Taiwan President Says No Unification Talks With China
22 May 2010
By Wu Tsen-hsi
Epoch Times Staff
TAIPEI, Taiwan—Two years after his inauguration as president of the Republic of China (Taiwan), Ma Ying-Jeou spoke about cross-strait politics with China at a press conference on May 20.
Ma stated that even though both countries had signed the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA), he had no future plans to meet with Chinese leader Hu Jintao.
Taiwanese media focused on whether Ma plans to meet with Hu. Ma explained that his priority is to take care of the trade and investment issues between the two countries because there are still many things around the existing project that need to be done.
He said that he would not rule out the possibility of meeting Hu. However, he added, "I will not engage in political talks with China or meet with its leader right after we sign the ECFA. It's too premature."
When asked about the schedule for signing the Cross-Strait Peace Treaty, Ma denied there was a set schedule. "We cannot predict when will be the right time to talk about a peace agreement," he said.
According to Ma, there is still much disagreement on political issues, and the Chinese Communist Party has not changed its stance of "one country, two systems, peaceful unification" on the Taiwan issues.
Ma believes, however, that setting the issue of unification aside, economic development between the two countries can reduce the possibility of war. Ma stressed that signing the ECFA is purely based on economic considerations: "No matter how long I am in office, I will not talk about unification with China, and this has not changed."
When questioned about the issue that China has not stopped attempting to intimidate Taiwan by "flexing its military muscles" near Taiwan while the cross-strait economic ties strengthen, Ma said that there is no way that Taiwan could invest as many resources into its military development as China does.
However, he stressed that Taiwan's military strategy is to build a refined and strong defense system that can intimidate China and substantially raise the cost of invading Taiwan.
Ma also said that he would not give up on building a military defense system. He said that Taiwan would continue to purchase weapons from the United States. "Of course we need to buy defensive weapons to show that we are determined to defend ourselves," he said.
Tsai Chi-Chang, spokesperson of the opposing party, commented that Ma is still working from a "pro-China" box. Tsai does not believe that signing the ECFA will benefit the general public in Taiwan.
Chang Wu-ueh, director of Graduate Institute of China Studies in Tamkang University, said in a forum on May 20 that there have been concerns and objections raised about signing the ECFA because it opens up Taiwan to China too fast.
According to Chang, this could hurt Taiwan's safety and sovereignty and make Taiwan economically dependent on China.
Read the original Chinese article.
http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/content/view/35972/