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DEMOCRACY & PROGRESSChair Su Tseng-chang completes visit to U.S., Canada

DPP Chair Su Tseng-chang led a delegation to the U.S. and Canada from June 8 to 16, visiting overseas supporters and for the purpose of host-ing the opening ceremony of the DPPs repre-sentative office in Washington, D.C. The cities visited were Houston, Los Angeles, New York and Washington, D.C., and the cities of Toronto and Vancouver in Canada.

In Los Angeles, the first city of arrival, Chair Su was welcomed by Chairman of the Foreign Re-lations Committee, U.S. Representative Ed Royce. During their meeting, Mr. Royce af-firmed the U.S. commitment to Taiwans de-mocracy, security and economic prosperity.

Mr. Royce emphasized that he hopes to promote the Taiwan Policy Act in the U.S. Congress. The Act intends to allow high-level visits by Taiwanese officials to Washington, D.C., to promote better trade ties between Taiwan and the U.S. and to allow Taiwans representative office in the U.S. to operate under the official name of Taiwan, among others. He further as-sured his support of Taiwan joining the Interna-tional Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), and for the U.S. to re-assume talks with Taiwan to promote the TIFA trade agreement.

Questioned by the media in Los Angeles re-garding his thoughts on Chinas request to the U.S. not to sell arms to Taiwan, Chair Su re-

sponded that US policy towards selling arms to Taiwan is guar-anteed under the Taiwan Re-lations Act, and he wanted to express his ap-preciation for the U.S. to leave this pol-icy intact for the past thirty years, allowing Taiwan to re-duce its fear of threat from ex-ternal sources. He stressed that the most impor-tant aspect of

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peace in the Taiwan Strait is for China to abandon its military threat against Taiwan.

The Taiwanese people strongest desire is to have peace, and I hope to convey this message to US government officials and to representatives of both houses of Congress, said Chair Su.

Later that evening, Chair Su attended a fundrais-ing event in Alhambra, which was organized by DPP supporters in California. Present at the event were DPP Foreign Policy Advisors Maysing Yang, Wu Li-Pei and Antonio Chiang. Rep. Ed Royce also took the time to attend the fundraiser.

Chair Su thanked the supporters for giving their time and money to organize this event. He said that through their support, the DPP has been able open a mission in the U.S. He also updated the Taiwanese community in California regarding the recent activities of the DPP in Taiwan, such as promoting a nuclear free environment.

Following Los Angeles, Chair Su visited overseas supporters from the Taiwanese communities of New York and Houston.

Washington, D.C.

Chair Su and the rest of the delegation arrived in Washington, D.C. on Sunday night of June 11, received by Taiwan overseas supporters. The stay in D.C. was the longest of the entire trip in order to visit relevant thinktanks, host the opening of the DPPs representative office in D.C., and to deliver remarks at a joint-even hosted by the Brookings Institution and the Center for Strategic International Studies (CSIS).

Washington, D.C. served as a significant stop as Chair Su said that the U.S. is Taiwans most im-portant partner, and he hoped to take the opportu-nity to let the political circle in the U.S. under-stand current affairs in Taiwan.

At the U.S. Capitol on the afternoon of June 12, Chair Su attended a reception hosted by members of the U.S. Congress, where 22 representatives and senators attended, including U.S. House of Representatives Ed Royce, Steve Chabot and Ile-ana Ros-Lehtinen.

This is an im-portant and a very moving day for me, Chair Su said. This is because I am standing here in front of more than 20 members of Congress from both the Senate and the House of Representa-tives as well as from different political parties. We have all dis-cussed matters that we care about, which are democracy, hu-man rights and

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freedom.

The following day on June 13, Chair Su served as main speaker at a joint event hosted at the Brook-ings Institution. His speech, titled A New Part-nership for a New Age: Strengthening U.S.-Taiwan Relations, was followed by a Q&A afterwards (full text of the speech and Q&A in separate article).

On June 15, Chair Su hosted the opening of the DPPs representative office in Washington, D.C. (see separate article), and departing D.C. on the 16th, Chair Su made a final leg of the Americas visit by speaking to overseas supporters in To-ronto and Vancouver, Canada.

Upon returning to Taiwan on June 18, DPP Rep-resentative to Washington, D.C. Dr. Joseph Wu gave a report regarding the outcome of this times visit. He said the trip can be divided into three categories. First, meeting with officials from the U.S. administration; second, meeting with the U.S. Congress and third, meeting with the think

tank community.

On the aspect of US Administration officials, Dr. Wu said that they were able to meet with people they hoped to meet and the discussion was very fruitful. At the U.S. Congress, besides the hosting of a reception, they met with the chair and other members of the Foreign Relations Committee and the Subcommittee on Asian Affairs.

Furthermore, Dr. Wu said that Chair Sus speech at the Brookings Institution through the joint or-ganization of Brookings and CSIS was quite ex-ceptional due to the fact that Chair Su delivered the speech entirely in English.

Furthermore, Dr. Wu reported that AIT officials were present at the opening of the DPP Mission in Washington, D.C. He said this represents that the DPPs relationship with the U.S. is improving and becoming friendlier.

Dr. Wu lastly said that he was deeply moved by the generosity shown by the Taiwanese commu-nity in all the cities visited by Chair Su. The sup-porters not only made great efforts, but also gave

financial con-tributions to the goal of opening and maintaining the DPPs representa-tive office in Washington, D.C.

