The Presidential Office yesterday rebutted a news report claiming that President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) had a grudge against the US for pressuring him into canceling his previous plan to visit Itu Aba Island (Taiping Island, 太平島), saying the article was unsubstantiated and aimed at driving a wedge between Taipei and Washington.
“The article has clearly fabricated remarks by President Ma regarding the Taiping Island issue. We deeply regret that the newspaper failed to verify the allegations and published an unfounded story to sow discord between Taiwan and the US,” the Presidential Office said in a statement.
The statement was referring to an article published yesterday by the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper) yesterday, which said Ma reluctantly called off his plan to visit Itu Aba on Dec. 12 last year after the US voiced its concerns.
Instead, Minister of the Interior Chen Wei-zen (陳威仁) led a group of officials to visit Itu Aba — the largest of the disputed Spratly Islands (Nansha Islands, 南沙群島) — to preside over opening ceremonies for several facilities.
Citing an unidentified foreign affairs personnel, the report said that Ma was displeased with a speech delivered by former US National Security Council Asian Affairs director Evan Medeiros in Taipei on Dec. 17, days before he was awarded the Order of Brilliant Star with Special Grand Cordon by Ma on Dec. 25.
Medeiros said that while Ma’s South China Sea Peace Initiative was conducive to reducing tensions over the territorial disputes in the South China Sea, a visit by the president to Itu Aba to reiterate his commitment to the initiative would be counterproductive and “send the wrong signal to the region at the wrong time.”
The report said Ma was incensed by Medeiros’ remarks and complained to his subordinates, saying: “I have shown enough respect to the US by aborting my previous plan to visit Taiping. How dare he [Medeiros] keep talking about this here and now.”
“I have set my heart on going to Taiping Island no matter what,” Ma was quoted as saying in the article.
Ma visited Itu Aba on Thursday last week.
In related news, the National Development Council released a poll which showed that 62.8 percent of respondents believed Ma’s island visit was necessary to safeguard the nation’s interests amid an arbitration case filed against China by the Philippines saying Itu Aba is merely a “rock.” About 44 percent disagreed that Ma’s visit was unhelpful and could worsen tensions in the region, compared with 29.7 percent who thought otherwise.
The poll collected 1,078 valid samples from Taiwanese aged 20 and above between Monday and Tuesday. It has a confidence level of 95 percent and a margin of error of 2.95 percentage points.
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