Mr. Bruce J. D. Linghu (令狐榮達), Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs;
Mr. Kin Moy, Director, AIT Taipei; and
Mr. William Vocke, Executive Director, Fulbright Taiwan, Foundation for Scholarly Exchange;
All of our distinguished Fulbright Scholars;
Ladies and gentlemen:
Good afternoon!
I’m very happy to be here, as I had been introduced to be a participant in a program sponsored by the State Department back in 1971—but most of you were not born yet. At the time, that group was called the Asian and Pacific Student Leader Project, with 12 student representatives from the Republic of China, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Australia, Indonesia, New Zealand, and Thailand, and it was quite a group. We had a three-and-a-half month visit to the United States, visiting more than 20 campuses and governmental institutions. That was really an eye-opening trip for me. And in the end, I found that I learned more about my own country than about the United States, because everywhere I went, I would make comparisons, and see how we would be able to do more to make my homeland a better one.
So this is a wonderful program and I appreciate your presence, and I’m pleased to have this opportunity to talk to you. I think that will also enhance your understanding of my country.
So what I’m trying to share with you is what we have done in the last eight years.
I. Contributions that eight years of reform have made to creating a free and prosperous Taiwan
Over the past eight years as President, I and my administrative team have forged ahead, battling strong headwinds and adverse circumstances, devoted to creating a free and prosperous Taiwan, peace across the Taiwan Strait, and a friendly international environment.
So—three things: a free and prosperous Taiwan, a peaceful Taiwan Strait, and a friendly international environment.
To create that free and prosperous Taiwan, we have implemented sound policies that advocate openness and engagement, fostering free trade and a tourism-friendly environment. Those policies have helped push tourist arrivals over the 10 million mark, compared to only 3.7 million before I took office, while turning Taiwan into a major tourist destination.
Our efforts to foster freedom are reflected in the most recent survey by New York-based Freedom House, which is called Freedom in the World 2016. This survey shows that Taiwan has been rated a “free country” for 17 consecutive years. There are two categories. In the Political Rights category we had the highest rating, and in Civil Liberties we garnered the second-highest rating, ranking Number 2 in Asia, behind only Japan.
Over the past eight years, we have seen the worst economic recessions since the oil crisis of the 1970s, including the global financial tsunami in 2008, the European debt crisis of 2011, and the decline in global exports of 2015. During this period, global economic growth averaged 2.2 percent, and global export growth averaged 3.4 percent. Those numbers are far below the global averages of 3.3 percent and 12.13 percent in the eight years before I took office. So although our absolute numbers don’t measure up to our past performance, actually, Taiwan was still able to make progress under adverse conditions, and improve our previous global rankings. Actually, Mr. Chiu Cheng-hsiung (邱正雄, former minister of finance), who is an alumni of the Fulbright Program, was the key person in fighting the financial tsunami and we were able to win that battle. Please give him a big hand. At that time, there were no bankruptcies in Taiwan, but at least 300 in the United States.
So in many areas, including economics and social progress, our achievements have garnered high marks in international surveys.
One example is the most recent Bertelsmann Transformation Index (BTI), released by the Germany-based Bertelsmann Foundation last February. In the Political Transformation category, Taiwan ranked Number 3 out of 129 countries worldwide, behind only Uruguay and Estonia. And in 16 of the 18 Political Transformation sub-indices, Taiwan received the highest score.
In the Economic Transformation ratings, Taiwan was even more successful, ranking Number 1 out of 129 countries worldwide. The BTI report also praised Taiwan’s economy for achieving solid growth—although not very high—over the past few years even though there was a severe downturn in global demand. And even though Taiwan’s inflation rate remained low and financial institutions were stable, we still garnered a high score for international competitiveness.
In Global Finance magazine, which is a New York-based magazine, in their ratings of the world’s richest countries from November of last year, Taiwan ranked 19th out of 185 countries worldwide. That put us right behind Germany, and far ahead of countries like France, Great Britain, Japan, and South Korea.
And in the 2015 global competitiveness ratings published by the Institute of Management Development (IMD), in Lausanne, Switzerland, Taiwan ranked Number 11 in the world, and Number 3 in the Asia-Pacific Region. Over the past eight years, our average global rank was 11.5, which is our best performance over the past 20 years, and the best performance under any of Taiwan’s three democratically elected presidents.