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The DPP inaugurated its representative office in Washington, D.C. on the morning of June 14 at an official ceremony hosted by Chair Su Tseng-chang. The DPPs Washington, D.C. office will operate under the official name of the Taiwan Democratic Progressive Party Mission in the U.S.

Present at the inauguration was Dr. Joseph Wu, who serves as the DPPs Policy Research Com-mittee Executive Director, and who will also be the DPP Representative to Washington, D.C. re-sponsible for managing the offices affairs. Guests at the event included: AIT Chairman Raymond Burghardt; AIT Managing Director Barbara Schrage; US-Taiwan Business Council Vice President Lotta Danielsson; Retired U.S. Foreign Service Officer John Tkacik; Former FAPA Presi-dent Professor Chen Wen-yen; and Tai-wanese American Association Washington, D.C. Chapter President Ding Hung Bin.

DPP Chair Su Tseng-chang said in his re-marks at the reception that the DPPs mis-sion in the U.S. will exert all its efforts into expressing the wishes of the Taiwanese people to the U.S. community in order to strive for Taiwans foreign relations and to improve U.S.-Taiwan relations.

Chair Su further said that the DPP has al-ways valued the good relationship and ex-changes held between Taiwan and the U.S., and establishing an office in the U.S. has been a goal of the DPP that he promised to achieve when he was campaigning for the DPPs chair position.

Chair Su praised the offices location, which is near the White House, surrounded by beautiful parks and overlooking the Washington Monument from its windows.

The office is located at 888 16th Street on the 8th Floor (8 being a lucky number in Taiwanese cul-ture). He said that even though the office is small, with just merely a little over 150 square feet, he said, as long as we are here, thats what is impor-tant!

He emphasized that the purpose of this office is to strive for Taiwan, especially showing its com-mitment to U.S.-Taiwan relations and to improve communications between both sides.

Even though this office represents the DPP, it is not in competition with the KMT and the current representative office in Washington, D.C., he said. We hope that we can both give it our all for Taiwan.

DPP opens representative office in Washington, D.C.

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Thank you very much, Chris, for your kind intro-duction. And thank you very much, Richard, for inviting me to speak here.

Ladies and gentlemen, good morning! I would like to thank both Brookings and CSIS for hosting this event. I am very glad to have this chance to engage in a conversation with you.

My American Experience

As my flight was approaching Reagan National Airport, I saw the Washington Monument covered for repair work.

What came to my mind then was that back in 1983, thanks to the late Ambassador Jim Lilly, the United States invited me to visit Washington. That was my first visit, and I was moved by the history behind the Monument and the memorials.

With more than 200 year history, US democracy has survived the wars and other challenges. But just as the Washington Monument will stand tall and firm again, U.S. democracy grew stronger after each and every major event. Actually, this is how I look at Taiwan democracy, too.

Taiwan Democracy

I come from Pin-tung, the southern tip of Taiwan. I went to law school and passed the national bar exam to become a lawyer. I could have had a good life but in 1979, when the Kaohsiung Incident took place and democracy ad-vocates were imprisoned by the KMT regime, I decided to take another route by serving as the defense lawyer for those political prisoners.

In 1986, with martial law still in effect, I and 17 other members founded the first opposition party in Taiwanthe Demo-

A New Partnership for a New Age: Strengthen U.S.-Taiwan Relations - Chair Su Tseng-changs Remarks at Brook-ings Institution

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cratic Progressive Partyto push for Taiwans democratization as the only path to end political per-secution.

Over the last 26 years, the DPP fought hard against the KMT's one-party rule. We successfully pushed for general elections for the parliament and the president, and eventually we became the ruling party in 2000.

During the process, I went local first and was elected mayor of Pin-tung County. I next went north, and was elected mayor of Taipei County, now called Xin-bei City. I then went national, to serve as Premier. In the mean time, I also went from being a founding member of the DPP to twice becoming the chairman.

While our American friends are used to the democratic way of life, even take democracy for granted, many in Taiwan, includ-ing myself, risked their lives, and a good life, to slowly open the door for democracy. Thanks to the help of our American friends, democracy became a reality. I consider myself fortunate, and feel very proud, not only to wit-ness but also to play a role in the historical process. I value what we have in Taiwan now, and I will do whatever it takes to de-fend our democracy.

Today I would like to explain to you how the DPP looks at some important issues, including how to deepen Taiwans democracy,

how to proceed with managing cross-strait relations, and how to strengthen our relations with the U.S. Here I would like to refer to three Rs as my core concepts: responsibility, reconciliation, and re-balance.

Responsibilitybeyond just an opposition

Since I became the DPP Chair-man a year ago, I have tried hard to make the DPP more than just an opposition party, but rather a responsible force that proposes alternative policies and strives to outperform the governing party.

Last year when Taiwans econ-omy was at a low point, the DPP proposed a policy package to stimulate Taiwans economy. At the beginning of this year, the DPP was on the frontline again leading the discussion of the re-form of our near-bankrupt pen-sion systems.

We also stood side by side with professors and students in the dif-ficult campaign to prevent media monopoly and to preserve Tai-wans media freedom. And I am glad to tell you that we have made it. The DPP is now leading a national campaign to halt the construction of the Fourth Nu-clear Power Plant. We have more policy proposals in the pipeline covering all aspects of public pol-icy.

My objective in all of this is to lead the DPP to victory in the lo-

cal elections at the end of next year, and to pave the way for a DPP comeback in 2016. I am sure the people of Taiwan, and the in-ternational community, will wel-come a more capable and more responsible DPP.

