President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) used a videoconference with US academics to praise the recent fishery agreement with Japan as a successful application of his East China Sea peace initiative, adding that the government would seek cooperation with China on the joint development of natural resources in the area, while shelving territorial disputes over the Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台).
Taiwan and Japan signed a fisheries agreement last week in a bid to end controversies over fishing in waters surrounding the Diaoyutais, known as the Senkaku Islands in Japan.
In a videoconference with the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law at Stanford University in California, Ma said the pact did not address the competing claims over the Diaoyutais because the two sides agreed to set aside territorial disputes during the negotiations.
In response to a question from former US chief of naval operations Gary Roughead about the Diaoyutais situation now, Ma said that since Japan has an agreement with China on resource development in the East China Sea, Taiwan would seek to negotiate with Japan on future talks with China on joint development of natural resources in the area because the two have already been cooperating on sea rescues and oil development in the Taiwan Strait.
“I have always believed that while national sovereignty cannot be divided, natural resources can be shared. If we focus first on natural resources, joint development and joint conservation and management, I think we can develop the kind of mutual trust that may eventually lead us to solutions for sovereignty issues,” he said.
During the one-hour videoconference chaired by former US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice, Ma said the government would seek to deepen cross-strait relations and reduce tensions across the Strait in a speech entitled “Steering Through a Sea of Change.”
The government would continue to focus on economic and other less sensitive cross-strait issues, while putting aside political disputes over sovereignty, he said. The two sides of the Strait would continue to complete negotiations on trade in goods and services under the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement, and expand educational and cultural exchanges, including relaxing restrictions on the number of Chinese students in Taiwan, he said.
In response to Rice’s question about the impact of closer cross-strait ties on Taiwan-US relations, Ma said reducing tensions across the Strait should serve the best interests of the US and the international community, and Taipei would continue to seek closer economic cooperation with the US.
Seperately, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said Ma’s insistence on making China a player in the Diaoyutais dispute between Taiwan and Japan, and his plan to sign a pact with China on sharing resources in the East China Sea, were unnecessary and did not serve Taiwan’s interests.
History has shown that “Ma had only China in his eyes on almost every issue related to international cooperation, such as fighting crime, medical cooperation and economic cooperation,” DPP Policy Research Committee executive director Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) said.
“Collaborating with China without strengthening collaborative partnerships with other countries and allies would further trap Taiwan in Beijing’s ‘one China’ framework, which does not serve Taiwan’s interests,” Wu said.
Wu questioned the motives behind Ma’s two-phase approach to resolving the Diaoyutais dispute — bilateral talks between Taiwan and Japan, Taiwan and China, and China and Japan first, and trilateral talks second — saying that dragging China into a Taiwan-Japan dispute would not benefit Taiwan.
The DPP supports joint resource development in the region, but it does not support a bilateral cooperation strategy with China, Wu said.
POLITICAL AGENDA: Beijing’s cross-strait Mid-Autumn Festival events are part of a ‘cultural united front’ aimed at promoting unification with Taiwan, academics said Local authorities in China have been inviting Taiwanese to participate in cross-strait Mid-Autumn Festival celebrations centered around ideals of “family and nation,” a move Taiwanese academics said politicizes the holiday to promote the idea of “one family” across the Taiwan Strait. Sources said that China’s Fujian Provincial Government is organizing about 20 cross-strait-themed events in cities including Quanzhou, Nanping, Sanming and Zhangzhou. In Zhangzhou, a festival scheduled for Wednesday is to showcase Minnan-language songs and budaixi (布袋戲) glove puppetry to highlight cultural similarities between Taiwan and the region. Elsewhere, Jiangsu Province is hosting more than 10 similar celebrations in Taizhou, Changzhou, Suzhou,
The Republic of China (ROC) is celebrating its 114th Double Ten National Day today, featuring military parades and a variety of performances and speeches in front of the Presidential Office in Taipei. The Taiwan Taiko Association opened the celebrations with a 100-drummer performance, including young percussionists. As per tradition, an air force Mirage 2000 fighter jet flew over the Presidential Office as a part of the performance. The Honor Guards of the ROC and its marching band also heralded in a military parade. Students from Taichung's Shin Min High School then followed with a colorful performance using floral imagery to represent Taiwan's alternate name
COGNITIVE WARFARE: Chinese fishing boats transmitting fake identification signals are meant to test Taiwan’s responses to different kinds of perceived incursions, a report said Chinese vessels are transmitting fake signals in Taiwan’s waters as a form of cognitive warfare, testing Taipei’s responses to various types of incursions, a report by the Institute for the Study of War said on Friday. Several Chinese fishing vessels transmitted fake automatic identification system (AIS) signals in Taiwan’s waters last month, with one mimicking a Russian warship and another impersonating a Chinese law enforcement vessel, the report said. Citing data from Starboard Maritime Intelligence, the report said that throughout August and last month, the Chinese fishing boat Minshiyu 06718 (閩獅漁06718) sailed through the Taiwan Strait while intermittently transmitting its own AIS
CHINESE INFILTRATION: Medical logistics is a lifeline during wartime and the reported CCP links of a major logistics company present a national security threat, an expert said The government would bolster its security check system to prevent China from infiltrating the nation’s medical cold chain, a national security official said yesterday. The official, who wished to stay anonymous, made the remarks after the Chinese-language magazine Mirror Media (鏡周刊) reported that Pharma Logistics (嘉里醫藥物流) is in charge of the medical logistics of about half of the nation’s major hospitals, including National Taiwan University Hospital and Taipei Veterans General Hospital. The company’s parent, Kerry TJ Logistics Co (嘉里大榮物流), is associated with the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) and the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA), the
RSS