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US wary of warmer Taiwan-China ties
　

Too close?: A Congressional Research Service report said closer ties could result in Taiwan growing increasingly resistant to US pressure and ultimately damage US regional interests
　

By Charles Snyder
STAFF REPORTER IN WASHINGTON
Saturday, Apr 05, 2008, Page 1

Some US officials fear that under Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) presidency, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) might swing far enough toward China that it could affect US interests in Taiwan and damage US interests in the region, a new congressional report indicates.

This, despite the fact that Ma has said he will place a high priority on repairing strained Taiwan-US ties that accompanied President Chen Shui-bian’s ( 陳水扁) last few years in the presidency, the report, an internal memo to congressmen from the Congressional Research Service (CRS) says.

The report, dated Wednesday, analyzes last month’s presidential election and Ma’s landslide victory and its likely impact on Taiwan’s domestic situation and relations with Washington and Beijing.

Based on conversations with US officials while the author, Kerry Dumbaugh, was in Taiwan to observe the election and other sources, the report says: “Some observers in the past have expressed concern that the United States may have underestimated the importance of the sea change in KMT thinking that arose from the visits to the PRC by senior KMT officials beginning in 2005.”

That alludes to visits to Beijing by former KMT chairman Lien Chan (連戰) and his ally, People First Party Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜), for discussions with Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤 ) and other Chinese leaders on potential cross-strait ties that were intended, some charged, with undermining Chen’s presidency.

“Those visits, according to this view, may have given pro-China interests in the KMT a new, alternate vision for Taiwan’s future,” the report said. “If this concern is founded, one consequence could be the growing inurement of the KMT to US pressure or interests.”

For instance, “Taiwan could resist US pressure that it increase military spending on the grounds that such expenditures are too high, too confrontational and may be unnecessary in light of potential improvements in cross-strait interactions. Some worry then that the KMT, driven in large part by economic imperatives and pressures from the Taiwan business community, could reach an accommodation with Beijing that ultimately may damage US regional interests,” the report said.

The CRS is the congressional arm intended to keep lawmakers abreast of issues they must deal with, and congressional members rely on it heavily to form their views on legislation, especially among members unfamiliar with a topic, such as Taiwan and cross-strait issues.

Despite any concerns by some US observers, the report said that “the continued success in 2008 of Taiwan’s democratic development is a welcome validation of US goals and values. It also further emphasizes the unique and delicate challenge for US policy that Taiwan poses.”

It cited strong US and Taiwan trade and defense commitments, plus Taiwan’s vibrant free democracy, set off against China’s sovereignty claims and Washington’s official non-support for Taiwan’s independence.

“Under the new KMT government, then, the United States will be faced with challenges familiar from past years, including decisions on new arms sales; how to accommodate requests for visits to the United States by Ma and other senior Taiwan officials; the level of US relations with the Ma government; whether to pursue closer economic ties; and what role, if any, Washington should play in cross-strait relations,” the CRS concluded.

　

　

Dalai Lama envoy urges PRC to drop Tibet in relay

AGENCIES, BEIJING AND LONDON
Saturday, Apr 05, 2008, Page 1

An envoy of the Dalai Lama urged Beijing to cancel “provocative” plans to run the Olympic torch relay through Tibet, but China promptly dismissed his call yesterday as a bid to sabotage the Games.

Meanwhile a report said China would begin putting people on trial this month over the unrest — the biggest challenge to Chinese rule in Tibet in decades — as Beijing has moved to ensure no repeat before the August Olympics.

Lodi Gyari, an envoy of exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, told a US Congressional hearing on Thursday that Beijing’s communist leaders should abandon plans to bring the Olympic flame through Tibet.

“This idea of taking the torch through Tibet, I really think, should be canceled precisely because that would be very deliberately provocative and very insulting after what has happened,” he said.

The torch will pass through Tibet next month to go up Mount Everest, and then again when it goes through Lhasa, the Tibetan capital, in June. Chinese officials have already pledged tight security for the Tibetan legs.

Gyari said that if the Chinese authorities went ahead with the torch run in Tibet, it would “bring more adverse publicity” to the Olympic Games in Beijing — which China wants to be a national showcase of its rising standing.