I was on the Capitol Hill yester-day meeting my friend Ed Royce, Chairman of House Foreign Af-fairs Committee. We recounted the unique experience of riding Taiwan's high-speed railway train with five other visiting congress-men. Chairman Royce told me he would never forget the experience of a dialogue taking place at 185 miles per hour.

The construction of the high-speed railway system was started by the DPP Administration and completed when I was serving as Premier. We showed our ability to govern at the national level and our local leaders regularly receive the highest marks throughout the country. When the people of Tai-wan compare us to the alterna-tives, I'm sure they will see us as the best choice.

China policy and Taiwan con-sensus

Friends here are anxious to learn how the DPP plans to manage Taiwans relations with China. Past history has left its imprint and the DPP has to work hard to regain the confidence of our in-ternational friends. As the DPP Chairman, I cannot shy away from this responsibility. In this

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regard, I adhere to the principle of reconciliation to lead up to the normalization of cross-strait rela-tions.

Not long ago, Richard sent me a copy of his recent book Un-charted Strait. There is one argu-ment in the book with which I cannot agree more: the U.S. should not abandon Taiwan, but needs to strike a balance in deal-ing with Taiwan and China.

In addition, we in Taiwan also see, as Richard wrote in his book, that after five years, the momen-tum of cross-strait cooperation will begin to decelerate and most likely stall. This would require both Taiwan and the U.S. to be more realistic in looking at cross-strait relations.

What we have learned from the political transitions taking place last year in the Asia Pacific re-gion is that Taiwan and the DPP need to take into consideration regional strategic dynamics. Tai-wan should not confine its politi-cal focus to elections and domes-tic politics.

I have always been pragmatic and adhere to the principles. My track record as Premier speaks for it-self. In 2006 to 2007, expanded charter flights and tourism were both negotiated in Macau. What was agreed upon in 2008 was ac-tually based on those negotiations under the DPP government.

Last year when I ran for the chairmanship, I made a pledge to establish a China Affairs Com-mittee. After five months of con-sultation and preparation, the first committee meeting took place on May 9, and Taiwans China Agenda was proposed. We will design Taiwans China policy with strategic depth. We will also build it comprehensively by deal-ing with political, security, social, and economic aspects.

In the past, our discussion and policies dealing with China have often been influenced by the pressure of highly competitive elections. The result was that many in and out of Taiwan do not really understand us. Even though our policy principles are sound and in line with Taiwans major-ity, there seems to be a gap in perception. I know this is what we need to overcome if the DPP is to make a come-back.

Here I would like to highlight the DPPs core value on China pol-icy: Taiwan is a sovereign coun-try, with its national title the Re-public of China. This is the status quo of the Taiwan Strait; any change to it must be approved by the people of Taiwan through democratic means such as refer-endum. This is what we call the principle of democratic proce-dure. This principle is engraved in our 1999 Resolution Regard-ing Taiwans Future. It is also what I called the Taiwan con-sensus three years ago.

On the other hand, Taiwan should engage a rising China with self-confidence. Taiwan should not only pursue interaction and dia-logue with the Chinese govern-ment but also the Chinese people. In fact, many DPP members have engaged in various forms of in-teraction with China for some time. It also seems to me that China now is more interested in understanding Taiwan by interact-ing with the DPP. More interac-tion means more mutual under-standing and less distrust. This is important so that Beijing not mis-judge and mismanage its relations with Taiwan, particularly when the DPP comes back to power.

This is the first step in our strate-gic design on China policy. Once our party reaches conclusions on our basic positions, strategies and policies in the committee, we would like to go one step further by formulating Taiwans domestic consensus. This will become the basis for normalizing relations with Beijing.

There is no such thing as a magic formula that can resolve all cross-strait differences. Now the differences between Taiwan and China are too wide in the ar-eas of political development and military balance. Improvement of relations should come from a step by step, hard effort. They cannot be captured in a four-character formula. The process requires us to deliberate at the intra-party, domestic, and cross-strait levels.

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US-Taiwan relations needs a re-balance

Taiwanese, and certainly the DPP, have always considered Taiwans relations with the U.S. as the countrys most important rela-tionship. No matter what has happened in the past, my party needs to look and move forward. It is based on this belief that I de-cided to re-establish our mission in DC to strengthen relations with the U.S.

The U.S. is Taiwans most impor-tant democratic partner, and also our security and economic part-ner. I was on the Capitol Hill yes-terday meeting with Senate and House leaders. I expressed the heartfelt appreciation by the DPP, and all people in Taiwan indeed, for the Taiwan Relations Act.

Democracy and security do not fall from heaven. They come with a cost. In the past few years, the cross-strait military imbalance has become more serious, but Taiwans investment in defense is growing smaller. It is time for us to demonstrate that we are serious about our own defense. I would like to urge you to look at my track record again when I was serving as Taiwans Premier. De-spite all difficulties, the defense budget reached 2.7% of GDP in 2007, and 3% in 2008.

In this trip to the U.S., I brought with me the newest blue-books on defense to show our American friends that, even though we are

in opposition now, the DPP is se-rious, and I am serious, about Taiwans defense. I guarantee you: the future DPP government will be fully committed to Tai-wans self-defense.

For sure, we ask not what the U.S. can do for Taiwan, but ask what Taiwan can do to earn the U.S. support.

On trade policy, the DPP supports an open economy and free trade. The DPP worries about Taiwans over-concentration on China, and supports government efforts to negotiate free trade deals with other countries.

