In recent days, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) has had another fight with The Associated Press (AP) over whether he will enter into political talks with China if he is re-elected in 2012. Ma remains adamant that he never made any statement to the effect that he was planning such a move if re-elected and he insisted that it was all a misunderstanding by the AP reporter. Ma even demanded that AP offer an apology. However, regardless of whether AP eventually folds under mounting political pressure, the press release issued by the Presidential Office shows that the AP’s conclusion is based on fact.
The transcript of the interview released by the Presidential Office makes it clear that Ma first told the AP reporter that the question of whether he would engage in political dialogue with China if he were re-elected would be dependent on how the situation develops at that time. When the AP reporter continued with a follow-up question and asked whether political dialogue would take place once the economic issues were resolved, Ma once again said that it would depend on how the situation was developing at that time.
If we take a closer look at these answers, it is clear that Ma never gave an unambiguous “no” in response to the AP’s questions. In international diplomacy, a failure to offer a clear denial frequently implies tacit approval. In addition, the Ma administration is pushing for “mutual non-denial” as a way of dealing with cross-strait relations. It is therefore no wonder the AP came to the conclusion that Ma would not discount the possibility of engaging in political dialogue with China if he is re-elected in 2012.
More importantly, on May 8 last year during an interview with a reporter from Singapore’s The Straits Times, Ma said that he would not discount the possibility of talking about political issues with China if he were to win a second term in office in 2012. During another interview three days later, this time with the Taiwanese TV station China Television Co (CTV), he further explained how he would not discount the possibility of negotiating peace agreements with China if he were re-elected. So from this, we can see that the conclusions reached by the AP’s reporter are exactly the same as what Ma advocates.
Given this situation, the real problem is not whether Ma should be using an English interpreter during his interviews with international media. The real problem lies instead in the policies Ma promotes and how these policies have caused the international community to think that there is a possibility that political talks with China would be opened if Ma is given a second term in office.
Instead of continuously trying to cover up his real views on the issue of political talks with China, Ma should be open and honest about them. Considering that this is something Ma has said on repeated occasions in the past, blaming the AP reporter’s English is not the way he should go about handling this issue.
Lai I-chung is an executive committee member of the Taiwan Thinktank.
TRANSLATED BY DREW CAMERON
Saudi Arabian largesse is flooding Egypt’s cultural scene, but the reception is mixed. Some welcome new “cooperation” between two regional powerhouses, while others fear a hostile takeover by Riyadh. In Cairo, historically the cultural capital of the Arab world, Egyptian Minister of Culture Nevine al-Kilany recently hosted Saudi Arabian General Entertainment Authority chairman Turki al-Sheikh. The deep-pocketed al-Sheikh has emerged as a Medici-like patron for Egypt’s cultural elite, courted by Cairo’s top talent to produce a slew of forthcoming films. A new three-way agreement between al-Sheikh, Kilany and United Media Services — a multi-media conglomerate linked to state intelligence that owns much of
The US and other countries should take concrete steps to confront the threats from Beijing to avoid war, US Representative Mario Diaz-Balart said in an interview with Voice of America on March 13. The US should use “every diplomatic economic tool at our disposal to treat China as what it is... to avoid war,” Diaz-Balart said. Giving an example of what the US could do, he said that it has to be more aggressive in its military sales to Taiwan. Actions by cross-party US lawmakers in the past few years such as meeting with Taiwanese officials in Washington and Taipei, and
The Republic of China (ROC) on Taiwan has no official diplomatic allies in the EU. With the exception of the Vatican, it has no official allies in Europe at all. This does not prevent the ROC — Taiwan — from having close relations with EU member states and other European countries. The exact nature of the relationship does bear revisiting, if only to clarify what is a very complicated and sensitive idea, the details of which leave considerable room for misunderstanding, misrepresentation and disagreement. Only this week, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) received members of the European Parliament’s Delegation for Relations
Denmark’s “one China” policy more and more resembles Beijing’s “one China” principle. At least, this is how things appear. In recent interactions with the Danish state, such as applying for residency permits, a Taiwanese’s nationality would be listed as “China.” That designation occurs for a Taiwanese student coming to Denmark or a Danish citizen arriving in Denmark with, for example, their Taiwanese partner. Details of this were published on Sunday in an article in the Danish daily Berlingske written by Alexander Sjoberg and Tobias Reinwald. The pretext for this new practice is that Denmark does not recognize Taiwan as a state under