On the afternoon of March 30, President Ma Ying-jeou met with a delegation led by US Congressmen Jim Costa and Kurt Schrader. The president briefed the visitors on Taiwan's relations with the US and mainland China, as well as our efforts and results in acting in the international community as a peacemaker and provider of humanitarian aid.
In remarks, President Ma noted that the US congressional caucus known as the Blue Dog Coalition has long been a bridge for communications between the Democratic and Republican parties since it was established in 1995. The Blue Dogs, he said, are very concerned about the economy and other issues with a direct bearing on people's daily lives, and constitute a powerful force for stability in the US Congress. As co-chairs of the Blue Dog Coalition, Mr. Costa and Mr. Schrader have both joined the Congressional Taiwan Caucus, which currently has 205 members and is the largest country caucus in Congress. To continue expanding Taiwan's room for international participation, both congressmen voted on November 2, 2015 in favor of House Resolution 1853 and on March 14, 2016 in support of Senate Bill 2426, both of which support observer status for Taiwan in the International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL). They have thus taken concrete action to show their firm support for Taiwan, which we will never forget.
Commenting on Taiwan-US relations, President Ma stated that since taking office in 2008 he has adopted a "low key, no surprises" approach in an active quest to deepen bilateral ties. "We restored high-level trust very quickly," he said. The ROC government's efforts over the past seven-plus years have significantly enhanced the breadth and depth of bilateral cooperation in many areas. The number of bilateral agreements signed between Taiwan and the US has increased from 90 to 154, a clear sign that bilateral relations are better than they have ever been since the Taiwan Relations Act (TRA) was enacted 37 years ago.
The president also mentioned that many senior US political leaders have commented very positively on the state of Taiwan-US relations. Former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and current Secretary of State John Kerry, for example, have both emphasized publicly that Taiwan is an important security and economic partner of the US, and in April of 2015 Secretary Kerry stated that Taiwan is a "key component" of the US rebalance to Asia policy. Last May, US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Susan Thornton publicly recognized that Taiwan-US relations have never been better. She also described Taiwan as a vital partner of the United States in East Asia, and emphasized that "an important ingredient of the close cooperation in recent years has been the stable management of cross-Strait ties." It is thus quite clear that stable cross-strait ties have also brought better relations between Taiwan and the US.
President Ma further noted that the increased depth of Taiwan-US ties is also manifested in the area of security cooperation. Since he came to office in 2008 the US has sold Taiwan US$20.1 billion worth of arms, the highest amount in the last 20 years, and more than what the US sold to either of the previous two ROC administrations. In fact, he said, it is more than double what the US sold to Taiwan during the administration of his immediate predecessor.
Turning to the subject of Taiwan-US economic and trade relations, the president stated that Taiwan surpassed India and Saudi Arabia in 2014 to become the tenth-largest trading partner of the US, and advanced yet one more place in 2015 to number nine. The US, for its part, has moved past Japan in the past two years to become Taiwan's second-largest trading partner. In recent years, the ROC government has also sought actively to liberalize bilateral trade. Taiwan and the US have engaged in talks under the Trade and Investment Framework Agreement for three consecutive years beginning in 2013, and continue to maintain close and full communications on bilateral economic and trade issues.
President Ma stated that, thanks to active US leadership, the Trans-Pacific Partnership was signed by its 12 member nations this past February. Trade between Taiwan and TPP members accounts for roughly 37% of Taiwan's total external trade, so Taiwan wants very much to join this important regional economic integration agreement as soon as possible, and also hopes that the US will continue to take substantive measures to actively support Taiwan's inclusion in second-round TPP negotiations to further the two sides' cooperation in the area of regional economic integration.
Commenting on the successes of the "viable diplomacy" policy, President Ma stated that over the past eight years the government has consolidated friendships with the ROC's diplomatic allies and worked to enhance mutual trust and substantive cooperation between Taiwan and important countries, including the US, Japan, New Zealand, Australia, and the members of the European Union and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. Many breakthroughs have been achieved, he added. For example, 28 of the 61 agreements (46%) that Taiwan has signed with Japan over the past 40-plus years— including the fisheries agreement of 2013—have been signed during the past seven-plus years. This shows that Taiwan's relations with Japan and other nearby nations are now the best they've been in the last 30 or 40 years.
Regarding cross-strait relations, President Ma said that over the past eight years, Taiwan has 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 seek 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. Before he took office there were no direct, regularly scheduled cross-strait flights, but now there are 120 per day, and the cumulative number of tourist arrivals from the mainland has topped 18 million.
Sufficient cross-strait trust has been built up, said the president, to enable a meeting in Singapore on November 7 of last year between himself and mainland Chinese leader Xi Jinping (習近平), predicated on the principles of equality and dignity, where the two sides exchanged views on how to consolidate peace in the Taiwan Strait and maintain the cross-strait status quo. This was the first such meeting since the two sides came under separate rule 66 years earlier. The Economist even stated that "The summit was perhaps the biggest concession on a 'core issue' of sovereignty any Chinese leader has made since the early 1980s." The improvement in cross-strait relations is conducive to stability in Taiwan, mainland China, the larger region, and even the entire world. The US government also issued a statement, saying that "The United States welcomes the meeting between leaders on both sides of the Taiwan Strait…, and we encourage further progress by both sides toward building ties, reducing tensions, and promoting stability on the basis of dignity and respect."
President Ma further noted that Taiwan actively seeks to play the roles of peacemaker and provider of humanitarian aid in the international community. In August of 2012, for example, Taiwan put forward the East China Sea Peace Initiative to call upon all countries to resolve disputes in the East China Sea peacefully in accordance with international law. In April of 2013, Taiwan signed a fisheries agreement with Japan that put an end to a 40-year fisheries dispute. Taiwan has received plaudits from the executive and legislative branches of the US government for the way it has stepped in to donate materials, money, and service throughout the world following disasters. US House Committee on Foreign Affairs Chairman Ed Royce strongly praised Taiwan at a House hearing for precisely this reason.