Taiwan’s man in Germany praises first lady’s visit

 

CAN, BERLIN

 

First lady Wu Shu-chen’s visit to Germany and the exhibition of ancient Chinese art treasures from the National Palace Museum in Taipei she opened in Berlin have promoted bilateral ties, Taiwan Representative to Germany Hu Wei-chan said yesterday.

 

In an interview with CAN, Hu said that Wu’s visit and the ongoing exhibition have attracted attention “from all walks of life in Germany” in light of the fact that the German media has prominently reported the events and many parliamentarians from across the political spectrum went to Berlin Thursday to greet Wu when she visited the German parliament, which is in recess.

 

Wu was warmly greeted by Deputy Parliament Speaker Hermann Otto Solms, Klaus Rose, head of a pro-Taiwan group in the German parliament and chairman of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation of the Free Democratic Party, and more than 10 other lawmakers.

 

Referring to the exhibition, the diplomat said that it had greatly increased Taiwan’s visibility in Germany and will contribute to improving the German people’s understanding of Taiwan.

 

The exhibition is an increasing cultural exchange between Taiwan and Germany, Hu said, adding that an exhibition of art treasures from the National Gallery of Berlin will be held next May in Taipei.

 

Wu’s visit and the exhibition, titled “Treasures of the Sons of Heaven: The Imperial Collection from the National Palace Museum, Taipei,” have further promoted mutual understanding and friendship between the two countries, Hu said.

 

Wu arrived in Berlin Wednesday for a four-day visit. She presided Thursday over the opening of the exhibition at the Alte Nationalgalerie in Berlin that will run through Oct. 12.

 

On display at the exhibition are more than 400 masterpieces of ancient Chinese art, which will also be put on display at the Kunst-und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland (Art and Exhibition Hall of the Federal Republic of Germany) in Bonn from Nov. 21 until Feb. 15 next year.

 

Wu was scheduled to leave Berlin yesterday for the Holy See on the second leg of her eightday European tour, which is aimed at promoting cultural exchanges and friendship between the Taiwan and Europe.

 

 

IN THE AFTERNOON

 

Juan Jose Padilla makes a pass during a bullfight in Pamplona, northern Spain, last Sunday. Pamplona’s week-long San Fermin festival involves running with fighting bulls thought the streets in the early morning, bullfights in the afternoon and around-the-clock partying.

 

 

 

Canada issues statement on China's new visa rules

 

By Monique Chu

STAFF REPORTER

 

The Canadian government has issued a statement saying China's new visa rules requesting Canadians born in Taiwan, Hong Kong or Macau to put "China" as their place of birth won't affect Canada's passport policy, officials confirmed yesterday.

 

Jeffrey Kau, deputy director-general of Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Ottawa, in a phone interview with the Taipei Times yesterday confirmed the statement on Thursday by Canada's Passport Office.

 

"The Government of Canada has taken note of China's new visa rules. These new rules in no way require a change in Canada's passport policy," said the statement available at the agency's Web site.

 

"In order to facilitate travel for Canadians born in Hong Kong, Macau or Taiwan, Canadian passports are issued with the place of birth with no country code," the statement said.

 

"Although the inclusion in the passport of the applicant's place of birth is optional, it must be provided on the application form," the statement added.

 

The statement came as the first written clarification of Ottawa's stance in light of Beijing's new visa rules.

 

The Chinese Foreign Ministry has reportedly required foreign passport holders originally from Taiwan or Hong Kong to list "China" as their place of birth.

 

Beijing said it considered people who cite their birthplace as "Taipei, Taiwan," or "Hong Kong" are implying that Taiwan and Hong Kong are sovereign states, which would violate its "one China" principle.

 

The official statement by Ottawa cautioned Canadian passport holders who requested that their place of birth be omitted on their passport to double check with foreign countries they intend to visit whether the omission would incur any inconvenience.

"Where applicants request omission of their place of birth in their passport, they are advised to check with authorities of the country to be visited to ensure that no difficulties will be encountered in entering that country without the place of birth inscribed in the passport," the press release said.

 

Although several Chinese-language reports from Ottawa said yesterday that Canada has listed the dos and don'ts regarding filling in the place of birth for Canadians born in the three places, Kau said he hasn't heard any official clarification so far.

 

Ministry of Foreign Affairs Spokesman Richard Shih yesterday confirmed that Taipei's representative office in Ottawa has reported back to the ministry the statement by Ottawa.

 

The ministry on Wednesday blasted China for requiring foreign passport holders born in Taiwan or Hong Kong to put "China" as their birthplace when applying for Chinese visas.

