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Presidential Office clarifies Wall Street Journal report

ROC Central News Agency

2009/12/15 13:44:01

By Garfie Li and Lilian Wu

Taipei, Dec. 15 (CNA) Taiwan's media played up a comment by President Ma Ying-jeou in The Wall Street Journal Asia Monday that the unification of China and Taiwan would depend on events over the next "decade, " but the Presidential Office said Tuesday Ma was misquoted and produced a tape recording to prove it.

In an interview with The Wall Street Journal Asia published Monday, Ma was quoted as saying: "Whether there will be reunification as expected by the mainland side depends very much on what is going to unfold in the next decade. This is a question no one can answer at this stage." The Presidential Office ran a recording of the interview, however, in which the president clearly said the word "decades" rather than "decade" as reported.

Consistent with the longer time frame, Ma then said that the 23 million people of Taiwan want to "secure one or two generations of peace and prosperity so that people on either side of the Taiwan Strait can have sufficient time and freedom to understand, to appreciate, and to decide what to do." President Ma also said that "the people on the Chinese mainland do not quite understand my policy, " referring to the "three no's" -- no unification during his term in office, no pursuit of de jure independence, and no use of force to resolve differences across the Taiwan Strait.

"Sometimes they don't understand why we don't want unification, " Ma was quoted as saying in the report, and "it's quite obvious that conditions for unification are not ripe. And we don't even know each other that well." In the interview, Ma also felt that the increased presence of Chinese tourist in Taiwan could provide a historic opportunity by helping spread Taiwan's values across the Taiwan Strait.

"I want to create a situation where the two sides can see which system is better for the Chinese culture, for the Chinese people, " Ma was quoted as saying.

But he also pointed out that it is a dream Beijing leaders don't share and that "they are a long way from embracing Taiwan's democratic experiment." The interview was conducted at the Presidential Office on Nov. 25 by Leslie Hook, an editorial writer for the newspaper.