President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), who doubles as Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairman, said his administration would stay the course regarding cross-strait policy despite the party’s recent election defeats.
Ma made the comment during a tea gathering with Taiwanese press in Honduras on Wednesday. Ma returned from the trip on Saturday.
The president said his cross-strait policy has received support from the majority of the population and that the 20 agreements signed with Beijing since he took office did not undermine Taiwan.
Regarding an economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) the administration intends to sign with Beijing in May, Ma said his administration would adopt a more careful, transparent and aggressive approach to gain support for the planned pact. He said the way the government has operated over the past 20 months proves that officials are taking public opinions seriously.
In response to a question asked by the Taipei Times on whether he thought Beijing had any ulterior motive to rush aid to Haiti, which has diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Ma said he could not judge whether China had any political intentions because he did not see any in words or actions.
China “might have [had political intentions] before,” he said, but China just suffered a devastating earthquake in Sichuan, so “the mainland was not so stupid it would capitalize on the tragedy in Haiti and provide assistance with strings attached,” he said.
“The relationship between Haiti and the Chinese Communist Party is special. The United Nations has peacekeeping troops there so that is one reason why the UN is obliged to support China when it comes to voting,” he said. “I realized the situation when I visited the Dominican Republic in 2008, but we should not blame them because the mainland has exercised appropriate constraint.”
While Ma said the international media did not think either side used the incident for political gain, they also warned it was too early to determine China’s intentions in Haiti.
Meanwhile, Ma dismissed criticism that he did not act fast enough after the devastating earthquake in the country’s Latin American ally. Ma said he telephoned National Security Council Secretary-General Su Chi (蘇起) as soon as he learned the news and asked the nation’s rescue team to leave for Haiti within 24 hours. He said he also asked his administration to increase the relief fund to US$5 million.
The disaster also gave the nation its first experience in deploying a military cargo plane to deliver aid supplies to a disaster area, he said. Codenamed “Benevolent Voyage,” Ma said the operation was a pilot program that could be described as “perfect.”
Ma, however, said there was still room for improvement in his administration’s response capability, such as chartering a commercial flight to transfer aid supplies and heavy machinery to make the delivery more effective, he said.
“I have discussed with the Ministry of National Defense the possibility of assisting in other countries’ relief operations in a non-sensitive manner,” he said.
“For example, we could paint the outside of the plane with the Red Cross or other images ... Humanitarian diplomacy cannot rely solely on sloganeering. We must be ready and have all kinds of plans,” Ma said.
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