billion acquiring defensive materiel, sending four agricultural missions that bought US$12.3 billion of US agricultural products, and placing orders for about 40 Boeing aircraft worth at least US$10 billion. In addition, the ROC has responded to the SelectUSA investment initiative by pledging some US$13.1 billion. So clearly, the bilateral economic and trade relationship is mutually beneficial, he said. And Taiwan last year vaulted past India and Saudi Arabia to become the 10th largest trading partner of the US, while the US has once again outpaced Japan to become Taiwan's second largest trading partner. High-ranking economic and trade officials from the US such as Assistant Secretary of State for Economic and Business Affairs Charles H. Rivkin and Deputy US Trade Representative Robert Holleyman also both visited Taiwan this year, which shows that the US government places great importance on enhancing its economic and trade relations with Taiwan.
The president also updated the group on the ROC's efforts in maintaining peace in the region. He explained that the government introduced its East China Sea Peace Initiative in August 2012, asserting that "although sovereignty over national territory cannot be compromised, natural resources can be shared," and urging all parties in the East China Sea to resolve disputes using peaceful means. In April of 2013 Taiwan and Japan signed a fisheries agreement based on the principles of that initiative, thus resolving East China Sea fishing disputes between the two sides that had lasted 40 years. Prior to the agreement, the two sides averaged over ten fishing disputes each year, while in the year following the signing of the agreement the number of disputes dropped to zero. This, the president said, was an outstanding achievement, "not ceding an inch on sovereignty, but making great progress in terms of fishing rights." Looking ahead, the president hopes that the experiences in promoting peace and cooperation in the East China Sea can be extended to the South China Sea to resolve disputes there peacefully, and allow the ROC to serve as a "peacemaker" in the international community.
The delegation led by NCAFP Chairman of the Board Warnecke was accompanied to the Presidential Office by American Institute in Taiwan Taipei Office Director Kin Moy and Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Bruce J. D. Linghu (令狐榮達) to meet with President Ma.