 

The ministry dubbed China's visa rules as "muddleheaded," while calling for Beijing to stop such action, which it said would affect overseas Taiwanese traveling on foreign passports.

 

 

Refusing China's visa demands

 

In a surprising but encouraging turn of events, the Canadian Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced on Thursday that it will not accept the demand of Beijing to exclude the designation of "Taiwan" as the birthplace on the passports of any of its passport holders and to use the designation "China." The announcement came as a surprise because Beijing said that Canada will follow China in this regard, a fact which was confirmed by a spokesperson of the Canadian Passport Office only last week.

 

What prompted this sudden and abrupt change of attitude by Canada? In all likelihood, this had much to do with lobbying, protest and a letter-writing campaign to legislators by Canada's Taiwanese, Hong Kong and Macau immigrant communities. (China had imposed a similar restriction on the designation of "Hong Kong" and "Macau" as birthplaces on passport).

 

In the US, the Taiwanese community has gone through the same ordeal. As a result of intensive lobbying and protests by communities, the annual State Department Authorization Bill passed in 1994 includes a provision that allows for the designation of "Taiwan" as birthplace on passports. Since members of the US Senate and House of Representatives are generally sympathetic to the predicament of Taiwan, the likelihood of any amendment to this provision as a result of Chinese pressure is very slim.

 

Indeed, why should any self-respecting country roll over to such unreasonable demands? Matters concerning the issuance of passports and visas are entirely within the sovereign powers of each country. No other country has the right to meddle in them. Any country that allows such meddling by another country not only is acting disgracefully, but have in fact betrayed the trust of its people.

 

Moreover, if China refuses to issue visas to holders of passports that fail to comply with its requirement on birthplace designation, it would constitute a discrimination on the order of refusing someone to enter its borders on the basis of sex, religion, age and so on. Of course, China probably couldn't care less, since it has never even bothered to pretend to have any regard for human rights, as demonstrated by the recent controversy over the national security bill in Hong Kong.

 

While China has tried to use similar tactics before, it had acted mostly on an ad hoc basis with other countries. But things were different this time. On Wednesday, China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs openly conceded that it has asked countries of the world to comply with its request, as if China was declaring an open war on the appearance of the word "Taiwan" in any way or capacity that might suggest it is not a Chinese province.

 

In all likelihood, the move was made in retaliation to the fact that Taiwan will begin to issue passports with the word "Taiwan" appearing on the cover starting in September.

 

One thing Beijing did not expect though is that, although it may have gotten away with this demand in the past when it was acting on a case-by-case basis bilaterally, once the demand is made in a collective and high-profile manner, the targets of its demand have to worry about things that probably and rightfully never crossed the authoritarian Beijing's mind as potential problems, such as popular will.

 

Therefore, it is important for the Taiwan government to realize that while it may be no match for the power of China, there is one thing that not even China can defeat and that is its citizenry and Chinese people across the world.

 

In the long run, this will certainly work to the advantage of Taiwan. In order to win over the popular will abroad, even more efforts must be made to increase Taiwan's visibility and promote Taiwan's cause.

 

 

In the example of HK lies a lesson

 

By the Liberty Times editorial

 

`The status of Taiwan and that of Hong Kong should not be compared. People should avoid becoming entranced by `Greater China' nationalism.'

 

For a long time, the people of Hong Kong had been regarded as interested only in the economy, since they showed relatively little interest in political activities. Apart the election held right before the handover of Hong Kong in 1997, there was virtually no attempt by the people to have a say in their political future. But their performance since July 1 has been most refreshing. Their passion for political participation has apparently come alive overnight. Why? The reason lies in the legislative implementation of Article 23 of the Basic Law, which would severely curtail people's freedoms, democracy and human rights and cause a great deal of uncertainty about the future.

 

The handover of Hong Kong to China was settled through direct negotiations between China and the UK. The people of Hong Kong had absolutely no say in this process. It was not until the term of the last British governor, Chris Patten, that structural reforms were made to allow for popular elections. However, China accused Britain of breaching the Sino-UK pact by enacting the reforms and promised to reverse them after the 1997 handover. But in the process of rolling back the democratic reforms, the foundations of Hong Kong's current problems were laid.

Everyone knows that in the six short years since the handover, Hong Kong's allure as the "Pearl of Orient" has dimmed. In the minds of China's leaders, it had long been decided that Shanghai was to replace Hong Kong as the country's economic powerhouse. Now the majority of Chinese capital is channeled into developing Shanghai.

 

The situation in Hong Kong has completely changed. Real estate prices have fallen by 60 to 70 percent since the handover. The manufacturing sector quickly moved north, causing the unemployment rate to soar to 8 percent. Against the backdrop of serious economic decline, the Special Administrative Region (SAR) government nevertheless had to follow Beijing's demands for the legislative implementation of Article 23 of the Basic Law, which seeks to strip the people of their freedoms, democracy and human rights. It isn't hard to see why this move generated resentment among the people.

