China reacted to the exchange by reiterating its opposition to any official contact between Taiwan and the US.

"China is firmly opposed to any form of official contact between the United States and Taiwan," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue said when asked to comment on the handshake.

As part of celebrations for Panama's independence day, Chen met leaders from more than 10 countries. Taiwan's Central American diplomatic allies were all present at the anniversary activities and their representatives met Chen.

According to Minister of Foreign Affairs Eugene Chien, Chen's visit to Panama had three goals: to attend the anniversary celebration, to attend activities with other countries and to fortify Taiwan's relationship with its diplomatic allies.

"All the Central American nations we share official diplomatic ties with attended the ceremony, and that shows the relationship between Taiwan and these countries is not threatened by China," Chien said.

Taiwanese media were closely following any Chen-Powell interactions. As the March presidential election draws near, opposition parties are concerned that events putting Chen in a positive light would hurt their chances.

An official with the Presidential Office warned against exaggerating the importance of Chen's encounter with Powell.

"Powell's major mission was to grace the Panama anniversary rather than promoting Taiwan. We will not blow up the effects of the meeting between the president and Powell to an inappropriate degree," said Joseph Wu, deputy secretary-general of the Presidential Office.

"The meeting mainly signifies the friendliness between Taiwan and the US, and it is a boost for Taiwan, not just for President Chen," he said.

As well as meeting Powell, Chen also got to chat with James Bond star Connery.

During a march in the morning, Connery approached Chen and shook hands with him, a Taiwanese official said.

"The president was happy and immediately said that he was a loyal fan of Connery's. ... The president invited Connery to visit Taiwan," Chien told reporters.

"Connery responded by saying that President Chen was his idol, that he knew Chen's work very well and that he knew the difficulties it entailed. But Connery believed the president would definitely reach his goal," Chien said.

African boy fights tumor

NEW HOPE: Illiterate and poor, Vincent Kabore will receive treatment that could not have been possible back home, in the hope that he can lead a normal life

CNA , TAOYUAN

Wednesday, Nov 05, 2003,Page 4

A 15-year-old boy from Burkina Faso who is suffering from Von Recklinghausen's disease arrived in Taiwan yesterday for treatment.

Vincent Kabore is expected to check into Chang Gung Memorial Hospital in Taipei soon for surgery to his face and neck to remove a large tumor caused by the disease, also known as "elephant man syndrome."

Kabore, who has been nicknamed "Ah Fu, the African elephant man" by the main sponsors of the trip, the Noordhoff Craniofacial Foundation, was met at CKS airport by staff from the foundation.

Foundation executive director Rebecca Wang said the foundation learnt of the boy's plight from reports posted on an Internet bulletin by a young Taiwanese man serving on a medical mission to Burkina Faso.

The Taiwanese man, who calls himself "Luc" to avoid media publicity, graduated from Taipei Medical University. He went to Burkina Faso last year as an alternative to performing his compulsory military service.

Luc appealed for help from Taiwan after posting reports and pictures of Kabore on the Internet.

Wang said the Noordhoff Craniofacial Foundation -- established in 1989 by American surgeon-philanthropist Samuel Noordhoff, who has been lauded as "the father of plastic surgery in Taiwan" -- is co-sponsoring Kabore's trip with Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, which is famous for its plastic and craniofacial surgeries, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and EVA Airways.

According to members of the Chang Gung plastic surgery team, who have operated on other patients from home and abroad with Von Recklinghausen's disease, the size of Kabore's tumor will make surgery difficult.

In addition to plastic surgeons, the team will also need the assistance of ear, nose and throat doctors and neurosurgeons to carry out the procedure, said Dr. Chen Yu-jui, a senior Chang Gung doctor who volunteered to take charge of the case.

Apart from the craniofacial operations, follow-up facial reconstruction will also be challenging, Chen said.

According to Luc, Kabore, who lives in the central Burkina Faso township of Koudougou with his farmer parents, is illiterate as a result of poverty as well as his ailment.

After exhausting local options on how to help his son, Kabore's father heard that a Taiwanese doctor had "magical abilities" in treating difficult ailments.

So he brought his son to Dr. Huang Chi-ling, leader of Taiwan's Medical Aid Mission in Burkina Faso, where Luc had been working.

Kabore's facial tumor began as a small granule on the right side of his face and now covers his right eye and extends down his back.

Huang treated Kabore to the best of his ability, but finally decided that the boy required surgery to remove the tumor.

However, because of the lack of proper hospital equipment and surgical skills, the surgery could not be performed in Burkina Faso or anywhere else in central Africa, prompting Luc to post the appeals for help on the Internet.

