20030910

Vice president says world must know about people-smuggling

ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS: On a visit to the coast guard, Annette Lu said the international community should put pressure on China to stop the human rights abuse

CNA , TAIPEI

Vice President Annette Lu yesterday said the nation should bring the issue of illegal Chinese immigrants to the attention of the international community to pressure China to address the problem squarely.

Lu made the remarks when she led members of the human rights committee of the Presidential Office to visit the Coast Guard Administration and learn how government agencies deal with illegal immigrants.

Coast Guard Administrator Wang Chun reported that Taiwan uses the organization of the US and Canadian coast guards as a model. Wang said the administration's work is hampered by having only a little more than NT$2 billion (US$58.47 million) in funds to upgrade its hardware. The administration needs more assistance, he said.

Ho Hsiang-tai, director of the administration's information department, said the number of illegal Chinese immigrants has increased every year since 2001, and that women outnumber men.

A lax and incomprehensible law dealing with smuggling operations and an insufficient cross-strait mechanism to crack down on crimes have contributed to the difficulties in addressing the issue, he added.

To solve the illegal immigrant problem, the government has started to repatriate illegal Chinese immigrants.

It has increased the repatriation rate from one shipload of 150 people per month to three shiploads every two months, Johnnason Liu, vice chairman of the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC), said.

"If the government does not speed up the repatriation operation, Taiwan will have to pay more than NT$150 million a year just to accommodate the illegal immigrants," he said, adding that it's a heavy financial burden on the nation.

Lu said that as the nation is streamlining its government agencies, the Coast Guard Administration should not downsize, but should expand and include other government agencies to form a marine department.

Lu also favored a revision of the law to give stiffer penalties to "snakeheads" to discourage them from engaging in illegal dealings.

Vice President Annette Lu visits some illegal Chinese immigrants yesterday. She condemned Beijing's tolerance of people-smuggling across the Taiwan Strait.

"The solution to the smuggling issue should not rely on current cross-strait mechanisms," Lu said, adding that Taiwan must cooperate with other countries that are plagued with the same problem to put pressure on China, so that Beijing will address the issue squarely.

Lu asked the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) to work with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and international non-governmental organizations to deal with the question. She said the condition of the detention center for illegal Chinese immigrants in Hsinchu is not good, and she asked the National Police Administration to find a suitable place to build a new detention center, and to examine the feasibility of setting up a similar center on the outlying islands of Kinmen and Matsu.

"Current detention centers should also examine the feasibility of inviting volunteers and religious groups to speak on the meaning of life to the detainees," she said.

Lu earlier visited a provisional detention center set up in a police precinct in Sanchung, Taipei County.

"This is not only a humanitarian issue, but also highlights a political issue," Lu said, urging Beijing to take more time to take care of its people so that they are more willing to stay there.

Nineteen Chinese women currently staying in the provisional detention center expressed the wish to return home early to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival on Thursday, but Lu told them: "Your government is not willing to take you back."

Almost a decade ago, US Senator Tom Daschle spoke in one of the basement rooms in the US Capitol about Taiwan. Within 20 minutes, the senator referred to Taiwan as "Taiwan," as "the Republic of China," as "the Republic of China on Taiwan," "Republic of Taiwan" and even as "the People's Republic of China on Taiwan."

During the question-and-answer session, one of the members of the audience stood up, reminded the senator of the different ways in which he had referred to the country, and asked the senator why he did not just refer to it as "Taiwan." "That is a good idea," the senator answered and vowed to do so from now on.

Rectifying the name of Taiwan would not only clarify the world's confusion about how to refer to the nation, it would also clarify US policy and open the door to full international diplomatic recognition of the independent democracy the 23 million strong Taiwanese people have built.

It is already US policy not to call Taiwan the Republic of China. A Sept. 26, 1996, State Department memo states, "Consistent with the unofficial nature of US-Taiwan ties, the US Government does not refer to Taiwan as the `Republic of China' or the `Republic of China on Taiwan.' Neither does the US Government refer to Taiwan as a `Country' or a `government.' We refer to Taiwan simply as `Taiwan' and to its government officials as `the Taiwan authorities.' We use `Taiwanese' only in reference to the ethnic/linguistic group which was on the island prior to the late 1940s, as opposed to the `Mainlanders' who arrived later."

The US has been quite consistent in referring to Taiwan as "Taiwan" and not as the Republic of China.

The Taiwan Relations Act is the law of the land that established the firm basis for continued US-Taiwan relations after 1979. The unofficial State Department branch that deals with Taiwan is called the "American Institute in Taiwan." There is a Taiwan Desk at the State Department.

Congress has also been consistent in using "Taiwan" in legislation. In the April 30, 1994, the Foreign Relations Authorization Act for Fiscal Years 1994 and 1995, Section 132, the text reads, "For purposes of the registration of birth or certification of nationality or issuance of a passport of a United States citizen born in Taiwan, the Secretary of State shall permit the place of birth to be recorded as `Taiwan.'" Neither the Republic of China nor the Republic of China on Taiwan can be listed as place of birth in the passports of Taiwanese-Americans.

Since the official US position has always been that Taiwan's status has yet to be determined and the US has never recognized either ROC or PRC sovereignty over Taiwan, rectifying the name of the nation to Taiwan would clarify the US position.

The historical record on this question is quite clear. When discussing the offshore islands in 1954, then-secretary of state John Foster Dulles made a clear distinction between Quemoy (Kinmen) and Matsu being Chinese territory on the one hand and the unsolved status of Taiwan and the Penghu Islands on the other:

"The legal position is different, by virtue of the fact that technical sovereignty over Formosa and the Pescadores has never been settled. That is because the Japanese Peace Treaty merely involves a renunciation by Japan of its right and title to these islands. But the future title is not determined by the Japanese Peace Treaty nor is it determined by the Peace Treaty which was concluded between the Republic of China and Japan. Therefore the juridical status of these islands, Formosa and the Pescadores, is different from the juridical status of the offshore islands which have always been Chinese territory."

Perhaps we should qualify the above statement that it is not US policy to call Taiwan the Republic of China.

The US position makes a distinction between "Formosa and the Pescadores" and the "offshore islands which have always been Chinese territory." So, one could argue that the US does recognize the ROC insofar as it has sovereignty over the offshore islands, but does not recognize the ROC as having any sovereignty over Taiwan.

Former president Lee Teng-hui would have to qualify his statement, then, that the ROC does not exist any more. The juridical position of the US would seem to be that the ROC exists, but only on Kinmen and Matsu.

Rectifying Taiwan's name would force "international action" to determine the status of the island and give Taiwanese citizens the opportunity to argue that they have effectively exercised their right to self-determination, provided for in the UN Charter, by creating a full-fledged democracy on Taiwan.

And it would surely make life easier for Daschle and his 534 colleagues in the US Congress.