Smugglers dump their human cargo overboard

DPA AND AP , TAIPEI

Human traffickers threw 22 Chinese women into the sea yesterday to escape pursuing Coast Guard Administration boats, leaving six drowned and four missing.

Despite some women's protests that they could not swim, the smugglers ordered them into the sea near Tunghsiao on the west coast, before escaping in speed boats.

The survivors swam ashore or were rescued from the sea. They will be deported to China after questioning, officials said.

Xu Zhengzheng, 18, from Hubei Province, told coast guards the human traffickers approached her and the other 21 women, telling them they could make lots of money in Taiwan.

"So they brought us in two speed boats to Taiwan free of charge," she said.

For three days and three nights, the smugglers did not give them any food or water. At about 4am yesterday, coast guard boats found the smugglers' boats and gave chase.

In related news, the authorities will launch a nationwide campaign to hunt down runaway and illegal foreign workers next month.

"Beginning Sept. 1, the Council of Labor Affairs and the National Police Administration will join forces with city and county governments in search of runaway foreign laborers," an anonymous source said.

Government tallies show there are some 300,000 workers from Thailand, the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam in Taiwan to fill construction, domestic and other low-skill jobs.

But more than 10,000 have fled their jobs and are unaccounted for. Runaways who are caught will be deported. The runaway rate is highest among Vietnamese workers, followed by Indonesians and Filipinos, according to the figures.

Authorities have urged people to report runaway foreign workers.

Paal urges narrowing of arms gap

DEFENSE: The AIT director said the nation should address the military imbalance with China, while a Ministry of Foreign Affairs adviser stressed the need for deterrence

By Fiona Lu

STAFF REPORTER

American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) Director Douglas Paal said yesterday that Taiwan should address China's growing military threat as a national priority for the country's own security and for the maintenance of stability in the region.

"A strong defense, coupled with prudent political leadership, will reduce the possibility of miscalculation and enhance prospects for sustained peace in the Taiwan Strait," Paal said.

Paal made the remarks at a Taiwan-Israel-US workshop on defense and security affairs.

The workshop focused on changes in the US, East Asia and the Middle East since the war in Iraq.

Paal, addressing the two-day conference as a special guest, said his government believes three challenges have the potential to undermine peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific region: the growing military imbalance in the Taiwan Strait, the threat of nuclear proliferation on the Korean Peninsula and the ongoing scourge of terrorism.

The AIT director said Taiwan's tackling the growing cross-strait military imbalance would help overcome the first challenge.

"We welcome the commitment by leaders here to modernize Taiwan's own forces to counter the emerging cross-strait military gap," he said.

He said the growing number of Chinese missiles opposite Taiwan heightens tensions by giving China a greater capacity to launch a military strike with little or no warning.

Paal added that Taiwan is doing its part in meeting the proliferation challenge posed by North Korea.

"The recent seizure of a shipment of dangerous chemicals from a North Korean ship in Kaohsiung sent a clear message to the world that Taiwan is serious about playing its part in enforcing global non-proliferation rules," he said.

Expressing little hope for the six-party talks convening today in Beijing for resolving the controversy over North Korea's nuclear program, Paal said tightening export controls was a key to stopping proliferation.

"We are willing to work with Taiwan in areas like improved port security. The more difficult part of the job will be to join with Taiwan's authorities to educate and monitor private companies to ensure that dual-use technologies do not intentionally or inadvertently fall into the wrong hands," he said.

The conference also dealt with the global anti-terrorism campaign and the military lessons from the war in Iraq.

Panelist Holmes Liao, an adviser to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, suggested in his presentation that Taiwan should work on developing cruise-missile defenses.

"A longer-range precision-strike LACM (land-attack cruise missile) may be one of the solutions Taiwan can and should pursue [for mending the imbalance]," he said.

Liao, a professor at the Armed Forces College, National Defense University, said Taiwan can base its deterrent strategy on a threat to destroy a significant portion of China's prosperous and productive coastal region, such as Shanghai and Hong Kong.

"Unlike many Third World regimes, the current Chinese leadership values the population and economy since its economy requires a labor force and industrial base to produce and sustain national power. The urban centers in coastal regions have thus become even more vital to industrial and economic development," he said.

Liao said developing cruise missiles would help the country gain a counter-strike strategy.

