Pan-blues singing the blues

In a recent interview with the Washington Post, President Chen Shui-bian said that China had been secretly helping the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the People First Party (PFP) to stonewall his government. His remarks drew a strong backlash from the opposition parties. KMT Chairman Lien Chan slammed Chen for tarnishing the party. Yesterday, eight KMT and PFP legislators, including Lee Chia-chin and Chou Hsi-wei, filed a libel suit against Chen.

Are the KMT and PFP really angry or are they faking it? The Constitution endows the president with immunity from criminal prosecution, so such a lawsuit seems aimed at attracting media attention rather than legal retribution. Are the KMT and the PFP seriously alleging the president should bear criminal responsibility for his comments?

Responding to news of the lawsuit, Chen Chien-ming, convener of the Taiwan Solidarity Union's legislative caucus, described the suit as "thieves accusing others of being thieves."

The KMT and the PFP have frequently defamed former president Lee Teng-hui and his wife as well as Chen and members of his family. It appears that the pan-blue camp is more than happy to dish out criticism; it just can't take it.

There are two other adages that come to mind as the pan-blue camp totters around trying to look hurt and offended. The first adage is the truth hurts. To paraphrase the second adage -- if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it's Beijing's duck.

Chen's remarks were simply a reiteration of something that is widely known. The people of Taiwan have watched as the KMT and the PFP acted as if they were walking the same road with China's government, despite the denials from both parties. The KMT's "one China" stance is not only in line with Beijing's policy, but the party has repeatedly claimed that China and Taiwan did reach a consensus during the Koo-Wang talks in 1992.

Despite the party's efforts at cosmetic surgery over the past decade, this is basically the same group that ran the Chiang Kai-shek government and claimed that the Republic of China's territory covered all of China. The KMT's dream would certainly lead Taiwan down the path to annexation by Beijing.

Meanwhile, the PFP basically accepts China's "one country, two systems." Soong and his followers are apparently untroubled by Hong Kong's dramatic decline under such a format. Why should the people of Taiwan be willing to see their country turned into a special administrative region of China, given the fate of the people of Hong Kong and Macau?

Because the KMT's and PFP's cross-strait policies fit perfectly into Beijing's fraudulent claims to sovereignty over Taiwan, the parties have attracted support from China -- both covert and overt -- in stonewalling the government's reform efforts. Beijing's rejection of the government's "small three links" policy is a prime example.

If the KMT and the PFP feel uncomfortable being reminded how much they parrot China's policies, then they should not toady up to Beijing. More importantly, they must prove -- by action, not just words -- that they are on the side of the Taiwanese people. This would spare them from more "hurtful" accusations.

China blocking security cooperation, Chen says

By Lin Chieh-yu

STAFF REPORTER

President Chen Shui-bian repeated a pledge yesterday that Taiwan will aggressively pursue regional cooperation in the anti-terrorism campaign, but that China is the main obstacle to Taiwan becoming part of the international security network.

"Faced with various unconventional security threats, international society should abandon its traditional stiff concept of sovereignty and cooperate closely to create a secure world for human beings," Chen said at an international conference yesterday.

"Taiwan is situated at a pivotal intersection of Southeast and Northeast Asia, so it plays an important role in solving problems such as global terrorism, economic crimes, smuggling, the spread of epidemics and cyber crimes," he said. "The promise of Taiwanese people to participate in these issues and create a secure world for human beings remains unchanged."

Chen said that although Taiwan is not a UN member, after the tragedy on Sept. 11, 2001, the country has cooperated closely with other countries to fight terrorism. Taiwan has adopted various measures to prevent terrorists from carrying out their schemes and has acted to stop weapons of mass destruction from spreading, he said.

"But Taiwan often encounters China's opposition, based on political reasons, when taking part in international efforts. China's attempt to exclude Taiwan from international society does not help solve the problem of security threats," he said.

Security conference

Chen made the speech at the opening ceremony of the 37th International Carnahan Conference on Security and Technology at the Grand Hotel yesterday.

The three-day conference has brought together more than 400 specialists in security technology from 14 countries and has adopted "e-security" as its theme.

Vice President Annette Lu and National Security Council (NSC) Secretary-General Kang Ning-hsiang both attended the conference. Former US vice president Al Gore was also invited to deliver a speech after Chen.

The security conference was established in 1967 and is known as the most authoritative international conference in the technology security field.

