President Ma Ying-jeou yesterday laid down the blueprint for Taiwan's “gold decade,” and expressed his belief that improving cross-strait ties could compel China to remove the vast number of missiles that it has aimed at the island.

President Ma Ying-jeou exhorted Taiwanese students Monday to pursue advanced studies in the United States as a means to broaden their views and build person-to-person relationships.

When a Taiwan music ensemble performed its reconstruction of Chinese imperial court music last year in Beijing, it marked not just a cultural milestone, but a political one. It was also a chance for people from both sides of the long-divided Taiwan Strait to compare notes on which parts of their joint Chinese heritage have been preserved, or not.

Ties between Taipei and Shanghai are growing closer in the lead up to Expo Shanghai 2010, following historic exchanges between top-level officials and businessmen from both sides of the Strait.

Taiwanese students took part recently in the National Model United Nations (NMUN) conference in New York for the fourth consecutive year, gaining a valuable opportunity to build diplomatic skills, the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office (TECO) in New York said Tuesday.

Former premier Liu Chao-shiuan is likely to attend the World Expo in Shanghai next month. Minister of the Interior Jiang Yi-huah confirmed yesterday that Liu filed a request at the National Immigration Agency on March 26 to attend an arts event in China under the invitation of an art institution in Beijng.

A new Taiwan-Hong Kong Economic and Cultural Cooperation Council, backed by the Cabinet-level Mainland Affairs Council (MAC), will be established in May to promote relations with Hong Kong. MAC officials have confirmed that the new council will be organized by board directors representing the government and private sector.

President Ma Ying-jeou has insisted in his two years in office that a flexible diplomatic strategy could help Taiwan break free from the stigma of checkbook diplomacy and project a new image and status in the international community.