20030914

US official provides reassurance

FROM THE TOP: China has not proposed, nor would Washington accept any deal that sought to tie concessions on Taiwan to help over North Korea

By Charles Snyder

STAFF REPORTER IN WASHINGTON

China has not yet pressed the US for concessions on Taiwan in exchange for Beijing's cooperation in North Korea and other issues, and Washington would not grant any such demands, a senior US administration official says.

Much of the reason for that is that Beijing is as much concerned over the threat of nuclear weapons in North Korea as is Washington, so that it does not have the leverage to press the US on the issue, the official said in an exclusive interview with the Taipei Times and its sister publication, the Liberty Times.

There has been much speculation that Washington might be forced to make some concessions to Beijing over Taiwan with the improvement of Sino-US relations in recent years as Washington has sought Beijing's aid in the war on terrorism, favorable votes in the UN on America's Iraq policy, and the North Korean nuclear threat.

So far, the official said, that has not translated into any Chinese request or any US willingness to compromise Taiwan's position.

"I don't think there is any real risk that the Taiwanese position in US policy is going to be affected adversely by developments in US-PRC relations," the senior official said. "I don't see, in this administration, anyway, a risk of Taiwan's position eroding," especially with regard to the US commitment to substantial arms sales to Taiwan.

The official said that China has not yet demanded a quid pro quo for its support of US positions on terrorism and North Korea. "I don't say they will never say it, but I do say they have not said it so far," he said. "I don't think that we would deal with them on that basis."

One main reason the Bush administration would not accept any Chinese pressure to compromise on Taiwan is that a nuclear-weapons-free Korean peninsula "is just as much in their interests as it is in ours," he said.

"If North Korea has nuclear weapons, there's a risk that Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan would decide that they wanted to have nuclear weapons as well. And the possession of nuclear weapons by any other country in East Asia does pose a direct challenge to China's national security," the official said.

"So I don't think this is a case where they're doing us a favor on North Korea," he said.

On the offer made by former Chinese President Jiang Zemin to cut the number of Chinese ballistic missiles facing Taiwan in exchange for a reduction in US arms sales to Taiwan, the official said the matter seems to be dead for now.

"That's just not going to fly," he said. While China has not abandoned the idea as its official position, "they don't bring it up any more," after having been convinced the Bush administration would not accept it, the official said.

China seems more concerned over Washington's plan for a national missile defense system, especially the so-called "boost phase" which would place PAC-3 missile defense systems in East Asia to intercept North Korean or other missiles in the earliest moments after they lift off. The Chinese are concerned over how this would involve South Korea, Japan and Taiwan, the official said.

"And the Chinese are certainly aware that in Japan especially, the government has committed substantial resources to developing a missile defense system. And it bothers them particularly if Taiwan would proceed not just in the AEGIS system but in actual missile defense."

"We do get into that quite a bit," in talks with Chinese leaders, "and our position is very clear: If other countries want to participate in our missile defense, we're happy to have them," the official said.

Taiwan has shown an interest in acquiring from the US sophisticated destroyers equipped with the AEGIS radar and missile defense system.

The sale has been held up by Chinese opposition and also the enormous costs involved in purchasing the vessels.

Whether Japan would be ready to come to Taiwan's defense in case of a Chinese attack will take some time to determine, the US official feels. "That's something we still have to talk to Japan about," he said.

Japan's constitution puts great constraints on the use of its Self Defense Forces for anything but coastal and homeland defense, although there are pressures to lift the restrictions.

Theofficial did take comfort in the fact that Japan has agreed to take part in a multilateral military exercise that began this weekend in the Coral Sea, with ships from the US, Australia, France and Japan, the first time Tokyo has made such a commitment.

The decision reflects "the evolving Japanese thinking," the official said. "It's a significant decision for them, one that we wanted them to make." However, he noted, "it was not an easy decision for them, so you have to take this forward one step at a time."

“We do get into the quite a bit,” in talks with Chinese leaders, “and our position is very clear: If other countries want to participate in our missile defense, we’re happy to have them,” the official said.

Taiwan has shown an interest in acquiring from the US sophisticated destroyers equipped with the AEGIS radar and missile defense system.

