Commission asks for name change to avoid confusion

By Melody Chen

STAFF REPORTER

Friday, Nov 21, 2003,Page 2

The Cabinet's Overseas Chinese Affairs Commission (OCAC) announced yesterday it is considering replacing the word "Chinese" in its title with "Compatriot," in order to prevent foreigners from mistaking overseas Taiwanese for Chinese citizens.

Head of the commission, Chang Fu-mei, told overseas Chinese representatives, who traveled to Taiwan for the agency's annual conference on overseas Chinese affairs, that the commission's name often causes people to misunderstand its function.

"Most countries regard people from the People's Republic of China [PRC] as Chinese and those from the Republic of China [ROC] as Taiwanese," Chang said.

Foreigners often mistake the commission for an agency serving people from the PRC because of the word "Chinese" in its title, she said.

Nevertheless, Chang said, simply changing the word "Chinese" to "Taiwanese" will spark an outcry. There are overseas Chinese who do not see themselves as Taiwanese, she said.

"They will be upset if they see `Taiwanese' in the agency's official title. They will not tolerate `Chinese' being crossed out from the title," Chang said.

"If we change `Chinese' to `Taiwanese,' I believe many people will oppose it. I don't think now is the appropriate time to make such a change," she said.

Another concern about making the name change is that the move might provoke China, Chang said.

Replacing "Chinese" with "compatriot," is therefore a more practical approach to re the solve confusion caused by the title, she said, and "compatriot is a relatively neutral word."

Moreover, if the agency replaces "Chinese" with "compatriot," the abbreviation of its title, "OCAC," will remain unchanged, Chang said.

Another advantage of using "compatriot" is that the agency's Web site and related documents will not have to go through troublesome changes because the abbreviation will remain the same.

Chang did not say when the proposed name change will be implemented but said the agency has been considering the issue since last year.

She said the commission has to carefully observe the development of Taiwan's role in the international arena before making a final decision about when to change the agency's name.

In a legislative session last month, Chang also mentioned the proposal to change the agency's name.

`Irrational' China should mind its own business: Tsai

Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Chairwoman Tsai Ing-wen told China to mind its own business yesterday after Beijing said Taiwan was risking war by pushing for a new constitution and referendums.

The Cabinet said China was being "irrational" and interfering with its internal affairs, and Taiwan's top policymaker for Chinese affairs criticized Beijing for persistently using the threat of force.

"Military threat is not an effective solution to cross-strait problems. It shouldn't even be an option," Tsai said in a speech to delegates of the Overseas Chinese Commission yesterday.

For two straight days, China's state-run press had focused on its Taiwan policy.

Wang Zaixi, vice minister of China's Taiwan Affairs Office, was quoted as saying on Wednesday that Taiwan's "extreme push for independence" crosses China's red line and risks war.

Analysts say that while China is closely watching developments in Taiwan, an escalation of tensions was not expected for now.

"China sees the issues of a new constitution and referendum as hot potatoes in cross-strait relations," said Chao Chun-shan, a China watcher at National Chengchi University.

"But I don't expect China to go beyond rhetoric before the election in March because past experience shows it will only fan anti-China sentiment in Taiwan," he said.

Washington said on Wednesday it would be unacceptable to use force to settle the long-standing dispute between China and Taiwan, and opposed any attempt by either side to unilaterally change the status quo.

As part of his re-election campaign, President Chen Shui-bian has angered China by calling for a new constitution and a law that allows referendums to be held to decide major policy issues.

Chen has said both steps would deepen democracy in Taiwan

But analysts think Chen is using them as tools to prod the nation's ambiguous political status quo and push it towards a permanent split from China.

New constitution to bolster human rights, Chen says

By Lin Chieh-yu

STAFF REPORTER

Friday, Nov 21, 2003,Page 1

President Chen Shui-bian said yesterday that human rights will be a priority in drafting a new constitution.

"Taiwan's current Constitution only designates 14 kinds of human rights protection, which is behind the standards of other modern constitutional countries," Chen told foreign guests at the Presidential Office.