“The Olympic flame is the highest symbol of the Olympic spirit. It represents peace, friendship and progress,” Zhu Jing, a spokeswoman for the Beijing Olympic organizing committee, said yesterday in response to Gyari.

“The fact that the ‘Dalai clique’ calls for a cancelation of the torch relay has exposed the reality of its attempt to sabotage the Beijing Olympic Games,” she said.

Protests in Lhasa claimed their first lives on March 14, amid fierce anti-Chinese demonstrations to mark the anniversary of a failed 1959 uprising.

Beijing says rioters killed 18 civilians and two police officers. Exiled Tibetan leaders have put the death toll from the Chinese crackdown at 135 to 140 Tibetans, with another 1,000 injured and many detained.

The Tibet Commerce newspaper said late on Thursday that more than 1,000 people had either been caught by police or turned themselves in.

Trials of at least some would begin next month, the paper reported, citing the deputy chief of the Lhasa Communist Party, Wang Xiangming.

Meanwhile, Beijing’s plans for the London leg of the Olympic torch relay suffered a double blow on Thursday when it emerged that the Chinese ambassador to London and the BBC’s most senior journalist have abandoned plans to take part in the event tomorrow.

With human-rights groups preparing to stage mass rallies along the 50km route, the Chinese confirmed Fu Ying had withdrawn from running a leg of the relay.

Mark Byford, deputy director general of the BBC, has also backed out of a commitment to carry the torch amid concerns that his participation would compromise the corporation’s journalistic standards.

Paris-based Reporters Without Borders said yesterday that International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Jacques Rogge had told members that China’s policies toward Tibet had no bearing on this summer’s Games and dismissed talk of a boycott.

　

　

Bo Yang classic reaches out to today’s youth
　

NEW MEDIA: Last August, the author began planning a comic version of one of his most famous works, saying it could reach out to those who don’t read often

By Hsieh Wen-hua
STAFF REPORTER
Saturday, Apr 05, 2008, Page 3
　
Hsu Jung-chang, right, publisher of the comic edition of the book "The Ugly Chinaman" by Bo Yang and cartoonist MoMo hold up two drawings from the book. The book will be released this year.


PHOTO: HSIEH WEN-HUA, TAIPEI TIMES


A comic-strip version of The Ugly Chinaman, a popular book by human rights activist and writer Bo Yang (柏楊), will be soon be published.

In The Ugly Chinaman, Bo Yang presented controversial, in-depth criticism of Chinese culture, depicting the Chinese as dirty, noisy and vainglorious brown-nosers who are incessantly fighting amongst themselves.

The book came as a shock when it was first published in Taiwan in 1984, said Chang Hsiang-hua (張香華), Bo Yang’s wife.

Although the book was banned in China until 2000, underground copies had spread as far as the Xinjiang region and Heilongjiang Province by then, she said.

In last August, Bo began planning a comic version of the book, saying that it could reach out to young people today, who tend not to read.

The publisher of the comic edition, Hsu Jung-chang (徐榮昌), said he had long been a fan of Bo’s original work.

Jung said he admired Bo’s faculty for critical analysis and that the author’s sharp insight had not faded over the decades.

Cartoonist MoMo — who was born in 1980 and is 60 years younger than Bo — was given the task of drawing the comic version.

MoMo said that the age difference meant that she could reinterpret the classic book from the perspective of a younger generation. She hopes to make the comic version a tool of civic education across generations and national boundaries and pass on Bo’s gift of critical thinking to others.

MoMo, who has worked as a cartoonist for 20 years, has never published a complete comic book.

“When I agreed to take the job, I didn’t know who Bo Yang was and didn’t know how serious it was,” she said.

The only thing that Bo Yang asked from her was to “make it really funny and make him look stupid,” she said.

In the illustrated version of The Ugly Chinaman, Bo will appear as one of the characters, who often argues with others.

Contemporary issues, including campus shootings in the US and the Japanese whaling industry, will be discussed in the book alongside the orginal themes of the problems with Chinese culture.

“The most difficult part is softening the image of Bo Yang, who is a serious person,” MoMo said.

Bo began experiencing serious health problems in September 2006 and he has been in and out of hospitals several times since then. Because of his health troubles, he has stopped writing.

Chang said on Thursday as he visited Bo in the hospital that Bo, who was recently hospitalized again for pneumonia, follows Taiwanese politics closely despite his illness.

Bo, who was a political prisoner for 10 years during the Martial Law era, is disappointed in the Democratic Progressive Party administration, but is worried about the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) return to power, Chang said.

　

　

Underground radio host kills himself after DPP's defeat

AP, WITH STAFF WRITER
Saturday, Apr 05, 2008, Page 3

A 45-year-old radio host set his studio alight and burned himself to death a week after his beloved Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lost the presidency to its Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) rival. The suicide of Liao Shu-hsin (廖述炘) attracted considerable attention as both supporters and detractors of president-elect Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) are carefully weighing the impact of his victory over DPP candidate Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) in the March 22 poll.

Liao’s friends at Voice of the Ocean radio station in Sinjhuang (新莊), Taipei County, said they were convinced that he killed himself out of despair over the election result, and its dire consequences for the DPP and the nation’s sovereignty.

“He felt depressed because Taiwanese elected a Chinese as their president,” colleague Chang Chih-mei (張志梅) said. “A Chinese for him is actually a foreigner.”

Chang said that Liao had also been unhappy with the National Communications Commission, which since last year has been continually confiscating equipment from the Voice of the Ocean’s stations in Taipei, Taoyuan and Taichung.

Throughout the election campaign, Voice of the Ocean and other DPP-allied underground stations beat out a constant drum roll of anti-Ma rhetoric, accusing him of being a pro-China politician ready to sell out the nation’s interests to Beijing.

They were particularly incensed by his support for closer economic ties with China, seeing it as the opening gambit in a carefully planned campaign to bring about unification between the sides.

Ma has said that expanded trade and investment are necessary to help jump-start the nation’s economic engine.

He insists hower that he will not discuss unification during his presidency.

Former DPP legislator Chuang Suo-hang (莊碩漢) said that the party was at a crossroads and that if it wants to return to power, it must moderate its pro-independence message to win the allegiance of key centrist voters.

Chuang and other DPP lawmakers have called for outgoing President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) and Hsieh to make way for a new generation of reformers, who would maintain the party’s emphasis on Taiwanese identity, while developing practical solutions to boost economic performance.

National Taipei University political scientist Hou Han-chun (侯漢君) said that Hsieh gave a hint of this during his campaign, echoing Ma’s calls for greater economic engagement with China, while insisting he would limit changes to safeguard the interests of economically vulnerable farmers and workers.

Ho said that the president-elect was now faced with the challenge of either improving the economy fast or being punished in four years in the next president election.

“Voters don’t have great patience,” he said. “If the Nationalists [KMT] fail to improve the economy quickly, they will switch to the DPP.”

　

　

　

　

Ma, Hu, Bush head back to the past
　

By Hsu Yung-ming 徐永明
Saturday, Apr 05, 2008, Page 8

Chinese National Party (KMT) candidate Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) obtained more than 7 million votes in the presidential election, scoring a big win over Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) candidate Frank Hsieh (謝長廷). Having fallen short by 2 million votes, the DPP was, without a doubt, a big loser. Nevertheless, it will soon become clear the biggest winner was the US.

Recently there has been a high level of activity from the White House and State Department. US President George W. Bush immediately sent a congratulatory note to Ma upon his victory. The White House also released, through the State Department, the contents of a telephone conversation between Bush and Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) in which the term “1992 consensus” was used in their discussions about Taiwan.

In their conversation, the concensus was defined as room for different interpretations of “one China,” echoing the wording of the KMT’s phrase “one China with each side having its own interpretation.” At the same time, the White House announced that it was considering the possibility of Ma visiting the US before his inauguration and sent American Institute in Taiwan Chairman Raymond Burghardt to Taipei for some more shuttle diplomacy.

These carefully timed actions look like what transpired in 2000 when president-elect Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) was preparing his “four noes and one not” speech before assuming office. The difference is that in 2000 the concern was over suppressing the DPP’s pro-independence leanings by providing assurances to the US to mollify an anxious Beijing.

This time around the approach has been completely different. Through the Bush-Hu conversation, the US indirectly endorsed the KMT’s position of “one China with each side having its own interpretation,” using the so-called “1992 consensus” to combine Beijing’s “one China” principle, the US’ “one China” policy and the KMT’s interpretation into an amorphous “one China consensus.”

The one area in which they all overlap is the belief that Taiwan is a part of China.

The KMT and the Chinese Communist Party have different ideas about what China is. The US recognizes the commonalities and differences in their positions and wants to arrive at the eventual solution through peaceful means. The disagreement is not over one China, but rather the mutual denial of the other side’s interpretation.

In light of all this, the DPP’s defeat was not just the electoral setback of a politician or a party. It also signifies that Taiwanese independence will not be an item on a future cross-strait agenda. The US, China and the KMT have schemed together to exclude any discussion of Taiwan’s de jure independence from this cross-strait one China structure.

Even though the DPP has asked to be included in future cross-strait negotiations and Chen again questioned the existence of a “1992 consensus” in his meeting with Burghardt, these were feeble attempts at protest. There is no way to stop the formation of a long-term stable “one China” structure within the US-China-Taiwan dynamic. A new power structure has already pushed out the DPP and independence advocates.

A democratic Taiwan that does not pursue de jure independence is probably the most in line with US interests.

Democracy can be used to enclose China. It also keeps Taiwan from being swallowed by China. Moreover, a Taiwan that does not pursue de jure independence will not interfere in Sino-American relations. There would no longer be any need to handle situations arising from Taiwan’s independence-pursuing tendencies.

This kind of Taiwan would no longer be a troublemaker in Washington’s eyes. Moreover, it would be an important pillar of a stable and peaceful framework concocted by the US and Beijing.

Not surprisingly, former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝), an old hand in these matters, was able to see how the intimate interactions between Ma and the US would bring Taiwan back to the era of late president Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國) and relegate it to the role of a dependant regime.



Hsu Yung-ming is an assistant professor of political science at Soochow University.

　

　

Ma should not begin playing the name game
　

By Chao Kang 趙剛
Saturday, Apr 05, 2008, Page 8

There have been reports that president-elect Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) has said that the changing of the name of Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall (中正紀念堂) was illegal and was therefore invalid, and that a consensus on whether it should be changed back should be sought through a public poll. The name change, however, was a political issue rather than a legal issue, and needs to be solved with tact and political wisdom rather than by judicial means. The goal is to dispel social conflict rather than determine a certain procedure. There’s a time for everything, and it would be a pity if Ma doesn’t understand that.

Moreover, the fact that Ma won a landslide victory means that the public has high expectations of him. As Max Weber said, a politician should be equipped with not only the ethic of ultimate ends but also the ethic of responsibility. If the new president hides behind polls, claiming that he is just following public opinion, he would demonstrate a lack of courage. He would be wrong to suppresses the minority opinion with the majority opinion, thus repressing the memories of one group with the memories of another group.

More importantly, if he failed to honor his campaign promises, he would be dishonest. Social fractures need to be mended and a political direction needs to be established. Ma’s call to revert to the old name shows a lack of deliberation.

If mending social cleavages and mapping out a political direction are the top priorities of the next government, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) should not seek revenge for the smallest grievance and throw the country into a vicious circle of infighting. Instead, it must have the wisdom and stature to shoulder the task left by its predecessor.

In pursuit of realistic political interests, one can’t just change things based on political affiliation; and at the level of political symbolism, one can’t just seek shortsighted solutions and pour salt on opponents’ wounds.

The question is whether this election will help Taiwan move away from ethnic conflict, which is what the public wants. This will depend on whether there will be a new political direction conforming to principles of justice. If Ma and his government incorporate this in their mission, they should accept the historical mistakes and thus accept that the inscription of dazhong zhizheng (大中至正) — which only served to glorify one person — was changed to “Liberty Square.”

Not only should Ma accept the name change, he should also promote liberty, equality and fraternity. For example, with the increasing income gap, wouldn’t it be better to change the name of Da-an Forest Park to “Equality Forest Park?” Also, wouldn’t it be better if we change the name of the 228 Peace Park to the “228 Philanthropy Park?”

If we made these changes, liberty, equality and fraternity would shine over Taipei. Since these values are still lacking in Taiwan’s society, I can cherish the memories of the contemporary Chinese revolution as well as the efforts and sacrifice of the tangwai (outside the party) democratic pioneers. Maybe it could also make the public question and evaluate themselves by asking if we really are free, equal and altruistic, thus making ethnic hatred gradually disappear and give way to a greater sense of shared ethics. Who is to say that Liberty Square and the promotion of liberty, equality and fraternity aren’t appropriate?

Of course, if the next government turns out to be just like the outgoing government, engaging in name changes as soon as it takes power, failing to listen to the public or enact progressive policies, then nothing will have changed. People have been listening to Ma since the presidential election. After May 20 they will be watching to see what he does.



Chao Kang is a sociology professor at Tunghai University.

　

　

Chinese pollution quietly takes its toll on Japan
　

Some schools in the country's south have occasionally curbed activities because of toxic chemical smog from China's factories or sand storms from the Gobi Desert caused by rampant deforestation

By Kyoko Hasegawa
AFP, YAMAGATA, JAPAN
Saturday, Apr 05, 2008, Page 9



　

With a smile on her tanned face, skiier Kazumi Furukawa can vividly recall the time three years ago she stood here on Mount Zao and looked down at fir trees turned into glittering crystals.

"The sky was cobalt blue and I could see the tiny snow crystals on the tips of the tree branches," Furukawa, 56, remembers.

But these days the natural phenomenon is growing rarer and scientists say the culprit is beyond Japan's control - industrial pollution from China.

Mount Zao is whipped every year by wet winds from across the Sea of Japan that form layers of ice and snow that shine like crystals. The Japanese call them juhyo, or ice trees.

Skiiers from Japan and other Asian nations regularly fly to the 1,600m mountain just for a glimpse of the juhyo, which local people describe as little monsters for their intricate twisted shapes.

Fumitaka Yanagisawa, an assistant professor of Yamagata University who has studied the juhyo for nearly two decades, warns that the frost is increasingly mixed with acid, spelling danger for the trees' future.

This year he recorded the highest yet levels of acid, "which could have severe ramifications on the eco-system," he said.

Looking at satellite data, he and another professor, Junichi Kudo of Tohoku University, concluded that the acid in the trees came from sulfur produced at factories in China's Shanxi Province.

Since he first wrote about his research in a scientific journal in 2006, elementary school teachers have asked him to give lectures to local children.

"It's hard to explain this kind of scientific evidence to children, but finally they seem to come up with the same question: 'What are you going to do about the problem?'" Yanagisawa said.

He regretted that he had no good answer.

"The pollution comes from outside Japan. There's a limit to what local residents here can do," he said.

Mount Zao is only one example of pollution hitting Japan from China, where factory emissions are causing international concern as its economy soars ahead.

Some schools in southern Japan and South Korea have occasionally curbed activities because of toxic chemical smog from China's factories or sand storms from the Gobi Desert caused by rampant deforestation.

Environmental ministers of China, Japan and South Korea agreed last year to look jointly at the problem, but Tokyo has accused Beijing of secrecy.

"About yellow sand, I am not quite sure how and why it can be regarded as a national secret," Japanese environment minister Ichiro Kamoshita said in February.

Yanagisawa remembers making a presentation on his academic findings at a Chinese university in the early 1990s.

"When I suggested the possibility that Japan was being hurt by cross-border pollution from China, the whole audience booed my speech," he said with a bitter smile.

"Even now, it's a sort of taboo to mention cross-border pollution when I'm invited to give a speech in China," he said.

Japanese officials say they are hoping to cooperate on the environment with Beijing, as Tokyo has been trying to repair ties after years of friction.

"It will have adverse effects if we push China too much on cross-border pollution," said Reiko Sodeno, an environmental ministry official who has observed past bilateral talks.

"Blaming other countries wouldn't help to solve the problem, as it only hurts national pride," she said.

She said the goal was for Asian nations to come up with a treaty on long-range transboundary air pollution similar to agreements in place among European and North American nations.

Japan also suffered terrible air and water pollution as it built itself into the world's second-largest economy, but the situation has been improving since regulations were imposed in the 1970s.

China has taken steps to clean up its air to avoid international embarrassment at the Beijing Games in August after a warning from the International Olympic Committee.

"I have high hopes that in this year of the Olympics for China that Beijing will cooperate in international efforts towards cutting emissions of air pollutants," Sodeno said.

　

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