After the Sept. 11 attacks, the International Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers listed the conference as the most important technical counseling organization.

According to an anonymous source at the NSC, the annual security conference is regarded as an important occasion for government officials involved with national security from different countries to interact.

Noting that many experts and specialists from Taiwan have been invited by the organization to take part in its annual conferences since 1986, Chen expressed his gratitude to the group for its support for Taiwan.

Al Gore stresses need for vigilance in `e-society'

By Huang Tai-lin

STAFF REPORTER

In his keynote speech at the opening session of a technology conference in Taipei yesterday, former US vice president Al Gore cited Taiwan's recent suspected cases of bank fraud to highlight the importance of vigilance and precautionary actions in today's "e-society."

"This [bank scam] would be solved, no doubt," said Gore, referring to the series of fraudulent cash withdrawals at automated teller machines [ATMs] around the nation starting Thursday, the beginning of a long weekend.

Costly scam

Finance Minister Lin Chuan said on Monday that the cases of ATM account fraud are expected to cost banks at least NT$3.78 million.

"But it serves as an illustration of the need to have security in financial transactions and security in exchanges of information in order to protect the privacy of individuals and in order to protect the integrity of the business and financial system upon which we all depend," Gore told participants at the 37th International Carnahan Conference on Security and Technology.

Held at the Grand Hotel in Taipei, more than 400 specialists in security technology from 14 countries took part in the three-day conference. The theme of the conference is "e-security."

Noting that security questions will become tougher to deal with as e-society develops, Gore said, "It is yet one more reason why the deliberation of this ongoing conference is so important to the welfare and well-being of people in Taiwan, people in the United States and people all around the world."

Gore said that making good use of existing information is more important than collecting additional information about potential security threats.

Taking the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, as an example, Gore said the tragedy could have been avoided if officials had taken precautionary measures to organize and analyze the information they already had about the hijackers. Gore said the authorities already had plenty of database information about the hijackers.

According to the event organizer, Gore, wishing to keep a low profile in Taiwan, had requested that his name not be mentioned on the conference's official schedule sent to the media.

Meeting with Chen

Prior to the opening session yesterday, Gore had exchanged a hand-shake and brief greetings with President Chen Shui-bian, who took the podium ahead of Gore as another keynote speaker at the event.

Gore's whirlwind trip was his first visit to Taiwan since he lost the presidential election in 2000.

Gore had planned to visit Taiwan in November 2001 to give a speech at the opening of the World Religion Museum, but the trip was canceled at the last minute following a warning by the US that terrorists might launch a wave of attacks.

New constitution needed to cement democracy, reflect reality, Chen says

REFORM AGENDA: Chen Shui-bian told a symposium on the reform of the civil service that the people must have the final say on the document that will guide the nation

By Fiona Lu

STAFF REPORTER

"As the president of this country, I feel obligated to develop a comprehensive plan to overhaul the Constitution."－Chen Shui-bian, president

President Chen Shui-bian said yesterday that he will offer a set of plans to revamp the Constitution since it will meet the needs of Taiwan's society and deepen democratization.

"As the president of this country, I feel obligated to develop a comprehensive plan to overhaul the Constitution. The plan must be presented to the people who will show their views on the issue and pave the way for the birth of a new constitution," he said.

Chen made the remark at a two-day symposium on government reform and the civil service.

A referendum would decide whether the country should implement a new constitution after thorough public debate, Chen said.

The president said establishing a new constitutional was part of four reform goals.

The goals are: reorganizing the structure of government, upgrading the civil-service system, improving administrative efficiency and deepening Taiwan's democratization through a new constitution, he said.

The existing Constitution was adopted during an era with different political and social realities. It was designed for governing 450 million people in China and could hardly be transplanted to any other country with a different history and political reality, Chen said.

Past constitutional changes were piecemeal and were restricted by the circumstances of the time, meaning they cannot meet the practical needs of Taiwan, he said.

When it comes to an extensive overhaul, Chen said, the nation should look at the limits of government powers, the role of central and local governments, lowering the age of people for practising citizenship and a review based on basic human rights and fundamental national issues.

Han Chung-mo Law Foundation chairman Lee Hung-hsi endorsed Chen's view.

"The constitutional amendment in 2000 made it difficult for the current legislature to initiate and realize constitutional changes," Lee said.