The DPP also supports President Obamas pivot, for it is an im-portant pillar to peace and pros-perity in the Asia Pacific region. For Taiwans own strategic and economic interest, Taiwan should integrate itself in this rebalancing effort, pursuing a Free Trade Agreement with the U.S., and ac-tively seeking to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership. The FTAs and TPP are paths for Taiwan to survive and prosper economi-cally.

The DPP will continue to monitor the government to ensure that it engages in structural reform, brings technology into industries, and helps business network inter-nationally. Most importantly, we will urge the government to ap-propriate the budget necessary to help our industries in their needed transformation.

With that, I would like to call upon our American friends to re-balance relations with Taiwan while engaging China, and to help Taiwan in the areas of secu-rity enhancement and trade rela-tions.

Conclusion

Ladies and Gentlemen, the DPP was twice elected as the ruling party by the Taiwanese people. The DPP will work harder than ever to win the support from the public and the trust from the in-ternational community. Responsibility, reconciliation and rebalance are my guiding principles.

The DPP has been and will be a responsible party offering clear policies for the people of Taiwan. The DPP is committed to domes-tic reconciliation and cross-strait normalization.

The DPP is committed to being an integral partner in this effort, a responsible player offering Tai-wan's rich talents to the goal of a democratic, prosperous Asia. Thank you very much.

For the full video of the speech, please visit: http://youtu.be/GIQhAnE2okg

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Question by Alan Romberg, Di-rector of the East Asia Pro-gram, Stimson Center:

My question has to do with cross strait policy. As I understand it, in the last election, the DPPs posi-tion was essentially that the base is the 1999 Resolution, and we are not going to talk about Tai-wan independence, we are going normalization, practical relations across the Strait. It sounds to me very much as though that you are endorsing and perhaps strength-ening that view. My question is, last time the PRC was not wel-coming of that, and felt it was not adequate for good relations had the DPP being elected. Do you think they will take a different attitude this time, if so why, and if so what do you think that atti-tude would be?

Chair Sus Response (as trans-lated by Liu Shih-chung, Direc-tor of the DPPs Department of International Affairs):

As I mentioned in my earlier speech, the DPP upholds the core values that is engraved in our 1999 Resolution Regarding Tai-wan. We will not give up our sovereignty, and this is also the majority view in Taiwan society, that Taiwan is independent and sovereign country.

Having said that, we also uphold an open attitude towards cross

strait interactions. We have seen a lot of goodwill interactions, and however, if China insists Taiwan to give up its sovereignty, that is totally unacceptable.

However, as I also mentioned in my previous statements, when I was serving as Premier, the DPP government successfully reached the special charter flights agree-ment with our Chinese counter-parts. So I do hope that the Chi-nese leadership can recognize this fact, and do not force Taiwan to accept any kind of condition that is totally unacceptable by the Taiwanese people because it will violate the rationality as well as the fact that Taiwan is a demo-cratic and sovereignty country. And also, such behavior will change the status quo of Taiwan Strait right now.

Taiwan will not provoke the PRC, so the PRC should not make any kind of unnecessary demands to-wards Taiwan. We understand that China is getting stronger and stronger, and Taiwan is getting friendlier and peoples interac-tions across the Taiwan Strait have increased tremendously. We should cherish that. A lot of peo-ple are doing business across the Taiwan Strait. We support that. However, the sovereignty of Tai-wan cannot be negotiated. We look forward to goodwill and a friendlier China toward Taiwan.

China is rising. It should shoulder more regional and international responsibilities, and because it is conducive to the maintaining of regional peace and stability. Tai-wan will continue this kind of friendly approach toward the PRC, but we also urge the PRC not to push Taiwan into a corner because that obviously violates the Taiwanese peoples public opinion. I believe that China can also think about this kind of goodwill approach to Taiwan so that cross strait relations can move toward a better direction.

Question by Shirley Kan, Spe-cialist in Asian Security Affairs, Congressional Research Serv-ice:

I just wanted to ask you a ques-tion about the defense bluebook that you put out. There has been increasing concerns in the United States about whether Taiwan has been paying enough attention to its own self-defense.

The DPPs defense bluebook therefore is very timely and criti-cal. So the DPPs bluebook on defense called for more attention to national defense; to face Chinas threat against Taiwan, including calling for increasing defense spending to the goal of to 3% of the GDP, which is of course President Mas own goal, which have not been achieved; and cooperating with all other

Chair Su Tseng-changs Question and An-swer Session at Brookings Institution

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democracies, which would in-clude U.S. allies like Japan and the Philippines, and stressing the U.S.-Taiwan defense partnership, which would include according to the DPPs paper, accelerating arms acquisitions.

So my question is, is it the DPPs policy that Taiwans defense is directed against only China, and the U.S. sole weapons systems such as fighters, destroyers and frigates should be used for only deterrence and self-defense, only against China.

Chair Sus Answer:

Taiwan definitely needs to rein-force its self-defense capability. Every country does so. The idea is to safeguard Taiwans sover-eignty and peoples security and the rights for Taiwanese people to pursue for their happiness. So these are the core values that we have to safeguard.

Maintaining a defense budget is hard for any government. Presi-dent Ma pledged before that his government will maintain 3% of the annual defense budget from the GDP. Right now he has only reached the goal of 2.1%. I un-derstand why because there are a lot of challenges, but when the DPP was in power, we were able to at least live up to that goal.

Taiwan needs to spend its budget on self-defense. The goal, we are not aiming at China for doing so. However, if China continues its

military threat against Taiwan, Taiwan needs to maintain a minimum and fundamental self-defense capability. Even if Tai-wan cannot afford to win a war from China, at least we have to demonstrate the determination that if the Chinese wanted to take any kind of military actions on Taiwan, it would have to pay a huge price. So, determination is the key to maintaining a mini-mum defense budget.

