'Abandoning Taiwan' not mainstream U.S. opinion: President Ma
ROC Central News Agency
2011/11/27 21:14:18
Taipei, Nov. 27 (CNA) President Ma Ying-jeou has said that a "ditch Taiwan" proposal that has been bubbling up in United States academia recently was not mainstream opinion in the U.S.
The president was referring to a New York Times opinion piece on Nov. 10 by Paul Kane, a former international security fellow at Harvard Kennedy School, urging the Obama administration to negotiate with China to write off the US$1.14 trillion American debt currently held by China in exchange for ending American military assistance and arms sales to Taiwan and terminating the current U.S.-Taiwan defense arrangement by 2015.
Such a deal would eliminate almost 10 percent of U.S. national debt without raising taxes or cutting spending; it would redirect American foreign policy away from dated cold war-era entanglements and toward its economic and strategic interests; and it would eliminate the risk of involvement in a costly war with China, according to Kane, a Marine who served in Iraq.
Ma said U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton had stated recently in Hawaii that Taiwan is a very solid security and economic partner of the United States. This refutes the "abandon Taiwan" line of thinking, said Ma during an interview with Time magazine's Asia Editor Zoher Abdoolcarim and reporter Natalie Tso on Nov. 12.
When asked if he was worried that the U.S. was less resolved in its support for Taiwan than before, Ma said the majority of people in the U.S. government and academia believe that the United States should continue to maintain strong relations with Taiwan.
He said the U.S. leadership has highly recognized Taiwan's efforts to improve cross-Taiwan Strait relations, which has brought stability to East Asia.
In the past three-and-a-half years, the U.S. has sold Taiwan US$18.3 billion worth of defensive weapons in three separate packages, he pointed out. This was indicative of the high level of cooperation that the U.S. and Taiwan maintain in the areas of security and military affairs, the president said. "This also shows that mutual trust has been restored to the highest levels in our respective governments," he added.
When asked why he was running for re-election, Ma said, "I changed Taiwan; I succeeded in transforming and upgrading Taiwan."
On the question of how he would respond to Taiwan citizens who say the improved cross-strait climate has helped the commercial situation for Taiwan, but, at the same time, diluted Taiwan's identity, Ma said he would tell such people that exchanges with mainland China do carry risks.
"We have to work to minimize these risks and maximize benefits... we have to help the doubters realize that what we are doing is in Taiwan's interest," he said.
On what he would like his legacy to be, Ma said his plan for Taiwan is, during the first four years, restore just governance and meet world standards; in the next four, "reinvent ourselves and seek excellence." He said many of his key programs require a long period to be implemented.
He said that many of his major policy plans, put forward four years ago, actually need eight years or longer to be fully implemented.
On the likelihood of his visiting mainland China during his second term if re-elected, Ma said he does not completely rule out the possibility, but does not have any timetable either.
"We will adhere to the principle of putting pressing matters before less pressing ones, easily resolved issues before difficult ones, and economics before politics," he said. (By Lee Shu-hua and Deborah Kuo) enditem/sc/ pc
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