The sale has been held up by Chinese opposition and also the enormous costs involved in purchasing the vessels.

Whether Japan would be ready to come to Taiwan’s defense in case of a Chinese attack will take some time to determine, the US official feels. “That’s something we still have to talk to Japan about,” he said.

Japan’s constitution puts great constraints on the use of its Self Defense Forces for anything but coastal and homeland defense, although there are pressures to lift the restrictions.

The official did take comfort in the fact that Japan has agreed to take part in a multilateral military exercise that began this weekend in the Coral Sea, with ships from the US, Australia, France and Japan, the first time Tokyo has made such a commitment.

Chthonic put spin on Taiwan's past

The controversial Taiwanese band Chthonic have been criticized for mixing politics and music, and have even been prevented from performing in China after being labelled as `pro-independence musicians.' `Taipei Times' reporter Fiona Lu tried to find out what makes them tick after a performance at a pro-Taiwan rally

"The best way to remove political influence from the creation of music is to prevent politicians from manipulating the music industry."－Chthonic

They are Chthonic, a rock n' roll band categorized as black metal, consisting of five local young people, Freddy Lin, Doris Yeh, Jesse Liu, A-jay Tsai and Luis Wei.

"I emphasized that Taiwan is my mother country, not a homeland, at the Golden Melody ceremony to illustrate my conviction that Taiwan has developed its own history and cultural values that are no longer the same as those developed in China.

"Taiwan is a nation that people have established from their distinctive characters and customs, and that makes this place different to any other society in the world," said Freddy, the lead singer and soul of Chthonic.

Freddy added that sticking to this viewpoint is extremely important when some people, who prefer an ultimate unification with China, always describe Taiwan as a homeland, not a nation.

"To these pro-unification countrymen, Taiwan is only a geographical term identifying its place on the global map, but Taiwan is a nation to me, with an independent people, culture and history," Freddy said.

As the first Taiwanese black metal band, Chthonic has successfully made the leap onto the world stage by performing at international rock festivals in Japan, the US and other Asian countries.

Besides Freddy's relentless vocals, deep drum and bass sounds, electric guitars and keyboards, the addition of the Chinese Er-hu (a Taiwanese violin), have made Chthonic uniquely Taiwanese.

Taipei Times: What inspired you to form Chthonic, performing in the black and death metal genre, which was unfamiliar to most Taiwanese people until now, as early as 1995?

Chthonic: We decided to form Chthonic when the number of listeners and bands of black metal was burgeoning in Europe, the US, Japan and even Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia in the first half of the 1990s.

Black metal, a category of rock n' roll that originated in North European countries like Norway, was characterized by a revival of performers' awareness of their native culture after the region's pagan religions had been forcibly replaced by Christianity for many eras.

The black metal movement harbored resentment towards Jesus Christ and some insist on the existence of Satan as a form of rebellion.

That gave us the idea to form Chthonic, a black metal band to examine values imposed on Taiwanese society by the mainstream Chinese authorities, and to fight against them when they are wrong or oppressing the existence of Taiwanese nature.

The nature of rock n' roll allows its performers to easily say what they want to say in front of an audience. We have an appreciation for the mythology, legends and historical stories in Taiwanese culture, and that fed into the creation of Chthonic.

Our first album, Where Ancestors' Souls Gathered, drew inspiration from the stories of the Han ancestors dreaming about a brighter future in Taiwan, the promised land.

When we did the second album, 9th Empyrean, we told a story of struggle and conflict between the Han and the Aborigines in ancient years. The story is composed of eight mythologies about war and confrontation between the gods of the Han and the Aborigines.

We centered on a horror story out of Taiwanese folklore, the legend of Na Tao Ji, on the third album, Relentless Recurrence to form a poetic but melancholic creation. The album was written in Taiwanese and recorded in Denmark.

The story of Na Tao Ji reflects a miserable era when Taiwanese women could do nothing if they were betrayed by Chinese lovers who came to Taiwan as stowaways, but went back to China after cheating them of their money and virginity. The women like Na Tao Ji would have no means of finding these Chinese liars because of a ban on sailing across the Taiwan Strait imposed by Chin emperors. Instead they chose self-annihilation and vowed to take revenge by being a ghost that stayed in the human world.