It is not that the DPP advocates the increase of the defense budget all because of China, but the idea is to make sure that Taiwan gets to survive by itself and also to make sure that peace and security exists in this region.

I would like to thank the U.S. government based on the second clause and second article of the Taiwan Relations Act. For the past 30 years, the U.S. govern-ment has been providing Taiwan with the necessary defensive weapons. We thank the U.S. gov-ernment for doing so because it illustrated that both Taiwan and the United States share the com-mon values of freedom and de-mocracy. I hope that based on the Taiwan Relations Act, the U.S. government will continue this kind of necessary military assis-tance to Taiwan.

This February, I had a chance to visit Tokyo. I engaged numerous conversations with both leaders from the ruling and opposition parties, as well as experts and

think tank specialists. The Japa-nese government has expressed huge worry about regional peace and stability. In the past, compar-ing with other areas in the world, at least Asia Pacific remained relatively stable. That is because, countries like the U.S., Taiwan, South Korea and Japan were able to reinforce this kind of demo-cratic alliance and democratic partnership. I hope that this kind of regional stability through col-lective work can continue. I also expect China as a rising power with increasing influence, can also share political responsibility for the maintaining of peace and security in the region. So there is no need for China to deploy mis-siles against and targeting at Tai-wan.

For Chinese to win the hearts and minds of Taiwanese people, it takes more goodwill and sincer-ity, rather than missiles. If there is no direct military or missile threat from China, then Taiwan can di-versify its budget to other areas, and help people get a better life. I expect that one day, Taiwan can enjoy more freedom, and live happily without feeling threat-ened by any kind of foreign mili-tary threat. I fully believe that Taiwanese people are peace-loving. I have also heard a lot of Chinese tourists, including the magazine editors, expressing their views about Taiwan. Some of them said that the most beautiful scene in Taiwan is not Alishan or Sun Moon Lake, but instead the

...Q&A

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goodwill and friendship ex-pressed by the Taiwanese people.

The DPP will further demonstrate as we did in our defense blue pa-per, determination and action for self-defense capability. Freedom is not free. We understand that perfectly so hopefully, the Chi-nese will also understand that.

Question by CTI TV Reporter John Zang:

When your predecessor Dr. Tsai was here to visit prior to the last elections, she was seen correctly or wrongly by some of her ad-ministration interrogators as cir-cumventing, or evading, to re-sponding to some of the U.S. concerns about her ability to deal with the Chinese Mainland, and to continue to maintain the peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait. Have you on your current visit been confronted with the same challenge? What have you done, what have you said to the administration about your ability so that you can alleviate in a more effective way their con-cerns?

Chair Sus Answer:

Last time, during the last presi-dential election, the DPPs candi-date, Madame Tsai Ing-wen, vis-ited Washington, D.C. is regretful to see what happened to her as Mr. Zang mentioned earlier. My understanding is that she is a very capable candidate, and she has various experience in handling

cross strait affairs before. I would personally hope that this wont happen again next time.

The way that the DPP has han-dled cross strait relations has been consistent because it meets the greatest expectations of the Taiwanese people. Even President Ma during the last presidential elections moved toward the DPPs position when it comes to issues like Taiwans status quo. He also pledged during the elec-tion that Taiwans future should be decided by the 23 million peo-ple. However, we regretfully saw that during Taiwans last election, when he sent some of his repre-sentatives to Beijing, they came up with this new notion of one Republic of China, two areas. If he said something like that during the election, he probably would not have won the re-election.

As I said, the DPPs attitude to-wards China has been consistent. During this trip, when I had con-versations with our friends from the administration, we had a very candid dialogue. I felt some of our sincerity and goodwill from our friends here, especially in the past 1 year, under my chairman-ship, I have made tremendous efforts to try to convince our American friends, and also the international community, that the DPP is capable, and would be willing to handle cross strait rela-tions.

I have resumed the DPPs China Affairs Department, and I con-

vened and established the DPPs China Affairs Committee. In the future, we will also introduce and invite Taiwan opinion leaders to join this kind of discussion and this kind of consensus building process. We will not only deal with the Chinese authorities, but also the Chinese society. Those are very comprehensive ap-proaches.

In fact in the past few months, the DPP has been engaging with the Chinese. A lot of Chinese schol-ars, including Chinese officials, have visited the DPP headquar-ters and think tank. We had very in-depth discussions. In some of the conferences held in Taipei, DPP officials also exchanged views with Chinese officials. I believe that more interaction and more dialogue, there would be less misunderstanding, and both sides should take a more positive approach toward this end. Con-frontation does no good to deep-ening of cross strait understand-ing, and it would violate the benefits of people from across the Taiwan Strait. As I admitted in my speech, in the past, there was a gap of perception on the way the DPP handled cross strait rela-tions, but as I said, I made several efforts in the past one year, and I firmly believe that the DPP stands firmer when it comes to maintain-ing the mainstream views in Tai-wan. There is a need for the DPP to engage further the international society to let our foreign friends understand these change and ad-justments so in the future they

...Q&A

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will have more confidence in the DPP.

