President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said yesterday he would not mind if China’s Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS) Chairman Chen Yunlin (陳雲林) addresses him as “Mr Ma” when the Chinese official visits Taiwan later this year.
Ma made the remark in response to a question from a reporter about how Ma and Chen would address each other.
Chen has accepted Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) Chairman Chiang Pin-kung’s (江丙坤) invitation to visit Taipei later this year after their meeting in Beijing last week for negotiations on direct cross-strait flights and allowing more Chinese tourists to visit Taiwan.
During Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Wu Poh-hsiung’s (吳伯雄) visit to China earlier this month, Wu referred to the Taiwanese president as “Mr Ma” at his meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤).
Ma said yesterday the “best way” would be for him to call the ARATS chief “Mr Chen,” while Chen could call him “Mr Ma.”
He said he did not think it would denigrate the country’s sovereignty as long as both sides are on an “equal footing.”
Ma said the agreement Chen and Chiang signed did not include dates because it was a well-established practice between the SEF and ARATS to leave the dates involved in an agreement to a later time.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY STAFF WRITER
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