President Ma Ying-jeou met on the morning of April 12 with a delegation of scholars from the New York-based Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). The president thanked his visitors for the attention and support they've given Taiwan, and then briefed them on successes achieved by the government in its efforts to promote cross-strait peace, Taiwan-US relations, and regional peace.
In remarks, the president noted that the CFR is a well-known US think tank. Ever since its founding in New York in 1921, CFR-issued research reports and publications have had a sterling reputation in the international community, and Taiwan and the CFR have maintained close ties for many years. As mayor of Taipei in 2006, said the president, he once met with Professor Jerome Cohen, a senior fellow at the CFR. When the professor asked about cross-strait relations, then-Mayor Ma responded that "for cross-strait ties to improve, the two sides would have to return to their consensus regarding the 1992 Consensus," because mainland China back then was focusing on "one China" while Taiwan was zeroed in on the "respective interpretations" aspect. The two sides just kept drawing further apart, to the point where there really was no longer any 1992 Consensus. That is why he urged at the time that the two halves of the formulation would have to be put back together again to express the true sense of the 1992 Consensus.
President Ma stated that in the seven-plus years since he took office in 2008, he has consistently 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 promote the peaceful development of cross-strait ties under the 1992 Consensus, whereby each side acknowledges the existence of "one China" but maintains its own interpretation of what that means. As a result, he said, cross-strait relations are now better than at any other time since the two sides came under separate rule 67 years ago. Over the past seven years the two sides have signed 23 agreements, and the ministers in charge of cross-strait affairs from each side have met seven times, addressing each other using their official titles. "These events are unprecedented," he said.
The president further pointed out that sufficient cross-strait trust had been built up to enable a meeting on November 7 of last year between himself and mainland Chinese leader Xi Jinping (習近平) in Singapore. Treating each other as equals and with dignity, the two leaders had an understanding that neither person would mention a country name or use his official title, and that each would refer to the other as "Mister." They discussed practical issues that the people of Taiwan are concerned about, such as the mainland's military deployment against Taiwan, in hopes of establishing a lasting and stable framework for cross-strait relations. Over the past seven-plus years, remarked the president, the government's pursuit of improved cross-strait relations has brought not just peace, but also peace dividends. In its relations with both mainland China and the international community, Taiwan has escaped the vicious cycle seen in the past, where the former conflicted with the latter, and vice-versa. Instead, a virtuous cycle has been established, where these two aspects of Taiwan's foreign relations are mutually complementary. "Our goal is peace," he said, "because without peace there can be no prosperity."
President Ma stressed that improved cross-strait ties have brought an improvement in Taiwan-US relations. For the US, Taiwan, and mainland China, said the president, his time in office represents the first time that each of the three sides has been able to interact well with either of the other two without worrying about affecting the third party. "Three-way relations are relatively tension-free and normal." This situation has elicited positive comments from US officials. In February of 2015, for example, US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Daniel Russel said: "One of the things that has made that relationship [between Taiwan and the United States] productive has been the progress in cross-straits relations." In an address delivered last May, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Susan Thornton emphasized that "the US-Taiwan 'unofficial relationship' has never been better. …And it must be said that an important ingredient of the close cooperation in recent years has been the stable management of cross-Strait ties." She also referred to Taiwan as a "vital partner" of the US in East Asia. Former US Deputy Secretary of Defense Rudy deLeon praised the 1992 Consensus in an article published this past February, saying that it "allows leaders on both sides of the Strait to engage and resolve topical issues through practical dialogue," and that Taiwan's "approach of 'no surprises' has allowed both Beijing and Washington to engage separately with Taiwan." This and other such commentary amply demonstrate the positive impact of cross-strait ties upon Taiwan-US relations, said the president, who expressed hope that the incoming administration will maintain Taiwan's positive relations with mainland China and the US.
Turning to the subject of Taiwan-US relations, President Ma pointed out that the breadth and depth of bilateral political, economic, trade, and security cooperation has been significantly enhanced over the past seven-plus years. Commenting on 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 for economic and trade ties, statistics from the US Department of Commerce indicate that Taiwan became the ninth-largest trading partner of the US last year, while the US has surpassed Japan over the past two years to become Taiwan's second-largest trading partner. In addition, Taiwan and the US in 2013 resumed talks under the Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA) and since then have maintained full communications on bilateral economic and trade issues.
The president noted that active US leadership brought about the signing of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement this past February by the 12 TPP member nations. Trade between Taiwan and TPP members accounts for roughly 37% of Taiwan's total external trade, so Taiwan firmly intends to join this important agreement for regional economic integration, and hopes the US will continue to lend concrete and active support for Taiwan's participation in the second round of TPP negotiations, as this will enhance the two sides' cooperative ties amidst the process of regional economic integration.
As for the ROC's efforts to promote regional peace, President Ma stated that improved cross-strait ties have yielded spillover benefits and contributed to the development of peace in the East and South China Seas. The president in 2012 put forward the East China Sea Peace Initiative, which called on all parties concerned to shelve disputes in favor of joint development. Moreover, in line with the principle that "although sovereignty over national territory cannot be compromised, natural resources can be shared," the Initiative also urged the parties to replace confrontation with dialogue, and resolve disputes in the East China Sea through peaceful means. Then 2013 saw the signing of the Taiwan-Japan Fisheries Agreement, which resolved a 40-year fisheries dispute.
The same line of thinking, said the president, prompted the ROC government in May of last year to put forward the South China Sea Peace Initiative, which urged all parties to resolve disputes peacefully through dialogue and negotiations. And then in November of that same year, Taiwan and the Philippines signed the Agreement Concerning the Facilitation of Cooperation on Law Enforcement in Fisheries Matters, under which they agreed to refrain from the use of force, to provide one-hour advance notice before law enforcement actions against each other's fishing vessels, and to release any detained fishing vessels and arrested crew members within three days. The idea behind this agreement was to ensure that fishery disputes between the two countries in their overlapping exclusive economic zones would not be as acrimonious as they had been over the past few decades. "Disputes have been reduced, and the lives and property of fishermen from both countries are better protected than before." Over the past seven-plus years, the ROC government has moved steadily forward in an effort to achieve its vision of "Peace in the Three Seas" by taking what has worked in the Taiwan Strait and gradually applying it in the East and South China Seas. Considering the results achieved thus far, said the president, it is clear that "a policy that seeks peace will always be welcomed by one and all, because there are no victors in war, and no losers in peace."
The delegation, which was led by Elizabeth Economy (CFR Director for Asia Studies), also included Scott Snyder (CFR Director of the Program on U.S.-Korea Policy), Paul Stares (CFR Director of the Center for Preventive Action), Yanzhong Huang (黃嚴忠, a CFR senior fellow for global health), Andrew Erickson (Associate Professor, Strategic Research Department at the US Naval War College), Thomas Kellogg (Director of the East Asia Program at the Open Society Foundations), and Isaac Kardon (a visiting scholar at the New York University School of Law's U.S.-Asia Law Institute).