China turns down offers by 3 Taiwan allies to forge ties: president

ROC Central News Agency

2011/08/14 21:59:40

Taipei, Aug. 14 (CNA) Three of Taiwan's diplomatic allies recently offered to forge diplomatic relations with China but were turned down, President Ma Ying-jeou said Sunday.

During a chat with students in Tainan, southern Taiwan, Ma attributed mainland China's goodwill to his "modus vivendi" foreign policy guidelines, which is based on his approach of "no unification, no independence and no use of arms."

As Taiwan and mainland China no longer engage in mutual attrition on the diplomatic front, "we have saved lots of foreign relations funding and now use it in other areas," he said.

Meanwhile, the number of countries offering visa-waver programs to Taiwan has increased from 54 when his administration took office to 117 at present, Ma said.

The president said his "three-no" approach to relations with the mainland has shown results as exchanges between Taiwan and China "have never been as frequent as they are now."

It was reported in the foreign media that a diplomatic ally of Taiwan had recently tried to establish official ties with China.

Ma said that in fact, "the government has information that three of our allies have made similar offers."

The reported Taiwan ally that had sought to forge ties with China was Panama, according to a diplomatic cable released by WikiLeaks. (By Yang Sze-jui and S.C. Chang) enditem /pc