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MOFA slams PRC spokesman for Ma status comments

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday condemned the Chinese foreign ministry for denigrating Taiwan’s president.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang (秦剛), during a press conference on Thursday in Beijing, corrected a foreign journalist when the reporter referred to President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) as “Taiwan’s president”

Before answering a question from the reporter Qin said, “[I] must first correct the flaw in your question. There is only one China in the world. On the matter of cross-strait relations, please be mindful of the use of designations.”

In Taipei, the MOFA made no comment until yesterday.

MOFA Deputy foreign minister Andrew Hsia (夏立言) condemned Qin’s remarks, stating the Republic of China is a sovereign independent nation and the country’s president must be respected and referred to by his proper official title at all times.

He also rebutted a report by the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper) that said Ma’s offer of a “diplomatic truce” with Beijing has been counter-productive and inept.

The report cited the statistic posted on the MOFA Web site that in the six months since Ma took office on May 20 there have been at least 13 incidents where China bullied Taiwan in public settings.

The figure far surpassed the period from January to June under the previous Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). The report also accused the Ma administration of begging for Beijing’s mercy regarding Taiwan’s international space and participation.

“This is absolutely not the case. We are not at the mercy of Beijing and we are not pining for Beijing’s charity,” Hsia said.

The Ma administration, Hsia said, continues to seek for a viable way in which both Taipei and Beijing can forge a compromise to augment Taiwan’s international space in a dignified manner.

He added that since Ma’s May inauguration, there have been more than 60 incidents where China had demonstrated goodwill towards Taiwan.

He gave the example of National Taiwan University professor Lo Chang-fa’s (羅昌發) appointment as a member of the Permanent Group of Experts at the World Trade Organization’s Committee on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures.

Lo and a Chinese national were appointed at the same time when both the Taiwanese and the Chinese delegation agreed not to veto each other’s candidate.

MOFA argued that prior to the “diplomatic truce,” China would rather forgo such opportunity than allow a Taiwanese national to have a position in an international organization.

At a separate setting yesterday, DPP spokesman Cheng Wen-tsang (鄭文燦) said that Beijing’s demand that Taiwan’s participation in this year’s APEC forum be handled in line with its “one China” principle proves that Ma’s diplomatic truce approach has been futile.

Cheng urged Ma to avoid “wishful thinking” and end what he called unilateral compromise.

He said Beijing was unlikely to allow Taiwan to join international organizations that require statehood due to its firmly held “one China” principle.

ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY CNA
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