President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said yesterday that improvements in cross-strait relations were conducive to stability in East Asia and served the interests of Tokyo.
Ma, who made the remarks while receiving a Japanese delegation led by parliamentarian Tesuro Yano at the Presidential Office yesterday morning, said Japan should rest assured that improvements in cross-strait relations would not affect the long-standing friendship between Taipei and Tokyo, as their purpose was to ensure peace and prosperity in the Taiwan Strait.
Improvements in cross-strait relations would only help stabilize East Asia, Ma said, adding that Taipei was happy to see the relations between Tokyo and Beijing improve, as highlighted by more frequent visits by the two countries’ high-ranking officials.
As the international community wanted to see peace and prosperity in East Asia, Ma said his administration had devoted itself to working toward that goal. US President George W. Bush has also acknowledged the improvements in cross-strait ties, Ma said.
Yano expressed concern that only one or two legislators he had visited yesterday morning could speak Japanese. He said he had been impressed by former president Lee Teng-hui’s (李登輝) fluent Japanese when he led a delegation to visit him 15 years ago.
As he and Lee could communicate with each other in Japanese, Yano said he thought at that time that Lee was one of the few global leaders who was friendly to Japan.
Ma told Yano he was glad to learn that Yano was impressed by Lee’s Japanese, but that not all presidents could be expected to speak fluent Japanese.
“But we will form a government that is friendly to Japan,” he said.
Referring to the sinking of a Taiwanese fishing boat after it collided with a Japanese patrol vessel less than three weeks after his inauguration, Ma said the incident and the ensuing diplomatic tensions were a test of Taiwan-Japan relations.
Ma said he was glad both governments had managed to handle the matter in a calm and peaceful manner, which culminated with Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs Masahiko Koumura’s recognition of the manner in which the Taiwanese government responded to the dispute.
Because of the sensitivity of the Diaoyutai (釣魚台) islands, Ma said Taipei and Tokyo must handle the matter — and other interests — based on mutual trust and in a peaceful and rational manner.
Ma said he had studied the subject of the Diaoyutais for more than 30 years and had published papers in Chinese and English on the matter. While some have described him as “anti-Japan” because of his position on the islands’ sovereignty, Ma said those people had either not read his papers or had not read them carefully. He said that in his papers he had always promoted the idea that both sides must resolve the controversy peacefully and reasonably.
Later yesterday, Ma expressed confidence that Taiwan’s diplomatic efforts would soon lead to a brighter future following years of high tensions.
During a visit to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ma told a group a senior officials that Taiwan would no longer use negative tactics when competing with China for international space.
The goal, he said, was to create a “win-win” situation in which both Taipei and Beijing can maximize their benefits to secure their national interests.
Ma reiterated his major foreign policy platform of a modus vivendi, saying “diplomacy is not a zero-sum game.”
“In the past eight years, Taiwan used ‘scorched-earth diplomacy’ and ‘checkbook diplomacy,’ both of which failed to help Taiwan increase its international visibility. In fact, we lost six allies,” Ma said.
Taipei and Beijing now enjoy a tacit understanding that both sides will approach all cross-strait affairs issues based on humanitarian concerns and on the “one China, two interpretations” principle deriving from the [so-called] “1992 consensus,” he said.
“The problem is that times have changed and we can no longer act based solely on subjective ideology,” he said.
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