The more than 1,100 Chinese missiles aimed at Taiwan are less of an impediment to a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) than whether talks would be backed by the people in Taiwan, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said.
Any meeting would be contingent on Ma being present in his capacity as president of the Republic of China, he said in an interview at his office in Taipei on Thursday. While not ruling out an engagement with Xi before the end of his term in 2016, Ma said conditions are not yet ripe.
“The most important factors are whether the country needs it, whether the people support it, that we can meet with dignity — those are the things that will make it possible,” Ma said of a meeting with Xi. “There are conditions yet to be created.”
For Ma, who has seen his popularity slide since his re-election last year, the challenge is to balance his drive for improved relations with China with concerns in Taiwan that closer ties will lead China to dominate its smaller, democratic neighbor.
Ma, 63, said that many of those concerns were misplaced, with some in 2010 having derided the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement to reduce barriers with China as “sugar-coated poison.”
Taiwan will maintain curbs on the inflow of Chinese workers and restrict investments in sensitive industries, he said.
Ma saw his personal disapproval rating rise to 70 percent in May in a poll by Taipei-based cable news network TVBS.
Ma may need more time before a Xi meeting as “there has always been concern that he is going to sell Taiwan to China,” said Peter Kurz, Citigroup’s Taipei-based head of research. “From my standpoint it would be a very positive development. To any extent that there is reduction in cross-strait tension and political risk, it is positive.”
The opposition would not support Ma meeting Xi if he was presented as chairman of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) rather than Taiwan’s president, said Liao Da-chi (廖達琪), director of National Sun Yat-sen University’s Institute of Political Science.
“China won’t accept Ma as a president making a meeting in the remainder of his term difficult,” Liao said.
Under the Ma administration’s closer economic ties with China, Chinese tourists spent NT$292.6 billion (US$9.8 billion) in Taiwan from 2008 till June 30 this year. Last year, more than 2 million Chinese tourists visited, making up 43 percent of leisure visitors.
“Since 2003, China has been our biggest trade partner and export market,” Ma said. “More and more people can see that liberalization is a path Taiwan must take.”
Ma said Taiwan hopes to conclude a trade-in-goods pact with China by the end of this year.
By the end of last year, there were more than 1,100 short-range ballistic missiles targeting Taiwan from China, according to the US Department of Defense’s annual report to Congress.
Ma said the removal of those would not mean much militarily as the projectiles are mobile and could just as quickly be brought back.
It’s China’s refusal to accept Ma as a sovereign leader and meet him on those grounds that is an obstacle to talks.
“Our relationship with mainland China is very subtle. We don’t have a state-to-state relationship and we do not view mainland China as a foreign state,” Ma said.
However, under the ROC Constitution, “we are of course a sovereign nation,” he said.
UPGRADE: The Kang Ding-class frigate is replacing its Chaparall missiles with Tien Chien II and Hua Yang VLS, which would provide it with long-range, 360° air defense Taiwan plans to produce 1,200 to 1,376 Hai Chien II missiles (海劍二, Sea Sword II) — also known as TC-2N — to serve as the standard air defense system of the navy’s surface combatant fleet, a source said yesterday. Last week, the Hai Chien II, the naval version of the Tien Kung II missile (天劍二, Sky Sword II), completed a live-fire test in waters off the National Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology’s Jiupeng facility (九鵬) in Pingtung County’s Manjhou Township (滿州). The MIM72 Chaparral and other dated air defense missiles that currently arm Taiwanese ships have inadequate range to combat Chinese
REASONS FOR TRAVEL: An assistant professor said that proposed amendments to penalize drivers if they used drugs overseas would not deter people from traveling People who operate a motor vehicle under the influence of marijuana would have their driver’s license revoked, even if they used the substance while overseas, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications said yesterday, citing proposed amendments to the Road Traffic Management and Penalty Act (道路交通管理處罰條例). The amendments would also authorize the government to revoke the licenses of people determined to have used Category 1 or Category 2 narcotics, even if they were not operating a vehicle while under the influence of drugs, as well as ban them from taking the license test for three years, the ministry said. People aged 18 or
Johanne Liou (劉喬安), a Taiwanese woman who shot to unwanted fame during the Sunflower movement protests in 2014, returned to Taiwan last night after being deported from the US. She is to stand trial in Taiwan for charges involving embezzlement, fraud and drug crimes. The Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) said it took her into custody at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport and would first question her before transferring her to the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office. She was arrested upon disembarking a flight from San Francisco that landed shortly before 7pm. Liou absconded to the US in 2019 after jumping bail
Shih Hsin University President Chen Ching-he (陳清河) yesterday issued a public apology for comments made in his commencement speech last week, stating that he has asked the school to suspend his duties and halt his wages for two months as a show of contrition. At the commencement ceremony on May 30, Chen said, “If you don’t manage your time well, or your own emotions, or your health, then I am telling every one of you — put a quick end to ‘you,’ because the world has no need for ‘you.’” The comments have sparked significant controversy online, and Chen through an open
RSS