On December 9 last year, the UK-based Open Knowledge Foundation also released its Global Open Data Index. The results showed that although Taiwan was ranked Number 36 three years ago, and Number 11 two years ago, last year we climbed all the way to the top spot, ranked Number 1 in the world.
Last year’s MasterCard Next Generation Well-Being Index survey also projected an index score of 80 for Taiwan’s young generation in the year 2030, the highest score in all of Asia.
II. Creating a cross-strait peace dividend and a friendly environment conducive to international participation
In seeking to create cross-strait peace under the framework of the Constitution of the Republic of China, we have maintained the status quo, which we define, as Dr. Vocke also mentioned: “no unification, no independence, and no use of force,” at the same time based on the 1992 Consensus—whereby each side recognizes that there is “one China,” with each side having its respective interpretation of what that means. Well, people said the 1992 Consensus is a “masterpiece of ambiguity.” And believe it or not, it worked very well. So we have promoted the peaceful development of cross-strait relations. Since my taking office, the two sides have signed, altogether, 23 agreements, covering a variety of issues from trade, tourism, medical cooperation, joint efforts to fight crime, and nuclear power. And the respective ministers in charge of cross-strait affairs have met seven times, addressing each other using their official titles. This is very common between countries, but not between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait. We never called officials from mainland China by their official titles. So this is quite a breakthrough. In a little over seven years, the number of regularly scheduled weekly flights between the two sides has increased from zero to 890. So there are 122 to 124 flights between Taiwan and the mainland every day. So this is unprecedented, and mainland tourists have already made over 18 million visits to Taiwan. We now also have over 42,000 mainland students studying in Taiwan, a 50-fold increase. Before I took office, there were only 823. You may ask me: What is the impact of their studying in Taiwan? Let me just give you an interesting episode. Four years ago, when I won re-election, the New York Times interviewed two students, one from Taiwan and one from mainland China, watching the election results. The Taiwanese student said, “Look, we’ve got a very efficient electoral system. Our people cast their votes in the morning, and they get the results right in the evening.” The mainland student said, “That’s nothing. At home, we also cast our votes in the morning, but we knew the result the day before.” So you can see their reaction…you can also say they are very humorous, right?
So bilateral trade across the Taiwan Strait was almost US$160 billion last year, with around US$70 billion of surplus in Taiwan’s favor. And this is very important, because overall, in bilateral trade between Taiwan and the rest of the world, our surplus is only about US$20 to US$30 billion. Now, our surplus with the mainland is US$ 70 billion. That means, without the trade with the mainland, our foreign trade will be in deficit, at least US$50 billion.
These developments have transformed the Taiwan Strait from a potential flashpoint of conflict into an avenue of peace.
I’m sure you probably remember, in 1958 the mainland started a massive bombardment of the small island of Kinmen, off the shore of mainland China. At that time, the island of Kinmen received 470,000 shells from the mainland; for almost every square meter, there are three shells. But now, they don’t send shells any more. They send a lot of tourists to Kinmen, and the most favorite gift they want to buy and take back to mainland China, is a kitchen knife made from those shells. I was quite amazed—“How come you still have so much iron to do that?” They said, “We can continue doing that for many, many years.” After all, there were half a million shells fired against Kinmen in 1958.
So on November 7 last year, after building up ample cross-strait trust, and predicated on equality and dignity, I met mainland Chinese leader Xi Jinping (習近平) in Singapore. That was the first meeting between cross-strait leaders since the two sides came under separate rule 66 years ago. We exchanged views on consolidating cross-strait peace and maintaining the status quo in the Taiwan Strait, addressing the practical concerns of Taiwan citizens while establishing a framework for long-term stability in cross-strait relations.
In terms of Taiwan’s external relations, friendly cross-strait interactions in recent years have created space that not only ushered in cross-strait peace, but also created numerous peace dividends, paving the way for Taiwan’s broader participation in the international arena. The most prominent ripple effect has been the strengthening of Taiwan-US relations, and the increase in trilateral interaction between the US, Taiwan, and mainland China.
In February of last year, US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, Daniel Russel, said that one of the things that has made the relationship between Taiwan and the United States productive has been the progress in cross-straits relations. And in a speech delivered in May of last year, by US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Susan Thornton, she also recognized that the unofficial US-Taiwan relationship has never been better, calling Taiwan a vital partner of the US in Asia. She also emphasized that the stable management of cross-strait ties has been an important ingredient of the close cooperation between Taiwan and the US in recent years. These statement from US diplomats confirm the positive influence that cross-strait relations have had on Taiwan-US relations.