Von Recklinghausen's disease, also known as neurofibromatosis, is an inheritable disease characterized by nerve tumors and a variety of other abnormalities of the skin, nervous system, bones, organs and blood vessels. The disease affects about 1 in 4,000 live births.

Soong attempts to spoil Chen's glory on overseas tour

SOUR GRAPES: The PFP leader said that none of the big US newspapers had reported on the trip and Chen's upbeat tone about US ties was wrong

By Huang Tai-lin

STAFF REPORTER

Wednesday, Nov 05, 2003,Page 2

Opposition leaders continued to attack President Chen Shui-bian over his US visit even though the media here -- including normally pro-unification media -- have been praising Chen on his performance.

People First Party Chairman James Soong yesterday criticized Chen's reported "high-level" reception from the US government, describing it as "mere pretense self-directed and performed by Chen."

"No major US newspaper -- including The New York Times, Washington Post and the LA Times -- mentioned a word about Chen's US visit during his stopover there," Soong said at CKS International Airport.

Soong was seeing off his Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) counterpart, Lien Chan, who was flying to New York to attend a memorial service for former first lady Soong Mayling, who died on Oct. 23.

Lien is the pan-blue camp's presidential candidate for next year's presidential election and Soong is his running mate.

Soong accused Chen of abusing government resources and manipulating Taiwan's media by using his overseas trips to promote his presidential campaign.

"The fact that here in Taiwan there is so much news coverage of Chen's US visit is only because Chen brought scores of Taiwanese reporters with him," Soong said.

Denying that Chen's trip served any diplomatic purpose, Soong said, "All in all, the opposition questions the fairness of it all."

The PFP leader once again said it was inappropriate for Chen to share a dining table with US arms dealers last Friday, when Chen was given an award by the International League for Human Rights for his long-term efforts and achievements in Taiwan's democracy movement.

He urged Chen to be a responsible leader and disputed his rhetoric that the KMT-PFP alliance's actions were "off beat."

"Titanic shows how an accident can happen, and if the captain of a boat navigates the boat too fast it can run into the harbor," Soong said, apparently referring to a ferry disaster in New York harbor last month.

Soong was alluding to remarks made by Chen on Saturday when, during a cruise on the Hudson River, he said that when everyone was on the same boat, everyone should trust the captain rather than question him.

After a two-day stopover in US, Chen arrived in Panama on Sunday to attend the Central American nation's centenary celebrations.

"We would like to call on Chen not to be an irresponsible captain," Soong said.

Soong said that, to avoid a war of words, he and Lien would be willing to hold a debate with Chen on issues concerning the nation's arms purchases and Taiwan's national identity.

The danger brought by our guests from China

By Michael Hsiao

Wednesday, Nov 05, 2003,Page 8

As Taiwan's ruling and opposition parties vigorously discuss economic and trade exchanges across the Strait and whether direct links should be established, social and civic exchanges outside the direct links have been going on for at least 16 years.

The so-called social exchanges between the two sides center on exchanges of people, as opposed to economic and trade exchanges, which center on capital, money, technology and machines.

Economic and trade exchanges are familiar to the general public. Disagreements on the future of such exchanges have also been clear-cut. But interactions between people in Taiwan and China through social exchanges -- such as business transactions, mixed marriages, visiting relatives, moving to live with relatives on the other side of the Taiwan Strait, academic and cultural exchanges, fishing and illegal immigration -- are often neglected by the ruling and opposition parties.

But several recent incidents have raised the profile of these exchanges. For example, Chinese brides married to Taiwanese nationals took to the streets to demand their residency rights, the number of Chinese prostitutes is reportedly increasing and Taiwanese businessmen are keeping "second wives" in China, leading to family disputes.

These have gradually become social problems in Taiwan and the ensuing disputes are reflected in recent partisan squabbles during the legislature's review of draft amendments to the Statute Governing the Relations between the People of Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area.

The rights of 150,000 Chinese brides, the problems their children face in adapting to Taiwan and the exploitation of Chinese prostitutes demonstrate the need to pay more attention to cross-strait social exchanges.

First, there are 100,000 or so Chinese people of "unclear identity" in Taiwan whose whereabouts are unknown, undermining Taiwan's national security.

Second, as more people travel across the Strait, the more infectious diseases they take with them, as shown during the SARS epidemic last spring. There are 14 diseases that have been eradicated in Taiwan that are still prevalent in China, including bubonic plague, rabies, malaria and cholera.

Third, as more Taiwanese students attend universities in China, we should not only think about whether to recognize the degrees they obtain but also examine the pro-China thinking and attitudes they develop there.