 

The people of Hong Kong know very well that enactment of the so-called anti-subversion bill, regardless of how much the SAR government water it down, will only aggravate Hong Kong's problems, and they would have no chance to undo the damage in the future.

 

As a result, as many as 500,000 people turned out to demonstrate on July 1. Even the Beijing leadership was taken aback. On July 9, another 50,000 people besieged the Legislative Council, demanding popular election of the SAR government. On July 13, 20,000 people took to the streets to demand a timetable for democratic reforms, so that the third chief executive of the SAR government and the Legislative Council would be elected by popular elections in 2007 and 2008. This series of protests clearly did not occur arbitrarily or randomly.

 

These demands are very important in the protection of human rights. According to the current election system, the chief executive is elected by a committee of 800 members, all hand-picked by Beijing. At most, half of the members of the legislature are elected by the public. Furthermore, any amendments to the way the chief executive and the legislature are elected can only take place after 2007, and then only with the approval of at least two-thirds of the legislature, the chief executive and the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress. Bluntly put, how much democracy Hong Kong can enjoy in the future is entirely up to Beijing. To avoid the development of a democracy movement in China, Beijing would of course prefer democracy in Hong Kong to materialize later rather than sooner.

 

What will become of the Hong Kong public's demand for greater democracy? Only time will tell. However, the experience of Hong Kong has taught Taiwan a very important lesson: the true nature of the so-called "one country, two systems" model.

 

The people of Hong Kong have now finally realized that, as a result of their failure to stand up for their rights before the 1997 handover, they must now pay an even greater price for these rights. Those who passionately welcomed the handover because of the Beijing-orchestrated stock and real-estate market boom that came with it, were deluding themselves about the future of Hong Kong.

 

After the controversies surrounding Article 23, the people of Taiwan have become even less interested in "one country, two systems." But it is not just this flawed model that people should be wary of. China also creates a mirage of prosperity to lure investment across the Taiwan Strait. As well as pressing for the relaxation of rules on investing in China, some people even claim that these investments can revive Taiwan's economy. This will only allow China to repeat the trick it played in the handover of Hong Kong.

 

Taiwan is a democratic country. People here of course feel great respect for the democratic movements in Hong Kong. However, the status of Taiwan and that of Hong Kong should not be compared. People should avoid becoming entranced by "Greater China" nationalism, which would only further complicate the cross-strait relationship. Look at Hong Kong and then think about Taiwan. The more than 23 million people here must unite in their fight to defend the sovereignty of Taiwan, and to always follow the "Taiwan First" principle, not just in terms of national identification but also in attempts to revive economy. While the demands of the Hong Kong people for democracy deserve recognition, their rights would not be under threat now had they shown an interest in them before 1997.

 

In the past half century, people here have enjoyed prosperous and stable lives. Some believe that this will continue, and have therefore lost their drive to work hard, causing Taiwan's economy to lose much of its momentum. Worse yet, some people believe that since things are not looking as good as before, and with the Chinese economy growing rapidly, Taiwanese capital can make the greatest gains by being invested in China. Such thinking could be lethal to Taiwan. If this mentality continues to permeate society, even if Taiwan rejects the "one country, two systems," it will be unable to avoid falling into another Chinese trap.

 

 

Tung goes to Beijing to drum up support

 

REUTERS , BEIJING

 

Besieged Hong Kong leader Tung Chee-hwa arrived in Beijing yesterday to seek support from his political masters after massive anti-government protests and widespread calls for more democracy.

 

China's leaders were expected to offer public backing for Tung, whose government was thrown into crisis for three weeks after the biggest protests since 1989 forced the shelving of a reviled security bill and led to resignations of two top lieutenants.

 

But they may be seeking an explanation for how he underestimated the size of the July 1 protests, which saw half a million people hit the streets in the biggest demonstrations since the Beijing Tiananmen massacre in 1989.

 

Tung was due to meet President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao yesterday afternoon, and they are likely to explore ways to revive the economy of one of the world's top financial centers, which faces rising unemployment and a stagnant property sector.

 

He told reporters on the flight to Beijing the talks would probably not deal with successors to fill the security chief and financial secretary posts, vacated last week by deeply unpopular incumbents Regina Ip and Antony Leung, a Tung spokesman said.

 

Analysts say Chinese leaders would likely offer fresh public backing for Tung's government in a bid to defuse the crisis.

 

"What's most important now is that they galvanize the situation around Tung" to restore stability, said a Western diplomat.

