ROC President Ma Ying-jeou said Oct. 22 that the government is not avoiding the politically sensitive issue of establishing cross-strait representative offices and related negotiations are continuing.
“The function of these offices is connected with services and day-to-day activities, rather than diplomacy or consular affairs,” Ma said. “This lessens the political nature of such talks.”
Ma’s comments came while addressing Taiwan’s delegation to the Cross-Straits Economic, Trade and Culture Forum at the Presidential Office in Taipei City.
According to the president, the representative office is politically neutral and progress must be made in negotiations. “Otherwise, subsequent talks on higher-level political might be affected,” he said.
The need for establishing the offices is illustrated by an increase in people-to-people exchanges between Taiwan and mainland China, Ma said, citing 9 million cross-strait visits per year, with 670 cross-strait flights per week, or 95 daily.
Since taking office in May 2008, the president said he has adopted the pragmatic approach of maintaining the cross-strait status quo based on the principles of no unification, no independence and no use of force, as well as the ROC Constitution and 1992 consensus.
As for cross-strait exchanges, Ma said, government policy is to continue putting Taiwan first for the benefit of the people, prioritizing issues according to their urgency and ease of resolution, and dealing with economic matters before political ones.
The president said the signing of the Cross-Strait Agreement on Joint Crime-fighting and Judicial Mutual Assistance is a good example of this approach.
“Although the pact was politically sensitive as it broached issues of sovereignty and jurisdiction, the two sides agreed to forge ahead for the common good as it combated the growing problem of cross-border crime,” he said, adding that subsequent cross-strait law enforcement cooperation resulted in a large drop in domestic fraud cases.
Another example is the Cross-Strait Nuclear Power Safety Cooperation Agreement, Ma said. “Following the March 2011 incident at Fukushima’s Daiichi nuclear power plant in northeastern Japan, Taipei and Beijing signed the pact to establish a mechanism for the exchange of related information.
“The government will not avoid or constrain any issue simply because of the question of political sensitivity,” he said.
Concerning the Cross-Strait Trade in Services Agreement, Ma said in the year prior to its signing, the Ministry of Economic Affairs and its subordinate agencies conducted 114 consultations with 46 industries and 264 representatives of associations and civil organizations in closed-door and roundtable meetings. But because negotiations with Beijing were underway at the same time, details of the talks could not be made public, he added.
In addition, once the pact was signed June 21, full details were published and made available online, the president said. This step was taken with an eye to speeding the agreement’s Legislative review and progress on trade agreements with other countries.
Regarding the forum, Ma said it is one of the most beneficial and durable channels of cross-strait exchanges, and also forms a venue for government officials and members of all political parties to strengthen bilateral relations.
The CSETCF was established as part of the five-point consensus reached when former ROC Vice President Lien Chan met with then Chinese Communist Party General Secretary Hu Jintao during the former’s visit to mainland China in 2005.
The president said he also hopes the forum, along with the establishment of cross-strait representative offices and revision of the Statute Governing the Relations Between the Peoples of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area, will stabilize and deepen cross-strait relations.
Taiwan’s delegation to the forum, to be held in Nanning, Guangxi province, near the end of the month, includes KMT Honorary Chairman Wu Po-hsiung, KMT Vice Chairmen Lin Fong-cheng and Chiang Hsiao-yen, KMT Deputy Secretary-General Lin Teh- jui, KMT Central Committee member Lee Chien-jung, National Policy Foundation President Tsai Cheng-wen and People United Party Chairwoman Hsu Jung-shu. (SDH-JSM)
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