Ma Ying-jeou (center), smiles as he leaves a lighthouse, during his visit to Pengjia Islet in the East China Sea
Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou called for peace in Asia’s contested waters on Saturday as he visited a small island in the East ChinaSea, one of his last symbolic foreign policy moves before leaving office next month.
Ma’s visit to Pengjia, about 56 kilometers north of Taiwan proper, was his administration’s second propaganda trip to an island in three weeks. It came four years after Ma last visited Pengjia to propose a plan to address territorial disputes among China, Taiwan and Japan over the nearby chain known as Senkaku in Japanese and Diaoyutai in Chinese.
During his eight years as president, Ma has sought to carve out Taiwan’s position as a mediator in the region’s numerous territorial disputes while asserting its own claims, even though it has been locked in a decades-long standoff with Beijing, which considers Taiwan a breakaway province.
Pengjia, considered the northernmost part of Taiwan’s territory, is not contested and is home to about 40 residents, a weather station and coast guard facilities. It lies some 120 kilometers west of the Japanese-controlled Senkakus, which are hotly disputed by China, in particular. Taiwan also claims the islands, although its conflict with Japan has been considerably less heated, with the two sides reaching fishing agreements in 2013.
After arriving by helicopter Saturday, Ma unveiled a monument to maritime peace at a ceremony and commemorated the fishing deal he had signed with Japan.
“I hope that we will be able to have peaceful cross-strait relations with China, and we can find peace in the South China Sea and the East China Sea,” Ma said. “In war there are no winners.”
Political observers in Taiwan said the island visit represents a symbolic stroke before Ma steps down from the presidency on May 20, when Tsai Ing-wen will be sworn in as Taiwan’s new leader.
“Ma Ying-jeou wanted to [maintain] his legacy over these issues,” said Kaocheng Wang, dean of the College of International Studies at Tamkang University in Taipei, Taiwan’s capital. “I think he personally thought that is a successful policy to both claim our sovereignty, to safeguard our sovereignty and also to boost his popularity.”
In January, Ma flew to Taiping Island in the South China Sea’s intensely contested Spratly group to demonstrate that Taiping is a self-supporting island entitled to an exclusive economic zone rather than a “rock,” as the Philippines claims in an international lawsuit.
Washington, a crucial ally of Taiwan, called that trip “extremely unhelpful” to efforts to maintain stability in a region widely considered a potential military flashpoint.
In March, Taiwanese Deputy Foreign Minister Bruce Linghu led two dozen journalists on another trip to Taiping.
While Taiping is the largest naturally occurring island in the Spratlys, it has been dwarfed by man-made features created by China by piling sand atop coral reefs and topping them with lighthouses, airstrips, harbors and other infrastructure. Johnson Lai, Pengjia Islet, AP
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