Question by David Brown, SAIS:

In your remarks you said some-thing about the general principles the DPP will pursue in develop-ing a new approach for cross strait relations principles of reconciliation and pragmatism. These give me some hope that the process that you go under way in the DPP will lead to new innova-tive approaches, which will con-tribute to narrowing the gap that exists, and I am happy to wait for that process to fade out. What I would like to ask you is about the Chen Shui-bian era. You said pol-icy of the DPP is always consis-tent. Well, in the Chen period, there were some positive things done in cross strait relations, but there were also some initiatives he took that raised tensions. Some of these were proposals he made domestically in Taiwan, and oth-ers were steps he took externally with the international community. My question to you is what les-sons you personally draw from the way cross strait relations were handled in the Chen Shui-bian administration, and are there things that he did that you can re-assure us that will not be repeated in the future DPP administration.

Chair Sus Answer:

I admit that in the past, some policies made by the DPP gov-ernment, do need some kind of

re-examination. In fact, we have done some soul-searching in the past. Its time to move on. I men-tioned in my speech earlier, that when it comes to policy toward cross strait relations, we shall not focus entirely on domestic poli-tics or be driven by electoral poli-tics. Ive said that consistently in the internal meetings at the DPP as well as in public speeches, and Ive said that here, too.

DPP cannot isolate itself, it needs to reach out to the international society. To re-assure our good friends, we should not make any kind of surprise moves. We should also take into account the changes in regional dynamics as well as the bigger strategic envi-ronment. I think the DPP and eve-ryone need to surpass what hap-pened in the past, and re-assure our friends that the future DPP will be more responsible. How-ever, having said that, I think the DPP still needs to maintain its core values and its core interests. We dont need to repeat that again and again, but we need to show that with strong action. Also by doing so, we will re-assure to the neighboring countries and also to our good friends that the DPP will be responsible because that is the constructive elements to regional peace and also to Tai-wans stability.

I mentioned again in my speech that I am a man of principle, and I am also very pragmatic. For the past 30 years of my political ca-reer, Ive never given up such

principles. My words and deeds will not cause any kind of worries to our friends, so there is no need to create surprises especially to our foreign friends.

It takes both sides of the Taiwan Strait through dialogues and in-teractions to find win-win solu-tions. On the one hand the DPP will not give up its core princi-ples, but on the other hand, we will show the world our goodwill toward a better cross strait rela-tions.

Question by Nadia Tsao, Lib-erty Times:

My question for you is that while you are here making a speech, President Mas special envoy, Wu Poh-hsiung is in China having special dialogues with President Xi Jingping. It seems the Chinese are trying to lock-in whatever they have achieved right now within the One-China framework. I wonder does anything seem worrisome for the DPP. If the DPP become in power, how would you deal with the pressure from China for political dialogue. China seems to make this trend irreversible so does the DPP have any strategy or policy?

Chair Sus Answer:

The DPP adheres to the principle of democratic decision when it comes to future cross strait rela-tions because it is based entirely on Taiwans democratic system and democratic procedure and let

...Q&A

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the people decide their future. To understand and also to push for-ward cross strait interactions, I think there are several elements needed for the safeguard: that is freedom, also parity and govern-ment to government basis. Party to party negotiations only repre-sent their partys interests so when it comes to the meeting be-tween Mr. Wu Poh-hsiung and Mr. Xi Jinping, it was based en-tirely on partys interests, without going through legislative checks and balances. Its not a normal dialogue and its not helpful to official cross strait relations. The Chinese has never given up its goal to lock Taiwan into the so-called One China Framework.

DPP, as I said earlier, will try eve-rything it can to prevent China to lock Taiwan into the so-called One China Framework. Taiwan is not a part of the PRC. Even President Ma has said earlier that he will not engage, for the re-mainder of his presidency, in the process of negotiation with his Chinese counterpart on any po-litical agreement. The more China pressures Taiwan, its like a seagull on the beach, the more you try to catch it, it will fly away.

Taiwanese people cherish its democratic achievement they have made in the past decades. For China to really win the hearts and minds of the Taiwanese peo-ple is to move toward democratic opening and embrace democracy, and it would be unhelpful for

Chinese to engage in military threats likes missile attack or po-litical pressure to force Taiwan to give-in. It would not be attractive to the Taiwanese people. The DPP will adhere to these core principles at the same time try very hard to engage with China.

Question by Douglas Paal, Former Director of the AIT

I would like to push you a little bit on the economic side. You talk about hoping to implement free trade agreements, and to give some support to Taiwan indus-tries. I wonder if you can talk about a little more where do you see the source of growth for Tai-wans people in the economy how to tap the entrepreneurship on the island to beat the record of everybody else struggling to maintain growth today.

Chair Sus Answer:

We talked about the industrial and economic questions due to the limitation of my speech, I only touched upon it a little bit. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to elaborate. I think for the DPP to become more accountable and responsible to Taiwan society, we should come up with the best and better alternative policy propos-als. We do not want to see the KMT continue to make mistakes because we want to outperform them so if the DPP comes back again, I wouldnt want to see that simply because the KMT failed to introduce government efficiency.

In fact for Taiwans own good, the DPP hopes that President Ma and his administration can do bet-ter for Taiwan in terms for push-ing economic growth. As I said earlier in my speech, as an oppo-sition, we want to become more than just an opposition. For ex-ample, on the economic issues, a couple of months ago, the DPP introduced its own so-called Compassionate Economic Pack-age, and in that package, we pro-posed 13 economic reforms. We submitted that to the administra-tion, but they refused to take our advice. In the future, if the DPP comes back to the ruling power in fact when the DPP was in power, we have done better in terms of GDP growth and also maintain the unemployment rate to certain low degrees. As I said, Taiwan needs to open up its mar-ket to the world, and in doing so, it needs to involve serious struc-tural reform. We should promote more efficiency in government procurement process in order to attract more foreign investments.

