President Ma Ying-jeou and his delegation, currently on an overseas trip codenamed the Forever Peaceful Project, arrived at George Bush Intercontinental Airport Houston at 9:30 a.m. local time on March 13 (Taipei time: 10:30 p.m., March 13). ROC Representative to the US Lyushun Shen (沈呂巡) and American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) Chairman Raymond F. Burghardt boarded the plane to welcome President Ma, who proceeded to his hotel after disembarking and visited a Formosa Plastics plant before attending a 7:00 p.m. banquet with the local expatriate community.
Upon arriving at the banquet, President Ma first watched an honor guard performance by Taipei First Girls High School Alumni Association in Houston. After the performance, the president greeted the banquet guests in Minnan, Hakka, and several indigenous languages.
In remarks, President Ma stated that he has made 18 transit stops in the US during his time as president, but this was his first stopover in the southern US, which made it much more significant. Mentioning his tour of a Formosa Plastics plant that afternoon, the president stated that Formosa Plastics is the sixth-largest petrochemicals company in the US and employs over 2,000 people. He had accompanied late company founder Wang Yung-ching (王永慶) on several 5000-meter road runs, and had great admiration for the spirit in which Mr. Wang, a corporate leader, made a habit of going jogging with his employees.
Commenting on Taiwan-US relations, President Ma said that there was insufficient bilateral trust at the highest levels before he took office in 2008, and that the relationship was not going smoothly. Since assuming the presidency, however, he has taken a "low key, no surprises" approach that has restored high-level trust. Turning to the topic of Taiwan-US security cooperation, the president mentioned that the US has sold Taiwan US$20.1 billion worth of arms over the past eight years, the highest figure over any comparable period in the last 20 years. As a result, bilateral relations are now the best they've been in the 37 years since the Taiwan Relations Act (TRA) was enacted.
When the US severed diplomatic ties with the ROC in 1979, stated the president, he was studying for a doctorate in law at Harvard University. His thesis advisor, Professor Detlev Vagts, said to him at the time: "Taiwan is the most recognized unrecognized country of the United States." An American scholar also said that even though the US executive branch had withdrawn recognition of Taiwan, passage of the TRA by the US Congress effectively reinstated recognition by the legislative branch.
During his time in office, said the president, he has made a great effort to building a free, democratic, and prosperous Taiwan, and numerous international ratings have attested to his success. US-based Freedom House, for example, rates Taiwan a free country for the 17th consecutive year in its latest human rights report (Freedom in the World 2016), awarding a top score of 1 for political rights and 2 for civil liberties.
Turning to the economy, President Ma stated that Taiwan has been hit by three economic crises in the last eight years—the financial tsunami of 2008, the European debt crisis of 2011, and the global decline in exports in 2015. Over that same period, global economic growth has averaged 2.2% per year and exports have risen at an annual average of 3%, far worse than 3.3% and 12%, respectively, during the eight years before he took office. But Taiwan has struggled valiantly under adverse conditions, and made progress in terms of economic performance and quality of life. This success, he said, is positively reflected in the scores assigned to Taiwan by international rating institutions.
In Global Finance magazine's November 2015 list of the 185 richest countries in the world, for example, Taiwan is ranked No. 19 by PPP (purchasing-power-parity)-adjusted GDP, just one spot behind Germany and well ahead of such countries as France, the United Kingdom, Japan, and South Korea. And in the world competitiveness rankings released last year by the Switzerland-based International Institute for Management Development (IMD), Taiwan ranks No. 11 in the world and No. 3 in Asia. Over the past eight years, said the president, Taiwan has averaged 11.5 in the IMD world rankings, the best average ranking over any comparable period in the last 20 years, and the best achieved by any of the ROC's three popularly elected presidents. In addition, in the Global Open Data Index released last December 9 by Open Knowledge, a UK-based non-profit, Taiwan ranks No. 1, meaning that a wider variety of data are open and usable in Taiwan than anywhere else in the world. Taiwan ranked No. 36 in that index in 2013, and No. 11 in 2014.
President Ma also pointed out that in the latest Bertelsmann Transformation Index (Transformation Index BTI 2016) released by the German foundation Bertelsmann Stiftung, Taiwan ranks No. 3 among 129 nations in the category of Political Transformation, and No. 1 in the category of Economic Transformation. These rankings show that Taiwan's performance across the board is viewed in a very positive light by the international community, said the president.
Commenting on the ROC's efforts to promote regional peace, President Ma pointed out that in 2012 he acted to address long-running disputes over the Diaoyutai Islands by putting forward the East China Sea Peace Initiative. Adhering to the principle that "although sovereignty over national territory cannot be compromised, natural resources can be shared," the initiative calls for all parties to shelve controversies and resolve disputes through peaceful means. In the following year, the ROC successfully signed a fisheries agreement with Japan that has resolved a 40-year fisheries dispute, and enabled Taiwanese fishing boats to operate freely in the maritime area subject to the Taiwan-Japan fisheries agreement. That area, he added, is twice as large as Taiwan. As a result, Taiwan has "not ceded an inch on sovereignty while making great progress in terms of fishing rights," and our fishing boats are taking in much bigger catches.
With regard to the South China Sea, said the president, the same line of thinking prompted the government to put forward the South China Sea Peace Initiative in May 2015, and in November of that same year the ROC and the Philippines signed the Agreement Concerning the Facilitation of Cooperation on Law Enforcement in Fisheries Matters. The agreement establishes the following three principles: avoiding the use of violence or unnecessary force in maritime law enforcement actions; provision of one-hour advance notice before law enforcement actions against each other's fishing vessels; and release within three days of any detained fishing vessels and arrested crew members. The agreement should result in many fewer fishing disputes than have occurred over the past 40 years in the two countries' overlapping economic zones, which will serve to promote regional peace and cooperation, he said.
President Ma also stated that since he took office in 2008 the number of international tourist arrivals has jumped sharply from 3.71 million in 2007 to 10.43 million in 2015. The two biggest factors behind this increase, he said, are peace and greater openness.
Commenting on the state of law and order in Taiwan, President Ma pointed out that the Presscave magazine website ranked Taiwan at No. 2 last year behind Iceland on its list of the top 10 safest countries in the world in 2014-2015. In addition to its beautiful scenery and delicious food, Taiwan is noted for the kindness of its people; one often sees reports on television about locals who unselfishly return lost items to travelers. Such acts are deeply moving to travelers and a source of pride to ROC citizens, and inspire international respect for our country, said the president.
Among those in attendance at the banquet were: AIT Chairman Raymond F. Burghardt; Blake Farenthold and Randy Weber of the US House of Representatives; National Security Council Secretary-General Kao Hua-chu (高華柱); Minister of Foreign Affairs David Y. L. Lin (林永樂); ROC Representative to the US Lyushun Shen; Minister Steven S.K. Chen (陳士魁) of the Overseas Community Affairs Council (OCAC); OCAC Commissioner William Yeh (葉宏志); Chairman Mour Ang Chiv of the Teen How Taoist Temple; Legislative Yuan members Kung Wen-Chi (孔文吉), Lu Yu-Ling (呂玉玲), Chang Li-Shan (張麗善), and Wang Yu-Min (王育敏); and leaders of the local expatriate community.