Having said his new policy calling for a “diplomatic truce” with China has received praise from the US and some allies, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) met with challenge on Friday when questioned about the meaning of the policy by Taiwan’s allies.
During a 20-minute meeting with Ma on board a charter flight, Honduran President Manuel Zelaya asked Ma how Taiwan’s allies, given their long-term support for the nation, should react to the seeming thaw in cross-strait relations.
Ma responded by saying that Taiwan would make efforts to consolidate relationships with Taiwan’s allies and would also be happy to see the allies develop substantive cultural, economic and trade relations with China.
“Just as Taiwan would like to have cultural, economic and trade relations with China’s allies, I am pleased to see our allies develop relations with China if they want to,” Ma said.
Ma told Zelaya that the reason he advocated conciliation and “diplomatic truce” between Taiwan and China is to ameliorate cross-strait relations as it can “benefit all parties.”
“As Taiwan has better relationships with China, the US-Taiwan relationship will become better and allies of both Taiwan and China will benefit from that,” Ma said.
Presidential Office Spokesman Wang Yu-chi (王郁琦) briefed the press on the meeting, but refused to take any questions on the discussion between Ma and Zelaya.
Ma invited Zelaya and Guatemalan Vice President Rafael Espada to fly on his charter flight from Asuncion to Santo Domingo to attend the inauguration of Dominican Republic’s reelected President Leonel Fernandez yesterday after Paraguayan President Fernando Lugo’s swearing-in ceremony.
During Ma’s state visit to the Central American and Caribbean Region — his first trip abroad since assuming office in May — Ma has met with Panamanian President Martin Torrijos and Lugo. The Presidential Office said both were sold on the idea of a “diplomatic truce.”
The frosty relations between Taiwan and China have been thawing since Ma took office on May 20, and his proposal of a “diplomatic truce” is aimed at terminating the longstanding diplomatic tug-of-war with China in which both countries try to lure each other’s allies to switch diplomatic allegiance by offering large sums of money in foreign aid. Taiwan and China’s allies currently stand at 23 and 170 respectively.
Ma also touted the strategy of “modus vivendi” or “pragmatic diplomacy,” designed to leverage more international space for Taiwan.
An official that declined to be named said that the concern expressed by Zelaya reflected concerns from some of the nation’s allies that they might get less funding from Taiwan if the nation no longer fears losing allies to China under Ma’s proposed “diplomatic truce.”
The promises made by Ma that his administration would stick to all the current aid projects left from the previous administration and would increase its foreign aid budget, which is still less than the international standard, could pacify the allies, the official added.
The official admitted that there is a risk of bringing China in to playing a pivotal role in determining relations between Taiwan and its allied countries.
Ma is scheduled to make a transit stop in San Francisco today and tomorrow on his way from the Dominican Republic back to Taiwan. Ma’s plane will stop for one hour in Austin, Texas, to refuel before arriving in San Francisco today. Ma is slated to arrive in Taiwan on Tuesday.
Additional reporting by CNA
China has reserved offshore airspace in the Yellow Sea and East China Sea from March 27 to May 6, issuing alerts usually used to warn of military exercises, although no such exercises have been announced, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported yesterday. Reserving such a large area for 40 days without explanation is an “unusual step,” as military exercises normally only last a few days, the paper said. These alerts, known as Notice to Air Missions (Notams), “are intended to inform pilots and aviation authorities of temporary airspace hazards or restrictions,” the article said. The airspace reserved in the alert is
South Korea is planning to revise its controversial electronic arrival card, a step Taiwanese officials said prompted them to hold off on planned retaliatory measures, a South Korean media report said yesterday. A Yonhap News Agency report said that the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs is planning to remove the “previous departure place” and “next destination” fields from its e-arrival card system. The plan, reached after interagency consultations, is under review and aims to simplify entry procedures and align the electronic form with the paper version, a South Korean ministry official said. The fields — which appeared only on the electronic form
A bipartisan group of US senators has introduced a bill to enhance cooperation with Taiwan on drone development and to reduce reliance on supply chains linked to China. The proposed Blue Skies for Taiwan Act of 2026 was introduced by Republican US senators Ted Cruz and John Curtis, and Democratic US senators Jeff Merkley and Andy Kim. The legislation seeks to ease constraints on Taiwan-US cooperation in uncrewed aerial systems (UAS), including dependence on China-sourced components, limited access to capital and regulatory barriers under US export controls, a news release issued by Cruz on Wednesday said. The bill would establish a "Blue UAS
More than 6,000 Taiwanese students have participated in exchange programs in China over the past two years, despite the Mainland Affairs Council’s (MAC) “orange light” travel advisory, government records showed. The MAC’s publicly available registry showed that Taiwanese college and university students who went on exchange programs across the Strait numbered 3,592 and 2,966 people respectively. The National Immigration Agency data revealed that 2,296 and 2,551 Chinese students visited Taiwan for study in the same two years. A review of the Web sites of publicly-run universities and colleges showed that Taiwanese higher education institutions continued to recruit students for Chinese educational programs without
RSS