Editorial: Pan-blue media in a time warp

Taiwan lifted martial law many years ago, but the pan-blue media, which represent the feudal forces, apparently have not lifted their martial law. Over the past few days, many foreigners who witnessed the martial-law era were back in Taiwan to attend seminars and visit the places where human-rights violations were committed. Many of these people had been blacklisted by the authorities because of their sympathy for Taiwan's democracy movement.

Today, there is a different political party in power. We believe these friends of Taiwan must be very sad as they look back at the past. But the absence of other friends from the "A Journey of Remembrance and Appreciation" conference has raised some questions. One person notable by her absence was Tina Chou, who reported from Taipei for the Associated Press.

Chou's reporter's license was revoked by the Government Information Office (GIO) after she voiced suspicions in her reports about the role of the Taiwan Garrison Command in the 1981 death of Carnegie Mellon associate professor Chen Wen-cheng. No explanation for Chou's absence has been given. She may have had her own reasons for not coming. But given that the head of the GIO at the time of Chen's murder was none other than People First Party Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜), now the pan-blue camp's vice presidential candidate, one has to wonder if an effort was made to avoid raising yet another example of Soong's questionable past.

Even setting aside the question of whether Soong's personal fears may have somehow influenced Chou's decision, it is clear the pan-blue media -- including the China Times and the United Daily News -- still have the martial law mindset of Soong's GIO days. Neither paper saw a need to report on the conferences or the visits of so many old foreign friends. It is as if these papers exist in some parallel universe.

Most voters are forgetful -- and conservative. This is why corrupt and venal officials can still get elected by re-packaging themselves. Martial law was lifted more than 10 years ago but the roles that Soong and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Lien Chan played during that period are fresh in the minds of the victims. The pan-blue media, however, is trying to foster a public amnesia. How can they bring up Soong's role -- or Chan's -- as an accomplice in the martial law era?

Indeed, Soong has been the eternal "Director-General Soong" of the GIO. The pan-blue media's journalistic judgments are based on Soong's personal interests. This reminds us of a comment from KMT spokesperson Alex Tsai, who said the pro-Taiwan Liberty Times is a propaganda brochure for the DPP. In light of the behavior of the pan-blue media, Tsai's remarks would be laughable if the situation weren't so pathetic.

For 50 years people were used to reading the pro-China pan-blue media. They view the pan-blue media's ideological framework as normal and take it for granted. They don't notice the brainwashing going on. Any media with a Taiwanese awareness are criticized as "extremist" and "biased."

The furor over the Special Report VCDs showed just how petulant the pan-blue media -- and politicians -- can be when its weaknesses and bias are exposed. They can dish it out, but they can't take it. The VCD incident reminds us: the message disseminated by the pan-blue media, which represent the ancien regime, is full of poison.

Chen still defiant after Bush rebuke

UNPRECEDENTED: The US leader told China's premier that Taiwan's use of referendums might try to change the status quo, which Washington strongly opposes

By Lin Chieh-yu and Charles Snyder

STAFF REPORTERS IN TAIPEI AND WASHINGTON

Thursday, Dec 11, 2003,Page 1

"The comments and actions made by the leader of Taiwan indicate that he may be willing to make decisions unilaterally to change the status quo, which we oppose."

－George W. Bush, US president

A defiant President Chen Shui-bian yesterday reaffirmed his resolution to carry out a "defensive referendum" on the day of the presidential election -- March 20, next year -- to denounce China's military threat to Taiwan and demand the withdrawal of ballistic missiles which threaten the nation.

"The realization of a national referendum, which is set to maintain peace and the status quo of the Taiwan Strait, is not only significant to Taiwan's democracy but also is very important to the entire Asia-Pacific region and the rest the world," Chen said.

Chen's remarks came on the heels of an unprecedented rebuke from US President George W. Bush concerning Chen's aims.

Bush, Tuesday, personally and publicly criticized the referendum plan, confirming in strong terms the heightened concern of his administration that the plan could badly affect US interests by destabilizing the situation in the Taiwan Strait.

Bush made his remarks in a brief press conference at the end of a 40-minute meeting with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao in the Oval Office.

Bush told reporters that he had just told Wen "we oppose any unilateral decision by either China or Taiwan to change the status quo.

"And the comments and actions made by the leader of Taiwan indicate that he may be willing to make decisions unilaterally to change the status quo, which we oppose."

And, while US spokesmen said the administration stuck to its policy that it "does not support Taiwan independence," Wen told the reporters that Bush reiterated to him US "opposition to Taiwan independence," a phrase Bush did not correct or object to.