To address that gap, Chen said, "We need to consult with international experts to assist Taiwan in advancing the country's new constitution."

Chen said he hopes international experts can help the country develop a mechanism for comprehensive rights protection.

He added that a new constitution must fit Taiwan's present reality and meet its practical needs.

Chen was addressing a delegation from the Geneva-based International Commission of Jurists (ICJ).

He said Taiwan is willing to contribute to the international human rights field and that he hopes the country can reach its ultimate goal of joining global rights organizations.

Chen said he had already outlined the goal of making the country a rights-oriented nation in his inauguration speech in 2000, adding that the government has proposed concrete goals and chalked up achievements during past three-and-a-half years.

"We suggested that the Legislative Yuan make the International Bill of Rights a domestic law, which could become a `Taiwan Bill of Rights.' We also drafted a bill to set up a Human Rights Commission under the Presidential Office," Chen said.

"Now we are devoted to the drafting of a human rights law, which is a crucial part of the new constitution, linking Taiwan's progress with the international human rights system," Chen said.

Chen told the delegation that since former ICJ chairman Kofi Kumado visited Taiwan in 2001, the country has raised its international visibility through the bilateral cooperation.

Since the Taipei Bar Association obtained membership in the ICJ, Chen said, the association has been able to attend various UN-sponsored human rights meetings in Geneva over the past few years.

US warns China not to use force against Taiwan

`UNACCEPTABLE': US officials believe Beijing's tough talk may represent its frustration about its inability to influence the constitutional changes in Taiwan

By Charles Snyder

STAFF REPORTER IN WASHINGTON

Friday, Nov 21, 2003,Page 3

The US has warned China not to consider the use of military force against Taiwan, as Beijing continues to escalate its war of words against President Chen Shui-bian's pledge to hold a referendum and write a new constitution, which China views as attempts to declare indepen-dence.

"The use of force to resolve cross-strait differences is unacceptable," State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said.

"We oppose any attempt by either side to unilaterally change the status quo in the Taiwan Strait," he told reporters in his regular daily press briefing.

He was responding to a statement overnight by Wang Zaixi, the vice minister of the Taiwan Affairs Office of China's State Council, that Chen's recent pronouncements and actions "run the risk of triggering a war" between China and Taiwan, according to mainland news reports.

"If the Taiwan authorities collude with all splittist forces to openly engage in pro-independence activities and challenge the mainland and the one-China principle, the use of force may become unavoidable," Wang said, according to a report in the Chinese-language media.

Privately, though, US officials appear to be downplaying Wang's remarks and the increasingly strident warnings Beijing has issued in recent days.

One senior administration official says that Beijing's tough talk may represent a "frustration" China feels about its inability to influence the course of events.

"They feel hamstrung," the official told the Taipei Times, "that they can't respond in an overly negative way or heavy-handed way, because to do so risks a repeat of 1996 and 2000, when they actually contributed to the fortunes of the candidate they did not wan to win."

He was referring to the missile exercise China mounted in the Strait in 1996, that might have contributed to the election of former president Lee Teng-hui, and Beijing's bellicose pronouncements, including a White Paper that threatened military action in 2000, that is seen as having contributed to Chen's victory.

Meanwhile, US and Chinese officials have stepped up their consultation about the Taiwan Strait crisis in recent days. Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly raised the issue in Beijing, where he is visiting to discuss the North Korea situation, according to US officials, and the State Department has met with Chinese Embassy officials to discuss the situation.

"We talk to the Chinese every day," noted one administration official. "We don't want to see the ratcheting up of tensions," and have told that to the Chinese, the official said.

The increasingly strident Chinese comments are gaining the attention of top US officials.

"We're noting the fact that Beijing is more concerned and [we are] paying attention to what they're saying, both privately and publicly," a senior official said.

Nevertheless, officials say "we're not worried."

US-China specialists note that the most threatening of the comments recently have come from Wang's Taiwan Affairs Office.

"They appear particularly frustrated," a US official said, "because it is their policy, and people are complaining to them that `You guys are not saying anything or doing anything' about Chen's activities," an official noted.

