After completing his state visit, codenamed the Forever Peaceful Project, during which he visited with ROC diplomatic allies from Central America and the Caribbean, President Ma Ying-jeou led his delegation on to Los Angeles. Their plane arrived at Los Angeles International Airport at 4:00 p.m. on Thursday, March 17 (Taipei time: 7:00 a.m., March 18).
After the charter flight came to a halt on the tarmac, ROC Representative to the US Lyushun Shen (沈呂巡) and American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) Chairman Raymond F. Burghardt boarded the plane to greet him. President Ma and his delegation then proceeded to their hotel, where they received an enthusiastic welcome from members of the local expatriate community.
In remarks delivered during an expatriate banquet that evening, President Ma stated that this was his 19th transit stop in the US and seventh in Los Angeles, and that he has always been enthusiastically welcomed and supported by the expatriate community. The president also expressed thanks for the secure, dignified, and comfortable treatment accorded to him by the US authorities.
President Ma pointed out that southern California has one of the biggest ROC expatriate communities in the world, and whenever there is a major national celebration in Taiwan, that community always organizes the most celebrations. Indeed, the expatriates of southern California have always cared about or supported Taiwan, he said. After the city of Tainan in southern Taiwan was struck by an earthquake on this past February 6, for example, expatriates in the southwestern US donated more than US$400,000 to the relief effort.
Noting that this year will mark the 150th anniversary of the birth of the ROC's founding father Dr. Sun Yat-sen, President Ma stated that the expatriate community of Los Angeles has held 18 activities to commemorate this great historical figure. While working to drum up overseas support for the revolution, Dr. Sun visited Los Angeles four times in 1904, 1905, 1910, and 1911 to seek financial backing and promote his cause, and the region's expatriates took an active part in the revolution.
Ever since childhood, said President Ma, he has greatly admired Dr. Sun, and immediately upon taking office eight years ago he noticed that a potted plant occupied the spot in the Office of the President where a bronze bust of Dr. Sun had once been placed. To show his respect for the nation's founding father, President Ma that very same year chose November 12, the anniversary of Dr. Sun's birth, to move the bust back to the Office of the President and put it on display there for visitors to admire.
Commenting on the connection between Dr. Sun and Taiwan, President Ma pointed out that after the founding father established the Revive China Society in Honolulu, his commitment to the revolution was strengthened when China was defeated in the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-95, and forced under the terms of the Treaty of Shimonoseki to give up Taiwan. Dr. Sun launched the first Guangzhou uprising later in 1895, a clear indication that events in Taiwan had a bearing on Dr. Sun's early activities.
President Ma further pointed out that Dr. Sun knew many people from Taiwan, including Liao Chin-ping (廖進平) and Chiang Wei-shui (蔣渭水), who helped finance Dr. Sun's "second revolution" of 1913. After Dr. Sun passed away in 1925, Taiwan People's News (run at the time by Chiang Wei-shui) published a eulogy that elicited a huge response from readers. Mr. Chiang, famous in his own right, was widely known as "the Sun Yat-sen of Taiwan." And when Dr. Sun's funeral was held, an elegy from the Taiwan student's association of Peking University created a sensation with the moving lines: "Three million Taiwanese newly galvanized, but without the departed, who will lead them? The task left uncompleted by our homeland for 40 years; who better to complete it than our generation?" The tremendous respect that the Taiwanese people felt for Dr. Sun is thus abundantly clear.
Turning to the topic of Taiwan-US relations, President Ma stated that the ROC Air Force worked with US pilots during the War of Resistance Against Japan to form the Chinese-American Composite Wing, which raided a Japanese air base in Hsinchu, destroying 42 aircraft in three minutes. Last year, to mark the 70th anniversary of the ROC's victory in the War of Resistance and the retrocession of Taiwan, the descendants of foreign pilots who had helped the ROC against Japan were invited by the government to come to Taiwan to commemorate that chapter in history. Among those on hand for the occasion were: the daughter of David Lee "Tex" Hill, a Squadron Leader in the Flying Tigers; the son of Flying Tigers Squadron Vice Leader Lee Hsueh-yan (李學炎); and Pilot Wei Hsien-wen (韋憲文). While transiting in Houston on March 13 of this year, President Ma praised the legendary exploits of Tex Hill during a lunch with leading political figures.
President Ma explained that during the War of Resistance Against Japan, US pilots fighting in China had a blood chit sewn into the back of their flight jackets. Issued by the Nationalist Government's Aviation Committee, these blood chits featured the ROC flag and included a message in Chinese: "This foreign person has come to China to help in the war effort. Soldiers and civilians, one and all, should rescue and protect him." That shows the depth of the friendship between the two nations, said the president.
President Ma also stated that in 2012 the US 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. It is standard procedure to require people to apply for a visa before traveling to a foreign country, while visa exemptions constitute special treatment. The fact that the US has chosen to switch from standard procedure to special treatment by according visa-free courtesies to ROC passport holders shows that "our nation is respected, and our people have dignity."
The president mentioned that in addition to visiting diplomatic allies Guatemala and Belize, he also took advantage of this trip to meet in Belize with the prime ministers of St. Christopher and Nevis, St. Lucia, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and to deliver an address before the Central American Parliament. He spoke with all these diplomatic allies about how public security has improved over the past eight years in Taiwan. Among other facts, he pointed out that Taiwan's overall crime rate has fallen by about 40%, noting specifically that the number of crimes involving scams has dropped by half, larceny by 70%, and violent crimes by 80%. The ROC is ready and willing to share its experiences in the maintenance of law and order, including such measures as the establishment of a 911 emergency reporting system and surveillance systems, with an eye to helping other countries improve public safety.
President Ma noted that upon taking office as president, he immediately set out to improve cross-strait ties. As a result, over the past eight years the number of direct, regularly scheduled cross-strait flights has increased from zero to 120 per day, while the number of mainland students studying in Taiwan has jumped 50-fold from 823 before he took office to 42,000. The cross-strait relationship is now more peaceful and stable than it's been in the more than 60 years since the two sides came under separate rule, he said.
President Ma said that although he will be leaving office in just two months, he has led a delegation overseas because he has always believed that "you're the president until your very last day in office." In addition to familiarizing diplomatic allies with the ROC's incoming president in hopes of ensuring a smooth handover, he also hopes that his successor will continue to seek stable cross-strait relations and friendly ties with the international community so that Taiwan can continue to distinguish itself on the world stage.
President Ma also stated that his meeting last November with mainland Chinese leader Xi Jinping (習近平) served to build a bridge of peace between the two sides. As long as the two sides have a shared basis for political relations, it will always be possible to maintain the status quo of peace and prosperity no matter who is president. Having the opportunity to spend eight years bringing about a more free and prosperous Taiwan, a peaceful and stable cross-strait relationship, and a friendlier international attitude toward Taiwan, has been the greatest honor of his life, so he hopes that what he's achieved will endure.
Among those present at the banquet were: US House Committee on Foreign Affairs Chairman Ed Royce; US Congressman Ted Lieu (劉雲平); San Bernardino County Fourth District Supervisor Curt Hagman; California State Senator Ben Allen; President Pro Tempore Mitchell Englander of the Los Angeles City Council; AIT Chairman Raymond F. Burghardt; 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); Legislative Yuan members Lu Yu-Ling (呂玉玲), Kung Wen-Chi (孔文吉), Wang Yu-Min (王育敏), Chang Li-Shan (張麗善); President Stephen K. Fong (方杰洲) of the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association of Los Angeles; and senior adviser to the OCAC Roy Kao (高啟正).