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MAC asks world's help with China

"We don't need judges, we don't need lawyers and we don't need arbitrators. But we need somebody to help balance the relationship. We also expect a third party to bring the two sides together. That's what we expect from the international community."

Tsai Ing-wen, MAC chairperson

Taiwan's top China-policy maker called on the international community yesterday both to help "balance relations" between Taiwan and China and to bring the two sides peacefully back to the negotiating table.

In a meeting with a delegation of 49 foreign correspondents from 34 countries, Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said that Taiwan needs no arbitration from foreign governments while negotiating with China, but that a balance of power in Taiwan-China relations would be welcome.

"We don't need judges, we don't need lawyers and we don't need arbitrators. But we need somebody to help balance the relationship. We also expect a third party to bring the two sides together. That's what we expect from the international community," said Tsai.

Answering questions about the relationships between China, Taiwan and the international community, Tsai added, "The international community can certainly play a major role in cross-strait relations."

"We cannot rely on the US all the time. Our interests are not always the same as the US'," she added.

Tsai also said that the government was delighted by the European Parliament's recent adoption of a resolution calling on China to remove the hundreds of missiles currently aimed at Taiwan and based in Fujian Province.

The resolution also called on China to resume cross-strait negotiations and proposed a number of other measures that the government considers to be friendly to Taiwan.

"What we need is for the EU to collectively support the idea that the future of Taiwan should be decided by Taiwan's people, the differences between Taiwan and China should be resolved in a peaceful way, and nobody has the right to use force against Taiwan," Tsai said.

Regarding economics -- while reporters questioned whether economic dependency on China's market could do harm to Taiwan -- Tsai said that trade between the two sides could help to prevent war. However, she added, the sad reality is that China has deployed 400 missiles against Taiwan and the negative result of over-dependency is that, at the end of day, Taiwan may not have the ability to make its own decisions.

"We have to take national security into account. We have to engage in risk management. And we have to make sure that we retain the right to make our own decisions," she said.

While talking about the "small three links," Tsai characterized the policy as "moderately successful," saying that, as the government first introduced the policy, the goal is conveying a message to the other side of the Taiwan Strait that "we are prepared to be open, we are prepared to engage with you [China]."

"To that extent," Tsai continued, "the small three links are an important lesson for Taiwan to benefit from -- a sort of preparation for direct links with China."

In a related development, eight Control Yuan members yesterday undertook an inspection tour of the MAC offices, to enquire about measures taken to help Chinese fishermen who are currently prohibited from coming ashore on Taiwanese soil.

Tsai said that the Executive Yuan would try its best to help Chinese fishermen, with the long-term goal to treat them as other foreign fishermen who work for Taiwan's fishing industry.
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