President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday lauded the late president Chiang Ching-kuo’s (蔣經國) efforts in paving the way for cross-strait exchanges and vowed to continue improving cross-strait relations.
“Late president Chiang made the first step to unfreeze cross-strait relations by allowing the public to visit relatives in mainland China,” Ma said at the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) headquarters, adding that “cross-strait relations over the past 10 months are at their most peaceful” in the past six decades.
Ma was speaking at a forum on Chiang’s legacy, the first of a series of activities organized by the KMT and the Presidential Office to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Chiang’s birth.
Chiang family members and former officials under his administration, including daughter-in-law Chiang Fang Chih-yi (蔣方智怡), son KMT Legislator John Chiang (蔣孝嚴), former premier Hau Pei-tsun (郝柏村) and former Control Yuan president Frederick Chien (錢復), were present at the forum yesterday.
Ma, who once served as Chiang Ching-kuo’s English secretary, praised him as a politician with vision and wisdom. He said Chiang’s decision to lift martial law, relax restrictions on visiting relatives in China, remove the ban on forming political parties and initiate major infrastructure projects paved the way for democratic reform and helped create an economic miracle.
“Taiwan would not be a developed country today if not for Mr. Ching-kuo’s policies and former president Lee Teng-hui’s (李登輝) efforts to continue his unfinished goal of making Taiwan a democratic country,” he said.
Saying that Chiang Ching-kuo dedicated his life to developing Taiwan, Ma pledged to follow in the late president’s footsteps and seek the best for Taiwanese based on the “Taiwan-centric” concept.
Before the start of the forum, Ma visited the KMT’s party history room to view photos and historical documents of Chiang Ching-kuo and other KMT leaders.
Former KMT chairman Lien Chan (連戰), who is currently visiting China, issued a statement praising the late president yesterday, and dismissed concerns that the party was deifying Chiang Ching-kuo through the activities.
“The late president Chiang brought democracy and wealth to Taiwan ... We are not trying to deify him because it is unnecessary. We are reflecting on ourselves through these events,” he said.
Chiang Ching-kuo took over the presidency in 1978. He died in 1988, a year after the lifting of martial law.
Historica Sinica will hold an exhibition through Sept. 13 in commemoration of Chiang Ching-kuo.
Chiang Ching-kuo’s English-language biographer, Jay Taylor, will speak at a forum today at Eslite Bookstore in Taipei’s Xinyi District (信義).
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