Na Tao Ji's story represents a part of Taiwanese history, although the name could be a fabrication of a widely told folk tale.

TT: Your performance at the pro-independence rally has seemingly brought up some ideological criticism against Chthonic. What's your take on this?

Chthonic: We formed Chthonic when we were ready to accept and respond to disagreement from other people in music circles against our work. But it is inappropriate to label Chthonic as pro-independence, since we were only telling our audience stories of ancient Taiwanese culture and customs. We were already being criticized in the first year after Chthonic's formation.

The earlier critics denounced our music as nothing but dreary cries and screams. Some others detested Chthonic and asked why we could sing softly and gently, but about such wretched subjects and with such desperation.

I have to say that when these critics say things like like "Keep politics out of music", they are being immature. Those critics who are performers themselves could protest against Chthonic by hosting a concert on the theme of "Say No to the Objection of China's Annexation."

As for the non-musicians, they blurred the meaning of separating politics from music when they criticized Chthonic in this way.

The best way to remove political influence from the creation of music is to prevent politicians from manipulating the music industry, not prohibiting musicians singing about ideological issues.

We learned that the former ruling KMT [Chinese Nationalist Party] shifted its focus on business investment from industries like banking to entertainment productions. This raised fears of political manipulation in the KMT-owned media.

Chthonic also experienced a typical political intervention during an engagement with the Ministry of Culture of the Chinese government.

A huge number of Chthonic fans in China had tried several times to invite us there for a concert. The request was eventually turned down by the Chinese culture ministry, who called us "pro-independence musicians."

The Chinese culture ministry proclaimed that Chthonic was guilty of a pro-independence stance not by listening to our music, but based on our performing at pro-independence gala.

But it is interesting to find that, because of this dispute, different perceptions arose among rock n' roll fans in different parts of China. We learned that fans in Beijing shut down any online discussion relating to Chthonic since we are "renegades."

TT: You are practising alternative diplomacy by sharing and exchanging views of music with counterparts in the US, Asia and Europe. What's Chthonic's plan for the next few years to gain more international recognition?

Chthonic: If we can afford it, we hope to move to the US for several months to learn from the American way of producing black metal.

Besides continuing our contact with Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia, where we have a lot of fans, Chthonic will try its best to increase performances in America and Europe.

In fact, we don't want to be internationalized. We have always worked on refining our work expounding our mother culture and history by emulating bands in other areas of the world, and that's why we want to visit the US to get a feel for their way of making black metal.

`In recognizing the ROC government Taiwan's diplomatic allies implicitly recognize its claims that it is the legal government for all of China.'

The campaign for a change in the nation's official name has received increasing attention and support in recent years. A large-scale demonstration, organized by the Alliance to Campaign for Rectifying the Name of Taiwan, was held on Sept. 6.

On the eve of the demonstration, former president Lee Teng-hui -- who was the convener of the event -- emphasized once again that the "Republic of China" (ROC) is just a title, not a country. Lee earlier stressed that the ROC does not exist anymore. The rectification campaign is needed because only when Taiwan's official name is changed can the country become normal.

The biggest obstacles to the nation becoming a normal country come from the pro-unification camp and China. Internationally, Beijing on the one hand does not allow Taipei to use its official name "Republic of China" on the one hand, but on the other hand it uses every trick in the book to bar "Taiwan." Under such circumstances, Taiwan has been forced to use a variety of names when participating in international organizations and dealing with foreign countries.

Perhaps some are not aware that Taiwan can hardly function as a normal country in the international community under the ROC banner. Our overseas offices and international organization membership titles can only be called "Chinese Taipei," "Separate Customs Territory," "Fishing Entity," "Public Health Entity," "Economic and Cultural Office," "Trade Center" or "Chung Hwa Travel Service." The damage to our national sovereignty and dignity is obvious.

It is not difficult to tell from the above-mentioned facts that there is no space outside Taiwan for the existence of the ROC, which is what the pro-unification activists strive to defend. By saying that the ROC no longer exists, Lee simply made a pragmatic statement. The late president Chiang Kai-shek was already aware of this half a century ago. On March 13, 1950, he noted that: "At the end of last year, our Republic of China was almost dead already, along with the fall of the mainland [to Communist forces]. We have become people of an extinct nation."

