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Wu wraps up European trip with tea for journalists

ROMAN HOLIDAY: The first lady said her visits to Berlin and Rome had been successful and that Taipei should expand its contacts with foreign parliaments

By Lin Chieh-yu

STAFF REPORTER IN ROME

"As long as it is a guest invited by the parliament, the administration has no reason not to show respect and cooperate to greet a guest. So Taiwan should reinforce its diplomatic work by working on the parliaments in various countries."－Wu Shu-chen, first lady

First lady Wu Shu-chen said on Monday that the best strategy for developing Taiwan's diplomatic sphere is to expand relationships with the parliaments in various countries because the lawmakers usually represent public opinion and their freedom of speech enables them to help this nation's influence their governments' policies.

Wu made the comment in Rome as she wrapped up her week-long trip to Germany and Italy with a tea party for Taiwanese journalists covering her travels.

She said she had completed all her planned missions during the trip. She said that she had felt the passion of the German people, the courtesy of the Italian government and the high regard the Pope has for Taiwan.

Wu also said that she did not think that the Holy See would establish diplomatic ties with China anytime soon because Beijing still does not allow freedom of religion.

Wu said that European governments and the US maintain a "one China" policy but that it was a different story with the parliament or legislatures in those countries. She has given a speech to the US Congress on a previous trip and she visited the German parliament on this trip.

"The administration's policies would deem the country's welfare as its first priority, but the parliament would be more lax with that principle. As US congress members need the votes of Chinese-Americans, they are willing to interact with Taiwan," Wu said.

When asked about what concrete results were achieved during her delegation's trip, Wu said that she was proud to be able to promote Taiwan through the National Palace Museum exhibition in Berlin, which she described as a magnificent cultural exchange.

First lady Wu Shu-chen receives a humanitarian service award from Alfredo Luciani, president of the Rome-based Carita Politica association, on Monday night.

She said her trip could become the basis for future developments between Taiwan, Germany and Europe.

Wu said that media in Berlin, Rome and other places in Europe had given her visit good coverage, and the exhibition and the visit to the Pope were both completed satisfactorily, so she did not disappoint the president or the people of Taiwan.

But she also expressed regret for not being able to interact with important German officials.

"When it comes to the relationship between Taiwan and the Vatican City, we can see the Pope's high regard for Taiwan because he made an exception to receive us on a Sunday," she said. "Of course, Italy also showed a great deal of friendliness toward Taiwan, but diplomacy takes time and is not something to be hurried. As long as we continue to make efforts we will see progress."

Wu said that when she shook hands and chatted with Pope John Paul at his summer residence at Castel Gandolfo, she saw that he was not in good condition.

She noted that despite his ill health he still had to dress in heavy vestments despite the hot weather.

"Sitting in a wheelchair is not an easy job, but compared with the Pope, I am much freer," Wu said.

Several reporters pressed Wu to comment on the nation's judicial system, since in a letter she delivered to the Pope she had said that she was willing to forgive those involved in the 1985 incident that left her paralyzed. The reporters asked Wu if she wanted a new investigation into the case.

Wu said what was important was the reformation of the judicial system and improving the quality of its judges.

"Let bygones be bygones. I do not want to pursue the case any further," she said.

"These old unsolved cases happened long ago and there is a lack of evidence. Even if there had been some evidence, most of it has been destroyed," Wu said. "More importantly, we cannot take revenge on the past just because a new boss is in charge."

She attended a mass officiated by the pontiff on Sunday and she delivered a letter from President Chen Shui-bian to the Pope to congratulate him on the silver anniversary of his assumption of the papacy.

Wu spent yesterday sightseeing at the Vatican, including visits to St. Peter's Basilica and the Sistene Chapel. Wu boarded a China Airlines plane yesterday for the flight home. She is scheduled to arrive at CKS Airport at 10:50am today.

The Rome-based international association Carita Politica presented a humanitarian service award to first lady Wu Shu-chen Monday night in recognition of her contributions to promoting welfare benefits for the disadvantaged.

In her acceptance speech, Wu said she felt honored to become the first recipient of the Carita Politica's humanitarian service award.

"I treasure this honor," an emotional Wu said, adding that she appreciated Carita Politica president Alfredo Luciani's presenting the trophy to her in person.

Noting that war and confrontation pose threats to world peace, democracy, freedom and justice, Wu said the global village needs more love and care.