Fourth, cross-strait exchanges in academia, education and technology have grown substantially over the past 10 years. Many Chinese have been invited, at the expense of Taiwanese taxpayers, to give lectures and do research in Taiwan. Have such exchanges fulfilled the original purpose of enabling them to know more about Taiwan and promoting reforms in China? Or have they helped formulate strategies against Taiwan after their return to China?

These new problems arising from cross-strait exchanges were finally raised and discussed last weekend among scholars, government officials and lawmakers at a symposium focusing on cross-strait exchanges and Taiwan's national security. I think the potential impact of problems resulting from civic exchanges across the Strait could be even more serious than the impact of direct links in the long run. We cannot afford to deal with these issues casually. Especially when 65 percent of Taiwan's population believe that China is hostile toward Taiwan, how can we one-sidedly open the door to Chinese on the basis of "goodwill" without effective regulation?

Michael Hsiao is executive director of the Center or Asia-Pacific Area Studies at Academia Sinica.

US officials regard Chen's remarks as appropriate

NO PROBLEM: The State Department rejected Chinese complaints about the president's itinerary in New York, and said they felt his political comments were justified

By Charles Snyder

STAFF REPORTER IN WASHINGTON

Wednesday, Nov 05, 2003,Page 3

"We were contacted by both the league and Taiwan in advance and we indicated that if it was done in a private event, because it was a transit, not a visit, we thought that would be something that we would support."

－Randall Schriver, US deputy assistant secretary of state for Eastern Asia-Pacific

The US Department of State received an advance copy of the speech delivered by President Chen Shui-bian at last Friday's human rights award ceremony, but raised no objections.

The State Department soundly rejected Chinese complaints about Chen's itinerary in New York, which the Chinese Embassy registered just before Chen arrived, US government officials said.

Despite the pace-setting and highly political nature of some of Chen's remarks, US officials said that the comments were "appropriate," given that they were presented in a private setting.

Speaking about Chen's New York speech, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Eastern Asia-Pacific Randall Schriver said that "as a courtesy [Taiwanese officials] provided a copy to us in advance of the draft remark. As I understood it, he basically stuck with it, but he probably deviated from certain points."

The department did not formally review the speech for its approval, he said. "We didn't go back to them with comments or do anything like that," he said.

"Because it was a first-time event for a transit, we indicated that we thought it would be most appropriate if his remarks essentially addressed the league and the human rights issue," Schriver said, referring to the International League for Human Rights, which presented its annual Human Rights Award to Chen.

Regarding the political comments Chen made in the speech, such as the need for a new constitution, Schriver said: "In the context of basically solidifying the progress on human rights, [Chen] said something to the effect that further political reform was necessary, including addressing the Constitution."

And then he said that this would not affect in any way the pledge he had made about the "five noes."

As a result, Shriver said, he felt the comments were "a reasonable thing to do."

"We take him at his word. But I think it's reassuring to hear him repeat the inaugural pledge," Schriver said.

Schriver said the US viewed the ceremony as a private event.

"We thought it was an appropriate thing, particularly given his personal history. We were contacted by both the league and Taiwan in advance and we indicated that if it was done in a private event, because it was a transit, not a visit, we thought that would be something that we would support," Shriver said.

US officials also carefully reviewed the itinerary of the two-day trip beforehand. State Department officials "probably spent some amount of time poring over when he would speak to the press, etc. And we had confidence that the Taiwan side would honor what we agreed to in advance," he said.

"We hope he feels he was received in a manner that reflects the respect we have for him as a person, and we have an important unofficial relationship with Taiwan. There wasn't any intention to send an official signal or message through this transit. But we want to make sure that his dignity is upheld," Schriver said.

Meanwhile, at a closed-door briefing for US scholars and other interested parties in Washington, senior US officials revealed that the Chinese embassy got hold of Chen's New York itinerary and complained to the State Department, but were firmly rebuffed by department officials.

"China knew what Chen was going to be doing," one participant in the off-the-record briefing told the Taipei Times afterwards.

"They came into State with the itinerary in hand, and State said, `We've got our policy, we're going to do what we're going to do, and we're not going to change because you come marching in here and object to anything,'" the participant, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the US officials told the gathering.

The briefers, Taiwanese reporters discovered, were American Institute in Taiwan director Therese Shaheen, who accompanied Chen in New York, Shriver and Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Asian and Pacific Affairs, Richard Lawless.

The participant would not identify which official had made which statement.

The officials made the point that the departments of State and Defense "are on the same page" concerning Taiwan, and there is no split in attitudes toward Taiwan between the two agencies.

The officials also reportedly said that Powell, in a speech on US-China relations in Texas on Wednesday, will say that while US-China relations are the best since President Richard Nixon's time, US-Taiwan relations are also at their best level since 1949, when Washington switched diplomatic relations from Taipei to Beijing.