The White House has declined comment on the situation.

Maker of `Special Report' says VCD series is legal

POLITICAL FIGHT: The lawyer representing the producer of the controversial series said the VCDs are legitimate and that the discs' director would soon reveal his identity

By Cody Yiu

STAFF REPORTER

Friday, Nov 21, 2003,Page 1

A lawyer representing the producers of the Special Report series of VCDs maintained the legality of the series yesterday, showing a license for the company behind the discs.

The lawyer, representing the production company Taiwan Media Revolution Production, showed the license in the name of Bi-sheng Broadcasting Ltd at a press conference yesterday.

"This company is registered with the Taipei City Government, as you can see here," Johnson Chuang said while holding a copy of the license.

"Furthermore, for the first two parts of the VCD, we have printed `Taiwan Media Revolution Production House' on each copy; therefore, the distribution of the VCD is legal," he said.

According to Chuang, the producer of the VCD, who is also the director of the production house, is Lu Tung-long. However, Chuang failed to identify Lu.

"Lu will reveal himself to the public [today]," Chuang said.

"I was told that copies of parts III and IV [of the series] have been confiscated by customs at the CKS International Airport," Chuang said.

Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lin Chung-mo said, "Taiwan Media Revolution Production House is the conscientious voice of our society, but has received threats from the mafia."

Lin also said the DPP has nothing to do with the VCD series.

Hsu Kuo-yung, a DPP Taipei City councilor, said that neither the promotional VCDs distributed during People First Party (PFP) Chairman James Soong's presidential campaign in 2000 nor the ones distributed during Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou's election bid had registration labels printed on them.

"However, none of these VCDs were seized. Clearly, it's a case of double standards," Hsu said.

At the legislature yesterday, Lin questioned the Directorate General of Customs on whether parts III and IV of the series had been confiscated.

"There are four customs offices: in Taipei, Keelung, Taichung and Kaohsiung. So far, there have been no reports of VCD seizures," said Chung Huo-chen, director of the Directorate General of Customs.

Chung said that as VCDs involve patent rights, customs officers will make an extra effort to look for illegal VCDs.

"However, we did not add extra personnel to deal with the Special Report VCDs," Chung said.

Meanwhile, PFP Legislator Chiu Yi yesterday added Yao Fan-chi and Lin Yi-fang, both directors with Taiwan's Voice, to the list of defendants in his libel lawsuit against the actors and alleged key individuals in the production of the series.

According to Chiu, Yao and Lin had assisted in the production of the VCD. The court will hold its first session on Chiu's lawsuit this morning.

According to Chuang, "[On Friday] morning, the producer of the VCD, Lu Tung-long, will file a libel lawsuit at the Taipei District Court against James Soong for calling the VCD `very despicable.'"

In media, ethnic manipulation

By Steve Chen\

Friday, Nov 21, 2003,Page 8

Two small VCDs are driving pro-China unificationists crazy. They are causing People First Party (PFP) Chairman James Soong to curse endlessly and Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou to confiscate the VCDs without any legal basis. It's easy to see that the makers of these two discs have stepped on the toes of certain people.

Soong and his fellow travellers' crying and weeping and their frightening attitudes, threatening to bring lawsuits and confiscate published materials, makes one wonder if they know what age they are living in. They still naively believe that they are living in the martial law era of the two Chiangs (the late presidents Chiang Kai-shek and Chiang Ching-kuo), they still naively believe they can frame President Chen Shui-bian and have him sent to jail as they did back then and they believe they can continue the White Terror and suppress the rights of others to express criticism any which way they want.

Thanks to the history of control exercised by the two Chiangs, the media has been more or less dominated by a minority of "new resident" media with die-hard ideologies. Some of these people support the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), the PFP or the New Party. Some are fellow travellers of the communists and some frequently offend the Taiwanese because of their own ethnic prejudices. Such phenomena did not occur just under the two Chiangs; they have been the main source of social disorder ever since former president Lee Teng-hui assumed the presidency.