The conference will continue today with panelists scheduled to discuss the role of democratic countries in rebuilding Iraq, the promotion of democracy in the Middle East, the impact of the war in Iraq on US-East-Asia relations and the impact of the North Korea and Iraq crises on next year's US presidential election.

Unification does not mean unity

By Lee Shiao-feng

Last year a research student surnamed Lin, who studies Taiwanese politics at Beijing University, came to visit me. Lin asked me: "You are in fact relying on military protection by the US in your advocacy of Taiwan independence. Aren't you afraid that Taiwan will become an American colony?"

I replied that "if you are worried that Taiwan will become an American colony, then you shouldn't keep threatening Tai-wan with military force, thus forcing us to look to the US for protection. Why don't you try to make Taiwan look to China? If China were to recognize Taiwan's independence and sovereignty, and turn the two countries into the best of allies, with all mutual economic benefits, cultural exchanges and military alliances, the US would be scared to death."

Lin's visit continued for more than two hours and there was argument as well as agreement.

Lin understood my explanation of China's traditional historical awareness quite well. I basically said that Beijing's constant talk of Taiwan as part of its territory and seeing the "unification" of Taiwan as a sacred historic mission is a matter of China's traditional historical awareness making itself felt. Looking back at China's 3,000-year history, there have basically been two situations -- either there has been one large unified country, or there have been several states existing simultaneously.

The first situation prevailed for more than 1,700 years, and the latter for almost 1,300 years. This gives a proportion of 58 percent against 42 percent, not a great difference. During the periods when there were several states, the people did not necessarily lead difficult lives. During the Five Dynasties and Ten States period, the Min state in Fujian Province, for example, was quite successful in developing sea trade. Life in the Shu state in Sichuan Province wasn't too bad, either, until it was conquered by the Song state and rural rebellions ensued.

But past Chinese traditional concepts saw empires with centralized power as the norm, even though these empires didn't care even if the people's lives were completely destroyed. The existence of several simultaneous states was seen as abnormal, even though the people's lives were stable and prosperous. As a result, some emperors saw the destruction of small states and the quest to unify "the world" as a sacred historic mission.

Historians see the unified state as the historical standard to praise. In other words, "all lands under the heavens belong to the em-peror," and "as there are not two suns in the sky, there are not two emperors to rule the people." In the event that "all lands under the heavens" really couldn't be "unified," each king would strive to prove lineage to claim that he was in direct descent of earlier em-perors and that all the other kings were traitors and usurpers. Line-age is another aspect of unifica-tion. This is strictly a product of despotic dynasties and lies a world apart from today's democracies.

This unification view and lineage concept have served to suppress unique creativity in many areas, and it has also led to much warfare and the end of happiness and stability for innumerable people. Lucian Pye said that China throughout history has wasted too much manpower, material and financial strength on its quest for unification, and that this is one reason why it has been weak for so long and is unable to rise again.

China only understands how to "unify," not how to "unite." The former suppresses many unique individualities by creating one big body, while the latter allows many unique individualities to maintain their uniqueness before joining them together. China's constant wish to "unify" Taiwan and destroy its independence is a matter of unification, rather than uniting, and this is bad for both parties. If the two sides were united, they would be able to exist and prosper together.

Before leaving, Lin said that as a proponent of Taiwan independence, I was very different from what he had imagined. I told him that, regardless of whether he believed what I said, he would have to remember to add some criticism when using my words in his thesis to avoid creating trouble for himself. This made him smile.

A year later, the people of Taiwan are keeping China at a respectful distance after being hit by the SARS epidemic and alarmed by Hong Kong's Article 23 uproar. China pays no attention to winning the minds of the Taiwan-ese. Instead it adopts a heavy-handed unification approach, applying pressure to Taiwan across the board. Judging from its actions, from blocking Taiwan's participation in the World Health Organization and the World Women's Forum to the recent request that every nation should disallow "Taiwan" in favor of "China" when listing birthplaces on the passports for their foreign-born citizens, China is still unable to distance itself from this traditional historical awareness.

The question of whether China and Taiwan will be able to exist and prosper side by side depends on this very concept. On this issue, however, China is stuck in a pre-modern historical awareness. Will an independent Taiwan have to sacrifice its own democracy and freedom to abide by such stale historical awareness?

All those blue groups leading a life of Taiwanese independence while opposing real Taiwanese independence should find a way of helping their mother country change its way of thinking instead of echoing Beijing's "one China" cliches.

Lee Shiao-feng is a professor at Shih Hsin University.