Before I made my trip from Taipei, the American Chamber of Commerce just released its White Paper, it mentions specifically the lack of government efficiency, reminding President Ma and his government that if they cant in-troduce a series of reforms within one year, he will be literally a lame duck in the remainder of his presidency. The DPP concurs with what Amchams White Pa-

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per has suggested because this is something that the DPP has proposed previously.

The DPP has done relatively well when we were in power. In the future, when the DPP comes back, we will base on those track records, try everything pos-sible to bring Taiwans economy back on the right track.

Right now, since President Ma still has three years left, as opposition we want on one hand push the government towards reform, but on the other hand, we will put our best hope on President Ma and his administration.

...Q&A

CSIS experts visit DPP HeadquartersEight Center for Strategic International Studies (CSIS) experts visited the DPP Headquarters on June 27, greeted by Chair Su Tseng-chang and dis-cussing during the meeting Taiwan relations with the U.S. and the recently signed Cross Strait Services Trade Agreement.

In regards to the services agreement, Chair Su said that the DPP definitely supports free trade, such as promoting Taiwan to join the World Trade Organiza-tion (WTO) during its time in power. He said the DPP also supports Taiwan to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership. However, the DPP has doubts on the

recently signed agreement with China because the current government did not inform the public ahead of time of its intentions, he said.

He further said that it was puzzling that even the KMTs Legislative Yuan President Wang Jin-pyng wasnt aware of the agreement been signed. The governments non-transparent method in handling deals with China, he said, is what is causing the pub-lic to be dissatisfied.

In regards to Taiwans relations with the U.S., he said that the U.S. is the most important partner for Taiwan, especially in the areas of security and trade. He said he personally believes, along with the rest of the DPP, the strong value the people places to Taiwan-U.S. relations. For this reason, he said the

DPP recently opened a repre-sentative office in Washington, D.C. Lastly, he said he hoped that Taiwan continues to strengthen relations with the U.S. in trade and in other areas as well as building an alliance with democratic countries such as Japan.

The CSIS delegation was led by Mr. Michael Green, senior vice president for Asia and Ja-pan Chair at CSIS. Also at the meeting from the DPP were

Former Secretary-General of the National Security Council Mr. Chiu Yi-ren, DPP Representative to Washington, D.C. Dr. Joseph Wu, and Director of the DPPs Department of International Affairs Mr. Liu Shih-chung.

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Cross Strait Services Trade Agreement lacks transparency

Taiwans government announced the signing in Shanghai of the Cross Strait Services Trade Agree-ment with China on June 21. This trade agreement mainly opens cross strait trade investment for the services industry, such as: healthcare and pharma-ceuticals, printing and publishing, laundry, automo-bile repair and parking services, hospitality, beauty salons, funeral services and even social welfare in-stitutions.

Director of the DPPs China Affairs Department, Mr. Honigmann Hong denounced the services pact as lacking transparency and deficient of enough government appraisals to assess the side effects that this agreement would bring to our domestic indus-try. He said that this agreement only shows that there is once again the rush by the government to sign a cross strait agreement without giving enough warning to the public and to the relevant industries.

Mr. Hong said that for example, there are 18 items that have not being appraised, including most im-portantly, intellectual property, which would affect mostly Taiwans high technological advantage.

President Ma Ying-jeous actions are risky, Mr. Hong said. When other countries sign free trade agreements, they go through a process of bal-ancing the risks, including conducting ap-praisals on the impact it would bring to the affected industries. By the end of May, we have not seen or heard any reports from the Mainland Affairs Council.

From this perspective, there is no transpar-ency and no impact appraisals done.

Mr. Hong further mentioned that during the signing of ECFA (short for Economic Coop-eration Framework Agreement), President Ma

said there would be no opening of Chinese laborers into Taiwan. However, in the trade services agree-ment this time, natural persons under Item 4 is set to open Taiwans doors to white-collar workers, and the government has not produced enough protection measures in this regard.

According to Mr. Hong, in addition to the rush and lack of appraisals by our government, it can be seen that Taiwan is already at a disadvantage in the agreement because of its lack in equality treatment by China. He mentioned, for example, that in the services agreement, there is no mentioning in re-ducing the barriers to market entry into the Chinese market while in Taiwan, there are no barriers to en-try in the first place.

It is incomprehensible to me how SEF Chairman Lin Join-sane can say that the agreement will help modernize our services industry because China is far behind Taiwan in this aspect. All this agreement would bring is that Taiwanese owners of small and medium enterprises will have to face large-scale competition from Chinese investment, especially those operating under a franchise model. It is obvi-ous that President Ma only wants to sign for the sake of signing an agreement.

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DPP Central Standing Committee Resolu-tion on Cross Strait Services Agreement

The Cross Strait Services Trade Agreement was signed in Shanghai on June 21. Taiwan opened 64 of its services to Chinese investment, affecting more than 423,000 people, absorbing 10.2 trillion of the countrys GDP. Prior to the signing of this agreement, the DPP conducted a series of discus-sions with related industries, appealing the govern-ing party not to sign this kind of agreement without conducting sufficient appraisals on the impact this agreement would bring. We also appealed to the government to communicate with the public, but President Ma and his administration persisted in signing this agreement in a very non-transparent manner as well as ignoring the democratic process. The DPP deeply condemns this action.

