Transcript of Interview

So if you look at those questions, you can see how powerful[ly] the existence of Taiwan and democracy in action would affect people's thinking on the Chinese mainland. We don't have to do any propaganda, there's no need for that, because the media, including the Internet, have already carried the information and made a very sharp contrast. Another incident is that high officials were prosecuted, indicted, without regard to which political party they belong to. Now people are seeing that the former president is being indicted and even detained. I was indicted as well, last year, for corruption, but throughout the three levels of courts I was found innocent and acquitted. In other words, there's no individual in this country who has the privilege of not being investigated -- that has also a great impact on the mainland because that's not quite the same case over there.

I think the way of life here, the institutions of elections, how our elected representatives behave and our freedom of expression in operation, people like myself are criticized everyday on TV, that wouldn't happen in their country. So this is something that will have great impact on the Chinese mainland. Although they are not so fond of our slightly chaotic situation right here, but that's what democracy is all about, you've got a pluralistic society, people do have different opinions, and some of them are not quite used to that. In any case, these TV programs, political commentary, were very much received by people on the mainland. Some of them know those programs better than I do.

Q: Other examples? And what about the Tiananmen issue?

A: From a historical perspective, that was the result of a wrong decision and also obviously the human rights and the liberty situation on the Chinese mainland has a lot to be desired. They are making some progress, but rather slow.

I always like to compare their handling of the Sichuan earthquake with the Tangshan earthquake back in 1976. I was watching the mainland, particularly the government, letting media report by and large without much interference. That was really a far cry from what it was back in 1976, where not only was everything, everything, closed and the whole area sealed off, but no aid was received. Actually, it was all rejected, even the aid from the United Nations. At the time, Taiwan tried to send supplies to the mainland through the high-altitude balloons it used to carry propaganda, but this time all food and clothing and other things. You'd be surprised, they sent their jets to shoot them down. That was 1976. So if you compare the two, after 30 years of their program of opening up and reform, we do see some progress, but the progress seems to be rather slow.

Q: On Tiananmen, you're not going to say [whether unification is possible without resolution]?

A: As I said, it was the result of a wrong decision. We don't know whether they will do anything about it, but obviously as society becomes more open, people will certainly long for more freedom, more decision-making, particularly with the emergence of a middle class, obviously that will have very important implications for society.

Q: How about your long-term vision about whether Taiwan will eventually be a sovereign member of an organization, Greater China but an organization like the E.U.? Or whether it will be more like Austria vis-à-vis Germany: same culture, separate sovereignty. Or, what can you say in the long term [about] what a cross-strait framework would look like?

A. At this stage, it is probably too early to predict anything. We have just started to improve relations with the mainland. There are a host of problems faced by us or by the mainland. We are lucky that both sides decided to shelve some of the more intractable issues and take up those that are more urgent and more related to the life of the people. But on other more fundamental problems which now are shelved, I think we should leave them there, because those problems cannot be solved at the moment. But they can be managed, managed to a point where they won't explode. So it will take a rather long time before we can solve all this urgent problem, economic cooperation, cultural exchange, and gradually [move on] to issues like international space. The ultimate issue may not be able to be solved for many years.

Q: You've suggested a diplomatic truce, no more checkbook diplomacy, if China gives Taiwan more breathing space. How has China responded, and what concrete examples do you have that this truce is working? Some people say China is not providing enough in return.

A: The idea to have a diplomatic reconciliation is to really extend the kind of reconciliation across the Taiwan Strait to the international arena. In the last 60 years, mainland China and Taiwan are competing for recognition in the international community. Now they have 170 countries which recognize and have diplomatic relations with them. But we have only 23, down from, in the late 1960s, more than 60 countries that recognize the Republic of China here in Taiwan.

I think if we continue the very acute competition, in some cases even like a cutthroat confrontation, it would not only create more confrontation across the Taiwan Strait, which is obviously not quite compatible with the rapprochement between the two sides, but also the practice sometimes would lead to unethical ways of conducting diplomacy -- like the so-called checkbook diplomacy, which will hurt the image of both sides. So our idea is we should stop contesting for winning over the recognition of the other side's allies.