KMT’s Wu leaves for vital Japan trip

President Ma Ying-jeou hopes that the Kuomintang chief’s upcoming visit to Japan will help strengthen the friendship and mutual trust between Taiwan and Japan, according to a statement the ruling party released yesterday.

KMT Chairman Wu Poh-hsiung leaves for Japan today for a week-long visit, during which he will meet with leaders of major political parties in Japan and senior politicians who have assumed important government positions.

Wu was cited in the statement as saying that the president is attaching great importance to the trip and has asked him to pass on some messages to the Japanese side.

Ma wants to tell the Japanese side he understands the importance of Taiwan-Japan relations and looks forward to strengthening them.

Ma describes Taiwan-Japan ties as a “special partnership,” as both countries are very close to each other geographically.

They share many common interests and have deep historical links, with bilateral trade amounting to US$60 billion and more than 2.5 million visitors traveling between the countries per year, the president notes.

Ma hopes Japan will realize that his administration’s recent efforts to better relations with China do not run counter to its bid to enhance ties with Japan.

Such efforts should not be misread as a tilt toward China, because the ease of cross-strait tensions is consistent with regional and global interests, the president asserts.

Meanwhile, Taiwan’s top envoy handling China ties has assured Japan that the two sides of the strait are independent economies within the World Trade Organization (WTO) and will not become one economy that could pose a threat to Japan.

Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) Chairman Chiang Pin-kung said in Tokyo Friday that Ma is keen on building closer economic ties with China and hopes to ultimately sign a comprehensive economic cooperation agreement (CECA) between teh two countries.

But Taiwan and China will not integrate into one economic entity because they are independent WTO members who hold negotiations between them on an equal footing within the group’s framework.

“It is a totally different case from that of Hong Kong and China, which signed a closer economic partnership agreement (CEPA) with each other in line with Beijing’s ‘one country, two systems’ formula,” Chiang said.

Although Taiwan hopes to boost its own economic development through increased exchanges with China, Japan does not need to worry about the possibility of a threat coming from a Taiwan-China collaboration, he said.

The SEF chief made the remarks during a meeting held at the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in Japan to explain to Japanese political figures and media the recent developments in cross-strait ties.

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