TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Taiwan’s new leader, Ma Ying-jeou, seen as more friendly to Beijing than outgoing President Chen Shui-bian, cautioned in an interview yesterday that unification with the mainland is unlikely “in our lifetimes” because the Taiwanese people oppose China’s authoritarian political system.
Mr. Ma’s comments came just five days before his inauguration. Throughout his campaign, he pledged to improve ties with Beijing after several rocky years but cautioned that he would not seek to open negotiations about unification during his presidency. Mr. Ma, 57, can serve a maximum of eight years.
His latest declaration, which came in an interview with the Associated Press, threw expectations of unification even further into the future.
“It is very difficult for us to see any unification talks even in our lifetimes,” Mr. Ma said. “Taiwanese people would like to have economic interactions with the mainland, but obviously, they don’t believe their political system is suitable for Taiwan.”
Mr. Ma spoke at length on relations with the United States — the island’s most important foreign partner — and on Taiwan’s willingness to help mainland China cope with the earthquake that killed an estimated 50,000 people earlier this week.
But the bulk of his comments were about the island’s tense political relations with the mainland, from which it split amid civil war in 1949. Taiwan has grown increasingly democratic over the past two decades, but one-party rule remains entrenched in China even as China’s ruling Communist Party has abandoned Marxism in all but name and developed into an economic giant.
While insisting that he wants to maximize opportunities between Taiwan and China, especially in business, the Harvard-educated Mr. Ma went out of his way to play down the question of unification — Beijing’s long-held goal.
Mr. Ma said he believes that China’s leaders understand his attitude but acknowledged they are scrutinizing his actions after eight troubled years in which the openly pro-independence policies of Mr. Chen led to angry confrontations.
“Of course, they are watching me very attentively,” Mr. Ma said.
Taiwanese political watchers say that expectations are extraordinarily high for the former Taipei mayor and that Mr. Ma may face some challenges in trying to meet them.
“Ma will face difficulties,” Emile Sheng, a political scientist with Soochow University, said in a roundtable political discussion this week reported in the Taipei-based China Post newspaper. “In the first year, I don’t think he will achieve his [policy] goals.”
Mr. Ma’s Kuomintang (KMT) party has long pressed for better ties with Beijing, but there is a sizable minority on the island that sided with Mr. Chen and favored outright independence.
Mr. Ma and the KMT won a landslide victory in the March 22 presidential election, pledging to seek peace with China and revive Taiwan’s economy, which has been hit by cross-Strait tension and by Taiwan’s five-decade ban on sea and air links with China.
As a candidate, Mr. Ma promised to open sea and air links with China, open the door to Chinese tourists and promote economic cooperation between Taipei and Beijing.
China’s stunning domestic growth has made it an economic powerhouse and given it increased diplomatic leverage in its confrontation with Taiwan. Chinese President Hu Jintao was concluding a high-profile five-day visit to Japan as Mr. Ma was making the final preparations to take office.
Mr. Ma last week called for a “cease-fire” in Taiwan’s diplomatic trench warfare with China, adding that “checkbook diplomacy” — enticing allies with promises of aid and other benefits — was hurting both sides. Only 24, mostly small nations officially recognize Taiwan as a nation.
Mr. Ma appeared to attempt a balancing act among various KMT factions over policy with the mainland. In an unexpected move, he nominated Lai Hsing-yuan, a legislator who once favored Taiwanese independence, to head the Mainland Affairs Council, the Cabinet agency that coordinates cross-Strait relations.
A China expert, Su Chi, will head Taiwan’s national security council, which coordinates the island’s major policies, Mr. Ma’s office announced earlier this week.
Mr. Ma takes office at a time of growing global economic uncertainty, heightened by soaring food prices and a pronounced weakening of the U.S. economy.
Mr. Ma said he was committed to restoring the trust of the United States, Taiwan’s strongest ally, which eroded during Mr. Chen’s administration. Washington frequently expressed unease over Mr. Chen’s policies, saying they threatened to provoke an armed reaction from China.
“We want to rebuild mutual confidence between the United States, which has been badly damaged as a result of what I called ’diplomatic adventurism’ on the part of the current administration,” Mr. Ma said. “That period is really in the past.”
Mr. Ma also declared that his government wants to send teams to China to help cope with the damage from the magnitude-7.9 earthquake that has destroyed large areas of Sichuan province.
Taiwan’s experience in dealing with its own big quake in 1999 gives it a special ability to deal effectively with such devastation, the incoming leader said.
“Taiwan is in a unique position to offer help,” he said. “The earthquake provides a good opportunity for the two sides to work together.”
MA YING-JEOU
President-elect, Taiwan
Born: July 13, 1950, Hong Kong
Education: Law degree, National Taiwan University, 1972; master”s in law, New York University Law School, 1976; doctorate in law, Harvard Law School, 1981.
Family: Married to Christine Chow, two daughters.
Career highlights: Aide and translator for President Chiang Ching-kuo in the mid-1980s; served in various government agencies, including justice minister in the late 1980s and 1990s; elected mayor of Taipei in 1998; named chairman of the Kuomintang (Chinese Nationalist Party), July 2005; elected president March 22, 2008, with 58 percent of the vote.
Other: Mr. Ma faced a number of corruption charges linked to his eight years as mayor of Taipei, charges that supporters say were politically motivated. Taiwan’s Supreme Court cleared him of all allegations last month. Mr. Ma’s election ended eight years of rule by the Democratic Progressive Party of pro-independence President Chen Shui-bian.
Source: Kuomintang, Associated Press
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