He said that, on their own, neither the pan-blue camp nor the pan-green camp has enough members to amend the constitution. Constitutional amendments must be submitted by one-fourth of lawmakers and obtain approval of three-quarters of lawmakers.

The two-day International Conference on Government Reform and Civil Service System was co-hosted by the Examination Yuan and the law foundation.

Two international experts were invited to deliver keynote speeches at the conference.

Deborah Hensler, a professor of law from Stanford University spoke yesterday on the examination and selection system for legal professionals.

She analyzed strengths and weaknesses of self-regulation, which shapes the legal profession in the US. The profession maintains its independence from government and politics, while self-regulation also encourages professional and ethical behavior, Hensler said.

Udo Bartsch, president of the Federal Academy of Public Administration of Germany's Federal Ministry of the Interior, is slated to speak on the senior civil servant training system today. He will focus on the issues, strategies and experiences in Germany with advanced training in the process of modernizing public administration.

DPP task force to push for adopting new constitution

By Chang Yun-Ping

STAFF REPORTER

The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) decided yesterday to establish a task force designed to push for a new constitution, as called for by President Chen Shui-bian.

"The task force is designed to formulate the contents of the new constitution, as well as the procedures needed to engineer a new constitution. It is also serves as a medium to collect cross-party opinions and the public's suggestions on the constitutional reform issue," DPP Deputy Secretary General Lee Ying-yuan said yesterday after the party's weekly closed-door Central Standing Committee meeting.

The task force will comprise nine members. The members are: DPP Secretary-General Chang Chun-hsiung, retired National Taiwan University law professor Lee Hung-hsi, Presidential Office Secretary-General Chiou I-jen, Examination Yuan Chairman Yao Chia-wen, DPP Arbitration Committee chairman Chen Chi-sheng, Presidential Adviser and former law professor at Yale University Chen Lung-chu, senior DPP official Chang Chun-hung and ministers without portfolio Hsu Chih-hsiung and Yeh Jiunn-rong.

Meanwhile, the party's Central Standing Committee yesterday invited Chairwoman of the Council for Cultural Affairs Tchen Yu-chiou and Hakka Affairs Council Chairwoman Yeh Chu-lan to report on the government's cultural policies.

Chen Shui-bian, also the party's chairman, said yesterday, "After the DPP came to power, it has been promoting cultural diversity to allow the various cultures native to Taiwan, including the Aboriginal, Hakka and Minnan cultures, to be revitalized."

Chen said diverse cultural values were not permitted during the 50 years of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) rule as the KMT promoted a Chinese national consciousness and forbade the development of Taiwan-oriented cultures.

Chen said the spirit of linguistic, ethnic and cultural diversity will be incorporated into the party's plan for a new constitution.

Top US envoy puts China down

FLIP SIDE: Therese Shaheen said that the Chinese economy had many problems and its reliance on Taiwanese brains and capital would probably only increase

AP , TAIPEI

A top US envoy to Taiwan warned yesterday that China's economy has severe problems and if the communist giant wants to succeed, it will need Taiwan's help.

American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) Chairperson Therese Shaheen's address at a business luncheon in Taipei was extremely unusual because she strayed from the official speech text, which was bland, technical and uncritical of China.

American envoys usually stick closely to the approved script so as to avoid making comments that might upset the prickly, complex relations between the US, China and Taiwan.

But the brassy, outspoken Shaheen is a former businesswoman, not a diplomat trained in caution like her predecessors at the Washington office of the AIT.

This is Shaheen's first trip to Taiwan since she was appointed last December..

In her speech to the American Chamber of Commerce in Taipei, Shaheen argued that China's economy is overrated in many ways and has serious problems. She tried to bolster her case with a flurry of statistics and observations:

-- With a GDP of US$1.2 trillion, China's economy is still just one-quarter the size of Japan's.

-- Between 170 million and 250 million people are unemployed in China. "On the high end, this is two times the size of Japan's" population, she said.

-- Unprofitable, inefficient state-owned enterprises aren't privatizing fast enough. "It's causing a lot of problems in the rust belt, especially in provinces adjacent to Korea," she said.

Shaheen qualified her comments by saying, "I'm not predicting the collapse of China. I'm just talking about the downside. I don't believe it's talked about enough."

After her speech, she said that many in Washington are becoming less enamored with China and are reconsidering the country's economic future. She said the observers didn't want to overestimate China like they did the former Soviet Union.

