President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said that he was not happy when asked about a recent Chinese military exercise targeting an apparent replica of the Presidential Office Building.
During an interview with the BBC on Friday last week, Ma was asked by the news outlet’s China editor Carrie Gracie, who is based in Beijing, whether he shared the displeasure of his administration over the military drill.
To the question Ma replied: “Of course.”
The Presidential Office yesterday released the transcript of the interview, excerpts of which were broadcast by the BBC yesterday.
The footage of China’s military exercise at the Zhuihe Training Base in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, aired by Chinese state-media channel China Central Television (CCTV) on July 5, showed special forces personnel attacking a replica building.
Taiwanese media obtained the CCTV footage on Wednesday last week and Ma’s remarks in the BBC interview were his first public comments on the issue.
According to the transcript, before the question was posed to Ma, Gracie asked Ma whether the Chinese military exercise that simulated an attack on the building made him uneasy.
“China has staged military exercises with Taiwan as the simulated target for a long time,” Ma said, citing intelligence information.
When Taiwan carries out military drills, they are also based on scenarios of Chinese attacks, “for the sake of reminding ourselves that there exists a great threat to cross-strait relations in the military field and we have to be prepared,” Ma said.
Asked whether China’s military threat to Taiwan has increased following the growth of the former’s military and economic status, Ma said that the cross-strait military balance has been tilting in China’s favor since 2005, as it spends nearly 20 percent of its budget on its military, thus “it would be difficult for us to engage in an arms race [with China].”
“So our defense principle is as follows: We want to create a scenario in which neither side changes the ‘status quo’ through unilateral or non-peaceful means, for fear of the price it would have to pay,” Ma was quoted as saying by the BBC.
Gracie said that Ma told her he was disappointed that after two terms of working hard to improve cross-strait relations, Beijing is still resisting a face-to-face meeting between Ma and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平).
“A meeting of leaders should be a natural development... We were hoping to use an APEC summit in November last year as an opportunity. However, it was not successful, which was of course a great pity. Of course, we are not clear about the decisionmaking process, but I believe it was Mr. Xi who made the final decision,” Ma said.
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