ROC President Ma Ying-jeou will continue to strengthen cross-strait relations over the next four years by handling pressing matters first, tackling easy issues before more difficult ones, and putting economics before politics, Presidential Office spokesman Fan Chiang Tai-chi said Jan. 19.
In this respect, Fan Chiang continued, Ma’s method of handling cross-strait matters is completely in line with the recommendations of his former Harvard Law School mentor Jerome Cohen.
Fan Chiang made the remarks after Cohen, currently a professor at New York University School of Law and co-director of the U.S.-Asia Law Institute, spoke earlier the same day on Ma’s cross-strait policies.
Speaking with members of the media after attending a speech by Shelley Rigger, the Brown Professor of East Asian Politics at Davidson University, organized by the National Committee on United States-China Relations, Cohen said that over the next four years Taiwan and mainland China should handle practical issues before touching on political ones.
For example, deepening economic cooperation agreements, South China Sea development, development of natural resources and an investment protection agreement for mainland China-based Taiwanese enterprises and businesspeople are all issues that could be expanded on, Cohen said.
Fan Chiang said Ma’s re-election by a comfortable margin Jan. 14 illustrates that a majority of the people in Taiwan approve of honest and efficient government, a vigorous economy, social justice and stable advancement of cross-strait relations.
Ma has on numerous occasions stressed that cross-strait talks must not run counter to the ROC Constitution, and must be based on the foundation of the “1992 consensus” and the principles of no unification, no independence, and no use of force, Fan Chiang noted. Over the next four years, the Ma administration will proceed in a manner that is in line with Cohen’s views, he added. (SB)