Shaheen said that China was like the emperor in the Emperor's New Clothes fairy tale. In the story, the naked emperor says he's wearing new clothes and the public blindly goes along with it, afraid to disagree.

"The emperor, the People's Republic of China, if it is going to succeed, it needs the help of its No. 1 tailor, Taiwan," she said.

Shaheen said that Taiwan might be the largest foreign investor in China, ahead of America and Japan.

She said that:

-- 60 percent of all the semiconductors produced in China are made by Taiwanese-invested firms.

-- 70 percent of all China-made electronics goods are manufactured by Taiwanese companies.

-- Taiwanese firms invested US$4.3 billion in China last year, while investing US$1 billion in the rest of the world.

Taiwan shouldn't worry that the economy is hollowing out because of the heavy investing in China, she said. Taiwan has sound fundamentals and is the world's 16th largest economy, she said.

"It's the fifth largest economy in Asia, including Australia," she said. "It's bigger than most of our NATO allies."

Shaheen said she didn't expect any breakthroughs in Taiwan-China relations until after the presidential election next March. After the vote, she expected Taiwan would negotiate an end to the ban on direct flights and shipping with China.

"They'll want to work something out because money talks," she said.

Previously, Shaheen was the president and chief operating officer of US Asia Commercial Development Corp, a Washington-based firm whose specialties include joint ventures, mergers and capital investment.

Beijing's search for partners poses risks

By Paul Lin

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao attended the ASEAN summit in Bali and signed a "Strategic Partnership for Peace and Prosperity" with leaders of the 10 ASEAN nations. It was the first time China has formed a strategic partnership with a regional organization. These countries did not dare refuse to sign such a pact, given China's economic clout.

Another way of building strategic partnerships is seen in the six-member Shanghai Cooperation Organization, whose mem-bers include Russia and Central Asian countries.

China is also building strategic partnerships with some EU countries. Last month, the European Commission released a China policy paper titled "Maturing Partnership: Shared Interests and Challenges in EU-China Rela-tions," which clearly states the intent to develop partnerships.

China's strategic partners also include Pakistan and Brazil. There are other countries -- such as North Korea, Myanmar and Cuba -- whose relations with China are perhaps even closer than those between strategic partners.

What is the purpose behind Beijing's quest for strategic part-nerships? We can see that China is first building regional hegemony in the name of "good neighborliness" and then competing with the US for global dominance. This is a remake of the old "Anti-Imperialist United Front." The purpose is to isolate its perceived enemies as much as possible. The US and Taiwan are China's major imaginary enemies. Japan and India are states that it must both "fight and join."

China has frequently attacked Japan in the name of opposing Japanese militarism. But it has also continuously pitted Japan against the US, in the same way as it has pitted Europe against the US. Constrained by anti-Japanese sentiment among its own public, China dares not make reckless moves. But the top leadership has been testing the waters.

India has border problems with China. Its archenemy Pakistan has very good relations with China. In tackling Pakistan, India also has to consider China. There-fore, New Dehli has been working toward a missile that can reach Beijing. China, however, has been making goodwill gestures toward New Dehli.

This may eventually isolate the US and Taiwan. When Bill Clinton was US president, Washington took the initiative to build a "constructive strategic partnership" with China, but Beijing tried to anesthetize the US and used it against Taiwan. The "constructiveness" won considerable praise until China was outraged by the 1999 bombing of its embassy in Belgrade by NATO planes.

China is the leader of the world's authoritarian countries. The US is the leader of the democratic camp. Ideological conflicts have created the US-China antagonism. Continual US criticism of China on human rights issues and export of high-tech weapons, as well as Beijing's dissemination of anti-US propaganda domestically, which has led to strong anti-US sentiments, indicate that this conflict is hard to reconcile.

China is at times extremely vicious toward the US and at other times low-key and humble. But these are merely strategic maneuvers to buy time until Bei-jing gains the upper hand.

Taiwan has always been a target that Beijing wants to take out. Any US hesitation will create an opportunity for China to use military force against Taiwan. Because the US shares the same ideals with Taiwan, and because both are top targets for Beijing, no lapse is permissible in their cooperation. They must also be on guard against China's ploys to pit one against the other.

To strengthen its own security and world peace, the US should counter China's strategic partnerships and help Taiwan development internationally. This would be conducive to stability and security in the Taiwan Strait.

Paul Lin is a political commentator based in New York.