For example, on the evening of Nov. 5, at about 10pm, almost every TV news station, including Formosa Television, broadcast a farewell ceremony for Soong May-ling. Apart from the viewers from an ethnic minority, the majority of Taiwanese that day were most interested in whether Taiwan had won its baseball match. They didn't care what time the Soong ceremony was broadcast. Such monopolizing, bandit-like behavior shows the serious shortcomings of the nation's media.

Although Taiwan has entered the democratic era, many media, from newspapers and television to radio, still act as the hatchet men of the forces remaining from the Chiangs' era. The most common example is the way both of the country's pro-China newspapers often mobilize journalists and columnists from a special ethnic group, and use articles written by authors and academics of that same group, to create rumors by using obscure references such as "It is said," "It is reported" and "A certain top level official points out." This method has long been used to make libelous statements against and criticize local politicians and "Taiwan" awareness.

TV shows such as those hosted by Lee Tao and Lee Yen-chiu often invite guests from one ethnic group, adopt one-way ethnic prejudice and accept incoming calls mostly from viewers from the same group to openly play on the provincial origin complex. Their shows and other similar political commentary shows are openly biased in favor of their guests from a special ethnic group. These people even use their position as hosts to assist their guests.

A common scene on such shows is the guests from a certain ethnic group, who almost always are in a majority, together with the host, who is of the same group, openly pressuring the Taiwanese guests, who are in the minority. Sometimes every guest is a member of that certain ethnic group, and together they sing of the demise of Taiwan.

In fact, on the News Night Club show on Nov. 4, Lee Yen-chiu invited three "military specialists" from a certain ethnic group. The four of them then used satire and cursing to proclaim the demise of Taiwan's national defense, and once again used the old cliche of an invasion by the Chinese communists to try to scare the Taiwanese.

Radio shows are just the same. From the time you turn your receiver on in the morning, you will hear show hosts from a certain ethnic group hard at work at their brainwashing mission, constantly "educating" the public to hate local politicians.

In the past few years, several shows with mainlander actors imitating local politicians have been broadcast on TV. Using the pretext of freedom of speech, local politicians are slandered. An actor, who in his role as "Lee Tsu-hsi", has long lampooned former president Lee Teng-hui, showed his true colors as soon as he became engaged in politics through his leanings towards a certain political party. It turns out he had always been a blue-camp supporter. Had the former president been as small-minded as Soong is, he would have sued the actor long ago and had him thrown in jail.

It is ironic that these people for many years have been directing ethnic struggle through the media, often claiming that other ethnic groups have been playing to the ethnicity complex when they are the ones really doing so. They ignore the fact that history will inevitably judge them. The sheer shamelessness of these people is frightening.

In fact, if we leave aside the statements made by these people, and just look at Article 5 of the Employment Service Act we find that: "To ensure equal employment opportunities, an employer shall not discriminate against job applicants on the basis of race, social class, language, belief, religion, political party, origin, sex, marital status, appearance, features, disability, or past membership of a labor union." The more than 50 percent of mainlanders working in a large majority of the media have long stifled the fairness of employment opportunities in that industry for other ethnic groups. The Taiwanese people should bring a lawsuit against these media.

Although this ugly ethnic struggle has been going on for many years, some people from the blue camp's so-called "localization faction" participating in call-in shows not only disregard the fact of this struggle, but actually help the bad guys by tolerating the irrationality of that struggle. History has already judged former KMT vice chairman Wang Ching-wei and those of his ilk. How will history view these localization activists who have taken to these bandits as they take to their own fathers, who have been used as tools to play the two sides against each other?

Most of the local politicians who have been slandered and libelled by these unificationist media are magnanimous. They don't stoop to arguing with the people engaged in this ethnic struggle. A majority of the Taiwanese are also tolerant -- in fact too tolerant, which has allowed the old lies to be acted out repeated, almost turning this country into a nation of lies.

Many Taiwanese are no longer able accept such media behavior. They are turning to the Internet to voice their discontent. The Special Report VCDs are merely part of the first wave of counterattacks.

Steve Chen is an associate professor in the statistics department at Tamkang University.