The meaning of transparency include agreements and negotiations that have been recorded by official entities. In fact, many negotiations have already been done and almost completed during the DPP era, such as passenger and cargo charter flights. This fact tells us that the cross-strait negotiations in fact can be carried out through the official channels, and not necessarily has to be processed in meeting between KMT and CPP first. My intention to emphasis this process is that Taiwan’s sovereignty has to be defended.

I am deeply worried about the investment from China. Ma's government believe that political and economic issues can be separated, but this is impossible. Economic influence will also bring the political power. Let me take an example. China wants to invest in Taiwan construction projects. China will of course choose areas which are most friendly to China. This is political power. Also, when China wants to invest on Taiwan’s stock market, the investments will also follow Taiwan’s reaction to sensitive political issues This kind of influence will be very big and powerful in the future. Therefore, political power cannot be separated from economic influence.

I think that free trade agreements (FTA) between Taiwan and other countries will be a good idea. A free trade agreement with EU can provide of lot of experiences and benefits for Taiwan. China has been blocking the FTA between Taiwan and other countries. I am left with the impression that the Ma government seems to think that signing an ECFA with China, the agreement will provide Taiwan more chances to sign FTAs with other countries. Reality is not like that. There is no Chinese guarantee from the negotiations between Taiwan and China, and I think that China has more to gain from Taiwan than Taiwan has to gain from China.

Once again, I would like to stress that it is important for Taiwan to sign FTA with other countries because it will help Taiwan’s economic independence. Taiwan will then tend to look like a more normal country in the eyes of other countries and thus a FTA can defend Taiwan’s sovereignty. In the past, DPP government paid more attention to EU, USA and Japan and give Taiwan a strong voice at the international stage. Yet, China does not want this and KMT seems unwilling to do so either.

Of course, Taiwan cannot ignore the existence of China. It has to be pragmatic and make deals  between the two sides and take a responsible approach.

Q: Because of China, Taiwan has to attend the global climate change conference in Copenhagen as NGO. However, the representatives had to queue in the outside row for nearly 10 hours in order to get in the meeting, the experience of international participation was unhappy.

Michael: Denmark was responsible for the outside area of the meeting, but the venue belonged to United Nation. Taiwan was represented as NGO and they had to queue for such a long time with other NGO groups but this was not controlled by  the Danish government. Denmark also wanted to improve the situation, but the meeting was controlled by  United Nation. Regarding the issues that Taiwan participated in the meeting as NGO under the name of China, is this not what Ma Ying-jeou government wanted? He keeps reducing the energy of diplomatic personnel. The so-called diplomatic truce policy does not want Taiwan to voice concerns in the international arena. So the situation is self-inflicted.

Q: After the rise of China, it is getting bigger and bigger power in various international fields. How can Taiwan to be seen in the world?