Despite Taiwan's small size and limited natural resources, Wu said, it has never hesitated to extend a helping hand to needy countries.

It has offered generous aid to war-torn Afghanistan and Iraq as well as many other impoverished countries over the past decades, she said.

REFORM DEBATE: The president said changes to the educational system are too important to be allowed to get bogged down in partisan feuding or blame games

President Chen Shui-bian yesterday said the debate over educational reform should not become a tool for partisan feuding and aggravate the conflicts and confrontations in society.

"Educational reform is the reexamination of policies, not a tool for partisan feuding. I can't agree with some political parties, who are manipulating the issue to deepen the conflicts in our society," Chen said yesterday at the DPP's regular Central Standing Committee meeting.

Speaking in his capacity as party chairman, Chen's comments came just days after hundreds of academics delivered a petition to the government on Saturday protesting the chaos in the educational system and the changes made to it in the past decade.

In the past 10 years the government has tried to make the educational system less rigid and diversify the educational opportunities available to students.

The academics, however, slammed both the KMT and DPP administrations, saying that both should be held accountable for the current chaos, which not only failed to equalize educational opportunities but increased the pressure on students.

"Success or failure, educational reforms concern the future of every child as well as our country. We can't allow any political selfishness or trickery to affect this issue," Chen said.

He said that looking to the future is a more responsible way to behave than casting the blame for the past.

"Honestly inspecting the problems, listening carefully to what the parents and students say and finding practical solutions should be the basic attitudes the government and society should have in order to improve our education," Chen said.

Chen also praised his wife Wu Shu-chen's European trip, saying her visits to Berlin and Rome had enabled European countries to better understand Taiwan.

Chen refuted PFP Chairman James Soong's comment that Wu used the historical treasures of the National Palace Museum to barter for an entry pass to visit Germany.

"We can't agree with Soong's remarks because the treasures of the museum are the precious assets of every citizen and the common cultural wealth of all humans. While Taiwan owns these beautiful assets, we shouldn't be prevented from sharing them with the world," Chen said.

Saying that Wu's trip was a hard-won opportunity for Taiwan to conduct diplomatic visits, given China's constant efforts to isolate Taiwan, Chen called on Soong and opposition parties to support such a rare achievement instead of siding with China's stance and undermining the nation's diplomatic confidence.

Chen said cultural exchanges are a useful tool to promote the nation's international visibility and an effective channel for conducting diplomacy.

In other developments, Barry Lam, chief executive officer of Quanta Computer, delivered a speech to the Central Standing Committee about the influence of the technology industry on overall economic development.

Lam suggested five elements for improving technological development in Taiwan -- the government's stable financial policy, abundant human resources, as well as the sufficient supply of water, electricity and land for industries.

Chen praised Lam as a model entrepreneur for pioneering a prosperous technology industry. He said the government is seeking to improve the nation's investment environment through legislation, protection of intellectual property rights, human resource cultivation and technique innovation.

The Ministry of Education yesterday announced that it's studying the possibility of reducing tuition fees for college students who come from low-income families, the Chinese-language media reported.

According to the ministry's Department of Higher Education, the government plans to reduce the tuition fees for such students by 50 percent.

Students whose family income is less than NT$1 million a year would be eligible for the program and more than 350,000 students would benefit.

According to the department, 292,390 students from financially-disadvantaged households have applied for student loans -- or 98.4 percent of the total number of applicants for such loans.

"I'm concerned that we might see some married couples fake a divorce in order to reduce their annual household income below NT$1 million so they could become eligible for the preferential program," said an official at the National Tax Administration, who asked not to be named.

"Legally registered married couples will not be able to file their taxes separately just to become eligible for the preferential tuition program -- unless they're not actually officially registered or go through a fake divorce," the official said.

Although such a scenario is unlikely, the official said the Ministry of Finance would not be able uncover such cases if they occur.

Finance ministry statistics show that there are about 2 million homes nationwide whose annual income is less than NT$1 million.

According to the tax code, married couples should calculate their tax returns separately but file their income tax together.

It is impossible for married couples to file their taxes separately because the tax office checks taxpayers' information with the household registration records of the Ministry of the Interior.

Meanwhile, the education ministry is also studying the possibility of subsidizing the children of unemployed workers who are currently in senior-high school or college, to the tune of NT$2,000 to NT$3,000.

