President Ma Ying-jeou met on the morning of March 10 with a delegation from the Hudson Institute, a think tank based in Washington, DC. In addition to thanking the Hudson Institute for its longstanding support for the ROC, the president also briefed his visitors on the state of Taiwan's relations with the US and mainland China.
In remarks, President Ma noted that the Hudson Institute is an important think tank engaged in research on US national security and defense policies. Since its founding in 1961, the institute has been highly regarded throughout the US, and has been very friendly to Taiwan. Its research fellows have long experience in military affairs, and expertise in such fields as submarines, special forces, and strategic planning, all of which are closely correlated with Taiwan's national defense and security. This visit to Taiwan by the delegation, said the president, will do much to boost Taiwan-US security cooperation.
The president pointed out that since taking office in 2008 he has sought to improve mutual trust between Taiwan and the US. His administration has taken a "low key, no surprises" approach, and as a result, bilateral ties have never been better in the 37 years since the enactment of the Taiwan Relations Act. Over the past seven-plus years, the number of bilateral agreements signed between Taiwan and the US has increased from 90 to 154, an increase of 71%. This was the sharpest such increase in the past 60-plus years. Turning to the subject of security cooperation, President Ma noted that the US has sold the ROC more than US$20.1 billion worth of arms over the past eight years, the highest amount in the past two decades. Former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and current Secretary of State John Kerry have also both emphasized publicly that Taiwan is an important security and economic partner of the US, and Secretary Kerry has said that Taiwan is a "key component" in the US rebalance to Asia policy. These facts amply demonstrate the close and friendly nature of Taiwan-US relations.
Commenting on bilateral economic and trade ties, President Ma cited data from the US showing that Taiwan was the ninth-largest trading partner of the US in 2015, moving up one spot from 2014 and vaulting past Saudi Arabia and India. The US, for its part, has moved past Japan in the past two years to become Taiwan's second-largest trading partner. In addition, the two sides have resumed talks under the 1994 Trade and Investment Framework Agreement. The president expressed hope that the US will continue to support Taiwan's efforts to take part in second-round negotiations on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), and said that thanks to active US leadership, 12 member nations have signed the TPP. The next step is for each of the signatories to secure domestic ratification of the agreement so that it can enter into force. Trade between Taiwan and TPP members accounts for roughly 37% of Taiwan's total external trade, highlighting the importance of Taiwan's participation in the process of economic integration in the TPP region.
Commenting on the development of cross-strait relations, President Ma said that he announced at the time of his first presidential inauguration that he would seek, 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 would pursue peaceful cross-strait ties 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 now the most stable and peaceful they have been at any point since the two sides came under separate rule 67 years ago. The cumulative number of tourist arrivals from mainland China since he took office, for example, has now topped 18 million, and two-way trade between Taiwan and mainland China (including Hong Kong) has surpassed US$1.2 trillion. Taiwan over the past eight years has achieved a cumulative trade surplus vis-à-vis the mainland of about US$600 billion, for an average annual surplus of just over US$70 billion. And in addition to close economic and trade ties, the two sides also engage in law enforcement cooperation on various fronts. For example, Taiwan and mainland authorities have joined forces to make more than 7,000 arrests in connection with fraud cases. Meanwhile, said the president, on November 7 of last year he met with mainland Chinese leader Xi Jinping (習近平) in Singapore, where the two sides exchanged views on the need to "consolidate peace in the Taiwan Strait and maintain the status quo in cross-strait relations." The meeting yielded substantive results. These facts clearly show, he said, that the Taiwan Strait has been transformed from a flashpoint of conflict into an avenue of peace.
In addition to the Taiwan Strait, stated the president, the government has also made efforts with respect to the East and South China Seas. In 2012, just as major anti-Japanese demonstrations were breaking out in 20 cities across mainland China, the ROC government proposed the East China Sea Peace Initiative. Based on the idea that "although sovereignty over national territory cannot be compromised, natural resources can be shared," the initiative urges all parties to stay calm and resolve disputes peacefully. After the initiative was announced, Taiwan and Japan signed a fisheries agreement that resolved a long-running fisheries dispute, and the government then built upon that successful experience by taking a similar approach in the South China Sea. In November of 2015, for example, Taiwan and the Philippines signed the Agreement Concerning the Facilitation of Cooperation on Law Enforcement in Fisheries Matters, which represents a concrete achievement based on the South China Sea Peace Initiative that the president had put forward in May of 2015. President Ma also pointed out that he made a special trip this past January 28 to Taiping Island (also known as Itu Aba), where he issued the South China Sea Peace Initiative Roadmap, urging neighboring states to reduce tensions, shelve disputes, and draw up a comprehensive plan for zonal development. The idea, he said, has been to address the situation in the Taiwan Strait first before replicating its success in the East China Sea and then the South China Sea, so as to achieve a "peace in the three seas" that will serve as an important basis for Taiwan's relations with mainland China and the international community.
The president also mentioned that Taiwan-US security cooperation is now the best it's been in more than 30 years. During deliberations this past May on the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2016, which supports strengthened military exchange between Taiwan and the US, the US authorities invited Taiwan to participate in the Rim of the Pacific Exercise (RIMPAC) and the Red Flag training exercises. In addition, the US agreed in 2001 to help Taiwan acquire eight submarines, but there has been no progress on the matter. Taiwan still needs submarines, and is therefore working to get them through a combination of indigenous production and technology imports, and hopefully the US will continue to lend assistance.
The delegation, led by Hudson Institute's Director of the Center of American Seapower Seth Cropsey, was accompanied by Vice Minister of National Defense Chen Yong-kang (陳永康)and Deputy Foreign Minister Bruce J. D. Linghu (令狐榮達) to the Presidential Office to see the president.