Taiwan’s President Backs Hong Kong Protesters While Courting Beijing
By KEITH BRADSHER and AUSTIN RAMZY
OCT. 31, 2014
President Ma Ying-jeou of Taiwan at the presidential palace in Taipei on Friday. Credit Lam Yik Fei for The New York Times
TAIPEI, Taiwan — President Ma Ying-jeou of Taiwan voiced support on Friday for the democratic ideals of student protesters in Hong Kong and for greater democracy in mainland China itself, taking a chance on antagonizing Beijing even as he reaffirmed his policy of seeking further free-trade agreements with the mainland.
''If mainland China can practice democracy in Hong Kong, or if mainland China itself can become more democratic, then we can shorten the psychological distance between people from the two sides of the Taiwan Strait,'’ Mr. Ma said in an interview here on Friday.
The president’s public pronouncements on the Hong Kong protests — he also expressed support for them in a televised speech on Taiwan’s National Day, Oct. 10 — show a greater willingness lately to speak out on an issue of considerable sensitivity to the Beijing leadership. But Mr. Ma was quick to point out that he had issued an annual statement each June to mourn the Tiananmen Square crackdown in 1989, and that Beijing had not made those statements an obstacle to improving relations.
“I think our support of Hong Kong’s democracy will not be at the expense of cross-strait relations,” he said.
Speaking in a 75-minute interview in a formal reception room at the presidential palace, Mr. Ma drew a distinction between his support for the protests in Hong Kong and his condemnation of student protests in Taipei last spring that indefinitely delayed one of his free-trade agreements with the mainland, which would cover service industries like health care and banking.
He suggested that the protests in Taiwan, involving the temporary seizing of the legislature and the main government office building, had been more violent. The Hong Kong authorities contend that protesters there had kicked the police and poked them with umbrellas, while the Taiwan protesters have said that they were peaceful victims of overly aggressive policing.
“There is absolutely no contradiction, as I support democracy but oppose violence,” Mr. Ma said.
Mr. Ma repeatedly signaled the delicate balancing act he must strike as the leader of a longtime American ally that now has more trade with mainland China than anywhere, and which has long been viewed by Beijing as a Chinese province that must be eventually brought under its control.
In recent weeks, China’s president, Xi Jinping, has taken a somewhat tougher stance toward Taiwan, suggesting it adopt a relationship to China similar to Hong Kong’s “one country, two systems” model. Mr. Ma on Friday roundly rejected that idea, which opposition politicians have long dismissed as a nonstarter because it would strip Taiwan of its sovereignty and leave it in a subordinate position.
Mr. Ma expressed a desire for Taiwan to play a more visible role on issues like preserving peace in the South China Sea and the East China Sea, even while chafing at the fact that the mainland authorities had not invited him to the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit meeting on Nov. 10 and 11 in Beijing.
“The mainland side is a bit overly concerned, so it’s a pity that a meeting at APEC cannot take place,” he said.
Taiwan has diplomatic relations with only 22 countries — mostly small ones in the Caribbean, Central America, Africa and the Pacific, plus the Vatican. The rest of the world has recognized Beijing as the government of China.
The lack of diplomatic relations has made it harder for Taiwan to negotiate trade pacts. Taiwan companies now face low or zero overseas tariffs for only a tenth of their exports, compared with 70 percent of Singapore’s exports, Mr. Ma said.
As Taiwan has pursued closer cross-strait ties under Mr. Ma, some in the United States and among Taiwan’s opposition Democratic Progressive Party have questioned whether it is sufficiently investing in its defense against the potential threat from China, which has said it would use military force if the island pursues a formal declaration of independence.
Hsiao Bi-khim, the opposition whip in Taiwan’s legislature, noted in an interview on Thursday that while a new defense budget approved on Wednesday called for a slight nominal increase in military spending next year, the increase was so small that military spending as a share of Taiwan’s economic output would continue to decline.
“When you look at their defensive expenditures over the last 20 years, I personally am not very impressed with the fact that they take the military threat from the mainland very seriously,” said Bernard D. Cole, a professor at the National War College in Washington. “They’re not emulating Israel or Singapore in terms of devoting money to defense.”
Mr. Ma reiterated Taiwan’s recent desire to begin building its own new submarines, noting that its current fleet of four is rapidly aging and includes one that is 70 years old and needs to be retired. He said that Taiwan would like to acquire submarine technology from the United States, but that it is still in the process of identifying what technology is needed and has not submitted a formal request.
The United States, which is obligated to help Taiwan procure weapons for its defense under the Taiwan Relations Act, agreed in 2001 to help the island acquire diesel-powered submarines. But the United States has long since stopped making such submarines, and Chinese pressure on other possible providers has forced Taiwan to consider building its own.
“We will continue with our indigenous submarine program; of course, we also need to rely on technologies from other countries,” Mr. Ma said.
Asked which of two visions for free trade in Asia he preferred — the American-led Trans-Pacific Partnership or the Beijing-backed Free Trade Agreement of the Asia Pacific — Mr. Ma briefly switched from Chinese to English to say with emphasis, “Both, we want both.”
However, after switching back to Chinese, he went on to praise the value of the American plan and also the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, a Southeast Asian plan, without saying anything further about the Chinese proposal.
Mr. Ma criticized the United States’ insistence that negotiations for a bilateral investment agreement not begin until Taiwan allows imports of American pork that contain ractopamine, an additive that the European Union and mainland China also ban because of safety concerns. The additive, which helps produce leaner meat, is widely used by hog producers in the United States, a top pork exporter.
In a written reply to questions, the Office of the United States Trade Representative stopped short of declaring that pork was the sole obstacle to negotiations for a bilateral investment agreement, saying only, “We continue to urge Taiwan to adopt international standards for use of ractopamine in pork, since the meat is safe for human consumption.”
Nicholas D. Giordano, the vice president and counsel of the National Pork Producers Council, a trade group based in Des Moines, said that the council had actively opposed any American opening of negotiations with Taiwan on a bilateral investment agreement. But he said that other American agribusiness sectors, including rice growers and producers of distilled spirits, also had misgivings about letting the investment agreement proceed without seeing their issues addressed first.
The pork council has allowed broader trade talks with the European Union to proceed, and has raised fewer objections to mainland China’s similar restrictions on ractopamine. “Right now the focus is on Taiwan because they want something from us,” namely a bilateral investment agreement, Mr. Giordano said. “Our position vis-à-vis the European Union and the Chinese is really none of their business.”
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