This administration has consistently promoted a pragmatic, dynamic, and flexible diplomacy that has won Taiwan greater respect, and a valued place, in the international community.
By the way, we thank very much the US, which decided to grant us visa-free program status three years ago. That had a tremendous effect, increasing our visitors to the United States, while at the same time, AIT Taipei suffered a great financial loss, because no visa fee could be charged. So why don’t we give Director Moy a big hand, and thank him for the sacrifice?
But on the other hand, the increase of visitors to the United States probably compensates that loss. If I remember correctly, at least 20 percent more. As you know, those from Taiwan who visit the United States do not only admire the American culture and society, but they are also very, very serious shoppers. So they contribute a lot to decreasing the trade deficit the US had with Taiwan.
As a result, our interaction with the major regions and countries around the globe, in all areas, is now better than it has ever been in the past decade. That has enabled us to return with dignity, after a departure of 38 and 42 years respectively , to international organizations such as the World Health Assembly (WHA) and the Assembly of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). In 2007, before I took office, only 54 countries and areas offered Taiwan nationals visa-free courtesies. This was the case, actually, in the last 20 years. Since then, we have almost tripled that number, adding 107 more for a total of 161 , while the number of our diplomatic allies remains 22.
The United States granted us visa-free status, one of 38 countries in the world. But we are the only country that does not have formal diplomatic relations with the United States. So that is also very, very prominent.
In 2012, to address sovereignty disputes involving the islands in the East China Sea, we proposed the East China Sea Peace Initiative, which is based on the concept that although sovereignty over national territory cannot be compromised, resources can be shared. That initiative calls on all concerned parties to replace confrontation with dialogue, and resolve disputes through peaceful means. The following year, we successfully signed a fisheries agreement with Japan that ceded nothing in terms of sovereignty, while making great strides in terms of fishing rights. Well, you see, in the Taiwan-Japan fisheries agreement, almost every party appreciates this agreement—the United States, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, even the European Union—they all gave us a lot of support. There is only one party that is not happy. You know who? The fish! As a result of the agreement, we caught more fish—almost three times as much as we did before. So they were not very happy.
We applied those same concepts in the South China Sea, and in May of last year we proposed the South China Sea Peace Initiative. By November, we had signed an agreement with the Philippines that prescribes law enforcement procedures for fishing operations that will help alleviate the fisheries disputes. Our dispute with the Philippines lasted for over 40 years, and just three years ago, they even shot dead one of our fishermen. But this is not a normal fisheries agreement in the sense that we delimit our fishing zone. Now, only dealing with the mode of law enforcement, there are three principles: first of all—no use of force; secondly—one hour prior notification before law enforcement; and number three—in case of detention or arrest, the ship or the person must be released in three days. So these three principles are very important to making it work between the two sides. And so far, the number of disputes has dropped sharply, whereas the catch has also gone up. This is actually a very happy result. So, this is our effort: to seek peace in the Taiwan Strait, peace in the East China Sea, and peace in the South China Sea.
We hope my country can become a regional peacemaker, and promote regional peace and cooperation.
Let me just conclude my remarks.
III. Conclusion
Over the past eight years, we have achieved many of the policy goals we originally set when we decided to promote a free and prosperous Taiwan, cross-strait peace, and friendly international relations. We have also built bridges to facilitate cross-strait relations, and laid the groundwork for economic development and energy policy. In just eight years, Taiwan has risen from the ranks of international debtors to become a valuable asset. As we look ahead to Taiwan’s future challenges, we hope the next administration possesses mature wisdom, and will continue to maintain the status quo of cross-strait peace and prosperity on the basis of the 1992 Consensus, namely, “one China, respective interpretations.” We also hope that they will actively pursue regional economic and trade integration, and find the most appropriate energy mix for Taiwan without electricity shortages, or even rationing. And most of all, we hope that the new administration will continue to contribute to regional and global stability and prosperity.
Once again, let me extend a warm welcome to all of the Fulbright Scholars, along with my best wishes for a rich and rewarding experience at this week’s workshop.
And certainly, last but not least, I hope you, during your stay in Taiwan, will do as much shopping as possible, to help us revive our economy.
Thank you very much!