To maintain the legitimacy of his regime, Chiang vowed to reclaim the mainland in three years, and forcibly took possession of Taiwan on behalf of the allied forces. However, the goal of reinstating the ROC has yet to be attained and the myth of recovering the mainland has long vanished into thin air. According to what Chiang said, the ROC remains in a state of "extinction."

Lee's speech laid bare these facts. The angry response from pro-unification activists showed their ignorance of history. Those who claim to safeguard the ROC are generally called the "pro-unification faction" in Taiwan. Strictly speaking, the description does not fit the reality. They should be renamed the "capitulation faction."

The ROC in their minds refers to the government that ruled 35 provinces and based its capital in Nanjing. But that ROC government was replaced by the PRC back in 1949. Since 1971 when Beijing secured the right to represent China in the UN, Taiwan has been, at best, a renegade province of China internationally.

Now those merely paying lip service to defending the ROC have abandoned the slogan of reconquering the mainland and embraced the "one China" principle. Their final destination is, of course, to force the legitimate government of China -- the PRC -- to capitulate.

No matter what they are called -- whether pro-unification faction or pro-capitulation faction -- it is an undeniable fact that they have done damage to Taiwan's sovereignty. The description of Taiwan as a part of China originated from Chiang's retreat to Taiwan and using it as a base from which to reconquer the mainland. In fact, continuing to use the name "ROC" works against Taiwan's sovereignty.

As long as the country's name is not changed, Taiwan will not be able to get rid of the "one China" discourse.

Let's look at the issue from a historical perspective. The Manchus permanently ceded Taiwan and the Pescadores to Japan in the 1895 Treaty of Shimonoseki. Upon its defeat in World War II, Japan unconditionally surrendered to the allied forces in 1945. The Chinese military was instructed by the US General Douglas MacArthur, commander of the allied forces in the Pacific, to take over Taiwan "on behalf of" the allied forces. Politically, however, Taiwan's sovereignty issue was not yet decided.

Several declarations made by the Allies during the World War II mentioned the future of Taiwan but they were not settled in the form of international treaties. Not until 1951 when the San Francisco Peace Treaty was drafted did Japan agree to formally renounce all right, title and claim to Formosa and the Pescadores. However, the treaty did not specify which state was entitled to take over Taiwan. The next year, the Treaty of Peace signed between Taipei and Tokyo reconfirmed the San Francisco Peace Treaty and also did not specify the status of Taiwan.

Even in the later-signed US-Taiwan Mutual Defense Treaty, the US did not change the undecided legal status or jurisdiction of Taiwan and the Pescadores. When the US severed its diplomatic ties with Taiwan and enacted the Taiwan Relations Act in 1979, the ROC obviously was replaced by Taiwan.

Now Beijing regards Taiwan as its territory simply because Chiang described it as a base from which to recover the mainland. Countries that establish diplomatic ties with China only "respect," "understand" or "acknowledge" Beijing's one-China policy. The entire world knows perfectly well that the PRC has not ruled Taiwan for a single day.

Looking back at that historic period, we discover that the opinions of Beijing and Taiwan's unificationists merely are a matter of political discourse, not statements of fact.

This kind of political discourse becomes even more farfetched and powerless against the backdrop of Taiwan's democratization. In other words, defending the ROC and the political implications this carries is completely incompatible with the fact that power in contemporary Taiwan rests with the people. The abolishment of the Provisions Effective During the Period of Communist Rebellion, the scrapping of Taiwan's provincial status and the holding of direct presidential elections over the last decade, have all served to further clarify the will of Taiwan's 23 million citizens.

But just as Vice President Annette Lu has discovered during her visits to diplomatic allies, these allies still follow the "one China" principle. Why? Because in recognizing the ROC government Taiwan's diplomatic allies implicitly recognize its claims that it is the legal government for all of China. Other nations do not accept this and it is something for which we cannot find a foundation even here in Taiwan. Instead, it lends credence to "one China."

This single example sufficiently proves that to protect the ROC and to protect the sovereignty of Taiwan are two contradictory courses of action.

A comprehensive look at the world shows that a majority of countries are created through the will of its people. For the past 50-odd years, Taiwan has had a people, territory, a government and sovereignty, and it has been able to independently maintain its own military and pursue its own diplomacy. It could easily be said that Taiwan has fulfilled the requirements of an independent country. It's just that we seem to have had our hands tied by the empty ROC structure, thus hindering us all from contemplating Taiwan as a country and wrongly making us believe that the only and also best solution is to maintain the current ROC reality.

This head-in-the-sand way of doing things can only deceive people in Taiwan. It is completely impractical outside Taiwan, and it also helps Beijing's sovereignty claim on Taiwan. As a result, Taiwan has been internationally demoted to a "customs territory," a "fishing entity" and a "public health entity." This means that there is an urgent need to call for Taiwan changing its national title to "Taiwan."

If Taiwan is to be able to stand up and walk tall we must first make a clean break with the illusory ROC and "one China, with each side having its own interpretation." We must also respect the will of the people of Taiwan to strive for a correct national title.

"The US protects Taiwan in order to protect the US' interests. It would not be in the US' interest to see Taiwan being taken over by China."－Lee Yung-chih, National Taiwan University professor

Despite President Chen Shui-bian's absence from last weekend's demonstration to change the country's name from "Republic of China" to "Taiwan," the campaign accentuated the public's determination to reject unification with China, analysts said yesterday.

Chen avoided the controversial street protest by attending an event in southern Taiwan. Some 150,000 people took to streets in downtown Taipei last Saturday in an event organized by the Alliance to Campaign for Rectifying the Name of Taiwan.

Political commentator Pu Ta-chung wrote in a Chinese-language newspaper that Chen was right to avoid the march if he wanted to downplay the sensitivity of the issue.

"What concerns Chen most is not China, but the US. As the US is legally obligated to defend Taiwan under the Taiwan Relations Act, Chen knows that Taiwan must not mess around with what the US wants when it comes to Taiwan's situation," Pu wrote.

It is understandable that Chen and the US were both cool toward the campaign because of China's growing dominance, Pu wrote.

"The government and the campaigners should realize this political reality. The wise way to go about this is to avoid pushing too quickly toward the goal. Let the people speak their minds while the government avoids interference," Pu wrote.

Lee Yung-chih, a history professor at National Taiwan University, yesterday however said, "Though Chen was prevented from joining in with the campaign due to his status as the ROC president, it is far more important that the people took the initiative to tell the world their wish for a nation called Taiwan."

Lee said that the political reality does not necessarily go against Taiwan's interests, as long as the people show strong and consistent determination to decide their own future.

"We have seen Palestinians fighting for their own country for 50 years. Had they not voiced their wishes, the world would not have heard their demands," he said.

"The situation is the same here in Taiwan. The Taiwanese people must be strongly aware of the cause for an independent Taiwan so that the world will understand this cause," he said

"As long as we see more people stand up for the campaign drive, the world will not ignore this intense and strong appeal from the people here," he said.

Lee also said that a drive for independence would not necessarily go against US interests.

"The US protects Taiwan in order to protect the US' interests. It would not be in the US' interest to see Taiwan being taken over by China -- if that happened, security in the East Asian region would become tremendously unbalanced and the US does not want to see China have that kind of growth in power," Lee said.

"Taiwanese people have to continue this effort based on their own interests and we'll see how our interests can work out with the US'. The government might come to some kind of compromise with the US, but the Taiwanese people can never shy away from the campaign," Lee said.

Following last Saturday's rally, the Alliance to Campaign for Rectifying the Name of Taiwan is planning to stage a bigger march next year calling for more than 500,000 people to join the event.

Chief organizer of the campaign Wang Cheng-chung yesterday said this year's campaign was aimed at increasing the public's awareness of a national identity for Taiwan, while next year the campaign would aim at creating a Taiwan Constitution.

"The best tool to change the nation's name is through the construction of a new Constitution and we would invite the new president to join the campaign and ask him to establish a constitutional task force," Wang said.