Minister of Education Huang Jong-tsun yesterday afternoon said that the ministry is spending NT$10 billion to NT$20 billion a year to subsidize students from poor families.

He said that the ministry will spend more on the children of unemployed workers, starting this fall, in order to take good care of those in need.

Since the 500,000-strong demonstration on July 1, three concessions have been squeezed like toothpaste out of Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa, the obtuse and incompetent leader of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.

On July 5, he announced amendments to three controversial items in the national security bill. On July 7, he announced that the legislation would be delayed. On July 16, he announced that he had accepted the resignations of Security Secretary Regina Ip and Financial Secretary Anthony Leung, who had both been targets of strong public resentment. On July 17, he called a press conference, where he admitted to his failings during his six years in office, and promised to change his leadership style.

He would rather die than apologize, however. Four times he came close to giving an apology, but he held back -- an indication that he is not a leader who is required to be accountable to the public. Instead, he is a great patriarch on a high horse. The residents of Hong Kong therefore have no confidence in his ability to improve his ways or lead the territory.

This lack of confidence is understandable. Tung made another concession at that press conference. Previously he had been unwilling to commission an independent team to investigate the alleged cover-up of the SARS epidemic by Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food Yeoh Eng-kiong. Instead he let Yeoh Eng-kiong investigate Yeoh Eng-kiong. Then Tung said he was to personally head the investigation, and this was ridiculed as "Tung Chee-hwa investigating Tung Chee-hwa."

Three years ago, Tung's office was unhappy with a public opinion survey done by Hong Kong University that put him in a negative light. In what is now known as the "Robert Chung Incident," his office pressured the institutions concerned. An investigation into the matter by former chief justice Yang Ti-liang, who is no friend of Tung's, forced the university's chancellor to resign and left the chief executive in disgrace. Tung's "family courtiers" were also forced to resign from public office and return to his family business.

This time, with the resignations of two senior officials, Tung evaded the issue of Ip's terrible performance in her push for the national security bill. Instead, he heaped praise on her and expressed "regrets" about her departure. Tung also praised the "important contributions" by Leung, who had accomplished nothing except sneakily buying a car just before announcing a tax hike. All this tells us how much self-reflection Tung has done.

After making those concessions, Tung went to Beijing on Saturday to report to his bosses. Before his trip, some media claimed that Beijing would strongly back him up in order to stop the public anger against him and the calls for his resignation. The reports even said a group of the Political Bureau's standing committee members would line up to show strong support for Tung. But there was no such scene when Tung went to report to President Hu Jintao, even though Hu did make a political statement fully recognizing Tung's achievements over the past six years as well as the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) "one country, two systems" policy.

Apparently, Hu wanted to stop the Hong Kong public's "presumptuous" demands as well as the criticism and speculation by the outside world. This was determined as much by the CCP's nature -- it would rather die than admit to mistakes -- as by the intent to patch up the differences between Hu and former president Jiang Zemin over Hong Kong.

The fact that Vice President Zeng Qinghong was also present at the meeting explains the treacherousness of Beijing politics. It is extremely rare for both the president and the vice president to meet with an official at the same time. Jiang may have asked his henchman Zeng to attend the meeting to assure Tung. It would have been inappropriate for Jiang to meet with Tung in his capacity as chairman of the Central Military Commission.

Tung also discussed Hong Kong's political, economic and social problems with Premier Wen Jiabao, but he only talked about economics publicly. According to Tung, he and the Hong Kong government has the central government's support in "governing in accordance with the law," and that Wen had agreed to solidify the content of the Hong Kong-China Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement as soon as possible.

Wen also told reporters about four things that "he still believes." One of them was that he "still believed the SAR government headed by Tung Chee-hwa would definitely be able to lead Hong Kong and overcome the current difficulties."

The anti-Tung forces in Hong Kong are primarily divided into two positions. One has no trust in Tung and is determined to unseat him. The other wants to avoid direct confrontation with Beijing and does not necessarily have to unseat Tung.

But Tung must have something to show the people, especially by starting political reforms and moving toward direct popular elections for the chief executive and the Legislative Council. Beijing's support has not defused Tung's governance crisis. Tung used to enjoy stronger support from Jiang than he now does from Hu and Wen. The situation will get worse if Beijing's support causes Tung to lose all sense of reality.