May 20 (Bloomberg) -- Taiwan’s President Ma Ying-jeou vowed to prioritize economic ties with China even as he stressed the mainland must remove short-range missiles before any peace agreement can move forward.

“There are so many financial and economic issues that haven’t been properly addressed between the two sides,” Ma said in a briefing in Taipei with foreign media to commemorate his one-year anniversary since taking office. “We should deal with those issues first because they are so closely and directly related to the well-being of our people.”

Ma’s first year in power has been marked by improving relations with the mainland after he abandoned his predecessor’s pro-independence stance. His willingness to negotiate with China has also angered the island’s opposition, which held street protests involving tens of thousands of people objecting to his policies on May 17.

Today Ma repeated calls for China to adopt a less- aggressive military stance toward the island.

“If we are to negotiate a peace agreement with the mainland, including military confidence building measures, they should remove the more than 1,000 missiles targeted against Taiwan,” Ma said today. “We certainly do not want to negotiate a peace agreement under the threat of a missile attack against Taiwan.”

Short-Range Missiles

China has increased its force of mobile short-range missiles based in garrisons opposite Taiwan to as many as 1,150 in September from as many as 790 in late 2005, the U.S. Defense Department said in its annual report to Congress on March 25.

Taiwan, with its own defense force, foreign ministry, and elected government, has been ruled separately from China since the Kuomintang, or KMT, fled to the island after its defeat at the hands of Mao Zedong’s Communist Party in 1949. China has threatened to invade Taiwan if it declares formal independence.

Ma’s policies have put “Taiwan’s destiny and future into China’s hands,” Tsai Ing-wen, chairwoman of the Democratic Progressive Party, said in a May 17 speech. Negotiations between the two sides haven’t been approved by lawmakers and don’t have the people’s consent, she said.

The opposition Democratic Progressive Party says as many as 600,000 people attended their May 17 protest rally. The government put the number at about 80,000.

No Reunification, Independence

Ma today repeated his pledge not to participate in talks on Taiwan’s reunification with China or on its independence from the mainland during his term as president.

China repeatedly blocks Taiwan from asserting its international identity, and until recently prevented the island from joining the United Nations and the World Health Organization.

Taiwan was invited by the WHO to attend the annual meeting of its decision-making arm in Geneva under the term “Chinese Taipei,” after being expelled from the UN 38 years ago because of pressure from China. Taiwan has been turned down each year since it began a campaign in 1993 to formally join the UN as an observer under the “Republic of China” label.

More than 87,000 tourists from mainland China have visited Taiwan since July when the two economies resumed talks after they were halted in 1999. Former President Lee Teng-hui labeled such negotiations as being “state-to-state,” a term China rejected.

China last month said it will allow Chinese investors to take stakes in Taiwanese companies. China Mobile Ltd. said April 29 it agreed to buy a stake in Taiwan’s Far EasTone Telecommunications Co., marking the first investment by a Chinese state-owned firm in at least 60 years.

To contact the reporter on this story: Janet Ong in Taipei at jong3@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: May 20, 2009 03:13 EDT