Pro-independence group says Kiribati may be litmus test

By Melody Chen

STAFF REPORTER

Saturday, Nov 15, 2003,Page 3

Minister of Foreign Affairs Eugene Chien yesterday told a pro-independence alliance the government is working hard to try to make the country's embassy in Kiribati the first Taiwanese embassy to bear the name "Taiwan."

Holding a 45-minute closed-door meeting with members of the Alliance to Rectify the Name of Taiwan, Chien said using "Taiwan" in the title of the country's embassy in Kiribati is a goal his ministry was pressing for.

The alliance, one of the main organizers of recent rallies calling for a change of the country's name, held several talks with Chien over the name-change issue.

Prior to the meeting, Chien accepted two placards from the alliance. The placards read "Taiwan Economic and Cultural Office in the US" and "Taiwan Affairs Bureau in Hong Kong."

Four national policy advisors, Ng Chiao-tong, Huang Hua, Chuang Po-lin and Huang Tien-lin, were present during the meeting.

As most of Taiwan's overseas representative offices use the country's capital, Taipei, in their name, alliance members urged Chien to keep the promise made by his vice minister, Michael Kau, to change the offices' names.

During a legislative session last month, Kau said the ministry would try to change at least half of the country's overseas representative offices' names to "Taiwan" within a year.

Chien responded to the alliance's request by saying the name change was only possible when countries hosting Taiwan's representative offices agree to do so.

"We cannot change the representative offices' names because our government unilaterally desires to do so," Peter Wang, coordinator of the alliance, quoted Chien as saying.

As for the alliance's demand that the government adopt the name "Taiwan" when presenting the country's bid to join the UN next year, Chien said the request would be difficult to achieve, given the international situation surrounding Taiwan's status.

Describing the alliance's previous meetings with Chien to push for the country's name change as "explosive," Wang said yesterday's meeting was relatively calm.

"We perceive the ministry's attitude toward the name change issue has shifted. They are really working toward the goal. This is partly because they know the will of the people is behind the change," Wang said.

Wang was referring to a massive rally on Sept. 6 co-organized by the alliance and led by former President Lee Teng-hui. Around 150,000 people joined the rally.

"Taiwan is our country, the beautiful name of our common mother. But people living on this land have been bringing her shame over the past 400 years," a statement issued by the alliance said.

The statement noted Taiwan has been humiliating itself by attempting to enter the UN using "the Republic of China [ROC]" as the nation's name over the past decade.

Taiwan will never succeed in the bid if it keeps trying to use the name ROC in its bid to join the UN, the statement added.

Tsai Ing-wen gets chilly reception in US

By Charles Snyder

STAFF REPORTER IN WASHINGTON

Saturday, Nov 15, 2003,Page 3

"Do you guys really know what you're doing?"

－an unnamed conference participant

Mainland Affairs Council chairman Tsai Ing-wen received an apparent frosty reception by some US China experts as she began a round of speeches to Washington think tanks on cross-Strait relations during a visit that began Thursday.

Tsai is in Washington to try to explain President Chen Shui-bian's policies toward cross-Strait issues, but sharp questions about Chen's plans for a referendum and a new constitution seemed to overshadow the messages on Taiwan-China relations that Tsai brought with her to convey to the US scholars and policymakers.

Tsai spoke to an assembly of specialists in a closed-door meeting sponsored by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies Thursday, the first such encounter in her trip.

While the session was closed to press coverage and was off the record, participants gave the Taipei Times a rundown on what took place in the two-hour session after it was over.

During introductory remarks, academics at the conference "hit her with heavy questions about, `Do you guys really know what you're doing? You seem to be running around here on the edge of a cliff,'" one participant quoted them as saying.

"They laid out some fairly stiffly worded comments. The tone was, `look, you guys are really pushing the envelope hard here. [The US] is in the middle of an attempt to keep a lot of balls juggled, and do you know how complicated and difficult you're making life for us?'" the participant quoted them as saying.

The conference's hosts said that "things are very bad, what Taiwan is doing is in effect provocative, and that the United States is the one that's going to have to pay for it," another participant said.

Tsai's reaction, according to participants, was "we are not stupid, and will not do something that will cause problems. She gave a soothing speech," one participant recalled.

Tsai declined to discuss US-Taiwan relations or US-China relations, saying she was there to discuss only Taiwan-China relations. She emphasized at the meeting that a new constitution was needed to deepen Taiwan's democracy, focusing on how the current constitution's inefficiencies, with multiple layers of government and unclear powers create not only a "lack of democracy" but also hurt Taiwan's economy as well.

Tsai repeated Chen's commitment to his inaugural pledge of the four-noes-plus-one, and stressed that the new constitution would not change the name of the Republic of China or deal with questions of independence or unification, or otherwise affect Taiwan's international status quo.

While the main thrust of her visit is to meet with think tanks, Tsai is also expected to meet with some US officials during her visit.

Neither the Taipei Economic and Cultural Relations Office, Tsai nor the US government would confirm any meetings, although the State Department appeared to confirm that some meetings had been planned.

Referring queries about any such meetings to TECO, a State Department spokeswoman would say only that "we meet from time to time with Taiwan representatives, but do not provide details regarding these contacts."

That verbal formula is the standard answer given to reporters when meetings between Taiwan and US officials are, in fact, held.

Editorial: China's espionage threat

The most serious espionage case in years was cracked this week. Tseng Chao-wen, 58, a retired military intelligence officer, is alleged to have gathered classified information for China through former colleague Chen Sui-chiung, 55, a staffer in the defense ministry's Military Intelligence Bureau (MIB). This security threat was erased when the pair were arrested on Wednesday on suspicion of spying.

But this was not China's only espionage network here. Spies have been planted throughout the country, gathering information and endangering the national security. This should come as no surprise. The problem is how to deal with it.

Not long ago, National Security Council (NSC) Secretary-General Kang Ning-hsiang told the legislature that the biggest threat to the national security is the large number of gaps that exist in coastal surveillance, and not the 600 Chinese ballistic missiles aimed at Taiwan. Kang's opinion is defensible, but the greatest threat that China poses has nothing to do with the coastline.

The greatest threat comes through various legal and illegal channels. China has exported diseases, drugs and weapons to Taiwan. At the same time, certain local media, politicians and activist groups are promoting unification in the name of patriotism. The public should be very concerned about these activities.

The Bureau of Investigation also estimates that there are over 3,000 Chinese agents here. These agents gather intelligence on Taiwan's political and economic structures and personnel, science parks and other strategically important locations, defense installations in particular.

China has also sent Taiwanese people back here to carry out tasks aimed at achieving unification. In particular, they have recently begun to recruit legislators and powerful business figures to participate in "advanced studies" in China. After being offered preferential treatment, these individuals come back as spokespeople for China and the Chinese nationalist agenda. The propagandist role they play is obvious, but the reaction of authorities is, more often than not, flaccid.

China has even begun to recruit retired government officials to further their business interests in China, as well as entice young Taiwanese to go to China as tourists or for study. This is compelling evidence of how the unificationist agenda is becoming more diverse and creative. In Taiwan we see no corresponding mechanisms to withstand this trend, and government agencies are not sufficiently integrated to develop and execute measures to address the threat. These gaps in the national security have to be filled.

It is imperative that the NSC, the agency in charge of our national security, the Bureau of Investigation and the MIB review each ministry and their organizational structure to this end. These agencies would also do well to take a good look at their own structures and practices and build up a national security net to protect the public from both the threat without and the emerging threat within.

China's espionage activities have been growing in sophistication and scope, and the response has been sluggish. But a late response is much better than no response at all.