President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), seeking re-election in tomorrow’s election, yesterday stressed his goal of promoting cross-strait relations at a steady pace, dismissing concerns about his administration’s hasty tilt toward China.
At an international press conference at his campaign headquarters, Ma met with questions about his cross-strait policies and whether Taiwan’s close ties with China under his administration would lead to progress on political issues.
Ma denied moving too fast on his cross-strait policies, saying the two sides of the strait have been enjoying vigorous development, with the amount of cross-strait trade hitting US$100 billion in 2008.
Photo: Reuters
“It’s unbelievable and ridiculous not to have cross-strait direct flights with such an amount of cross-strait trade,” Ma said. “What I have done is simply to make up for the lost eight years [under the then-DPP administration] and the two sides have restored relations as major trade partners. It’s just a normal relationship.”
Since taking the office in 2008, Ma’s administration has worked to improve cross-strait relations, while promising to maintain the “status quo” under his “three noes” principle — no unification, no independence and no use of force, he said.
However, major cross-strait developments, including the launch of direct cross-strait flights, resuming cross-strait negotiations and the signing of the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA), have sparked concern that the Ma administration has relied too much on China and that the nation is moving toward unification with China under his leadership.
When asked about concerns over the nation’s close ties with China, which has made some voters hesitant to support his re-election bid, Ma insisted his administration was simply setting up a mechanism for cross-strait development, as the two sides have already shared close relations over the years.
“Our relations with the mainland is a step-by-step relationship and we have been very careful when making every move,” he said.
Commenting on China’s expected transfer of power from Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) to Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping (習近平), Ma said his administration did not see China changing course on cross-strait relations under its new leader and he insisted that the “status quo” would be maintained.
“Cross-strait exchanges allow the mainland to understand us more ... and isn’t it good that we continue to maintain the ‘status quo’ and set up foundations for future cross-strait relations? Should we go to war with the mainland instead?” Ma asked.
He also denied having any plans to visit China as the nation’s president.
“I have absolutely no plans to make such a visit because I am the president of the Republic of China no matter where I go. It would be unacceptable for Taiwanese if I visited the mainland [under another title,]” he said.
The government’s efforts to revitalize the economy via cross-strait developments had not only been felt by big businesses, he said, adding that small vendors and businesses in the tourist industry, for example, had also benefited.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching