Transcript of Interview

On Tuesday, Dec. 9, The Washington Post interviewed Taiwan's President Ma Ying-jeou in the Presidential Building in Taipei.

The Washington Post: Given the global downturn and the current financial crisis, how quickly will Taiwan see some of the benefits of closer economic ties with China, and given rising unemployment, do you feel any political pressure to move more slowly?

President Ma Ying-jeou: Actually, when we decided to inaugurate cross-strait direct flights beginning last July, the idea is to reduce the cost of firms doing business with mainland China. For instance, for ocean-going ships, they could save $5,000 to 10,000 just to get a stamp to show that they have anchored in a third place, and to reduce the travel time for around 5 million people who travel between Taiwan and the mainland. So that will be an immediate benefit. So by the time later this month when we have everyday charters, the savings will be much greater as a result.

The idea is not to encourage our people to invest on mainland China, because the investment climate over there isn't as good as it was before. Actually in the last six months the investment as recorded by our government to mainland China was actually down 3 percent. So the idea is not to encourage investment over there but instead to make Taiwan's own investment climate better, because it will become freer for companies to make decisions. If they want to go to the mainland, that's fine, there's no restriction, as they were before. So the idea is basically to make the environment freer.

So I think the economic downturn certainly is felt in Taiwan and on the mainland, but that wouldn't give us any reason to go closer to the mainland, because actually what will help our economy the most is the expansion of domestic demand. There's a general reduction of foreign demand because the American market is shrinking. That will not only affect Taiwan but also it will affect the mainland.

Actually, 40 percent of our exports went to the mainland last year. Some of that eventually found its way to the United States. This is a very typical triangular trade. So when the U.S. market began to fall, the mainland will be affected, and so will Taiwan. So I think the reduction of external need obviously can only be compensated by the increase of domestic demand. This is exactly why we launched a large program for our infrastructure construction and to distribute the consumer vouchers, which will be done on the 18th of January next year. We have already got the law passed, and the budget also passed yesterday.

So we are preparing on the one hand to increase domestic demand by conducting a series of infrastructure projects. In addition, we encourage our people to consume more, to spend more, so we give them $110 for each citizen, hoping that they will increase their consumption. In addition, we have a large employment project which will provide roughly 120,000 jobs from now until October 2009 and then to create another 220,000 jobs from the end of October 2009 to the year 2012. So altogether, 340,000 jobs from now till the end of my term, of course my first term.

Q: So no political pressure to move more slowly?

A: No, because basically the four agreements we signed with the mainland receive overwhelming support. The approval rate ranges from 60 percent to 85 percent by different polling agencies in Taiwan -- some are governmental, some are not. So we are rather confident. If you look at the nature of those agreements, I think this is very natural. If the travel takes you less time, certainly you'll like it. Before we are in office, the trip from Shanghai to Taipei, for instance, will take five to six hours, with a stopover in Hong Kong. And beginning in July we have [had] cross-strait direct flights on weekends, those are charter flights. So on those four days from Friday to Monday, there are not very many flights, but still the travel time was cut to two hours and 30 minutes. Beginning sometime next week, when we have everyday charters and direct flights -- not just nonstop -- and no detour to Hong Kong's airspace, directly from Taipei to Shanghai, the travel time will be one hour and 22 minutes. I don't think people will dislike that.

So this is quite natural. Last year they were roughly close to 5 million trips made between Taiwan and the mainland, so what we've been doing is responding to the need of reality. So this is pretty popular. We do have a small number of people who don't like it, primarily for ideological reasons. They don't want us to go closer to the mainland, but if that's the economic reality and the majority of the people like it, there's no reason that we should stop here. Even people like the chairman of Formosan Plastics, who just passed away two months ago, he believes we move too slowly. He thinks we should move faster, in order to get better access to the market and other resources of the mainland and use that as a basis for Taiwan's development. So there are people who have different ideas in this country but by and large what we have been doing so far, it has received the general support of the people.

Q: If you still see Taiwan as a democratic model for China, how can Taiwan influence political developments on the mainland, given the various issues during this Olympic year? And is unification impossible if the Tiananmen massacre issue isn't resolved?

A: First of all, there are a variety of ways to influence the mainland, but the essence of those ways is more contacts, more trade, more investment, more cultural educational exchange. The more contact we have, the more influence we will have, as well. Just to give you an example, elections. Elections in Taiwan happen almost every year. Beginning three years ago, we were very much surprised to find that every time, when the voting booths closed at 4 p.m. and the vote-counting process began, it was televised in Taiwan and very much viewed by people on the Chinese mainland. I remember even in local elections where the candidates were not even known to the mainland viewers, they watched with great interest. Three years ago, when we had three types of elections -- county magistrate, elected city council and township leaders -- it was televised live, and it was watched in major cities on the mainland. A few days later, I went on the Web site of the People's Daily [newspaper], and I found interesting comments. People left comments saying: "Why can people in Taiwan simply go to a nearby school to cast their votes for local officials and we can't? Are we second-class citizens?"