This agreement deeply affects the industry and its workers. Adding to that, due to the similarity in language and culture from both sides, with sudden large-scale investment from Chinese investors, small business owners and self-employed workers will be bound to receive a huge shock and be forced compete in an unfair environment. To confront this issue, the DPP Headquarters has formed a sub-committee to focus on the issue, and it has started a complaint hotline with the partys legislative cau-cus. The DPP will also plan a series of public fo-rums in order to hear the voices of the public.

Already through strong appeals by the party, the legislative caucus and complaints by business own-ers, the KMT legislative caucus has already agreed to conduct a long and narrow examination of each article in the agreement, putting each article into a vote instead of voting the entire agreement in a bundle and not allowing the agreement to take ef-fect until after the legislative vote.

The DPP has mobilized all party leaders in the DPP governing counties and cities to adopt a unanimous position regarding the agreement. While the agree-ment is being deliberated at the legislative level, the DPP has also requested governmental departments

to conduct public hearings regarding the impact to all the different type of industries involved in order to gather societys opinion.

Since the government has adopted a non-transparent approach to signing this agreement with China, violating the democratic process, the DPP will demand that for any future cross strait agree-ment signed, it must go through substantial delib-eration and through strict checks by the Legislative Yuan. At the same time, the DPP will also request to review the issue of laborer mobilization and im-migration to Taiwan from China as the future may be affected by the impact to weaker industries, af-fecting the livelihood and employment of Taiwan-ese laborers, and for the government to produce measure packages in counseling and relief.

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DPP opens nationwide hotline for com-plaints regarding cross strait services agreement

The DPP announced on June 25 the opening of a hotline for complaints regarding the recently signed cross strait services trade agreement. DPP Chair Su Tseng-chang also visited several county and city legislators, asking them to establish their own hot-lines for receiving complaints filed by the people affected. According to Spokesperson Mr. Wang Ming-sheng, this will expand the DPP services in all localities from North to South.

Mr. Wang said President Mas administration signed the services trade agreement with China in a non-transparent method, keeping the opposition parties in the dark. According to Mr. Wang, the pact was so secretive that even a large group of KMT legislators were unaware of the administrations intentions to sign the agreement.

Even though the agreement says 64 sectors in Tai-wans service industry will be allowed for Chinese investment, the sectors are based on international standards. Mr. Wang said that if looking at it closely, each sector covers a wide range of other

sectors, which means that hundreds, and even up to more than a thousand sectors, could receive a wide impact from this agreement.

In order to provide support to the people whose businesses will be affected by the services trade agreement, Chair Su made requests to the DPP Leg-islative Caucus and legislative bodies from differ-ent counties and cities to open hotlines and other communication channels so that they have means to file complaints. Chair Su also said that the DPP will ensure that they will request for a legislative review before the agreement can take effect.

Mr. Wang said, If the government has not even produced a report, how can they prove with hard evidence that this agreement is beneficial for Tai-wan?

President Mas administration has said, via Vice President Wu Den-yih, that this agreement will provide even greater benefits for Taiwan.

DPP Spokesperson Lin Chun-hsien added that the government has failed to fulfill its promises on ECFA three years ago. He said a previous poll showed that only 30% of the respondents said that ECFA brought benefits to Taiwan economy while 49.2% said not to believe it assisted to Taiwans economic improvement.

The Cross Strait Services Trade Agreement will not be the last extension to ECFA as at the end of this year, there will be a Cross Strait Trade Agreement on Products, Mr. Lin said.

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DPP launches defense blue paper

The DPPs thinktank, the New Frontier Foundation, held a press conference on June 6 to announce the DPPs Defense Policy Blue Paper. The blueprint, completely dedicated to the topic of Taiwans na-tional defense, contains four chapters, and it was assembled through the relentless efforts made by the New Frontier Foundations Defense Policy Ad-visory Committee.

This is the first time since the partys founding in which we have a dedicated unit to research on na-tional defense, DPP Chair Su Tseng-chang said. Today, we are issuing four blueprints to show that the DPP is taking concrete actions to value Tai-wans national defense and its mili-tary.

Chair Su Tseng-chang was speak-ing on his ca-pacity as Presi-dent of the New Frontier Foundation. Present at the press confer-ence were: Chief Executive Officer of the New Frontier Foundation, Mr. Lin Wan-yi; Former Na-tional Security Council Advisor and Defense Policy Advisory Committee Convener, Mr. York Chen; Executive Director of the DPPs Policy Research Committee, Dr. Joseph Wu; and Legislator Bikhim Hsiao, who also stands as a standing member of the Defense Committee.

The four chapters of the blueprint are:

DPPs National Defense Agenda; Transforming the CSIST: Strengthening In-

digenous Defense Research and Develop-ment (CSIST: Chung Shan Institute of Sci-ence and Technology);

An Accountable National Security Council; and

New Chapter for Taiwan-U.S. Defense Partnership.

The Defense Policy Blue Paper conducted more than 14 meetings to gather the different opinions of

military experts from the Legislative Yuan, past gov-ernment officials and re-search institutions, including recommendations from 31 retired military generals.

Chair Su said he hoped this is a new start for coopera-tion, hoping that the current administration also places importance to Taiwans na-tional defense, creating a more secure environment for all the people of Taiwan. He emphasized that national defense should be bi-partisan, and it must over-pass any party interests.

The four chapters can be found at http://www.dppnff.tw/group_data.php?id=158&data=result#

Please note, only Chapter 1 in its entirety and the Forewords of Chapter 2, 3 and 4 are translated into English.

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DEMOCRACY & PROGRESS

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