In a recent interview with the US media, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said he expects US-Taiwan relations to remain unchanged under US president-elect Barack Obama’s administration and promised to continue seeking peaceful relations with China.
In the interview with USA Today published on Tuesday, Ma said that the US had established a framework to maintain positive relations with China and Taiwan and his administration’s efforts to improve relations with China would be welcomed by the new US government.
“By improving relations with the mainland, I have created a situation where the United States could maintain relations with both in a relatively easy way,” Ma said in English.
Ma said the visit of Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS) Chairman Chen Yunlin (陳雲林) last week and the purchase of US$6.4 billion in arms from the US both suggested that his administration’s policies would promote a positive US-Taiwan relationship.
When asked to comment on large-scale protests held against Chen’s visit because of concerns that his administration would sell out the Taiwanese to China, Ma argued that several polls conducted by Taiwanese media outlets suggested that more than 50 percent of Taiwanese welcomed Chen’s visit and the four agreements signed by the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) and ARATS, then stressed that he would not sell out Taiwan.
“When we make air transport more convenient, is that a sellout? When we improve the postal service to make special delivery possible, is that a sellout?” he said.
Ma said his administration and China were joining forces to normalize cross-strait relations, but added that “the time has not come” for him to travel to Beijing and meet Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤), who Ma described as a “sophisticated leader” with a better understanding of the reality of Taiwan’s position.
Ma reiterated his optimism about the future development of cross-strait relations during his term as president when meeting members of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace from the US yesterday.
“The two sides of the Strait are sending more positive messages to each other and seeking to build a consensus. Although our mutual trust remains weak, there has been a great deal of improvement in the past half-year,” Ma said at the Presidential Office.
As cross-strait relations continue to improve, Ma said Taiwan’s relations with the US, Japan and other countries in Asia could be expected to improve as well.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods