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KMT's evil way to kill Taiwan spirit

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All took money: Chen’s daughter

OUTBURST: Cornered by reporters near her office, Chen Hsing-yu said she doubted any Taiwanese politician had ever declared all of his or her campaign funding

By Ko Shu-ling, Meggie Lu and Flora Wang
STAFF REPORTER
Tuesday, Aug 19, 2008, Page 1

The daughter of former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) accused Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) members yesterday of taking money from her father when they were running for public office but not declaring it.

Describing the money laundering scandal enveloping her father as the result of “political strife,” a visibly angry Chen Hsing-yu (陳幸妤) called the honesty of all politicians — both in the DPP and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) — into question, saying she wondered whether they ever truthfully declared their political donations or leftover campaign funds.

“Oh, yes, the KMT wants us dead. Chen Shui-bian is their No. 1 enemy,” she said. “If Chen Shui-bian were dead, [President] Ma Ying-jeou would not have to do anything and would easily get elected. It doesn’t matter that his approval rating is as low as 1 percent or he sells out Taiwan to China.”

Chen Hsing-yu, known for her quick temper and sharp tongue, lambasted DPP members she said had taken money from her father but now pretended to be clean. She singled out former premiers Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) and Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) as well as Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊).

Her outburst came in response to questions from reporters as she headed into her office yesterday morning.

The former president created a political shockwave last Thursday when he apologized for failing to fully declare his campaign funds and for wiring a large sum overseas, while denying embezzling money from the government or being involved in money laundering. He said his wife Wu Shu-jen (吳淑珍) had been in charge of the couple’s finances and that he knew nothing about them.

Chen Shui-bian’s office later said that more than US$20 million had been sent abroad.

Prosecutors have said they believe Wu used figureheads, including her husband, brother, son, daughter-in-law, daughter and son-in-law, to wire money overseas.

Saying her father had told her to keep quiet, Chen Hsing-yu was trying to call her mother on her cellphone to tell her that she was going public even as she yelled at reporters that the alleged scandal was a political attack on her family.

“It is OK that I die, but I cannot die for nothing,” she said. “Before I die, I want the public to know who took the money.”

She criticized the campaign finance laws as “unreasonable” and said that it was not fair that her father was taking all the blame.

She said that all she knew about the scandal was that all the money that had been wired overseas came from her father’s surplus campaign funds, but that she did not know if money laundering was involved.

When asked about why her parents wired the money abroad, she said: “Do you think it was legal to keep it here?” before asking if reporters knew why and where KMT officials had sent their money overseas.

She also shouted at a reporter who asked her why the money had not been deposited under her parents’ names, but under those of her and her brother and other family members.

“Do you think that would work? If you ask around, people will tell you they always use figureheads,” she said.

She said she had not known there was an overseas bank account in her name until she read about it in the newspapers. She said she had never thought she had so much money.

“If I had that much money, I could have just stayed home. Why do I have to work so hard?” she said before stepping into her office.

Meanwhile, Hsieh’s office issued a statement denying that he had taken money from Chen Shui-bian during “this year’s presidential election,” adding that it was natural for party members to help raise funds for candidates.

A staffer for Su denied that he had ever taken money from the former president, but thanked him for his campaigning efforts.

Chen Chu said she had received “resources distributed by the party headquarters” when she was running for Kaohsiung mayor in 2006. She said it had been the former president’s duty to raise funds for the DPP given his seniority, but his problem now had nothing to do with party fundraising.

The DPP’s Taipei chapter decided yesterday to suspend the party rights of Wu, her son Chen Chih-chung (陳致中) and daughter-in-law Huang Jui-ching (黃睿靚). They have 15 days to appeal the decision with the DPP’s Central Review Committee.

DPP Secretary-General Wang Tuoh (王拓), speaking on behalf of the party, said that if there were widespread problems in declaring leftover campaign funds across party lines, then the law should be amended to resolve the problem.

However, the DPP did not know about individual fund declarations, Wang said.

Meanwhile the DPP caucus convener and financial management director Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) said most of what Chen Hsing-yu said was true, and that he had received fundraising help from her father.

However, in regards to political contributions, Chen Shui-bian had opened the biggest Pandora’s box in politics, he said.

Every political party and figure has problems of this nature — the problem was not who received money from whom, but that there was no firm set of laws to regulate fundraising, Ker said.

In an exclusive interview with the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) yesterday, DPP Chairwoman Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said that she expected the party’s anti-corruption committee to investigate all members who may have involvement in corruption.

The committee has the authority to initiate investigations and to rule in any corruption cases, Tsai said after a meeting with DPP representatives yesterday. In addition to the former president, the committee would “investigate all the cases that occurred in the past,” so that the DPP could be answerable to the public, she said.

She also said the DPP will rely on small donations in the future

Meanwhile, Ker said that while the Chen Shui-bian scandal would hurt fundraising efforts in the short run, the party would continue to push its small-donations program, since it would be beneficial in the long run, the Central News Agency reported.

In related news, Control Yuan President Wang Chien-shien told reporters yesterday that any public official found to have helped the former president deposit large sums of money abroad will be punished.

“The Control Yuan will investigate any crimes or malfeasance committed by government officials, but we must discuss how and when we should intervene [in the investigation of this case],” he said.

“Former president Chen’s case involves not only the former president but also the former director-general of the Ministry of Justice’s Investigation Bureau [Yeh Sheng-mao (葉盛茂)] and may also involve other government officials,” he said.

“Those who have helped Chen with his bad deeds should also be brought to justice,” he said.
　

Tibet activists accuse China of increased repression

AGENCIES, BEIJING
Tuesday, Aug 19, 2008, Page 1

China has stepped up repression in its ethnic Tibetan regions to prevent any protests during the Beijing Olympics, an activist group said yesterday.

“To prevent potentially embarrassing protests inside Tibet, China has turned large parts of Tibet into a virtual prison for the duration of the Games,” Matt Whitticase, spokesman for the Free Tibet Campaign, said in a statement.

China poured security forces into its Tibetan areas after riots in March to quell the unrest, and the Free Tibet Campaign said the military build-up was accompanied by policies aimed at punishing activist monks and monasteries.

China’s Foreign Ministry did not have any immediate comment.

But an editorial in the state-run China Daily said foreign countries had been unfairly critical of Beijing’s treatment of its ethnic minorities: “Many should feel ashamed of their groundless accusations once they know what the Chinese government has done for ethnic minorities.”

China is planning to build six new railway lines in and around Tibet that will go into operation before 2020, the Ministry of Railways said in an announcement on its Web site on Saturday.

It said two of the new lines would run from Lhasa to other areas in Tibet, while the other four would be built in other provinces on the Tibetan plateau.

In other developments, the government received 77 applications from 149 people who wanted to hold protests during the Olympics, but all were withdrawn, suspended or rejected, Xinhua news agency said yesterday.

The complaints ranged from labor and medical disputes to inadequate welfare, it said.

Citing a spokesman for the Public Security Bureau, Xinhua said 74 of the applications were withdrawn because the problems “were properly addressed by relevant authorities or departments through consultations.” Two other applications were suspended because they did not provide sufficient data and one was rejected because it violated laws against demonstrations and protests, the spokesman said.

Human rights groups and families of people who have applied for permits to protest say some were taken away afterward by security agents, prompting critics to accuse officials of using the plan as a trap to draw potential protesters to their attention.

Wang Wei (王偉), vice president of the Beijing Olympics organizing committee, yesterday defended the protest plan to journalists.

“Many problems have not been solved, not even by the United Nations, and some want them to be solved during the Olympic Games, putting pressure on the International Olympic Committee and the Beijing Olympic Committee,” Wang said. “This is not realistic ... We think that you do not really understand China’s reality.”

A China has stepped up repression in its ethnic Tibetan regions to prevent any protests during the Beijing Olympics, an activist group said yesterday.

“To prevent potentially embarrassing protests inside Tibet, China has turned large parts of Tibet into a virtual prison for the duration of the Games,” Matt Whitticase, spokesman for the Free Tibet Campaign, said in a statement.

China poured security forces into its Tibetan areas after riots in March to quell the unrest, and the Free Tibet Campaign said the military build-up was accompanied by policies aimed at punishing activist monks and monasteries.

China’s Foreign Ministry did not have any immediate comment.

But an editorial in the state-run China Daily said foreign countries had been unfairly critical of Beijing’s treatment of its ethnic minorities: “Many should feel ashamed of their groundless accusations once they know what the Chinese government has done for ethnic minorities.”

China is planning to build six new railway lines in and around Tibet that will go into operation before 2020, the Ministry of Railways said in an announcement on its Web site on Saturday.

It said two of the new lines would run from Lhasa to other areas in Tibet, while the other four would be built in other provinces on the Tibetan plateau.

In other developments, the government received 77 applications from 149 people who wanted to hold protests during the Olympics, but all were withdrawn, suspended or rejected, Xinhua news agency said yesterday.

The complaints ranged from labor and medical disputes to inadequate welfare, it said.

Citing a spokesman for the Public Security Bureau, Xinhua said 74 of the applications were withdrawn because the problems “were properly addressed by relevant authorities or departments through consultations.” Two other applications were suspended because they did not provide sufficient data and one was rejected because it violated laws against demonstrations and protests, the spokesman said.

Human rights groups and families of people who have applied for permits to protest say some were taken away afterward by security agents, prompting critics to accuse officials of using the plan as a trap to draw potential protesters to their attention.

Wang Wei (王偉), vice president of the Beijing Olympics organizing committee, yesterday defended the protest plan to journalists.

“Many problems have not been solved, not even by the United Nations, and some want them to be solved during the Olympic Games, putting pressure on the International Olympic Committee and the Beijing Olympic Committee,” Wang said. “This is not realistic ... We think that you do not really understand China’s reality.”

Also See: China confiscates Bibles from US Christians

A newer KMT method of torture

Tuesday, Aug 19, 2008, Page 8

Although there is no historical evidence that it was invented by the Chinese, it may be appropriate to note that one of the oldest forms of coercion is known as “Chinese water torture.” By continuously dripping water on a victim’s head over an extended period of time, it is said that the technique can drive a victim insane.

Nowadays, it seems like those drops of water are being applied to Taiwan’s forehead, with each droplet taxing the nation’s identity a little more each time. What’s worse is that — like a real victim of torture — Taiwanese appear to be strapped to a chair and fated to a long period of suffering. And the torturer is a tag team: the Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT).

Drip: “Chinese Taipei.” Drop: “Chunghwa Post.” Drip: No WHO or UN application under the name “Taiwan.” Drop: Our elected president is but a “Mr.” Drip: The possible renaming of National Democracy Memorial Hall, after the murderous dictator the monument was built for. And drop: In the Dominican Republic over the weekend, where President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) delegation was referred to — for all to see and without as much as a complaint — as “China, Taiwan.”

This latest instance, however, may just be too much to bear, as it was not only unacceptable but also an insult to the intelligence. Queried by reporters about the name, a Taiwanese embassy official in Santo Domingo (the ambassador could not be bothered to meet the media) said that “China, Taiwan” had no ideological connotation because when people in the Dominican Republic say “China,” they mean “Taiwan.”

National Security Council Secretary-General Su Chi (蘇起), who was part of the delegation and who himself seems to find it difficult to differentiate between the two countries, echoed those comments.

Not only are we supposed to swallow that asinine explanation, but Su and the official’s comments were insulting to the people in our allied country, who are said to be unable to tell the difference between Taiwan and the country next door, in the glare of the Olympic Games media frenzy as we speak, 267 times the size of Taiwan and whose population is about 57 times bigger. To think that people in the Caribbean cannot tell the difference between the two countries is condescending and fails to explain how using “China, Taiwan” could help those supposedly ignorant people differentiate between Taipei and Beijing.

At the minimum, it is no way to treat a diplomatic ally who has stood by us for more than 60 years. At the worst, it is consistent with a blurring of the lines the Ma administration has undertaken and the confusing signals that make it increasingly difficult for the rest of the world to tell the difference between Taiwan and China.

If those signals continue, the world could very well reach the conclusion that Taiwan just doesn’t care whether people can tell the difference between the two countries, which can only result in further isolation for Taiwanese.

Before the penultimate drop drives us insane, let’s give those straps a good yank and get up from that chair. The torturers have had enough fun.

Ex-first couple and son named suspects

‘money laundering’: The justice ministry said it had expanded its cooperation with countries where Chen Shui-bian’s family was suspected of wiring its funds

By Rich Chang
STAFF REPORTER
Tuesday, Aug 19, 2008, Page 3



Chen Chun-ying, the wife of former president Chen Shui-bian’s brother-in-law, is rushed to hospital after she fainted during questioning by the Special Investigation Panel of the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office in Taipei yesterday.
PHOTO: WANG MIN-WEI, TAIPEI TIMES



Prosecutors yesterday named former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), his wife Wu Shu-jen (吳淑珍), Chen’s son Chen Chih-chung (陳致中), Chen’s daughter-in-law Huang Jui-ching (黃睿靚) and Wu’s brother Wu Ching-mao (吳景茂) as the five main suspects in their investigation into money laundering.

Prosecutor Chu Chao-liang (朱朝亮) said that prosecutors had summoned Wu Ching-mao and his wife Chen Chun-ying (陳俊英) for questioning on suspicion that their overseas accounts served as the depository for the funds the former first couple remitted out of the country.

However, the questioning came to an abrupt end at around 5pm when Chen Chun-ying passed out during the interview, Chu said.

Chen Chun-ying was sent to National Taiwan University Hospital for treatment.

Wu Ching-mao, who accompanied his wife to the hospital, told reporters that his wife tried to commit suicide by taking a number of sleeping pills because she felt had been “unfairly” treated during the interview.

“Prosecutors asked her [Chen Chun-ying] to admit doing things she did not do and refused her request to have lawyers present during the questioning.”

— Wu Ching-mao, brother of former first lady Wu Shu-jen


“Prosecutors asked her to admit doing things she did not do and refused her request to have lawyers present during the questioning,” Wu Ching-mao said.

Chu said the interview of Chen Chun-ying was conducted in accordance with the law.

Chu said that Wu Ching-mao detailed to prosecutors the process they used to deposit or transfer money for the former first family over the years.

The prosecutor added that former state-owned China Steel Corp (中鋼) chairman Lin Wen-yuan (林文淵) was also summoned for questioning yesterday morning as a witness.

Lin was in charge of Chen Shui-bian’s campaign funds during the 2000 presidential election.

Lin left the prosecutors’ office at 12pm.

Chu said prosecutors learned that Chen had four undisclosed bank accounts used for political donations for the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections — three for 2000 and one for 2004.

The former president admitted last Thursday that he failed to truthfully declare funds collected from two mayoral and two presidential elections between 1993 and 2004 and that his wife had wired surplus campaign contributions overseas.

The Supreme Prosecutors’ Office announced on Saturday that Chen Shui-bian and Wu Ching-mao had been barred from leaving the country. Wu Shu-jen has been prohibited from leaving since May.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Justice (MOJ) said yesterday it was cooperating with law enforcement authorities in several countries to probe Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) overseas accounts.

“The MOJ is expanding its legal assistance with several countries. The ministry not only has cooperated with Swiss authorities to investigate Chen’s accounts there, but it has also contacted Singapore, the US and other countries where the former first family had allegedly wired funds,” Deputy Minister of Justice Huang Shih-ming (黃世銘) told a press conference yesterday.

He said the ministry was determined to clear all bank accounts the former first family opened overseas and to retrieve the funds.

The deputy minister asked businesspeople who know where the Chen family’s money came from to report the matter to prosecutors, and prosecutors would handle them according to the Witness Protection Law (證人保護法) and grant them a NT$10 million (US$319,000) reward.

He also urged businesspeople involved in the scandal to come out and act as state witnesses.

Meanwhile, Taipei Prosecutor Ching Chi-jen (慶啟人), who traveled to Switzerland to trace the alleged Chen family funds, returned to the country on Sunday night.

“I offered legal documents involving Chen and the former first family to Swiss prosecutors to assist in their investigation into suspected money laundering, and I also expressed the hope that Switzerland would return the money to Taiwan,” Ching told reporters at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport.

Huang said prosecutors were also investigating Yeh Sheng-mao (葉盛茂), a former chief of the Ministry of Justice’s Investigation Bureau, on suspicion of concealing information about the suspected money laundering.

Prosecutors were still questioning Huang as of press time.

Prosecutors on Sunday asked immigration officials to notify them if they found Yeh trying to leave the country.

Yeh had said on Sunday that the bureau’s Money Laundering Prevention Center had received information from the Cayman Islands in late January that the former president’s daughter-in-law had a bank account there and that it was likely being used for money laundering.

In related news, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday it would not rule out filing suit if it found any trading irregularities in the auction of Changhwa Bank (彰化銀行) shares in 2005.

Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Chiu Yi (邱毅) has accused the former first family of taking bribes from Taishin Financial Holding Co (台新金控) in exchange for Changhwa shares.

As a result of the auction, Taishin Financial won a majority of the seats on Changhwa Bank’s board, with a 22.5 percent stake, compared with the government’s 18 percent.

A high-ranking ministry official said on condition of anonymity that he believed investigators would soon ask the ministry for trading documents to see if there were any irregularities in the transaction.

“The ministry and failed bidders could lodge lawsuits if the auction turned out to be tainted,” the official told reporters. “It would be up to the court to settle the dispute. No one can predict the outcome.”

The official, however, said it was unlikely that the Changhwa deal would be invalidated.

“People who played unfairly would not be able to shake off their legal responsibility,” the official said. “They would be unfit to chair the company, but the company’s dealings would probably remain unaffected.”

ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY CRYSTAL HSU

TSU to rally against China policy

‘Mistake’: The party said that the administration’s adoption of China-friendly economic policies was a ‘flawed’ strategy that had seriously hurt the country

By Ko Shu-ling
STAFF REPORTER
Tuesday, Aug 19, 2008, Page 3

The Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) is set to proceed with a demonstration tomorrow to protest against the government’s pro-China economic policies.

TSU Secretary-General Lin Jhi-jia (林志嘉) said the demonstration would be a protest against the administration’s China-friendly economic policy, which he called a “mistake.”

“The policy, which is irresponsible in nature, has caused the economy to bleed and seriously hurt the country,” he said.

As the party has suspended the party rights of Mainland Affairs Council Chairwoman Lai Shin-yuan (賴幸媛), a TSU member, for her endorsement of the administration’s liberal economic policy toward China, Lin said his party would wait until the demonstration was over to “carefully consider” possibly early next month how to deal with Lai.

There have been calls for Lai’s resignation from the post or expulsion from the party.

POLL

Citing a survey conducted by its opinion center, Lin said that most people considered the administration’s cross-strait economic policy was flawed and that his party was duty-bound to reflect public opinion.

The survey, which questioned 1,029 adults around the country between Aug. 12 and Aug. 15, showed that more than 72 percent of respondents believed the recent relaxation of cross-strait regulations would benefit big businesses more than the general public.

The policies included loosening the regulation restricting a listed company’s investment in China to a maximum of 40 percent of its net worth and banning Taiwanese companies from setting up 12-inch wafer fabs in China.

The poll also found that nearly 38 percent of the people polled said the administration had eased cross-strait policy too hastily, while only 12 percent said it should pick up the pace.

More than 41 percent said the deregulatory measures had not helped the stock market, but nearly 31 percent said they did.

More than 46 percent of those polled said the economy had worsened since President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) took office in May, while about 11 percent said it had improved.

Nearly 35 percent of respondents said their quality of life had deteriorated since May. Only 6 percent said it had improved.

However, not all the respondents were unhappy with the administration’s cross-strait policy.

Nearly 48 percent said the relaxation of cross-strait measures had helped the economy, while 35 percent said it had had little effect or none at all.

MIXED VIEWS

Fifty-six percent said the measures helped improve cross-strait relations, but about 31 percent said they did not.

In addition, 45 percent said they were generally satisfied with the new measures. About 37 percent said they were unhappy with them.

Regarding Ma’s performance over the past three months, nearly 43 percent found it satisfactory, while about 42 percent said they were not satisfied.
　

‘One dream’ Beijing can’t deliver

By Cao Changqing 曹長青
Tuesday, Aug 19, 2008, Page 8

The Chinese government went to great lengths to show China’s best face to the world by having a large-scale Olympics opening ceremony that cost a lot of money, with loads of fireworks, lots of color and droves of people. Many Chinese Internet users, however, criticized the ceremony for being a big mishmash, even saying the ceremony resembled “an upscale version of a North Korean group calisthenics performance” and that was “overly large with too many people involved and was devoid of content and human nature.”

Some said all the colors and modern lights used during the ceremony merely turned it into “an elegy to China’s superficial and extravagant past,” while others said the huge sums of money spent only served to make “the most tacky opening ceremony in the history of the Olympics.”

After seeing the sheer size of the opening ceremony and the large-scale performance, one cannot deny that director Zhang Yimou (張藝謀) really did go to a lot of effort in planning and choreographing the event. Zhang gave attention to every last detail and did a very professional job. Why then has Beijing’s opening ceremony received so much criticism? The real reason is that Zhang failed to understand the true spirit of the Olympics.

The official theme of the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, “The Power of the Dream,” and the symphony Summon the Heroes perfectly represented the spirit of the Olympics, which, among other things, is the spirit of freedom, realizing one’s dreams and becoming an individual hero.

Zhang may not understand the Olympic spirit, but he does have a profound understanding of the spirit of Chinese President Hu Jintao’s (胡錦濤) government. During the opening ceremony, Zhang showcased the knowledge that Chinese have had spoon-fed to them since birth, using historical imagery such as the four great inventions of ancient China and the Silk Road. Zhang also used rows and rows of people to form the Chinese character for peace (he, 和). This clearly and skillfully put forward the exact message Hu wanted to express: a message of a “harmonious society” and a “peaceful rise to power” that was in perfect harmony with China’s official ideological line.

Zhang primarily focused on showing the pride Chinese feel about their country and themselves as a people — not the Olympic spirit. As a result, no matter how spectacular the lighting, colors and digital technology Zhang used, and irrespective of how many people he had line up in neat, geometric formations, shouting at the top of their lungs, he was still unable to inject the Olympic spirit of freedom into the opening ceremony.

Regardless of how painstakingly Zhang worked in planning the ceremony, the Chinese culture and history that he tried to express was very hard even for Chinese with an understanding of Chinese culture and history to grasp, let alone the non-Chinese people watching the show. And even if some people watching could clearly understand the content and its meaning, because it was devoid of spirit and soul, no matter how technically perfect it was, all they could do was stand in the crowd and look on at the “fun.” However, the opening ceremony’s “fun” was not fun in the true sense of the word, nor was it pleasing to look at.

The entire opening ceremony was painfully slow and monotonous, and apart from the fireworks displays that punctuated the show at appropriate intervals, the show had no single point capable of moving anybody in the audience.

On special occasions such as the Olympics, especially when people are watching the event on their television sets, they do not want or need the profound thought of philosophers or the research of historians; what they want is music and performances that resonate deep within their hearts.

The music and songs used at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta moved people on a deep level and made them want to see the Games for themselves. The music and theme song of the Beijing Olympics, on the other hand, were very bland in comparison and were so boring that they almost put the audience to sleep.

The slogan of the Beijing Olympics is “One World One Dream.” Let’s leave aside the fact that this is a typical empty slogan — the only dream common to all mankind is freedom, the one dream Beijing does all it can to eliminate — but even if it made sense, the opening ceremony did nothing to express the main theme of the slogan. There was no expression of “one dream,” nor of “one world.” It was all a self-obsessed attempt to place China at the center of the world. It was, however, very Chinese to see this poor and backward dictatorship portray China as a paradise characterized by harmony between heaven and man since the beginning of time.

Cao Changqing is an independent political commentator.
TRANSLATED BY DREW CAMERON




　

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red terror at olympics

Published on Taipei Times
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2008/08/14/2003420330

Journalists and activists arrested outside Olympics
FACE VALUE: Meanwhile, officials insisted that the decision to have a girl lip-sync another’s song during the opening ceremony was not about who was cuter

AP, BEIJING
Thursday, Aug 14, 2008, Page 1

This undated video frame grab image originally aired by China Central Television and taken from the Chinese Web site Sina.com shows seven-year-old Yang Peiyi, the girl who actually sang during the opening ceremony of the Beijing 2008 Olympics.
PHOTO: AP
Up to eight Tibet activists who staged a protest yesterday near the main Olympics venue and a British television journalist were detained by police, a rights group and a TV producer said.

The New York-based Students for a Free Tibet said two of their members hung a banner that said “Free Tibet” on a bridge in the Chinese Ethnic Culture Park, south of the National Stadium.

Another five or six members handcuffed themselves to each other and to bicycles at the front gate of the park, said Lhadon Tethong, the group’s executive director.

All — including Pema Yoko, a half-Tibetan woman with Japanese citizenship — were detained by police and plainclothes security agents, Tethong said.

The journalist was identified as John Ray of ITV News.

“The Tibetan protesters were in the park, John Ray was running behind them, the police were running behind him,” said Bessie Du, a Beijing-based producer for the program, who watched the situation unfold from afar.

Du said police put Ray into a car, despite his efforts to show them his Olympic press accreditation.

A man who answered the telephone at the Beijing Public Security Bureau refused to comment. The park’s security director who would give only his surname, Dong, confirmed the protest took place.

The demonstration was the largest in a string of brief protests — mostly by foreigners hoping to use the Olympics to draw attention to their causes — throughout Beijing since the games started last week.

Most have had less than five people and foreign activists have been deported.

Also yesterday, a rights group said a Chinese activist who applied for permission to protest against corruption during the Olympics has been taken away by security agents.

Ji Sizun wanted to demonstrate in one of three protest zones Chinese officials have designated for the games, Human Rights Watch said in a statement.

Meanwhile, Olympic officials insisted yesterday that the decision to have one girl lip-sync another’s voice during a song featured in the Beijing Games’ opening ceremony was not about who was cuter, but about the best performance.

Organizers were put on the defensive after the musical director of last Friday’s Games curtain raiser revealed the last-minute switch — the latest embarrassment for officials who have gone to extraordinary lengths to ensure the Games are flawless.

In a sparkling red dress, nine-year-old Lin Miaoke (林妙可) soared on wires above the Bird’s Nest national stadium and mouthed the words to Ode to the Motherland.

But the voice everybody heard was a prerecorded version of the song by seven-year-old Yang Peiyi (楊沛宜), who officials decided sounded better than Li Miaoke but did not look as good.

Sun Weide (孫維德), the spokesman for the Beijing organizing committee, said the decision to use both girls was made by the artistic director after consulting with broadcasters, who had recommended the change. He did not name the broadcasters.

Chen’s original interview was posted on Beijing Radio’s Web site on Sunday night. By Tuesday the link was shut down. The Chinese government routinely blocks sites that could cause embarrassment to the country’s communist rulers.
Copyright © 1999-2008 The Taipei Times. All rights reserved.

Taiwan must play a waiting game

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US dance and piano instructors praise Taiwanese students

By Jenny W. Hsu
STAFF REPORTER
Wednesday, Aug 13, 2008, Page 2

“The bottom line is, if you can’t get hyper, then get off the dance floor.”— Tiziano Hsieh,hip hop student

The key to helping Taiwanese students overcome shyness is to use lots of encouragement and humor, said Michael Parks Masterson, an acclaimed US performer and hip hop dance instructor at this year’s American Performing Arts Academy program in Taipei.

“I encourage the students a lot and sometimes even use reverse psychology to get them to do what I ask,” he said yesterday, adding that the Taiwanese dance students he met were almost always able to step up to his demands.

This is Masterson’s second trip to Taiwan to teach at the academy, which has returned to Taiwan after a successful first visit in 2006.

Compared with the students two years ago, Masterson said that participants this year were “faster and smarter,” as a group of eight dancers demonstrated at the press conference after only two hours of practice.

Another academy instructor and well-known American pianist John Ferguson praised the students, calling them “talented and hardworking.”

He said that many classically trained young Taiwanese pianists tell him that their teachers try to discourage them from playing jazz piano because “it’s bad for their fingers.”

“The thing is, anything is bad for you if the techniques are bad,” he said, adding that one of the things students would learn at the piano academy was how to play the instrument in a more percussive style.

Cheng Wen-wen (鄭雯文), a classically trained pianist of 16 years from Penghu, said although jazz piano is very different from what she was used to, “I am excited to learn all varieties of music, especially from good teachers.”

Some hip hop dance students said that even though they only had Masterson as a teacher for two days, they would sign up for the course next year if he comes back.

“Masterson’s style is not mainstream hip hop, but more jazzy and old-school,” said Kenny Kuo (郭文瀚), a high school senior.

“We might have been shy at first, but we have no problem getting all hyper and excited,” said another hip hop student, Tiziano Hsieh (謝念羽). “The bottom line is, if you can’t get hyper, then get off the dance floor.”

Students from the hip hop and piano academy will put on a free concert on Friday night.

The Broadway academy students will perform next Saturday with excerpts from Guys and Dolls, Rent and others musicals.

Group tells sports fans to shout it out: ‘Go Taiwan’

By Flora Wang
STAFF REPORTER, WITH AP
Wednesday, Aug 13, 2008, Page 2

A local newspaper reported yesterday that Taiwanese fans were planning to skirt a ban on displaying the nation’s flag at the Olympics by waving the Myanmar flag instead.

The Chinese-language United Daily News said fans would wave the Myanmar flag because, like the Republic of China (ROC) flag, it features a star-studded blue square at the upper left-hand corner of a red backdrop.

From a distance, the two flags look the same.

Under a protocol signed in 1981 between the Chinese Taipei Olympic Committee and the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Taiwan competes under the name “Chinese Taipei” and the ROC’s national flag and national anthem cannot be used at competition venues.

Meanwhile, 10 members of the New Culture Team, a group affiliated with former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) chairman Frank Hsieh (謝長廷), yesterday launched a “Go Taiwan” campaign, encouraging the public to show their support for the nation’s Olympic team by spreading the phrase online and through mobile text messages.

At a press conference outside the Legislative Yuan, the group suggested that users of instant messaging software change their screen names to “Go Taiwan! Taiwan is innocent” to show that there is nothing wrong or illegal about using the word “Taiwan.”

Cellphone users can also send text messages with the slogan to friends, the group said, and bloggers can post articles and video clips with the slogan on their Web pages.

The slogan should be a greeting for telephone and face-to-face conversations, they said, encouraging the public to show their pride by getting together with friends to watch the Games and cheer the nation’s athletes.

“We should cheer for our own team and shout out our feelings. Let’s shout ‘Go Taiwan’ and cheer for the Taiwanese team without hesitation,” the New Culture Team said.

The New Culture Team also voiced support for Cheerleading Squad for Taiwan captain Yang Hui-ju (楊蕙如), who was denied entry at Beijing airport on Saturday on her way to cheer for Taiwanese athletes.

Yang told reporters upon returning to Taiwan that Beijing airport police questioned her for one hour and went through her luggage before ordering that she leave the country.

Fang Yen-hui (房彥輝), a member of the New Culture Team, condemned China for rejecting Yang.

“The way China treated Yang and [fellow squad member] Lee Kun-lin (李昆霖) revealed China’s true stance against ordinary people,” Fang said.

EDITORIAL: Beijing only has itself to blame

Wednesday, Aug 13, 2008, Page 8


What would it have taken for China to avoid the onslaught of criticism that has rained on its Olympic parade? Just days into the Games that China has spent seven years preparing as a symbol of its rising strength and wealth, concern about Beijing’s iron grip on basic freedoms continues to cast a shadow on the celebration.

What has become a public relations disaster for Beijing might have been stemmed with some key — if ultimately insincere — concessions to its critics. Instead, the Games have again illustrated China’s poor understanding of what makes the free world tick.

Even basic public relations in dealing with the West seem to elude its decision-makers. China never stood to gain from blocking “sensitive” Web sites at its foreign media center, a move that was bound to spark an outcry. The majority of the thousands of international reporters covering the Games come from countries with unfettered Web access. They very likely had no interest in spending their time in Beijing browsing Falun Gong Web sites. Censoring the Web, however, quickly turned Beijing’s fear of international news sites and repression of dissident voices into a top story just a week before the opening ceremony.

The ensuing clash between Beijing and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) — ending in the IOC backing down on uncensored Web access for reporters — only hammered this impression into the minds of a global audience.

With the Games now in full swing, the furor over media restrictions shows no sign of receding. Although Radio Free Asia received permission from the IOC to send two reporters to the Games, Beijing let its Chinese-speaking correspondent into the country, but blocked its Tibetan-speaking reporter. And despite reports of unrest in Xinjiang, journalists are being denied access, while two Japanese reporters were mistreated by police there last week.

China has been equally inept at presenting a positive face to Taiwanese spectators. Where a little respect would have gone a long way in building trust, Beijing instead rolled out the title Zhongguo Taibei in the lead-up to the Games, blocked Taiwanese cheerleaders from entering the country and insisted on referring to Taiwan’s “home team” advantage in Beijing.

From the day China bound itself to human rights pledges in exchange for hosting the 2008 Olympics, a barrage of criticism from activists of its rights record was inevitable. But offering even a few concessions would have helped China convince observers that it is making gradual progress.

The Duihua Foundation, arguably the group that has made the most progress in securing the release of prisoners of conscience in China, suggested Beijing offer a gesture of progress ahead of the Games. An “Olympic pardon” of long-term prisoners — freeing the remaining Tiananmen activists jailed since 1989 — could make a lasting, positive impression, Duihua argued.

Instead, Beijing has stepped up its “war on terrorism” and clamped down even more tightly on dissidents, particularly in the capital, carrying out a series of “clean-up” detentions and arrests to silence domestic critics in time for the Games.

Beijing must now deal with the consequences of its choice: an international community that has only grown more skeptical and is concerned that, rather than improving its record to meet Olympic pledges, China has backtracked on the freedoms that it grants its population.
　

Taiwan must play a waiting game

By Nat Bellocchi 白樂崎
Wednesday, Aug 13, 2008, Page 8

Since the change in Taiwan’s government in May, there have been statements in the media about what the government plans to do, especially on cross-strait relations. There has been a reopening of meetings between the two sides, which is important. There has been an opening of charter airline flights and visits by Chinese to Taiwan, neither of which has gained much economically.

Taiwan has continued to lay out a long list of issues it hopes to address with China, however, understanding that Beijing will be completely preoccupied with the Olympics until after Aug. 24. In the meantime, Taiwan has to deal with a sluggish economy and a poor stock market performance. It has already allowed many companies to invest up to 60 percent of their net worth in China. There are still concerns even in the media that the government will soon lift a ban on some investments by Taiwan’s semiconductor industry in China.

In addition, foreign firms with Chinese equity investment will be allowed to be listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange, lifting a long-standing rule that bars companies with 20 percent or more Chinese equity from investing in Taiwan. The government will also lift a rule that bars companies from using funds they borrow or raise in Taiwan to invest in China.

A plan to allow Taiwanese liquid-crystal makers to set up panel factories in China is also under consideration. At the same time, the Straits Exchange Foundation openly discussed closer economic cooperation in the meeting with the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait in June. There were even discussions on different economic agreements, including the Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement that exists between Hong Kong and Beijing.

The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) complains that such serious matters should not be launched so hastily on matters that could have impact on the country and the people.

Taiwanese companies worry about Chinese investors’ methods of using the capital generated in Taiwan back in China; that rules and regulations do not have real comprehensive policies that cover Chinese investments in Taiwan (considering that many if not most of the Chinese investors have connections to the Chinese government).

While making changes in Taiwan that will please China, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) often states the wish that the two sides can find a way of interacting in international society.

Ma has frequently warned that if Taiwan continues to be isolated on the international scene, there could be no significant progress in cross-strait relations, but he continues to propose “viable diplomacy” and a “diplomatic truce” in cross-strait relations.

At any rate, the Olympic Games have begun, and political issues regarding China, including cross-strait relations, will have to wait until after Aug. 24 — at least. Even then there could be problems within the Chinese government.

There have been many articles about what China will be like after the Olympics. Two recent ones in the Wall Street Journal show the differences.

In James Mann’s “Reform Fantasy,” he said: “China has reached the point where it no longer seeks to mollify or accommodate the international community’s expressions of concern about human rights.”

The question, Mann said, was not whether China will be nationalistic, but what sort of nationalism it will have. The Olympics should prompt the rest of the world to start thinking about the implications of a China that is not opening up in the way that was hoped.

In Bruce Gilley’s “China’s Democratic Acceleration,” he said: “No one expects the Games to lead to regime collapse in China, especially not immediately. But change? Yes ... By denying the Communist Party its moment of glory, the dissonance created by the Olympic year will accelerate the values transformation in China needed to erode the regime’s popular support.”

What these two sides suggest is about China and the differences in how the rest of the world sees it. But Taiwan could have a different concern — how China will see Taiwan.

It will be seen, however, after the Games are completed and talks between the two sides start again.



Nat Bellocchi is a former chairman of the American Institute in Taiwan and a special adviser to the Liberty Times Group. The views expressed in this article are his own.

　




　

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no more mutual good will

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Chinese police attack Japanese press in custody

AFP AND AP, BEIJING AND KASHGAR, CHINA
Wednesday, Aug 06, 2008, Page 1

Chinese border police apologized yesterday for their treatment of two Japanese reporters covering a deadly assault in the northwest of the country, state media said.

The apology came after the border police “clashed” with the Japanese reporters, who had arrived in Xinjiang Province after an attack there on Monday left 16 police officers dead, according to Xinhua.

A photographer for the Tokyo Shimbun newspaper was forcibly detained late on Monday in the city of Kashgar, his employer said.

A reporter for the Nippon Television Network was also detained and manhandled by Chinese police who pushed his face to the ground, the network said.

Masami Kawakita, 38, was detained “and then kicked by police,” said a Tokyo Shimbun spokesman. “He was released two hours later.”

Nippon Television Network said Shinji Katsuta was held for two hours and then questioned for about an hour at his hotel, describing the incident as “extremely deplorable.”

The network received word that local police had requested a meeting to apologize for the incident, a spokesman said.

“We heard that the Chinese side pointed out that it is forbidden to film military facilities, and it seems like there was confusion because the scene of the assault was just 50m from a military facility,” he said.

Security checks on roads and public buses were stepped up in Xinjiang yesterday with Xinhua reporting that authorities had reinforced the police presence on roads leading into Kashgar and ordered a full security alert in public places, including government office buildings, schools and hospitals. Police boarded vehicles at checkpoints to search passengers’ bags, Xinhua said.

Meanwhile, a 6.0-magnitude earthquake hit Sichuan Province yesterday, near the area devastated by a quake earlier this year, the US Geological Survey said.

An official with China Earthquake Administration confirmed that an “aftershock” hit the area.

“So far, we have not received any report of casualties,” he said.

Xinhua said the quake was felt in the Sichuan capital Chengdu. The Olympic torch relay passed through Chengdu yesterday, its last leg before reaching Beijing.

　

　

FEEDING TIME
A Muller's Barbet feeds its two chicks in a hole in a tree outside the emergency room of the National Taiwan University Hospital in downtown Taipei.


PHOTO: CNA

　

　

　

　

No more 'mutual' goodwill, please

Wednesday, Aug 06, 2008, Page 8

When Beijing's hegemonic epithet for Taiwan's Olympic team made an unwelcome reappearance on China Central Television (CCTV) over the weekend, the response by the Taiwanese government was equally disappointing.

Reporting on taekwondo gold medalist Chu Mu-yen (朱木炎), CCTV again swapped the nation’s official Olympic name for Zhongguo Taibei. An apology from Beijing seems unlikely, however, judging from the Presidential Office’s timid statement on Sunday.

The re-emergence of this contrived moniker was bad news for President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), who only a week earlier said that China had agreed to end its name game and so declared a diplomatic victory for his administration. For Ma, Beijing’s about-face was a scarce and sorely needed gesture of “goodwill” to combat critics at home who have said cross-strait “compromise” is a one-way street.

That may be why the office was reluctant to raise its voice over CCTV’s recent decision to keep using the non-official title, lest it erase the earlier triumph. Instead, the Presidential Office said it would monitor the situation, adding that CCTV had reportedly admitted to a “technical error.”

The government is not alone in its reluctance to react. Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Wu Poh-hsiung (吳伯雄), who last month bristled at the name change, is now strangely quiet. Wu had said he would cancel his trip to attend the Olympics if China continued to play “word games.”

But choosing not to issue an immediate protest this time was a risky tactic for Ma. The administration’s stern objection to altering Taiwan’s Olympic name was as important for the president’s image at home as it was for building trust with Beijing. Silence on the issue now could be interpreted as spinelessness, further compromising the nation’s bargaining position with China and eroding Ma’s already sagging approval ratings.

The timing was also awkward for Ma, who, on the same day as the Presidential Office’s ineffectual response to CCTV, touted his administration’s diplomatic prowess to a group of former foreign ministers. At a dinner honoring the officials, Ma sung the praises of agreeing to disagree, saying that his modus vivendi approach to foreign policy had already paid off.

But there is cause to object to this recurring theme. When Beijing’s Taiwan Affairs Office first dreamed up Zhongguo Taibei, Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平), after meeting with the president and premier, called on China to remember its consensus with Taiwan to set aside disputes. Unfortunately, there is scant evidence that Beijing sees itself as having reached any such deal. Instead, China seems more interested in testing the waters to see just how eager the new government is to maintain a show of “mutual goodwill.”

On Sunday, Ma said his “practical” approach would “protect the interests of the Republic of China” and “restore mutual trust” with other governments. The strategy had already improved relations with China as well as with allied nations, he said.

The sum of Ma’s many conciliatory remarks, however, has not put a stop to Beijing’s encroachment on Taiwan’s identity and international space. In that context, soft reactions to provocations like CCTV’s “error” may be setting the nation up for a hard fall when it becomes clear that Beijing was never interested in agreeing to disagree.

　

　

Stop criticizing China — they've come so far
　

China celebrated when it won the Olympics, sensing a chance to show its true self, but all it receives are Western attacks

By Lijia Zhang
THE OBSERVER, BEIJING
Wednesday, Aug 06, 2008, Page 9
　

'With only a few days to go before the opening ceremony, Beijing, having undergone a facelift, has never been so beautiful, clean and quiet.'


　

When I was at school, sports lessons included an exercise where we threw hand grenades (made from wood topped with metal to resemble the real thing) against a wall over which a red slogan had been stretched offering the reason for such a militaristic pastime: “Exercise our bodies and protect our motherland.”

We feared that China might be invaded one day by the American “imperialists” or Soviet “revisionists.” Indeed, the whole West held evil intent towards us. Living in a closed country, we had little idea about the outside world.

I went to school in Nanjing in the early 1970s, when the revolutionary fever of the Cultural Revolution was calming down. A few years earlier, my father had been banished to the countryside for criticizing the government. My grandfather, a small-time grain dealer, had committed suicide, as he worried his not-so-politically-correct background would land him in trouble.

These were the darkest of times for my family, as well as for our nation. China has come a long way since then, yet the image of those dark days remains deeply imprinted on Western minds. I wonder whether the West is a little too keen to report the negative stories. Or perhaps the West feels more comfortable hearing such stories?

That’s my impression, as a Chinese who has lived abroad, but has returned to Beijing. Even during those days throwing grenades, I dreamt of becoming a journalist and writer. That dream was shattered when I was 16 and my mother dragged me to work at a state-owned missile factory.

My journalistic career started with the Olympics. In 1993, on the night when the result of the first bid was announced, I was at Tiananmen Square. I recall the fountain going off as we thought China had won the bid. It was heartbreaking to interview the bitterly disappointed crowds. But, in truth, China wasn’t really ready. The memory of the bloody crackdown in 1989 was still fresh.

I was also in Beijing eight years later when China did win the bid. In our neighborhood, grannies spent the whole afternoon practicing their dance steps and their husbands beat drums and gongs. This time, we were not disappointed. The wild celebration, the deafening noise of firecrackers, laughter and ecstatic cries went on the whole night. I was interviewed by the BBC.

I said: “In the ecstatic cries, I heard Chinese people’s longing for the recognition and respect from the world.”

I was just as happy as everyone else. Ever since the economic reforms, China has lifted millions of people out of poverty — an incredible feat. As a child, I used to roast cicadas to satisfy my craving for meat; now my 19-year-old nephew, a student in Nanjing, drives his own car. People are enjoying a great deal more personal freedom. As a girl in the rocket factory, I had to endure so many rules. I worked there for 10 years. I was never promoted, partly because of my naturally curly hair — my boss thought I wore a perm. Back then, only those with a bourgeois outlook would curl their hair. These days, young women curl their hair, shave off their hair or change the colors of their hair whenever they want. It’s not a small thing.

Over the past few years, I have seen how the capital has been transformed. State-of-the-art buildings — not just Olympic buildings such as the Bird’s Nest and the Water Cube — have popped up like mushrooms after a spring rain. With only a few days to go before the opening ceremony, Beijing, having undergone a facelift, has never been so beautiful, clean and quiet.

Huge efforts and sacrifices have been made. To ensure the best possible air quality, polluting factories around Beijing have been shut down, construction work has been halted and cars have been taken off the roads (the results, admittedly, have been mixed). Other measures are excessive: beggars, the homeless and migrants without documents have been driven out. Petitioners who bring their grievances to the Supreme People’s Court have been stopped from entering the capital. Potential troublemakers are being monitored or are under house arrest. Such has been the stance the authorities adopt while dealing with uncertainly.

Yet Beijing’s Olympics will be a success because the majority of the population wants them to be, not just because the government wants to use Olympic success to gain legitimacy. Xia Fengzhi, a 67-year-old retired worker and a volunteer, told me how happy and excited he is about the Games.

“I want foreigners to see what China has achieved. We were called the ‘sick man of Asia.’ Now we are strong and rich enough to hold such a major international event,” he said.

No doubt there will be many more negative stories abroad, criticizing China’s human rights abuses, the lack of media freedom and the over-tight security. Of course, some Chinese have no access to the reports, but those who do tend to dismiss them as grumbles from anti-China forces. In a survey conducted by the Pew Research Center, China’s people ranked first among 24 nations in their optimism about their country’s future, buoyed by the fast economic growth and the promise of the Olympics.

There is, I believe, another factor — the timing. The survey was conducted this spring, just after the unrest in Tibet and during the troubled Olympic torch relay, when China experienced a surge of nationalism in response to what many Chinese regarded as an “anti-China feeling” in the West and “biased” Tibet reports.

I have no problem with the negative stories, but I think it’s wrong for the West to stand in moral judgment, especially when some of the accusations are not true. For example, what happened in Lhasa, in my view, was far more complicated than “the Chinese government’s ruthless crackdown on Tibetan protest.” There was a peaceful protest, but there was also a violent racial riot, one I doubt that would be tolerated in any Western country.

As a journalist, most of my stories criticize the government, which seems to have little idea as to how to present itself. Blessed with such domestic support and armed with skills in mass organization, the authorities could have taken a more relaxed approach to this festival of sport. Why didn’t it make the Olympic Games a fun event — China’s big coming-out party? It didn’t need to cause so much interruption to people’s lives. It would have been far better to let the world to see China as it actually is.

I can’t help feeling there’s been a missed opportunity on more important matters, too. Our leaders could have made use of this to address the real issues: cracking down on corruption, improving the rule of law, relaxing media control and opening the country further.

But don’t doubt our support for the Beijing Games. The Olympics are meant to be an occasion to bring different people with different views together. It’ll provide a chance for China and the rest of the world to understand each other. Although I can understand how China’s undemocratic political system and lack of transparency make the West uneasy, especially when matched with the country’s rise, much of the fear is generated by ignorance.

Today’s schoolchildren enjoy far more sophisticated sports than throwing hand grenades. They know a lot more about the outside world. I wonder if Western children know as much about China? And if they did, would there be still be the same fear? Maybe the Olympics will bring us closer.

Lijia Zhang is the author of “Socialism Is Great!”: A Worker’s Memoir of the New China.

　

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