President Ma Ying-jeou met on the afternoon of March 8 with Richard Haass, President of the New York-based Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). In addition to briefing his visitor on concrete successes achieved by the ROC government in its conduct of relations with mainland China and the United States (US), President Ma also pointed to the East and South China Seas as examples of how Taiwan will continue to act as a regional peacemaker and use peaceful means to resolve international disputes.
In remarks, President Ma noted that the CFR is an important US think tank. Since its founding in 1921, it has published many research reports and become a globally renowned and deeply influential organization. He added that as mayor of Taipei in 2006 he traveled to the US at the invitation of Professor Jerome Cohen, a senior fellow at the CFR, to deliver a speech on the topic of War or Peace Across the Taiwan Strait. In that speech he stated that in order to co-exist peacefully, Taiwan and mainland China would have to return to the 1992 Consensus.
President Ma pointed out that after he took office in 2008, then-mainland Chinese leader Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) stated during a telephone call with US President George W. Bush that the mainland and Taiwan ought to resume talks on the basis of the 1992 Consensus. President Ma therefore asked Vice President-elect Vincent C. Siew (蕭萬長) to attend the Boao Forum for Asia that year and convey Taiwan's thinking regarding a resumption of cross-strait talks.
President Ma further stated that the government over the past seven years 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 relations in line with the 1992 Consensus—whereby each side acknowledges the existence of "one China" but maintains its own interpretation of what that means. As a result, cross-strait relations are more stable and peaceful than they have ever been over the past 67 years. The two sides have signed 23 agreements, the ministers in charge of cross-strait affairs from each side have met seven times—addressing each other using their official titles—and the cumulative number of Taiwan tourist arrivals from the mainland has topped 18 million.
President Ma went on to note that in cross-strait trade, Taiwan has enjoyed an average annual trade surplus of about US$70 billion over the past eight years, for a cumulative surplus of roughly US$600 billion. If not for our surplus vis-à-vis the mainland, he said, it is quite possible that Taiwan's overall external trade status could have slipped into deficit.
Regarding the meeting last November in Singapore between the leaders of Taiwan and mainland China, President Ma pointed out that this was the first such meeting since the two sides came under separate rule 66 years earlier. During the meeting, he and mainland Chinese leader Xi Jinping (習近平) reached a consensus on the need to "consolidate peace in the Taiwan Strait and maintain the status quo in cross-strait relations," and President Ma expressed hope that the two sides will build on the meeting to create—figuratively speaking—a bridge across the Taiwan Strait that future leaders of the two sides can use to exchange views.
Turning to Taiwan-US relations, President Ma remarked that since taking office he has taken a "low key, no surprises" approach to dealings with the US, and as a result, bilateral ties are now the best they've been at any time in the past 37 years. Former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and current Secretary of State John Kerry have also both emphasized publicly that Taiwan is an important economic and security partner of the US.
Commenting on bilateral cooperation and exchanges in security as well as economic and trade ties, President Ma stated that the US for many years has conscientiously implemented the Taiwan Relations Act and faithfully abided by its commitments to Taiwan under the Six Assurances. Over the past seven years the US has sold the ROC more than US$20.1 billion worth of arms, the highest amount in the past two decades and far more than what the US sold to either of the two previous ROC administrations. As for economic and trade ties, statistics from the US Department of Commerce indicate that Taiwan became America's ninth-largest trading partner last year, while the US surpassed Japan to become Taiwan's second-largest trading partner. "Both sides have done well," he said.
President Ma also mentioned that the US understands quite well Taiwan's firm intention to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). It is true, he said, that the US Congress has not yet decided whether to ratify the TPP agreement, but at least "the two sides share an increasingly strong consensus on this matter."
The president then spoke about Taiwan's successes in seeking to promote regional peace in the East and South China Seas. In the East China Sea, Taiwan has acted on the basis of the East China Sea Peace Initiative to sign a bilateral fisheries agreement with Japan, thus putting a 40-year fisheries dispute to rest. As a result, Taiwan has achieved its goal of "not ceding an inch on sovereignty while making great progress in terms of fishing rights," he stated. In the South China Sea, Taiwan and the Philippines have signed the Agreement Concerning the Facilitation of Cooperation on Law Enforcement in Fisheries Matters. The agreement entails three points of consensus regarding law enforcement actions in overlapping maritime territory, including refraining from using force, notifying each other prior to such actions, and releasing detained fishing vessels and crews within three days in case of arrest or impoundment. This agreement has greatly reduced conflict between the two sides.
President Ma also pointed out that he made a special trip this past January 28 to Taiping Island (also known as Itu Aba), part of the Spratly Islands, to thank the personnel stationed there for their hard work and sacrifices. While there he issued the South China Sea Peace Initiative Roadmap to explain how to promote peace in the South China Sea through bilateral and multilateral means, and to announce Taiwan's plans for Taiping Island to become an island "of peace and rescue operations" that is "ecologically friendly" and "low-carbon."
With regard to the claim by the Philippines that Taiping Island is just a rock rather than an island, President Ma stressed that Taiping Island has fresh water, can support human habitation, and that many kinds of crops and fruits can be cultivated there; more importantly, Taiping Island also has other ways to sustain an economic life of its own. All of these facts fully demonstrate that Taiping Island is an island, and not a rock.
The president reiterated that Taiwan has always supported freedom of navigation and overflight in the South China Sea, and opposes its militarization. In the future, Taiwan will continue working to act as a regional peacemaker with an eye to resolving international disputes in a peaceful manner.