 

"They don't scold directly, but I think there will be certainly talk about what he needs to emphasize," the diplomat said.

 

That view was reinforced by the pro-China Hong Kong newspaper Wen Wei Po, which quoted unidentified sources in Beijing saying the central government would continue to support Tung's government because stability was of the utmost importance.

 

The crisis had led to the biggest test yet of the "one country, two systems" formula under which the former British territory returned to Chinese sovereignty in 1997.

 

Diplomats said the protests caught Beijing off guard and left it fumbling for solutions, its options limited as it cannot be seen to be meddling in Hong Kong.

 

The mounting public anger has become the catalyst for the biggest pro-democracy push in Hong Kong in years, a development clearly worrying China's communist leadership, which fears the sentiment might spill over to the mainland.

 

"They're thrashing about," said a second Western diplomat.

 

China announced late on Friday that its top man in the territory, Ji Peiding, would be replaced by Yang Wenchang in a reshuffle that Chinese analysts said was routine but some noted the timing was certainly curious.

 

Some analysts said Tung no longer enjoys the high level of trust that Beijing offered the former shipping tycoon when they put him in charge of Hong Kong six years ago.

 

 

Wang Dan says HK at crossroads

 

A student leader during the 1989 Tiananmen Square demonstration, exiled Chinese dissident Wang Dan is in Taipei at the invitation of the city government for a six-week stay as a writer-in-residence. Wang recently sat down with `Taipei Times' staff reporter Sandy Huang to share his views on recent protests in Hong Kong

 

"How this mass public outcry will evolve we can't yet tell. But one thing for sure is that the political side of Hong Kong has become more apparent."－Wang Dan, a student leader during the 1989 Tiananmen Square demonstration and now a writer-in-residence at the invitation of the Taipei City Government

 

Taipei Times: How do you assess the impact of Hong Kong's massive protest on July 1 against the government's proposed anti-subversion bill on China and Taiwan?

 

Wang Dan: I think this time the large number of people who took to the streets in Hong Kong marks a turning point in Hong Kong's development. Until then, the atmosphere in Hong Kong was never political and its appeal for democracy has never been demonstrated on such a large scale as we witnessed this time around.

 

Another thing worth noting is that, unlike past outcries by Hong Kong people that involved mostly the social elite or business leaders, this time around the demonstration was participated in by ordinary people, who stood up unanimously for democracy and their fundamental rights. It is something that has never happened before.

 

How this mass public outcry will evolve we can't yet tell. But one thing for sure is that the political side of Hong Kong has become more apparent.

 

China's changes have their own scope while those of Hong Kong have their own. After all, Hong Kong, being a special administrative region, is itself just too special. Given "one country, two systems," there is always an excuse for events in Hong Kong to not start a chain effect or waves elsewhere in China.

 

While we can't tell right away what kind of immediate impact there will be on China, there will be something eventually.

 

As for Taiwan, the July 1 demonstration obviously severely dim-med the appeal of Beijing's promise of "one country, two systems" to people in Taiwan.

 

TT: What's your outlook on democratization in China? What kind of events could act as a catalyst and deliver an impetus for democratic development in China?

 

Wang: Many changes are taking place in its internal structural and thus outsiders are unaware of them.

 

The growing consciousness of the middle class will clash with the government over economic issues, and then escalate later to social issues. Plus, the increasing flood of Chinese intellectuals returning to China from years abroad will eventually prompt changes, new ideas and influences to take shape in Chinese society.

 

On the surface, all seems tranquil and stable with everything moving day in and day out just fine. But the thing is that changes and influence are taking place unobtrusively and imperceptibly.

 

Discontent among the people is boiling and fomenting and one day an unexpected event will bring their suppressed resentment and grievances to the surface like we've just seen in Hong Kong.

 

The mass demonstration that took place in Hong Kong on July 1 was not a sudden out-of-the-blue outburst but a result of underlying discontentment that Hong Kong people have harbored for so long. The introduction of the proposed anti-subversion legislation was the last straw that prompted them to jump out and say, "We have had enough."

 

Most people in Taiwan are pessimistic about reform in China with some thinking that democracy in China is out of reach for at least another 40 years.

 

I disagree. I think five to 10 years from now we will see democratic change surface in China. Take the mass protest as an example. Hong Kong people are not known for being politically emotional, but look at what happened on July 1. Such events could and will happen in China as well. It will just take a sudden event to ignite people's underlying resentment and anger to bring them to the surface.

 

Wang Dan talks to the `Taipei Times' at a Starbucks in Taipei City on Monday. Wang says the massive protest in Hong Kong on July 1 marked a turning point in the territory's development.