"It's not a zero-sum game, and the perceived tilt toward China is not there," the US officials yesterday quoted Powell's upcoming speech as saying.

China urged to release Web rebel

REUTERS , BEIJING

Wednesday, Nov 05, 2003,Page 5

Several dozen Chinese academics and reporters have called on Beijing to release detained "cyber-dissident" Du Daobin and protect freedom of speech.

In an open letter addressed to Premier Wen Jiabao, some of the activists said the late-October detention of Internet essayist Du was groundless, a copy obtained by reporters yesterday said.

"We express our deep regret over the matter," the letter said. "We request the highest executive authorities take lawful measures to instruct the relevant authorities to liberate Du Daobin."

Du, a civil servant from the central province of Hubei, was taken into custody by plainclothes state security agents on Oct. 28, accused of "subverting state power."

He had signed an online petition and repeatedly called for the release of fellow cyber-dissident Liu Di, a female psychology student from Beijing Normal University who was detained in the capital in November last year. Liu has been held incommunicado since.

More than 50 people had also signed an open statement calling for the protection of freedom of speech, technically granted in the Chinese Constitution but severely curtailed in China, Beijing-based liberal writer Yu Jie said.

"We think Mr Du Daobin's detention is a major event and is greatly harmful to freedom of speech in China," Yu said.

"Any of us writers and academics could at any time run up against what he has encountered, so we cannot remain silent on this affair."

Du's essays are banned in China, but have been published on overseas portals.

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) also weighed in to the debate with a letter to Chinese President Hu Jintao protesting against Du's arrest.

The press freedom watchdog said it was "gravely concerned that his arrest could mark an escalation in the continuing crackdown on online speech in China."

"CPJ condemns your government's draconian effort to silence any speech that is critical of government policy," it said.

The arrest of Du and several others who posted comments on the Internet "demonstrates that your administration is still willing to manipulate the law for political purposes," it said.

Editorial: A match made in Hell

On Monday, New Party Taipei City Councilor Wang Yu-cheng released a survey showing that less than 20 percent of elderly Taiwanese men married to Chinese women are living with their wives. A large number of Chinese brides did not come to Taiwan after marriage, while others disappeared and still others were involved in fake marriages. Wang raised suspicions that the Chinese brides are probably after the money of the elderly Taiwanese men.

According to the survey, only 18 percent of such couples are living together while 35 percent are already married, but not living together. For 17 percent of couples, the bride never came to Taiwan, while for 15 percent the bride simply disappeared. For 12 percent, the bride disappeared after the husband died. The figures reveal serious problems in the married lives of elderly Taiwanese and their Chinese brides.

Ever since the Taiwanese government eased restrictions on its citizens visiting their relatives in China, more than 100,000 Chinese women have moved to Taiwan. A large number of them went through legal matchmaking institutions while others concealed their purposes under fake marriages, and still others were smuggled to Taiwan by snakeheads and then made a living by engaging in illegal prostitution. This brought with it numerous social and law enforcement problems such as drug trafficking, drug abuse, contagious diseases and kidnappings. Taiwan's media report such crimes on a daily basis. The impact on Taiwanese society's stability is considerable.

Especially worrying is the possibility that there may be spies among those Chinese women entering Taiwan legally or illegally. They may engage in sabotage and instigation. This inevitably poses a big threat to Taiwan's national security. Such suspicions are not groundless. Recently, university graduates, sons and daughters of high-level communist cadres and members of the Communist Youth League were found among illegal immigrants from China.

In fact, the statistics released by Wang involve only elderly Taiwanese. The situation could be much worse if we add the figures for other age brackets. Only a small minority of such cross-strait marriages have been smooth. They are an exception rather than the rule, at least for now. One possible reason for this is that, despite their linguistic proximity, the peoples on the two sides have become vastly different in their thinking, culture, educational backgrounds and habits after almost a century apart following the Japanese takeover of Taiwan in 1895. On top of this comes the continuous interference of political factors, which makes it harder for Chinese brides to quickly assimilate into Taiwanese society.

Besides, most Chinese and Southeast Asian brides are married to low-income Taiwanese families. A portion of such marriages may have been legal and fulfilling, but their children have become a disadvantaged a group from the very outset in terms of education and work conditions, posing a challenge to the government in its efforts to improve public education and cultural quality.

We were happy to see that the government started interviewing would-be Chinese brides last month. However, the policy has come far too late, because there are already 100,000 Chinese brides in Taiwan. The government has the responsibility to keep track of their livelihood and provide necessary help. It should also investigate illegal activities, especially human smuggling, so that the situation may not further spin out of control and cause a greater social disaster for Taiwan.