President Ma also discussed substantive actions by the ROC as a peacemaker in the international community, commenting that since taking office in 2008 his administration has consistently sought, under the framework of the ROC Constitution, to maintain the status quo of "no unification, no independence, and no use of force" in the Taiwan Strait, and has acted on the basis of the "1992 Consensus"—whereby each side acknowledges the existence of "one China" but maintains its own interpretation of what that means—to seek peaceful cross-strait relations. This policy has yielded considerable success to date, he said, pointing out that the number of scheduled flights between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait has increased from none before he took office to about 120 daily at present. Also, the number of mainland Chinese students studying in Taiwan has risen from 823 prior to his taking office to more than 32,000 now, growing nearly 40-fold. This highlights the increasingly close and frequent interaction between the two sides.
【Source: Office of the President】