Amanpour Questions President Ma on CNN

Interesting interview on CNN, with world famous CNN reporter Christine Amanpour interviewing Ma on a variety of current issues in and around Taiwan.

Here's a link to the video and article.

Just a few points....

Amanpour starts out asking Ma about his stance on Taiwan's "independence." President Ma cleverly side steps this question by saying that the Republic of China on Taiwan has been an independent sovereign state for 99 years.

The problem here is that supposed independence is not recognized by many countries. This problem is also blatantly seen whenever Taiwan attempts to join an international organization and is either blocked out of the organization by China, or is forced to enter under the name "Chinese Taipei."

The second question Amanpour asks is about Ma's push for closer relations with China, and in doing so jeopardizing Taiwan's sovereignty. Again, Ma sort of side steps this question by only addressing the first half of the question on the agreements he has accomplished, instead of perhaps explaining how the direct flights between Taiwan and China are not classified as international flights (as a result, R.O.C. (Taiwan) passports cannot be used by Taiwanese to enter China).

While I applaud Amanpour for trying to ask the tough questions that most of us have been asking, she doesn't quite push Ma for clarifications/explanations on his answers. An example of this is when Ma talks about the "improved relations" between the two sides - Amanpour should have asked why China's missiles pointed at Taiwan are increasing at the same time. I think the weirdest part for viewers of this video who may not know much about Taiwan is the fact that he states at the beginning how the R.O.C. is independent and sovereign, yet later is asked about attending APEC, and Ma simply cannot answer that question because of the truth that China is blocking Taiwan from these summits and organizations.

How can a country be independent and sovereign if another country is able to dictate what you can do on the international stage? Quite frankly, Ma says it himself at the very end when he describes his "3 no's" policy of, "No unification, No independence, No use of force." What? Did not Ma state at the beginning of the interview, "there's no reason to declare independence twice." Listening to this cluster-fudge of an interview is really confusing. One minute Taiwan is independent and sovereign, then seemingly not, then seemingly yes.

What Amanpour needs to do is get Tsai Ing-wen in an interview. Actually, she should have gotten Tsai and Ma on at the same time.