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
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