"We very much appreciate the position adopted by President Bush toward the latest moves and developments in Taiwan, that is, the attempt to resort to referendums of various kinds as an excuse to pursue Taiwan independence," Wen told reporters.

No change on defense

But at the same time, a senior administration official disclosed that Bush also told Wen that if China uses force or coercion against Taiwan, then "we'll have to get involved."

Asked how that statement compared with Bush's pledge in April 2001 that he would do "whatever it took" to help in Taiwan's defense, the official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said: "In his comments to the Chinese, the president did make it very clear that he still sticks by what he said in the year 2001."

In a background briefing after the Bush-Wen meeting, the unnamed official said "the president's top goal is preserving the peace in the Taiwan Strait. We are in no way abandoning support for Taiwan's democracy or for the spread of freedom."

However, he said: "We're seeing developments on both sides of the Strait forcing us to drop some of the ambiguity that has been the policy in the past."

He said Bush told Wen "in no uncertain terms" that the US "would get involved if China tried to use coercion or force to unilaterally change the status of Taiwan." Bush was "very, very forceful on this issue," he said.

On the other hand, the official described Chen's moves as potentially dangerous. "We think anything that looks like a unilateral move toward independence on the part of Taiwan can start down a dangerous road," and is opposed by the Bush administration. "We don't welcome it. We urge caution," the official said.

No change intended

Chen, however denied that it was the intention of the referendum to change the status quo and continued to insist that its purpose was to bolster rather than disrupt stability in the Strait.

"Taiwan is an independent country," Chen said when receiving US Congressman Dan Burton at the Presidential Office yesterday morning. "As the head of state, my mission and obligation is to protect the country's sovereignty, safety, and we must defend Taiwan's current independence status quo from being changed."

"The purpose of the `defensive referendum' is to avoid war, to calm people's fears, and to maintain Taiwan's status quo" Chen said.

"We have no intention to change Taiwan's status quo and we will not allow it to be changed," Chen said.

"But the status quo we want to maintain is a peaceful and stable Taiwan rather than a situation filled with military threats and missile deployment," he stressed.

Chen also stressed that the referendum was important to Taiwan's democratic development, something which, from the outset, China has never been able to accept.

opposed to any democratic change

China has never supported Taiwan's democratic achievements, including the lifting of bans on organizing media and political parties, parliamentary reforms, and direct elections for the president, Chen said.

"China even regarded those developments as `provocative actions' and steps toward independence," the president said.

"Despite China's opposition, however, the people of Taiwan still continued to walk on their own path and successfully accomplished those democratic reforms," Chen said.

He stressed that China can resist being democratic or undertaking reforms, but it has no right to oppose or distort Taiwan's democratic reforms.

US officials, however, dismissed the contention that a referendum is a necessary part of democratic development, a reason Chen has given for holding one, and that by opposing the referendum the US is "thwarting democratic impulses" in Taiwan.

"It would be a big mistake to say that any particular referendum is the essence of democracy. Democracy is much more than that. Democracy is alive and well in Taiwan, and the US is strongly in support of it," said the unnamed US official who had described Chen's moves as "potentially dangerous."

Chen also appealed to other countries to examine their attitude toward China's military threat and recognize that Taiwan had to react to this threat and was doing so peacefully.

"The international community should neither just take China's military threat as a matter of course," Chen said.

"Nor should it regard the Taiwanese people's determination and efforts in strengthening their democracy as well as securing peace, and expressing concern about the missile threat, as actions of provocation," Chen said.

Chen stressed that Taiwan will not allow China or a few unelected leaders in Beijing to unilaterally determine the definition of democracy, provocation and peace

Despite Bush's tough statement, which took many observers in Washington by surprise, administration spokesmen struggled to maintain that US policy toward Taiwan has not changed.

Shortly after the Bush-Wen meeting, White House spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters that "our policy remains the same."

"The president made it clear that [his warning] applies to both Beijing's possible use of force and Taiwan itself, including referenda and constitutional reform that would change the status quo."

"It is our view," he went on, "that the recent statements and proposals coming out of Taiwan ... would imply a desire to change the status quo."

McClellan refused to discuss the possibility of any retaliatory action by Washington, such as sanctions or reduced arms sales, calling them "hypotheticals."

"I think we will continue to emphasize what we already have," he said

A source from the Presidential Office echoed this, but at the same time, said that Chen has "fully noted" Bush's serious concern.

They said that Bush was under pressure from his own National Security Council (NSC).

"We understand that the Bush administration's NSC seems to be less trustful of Taiwan," the source said. "However, President Bush's remark still showed that the US government has left space for more communication between the two sides."

The sources said that they had worked out a number of scenarios in connection with Wen's trip and little that was said surprised them.

The only two elements that did surprise them were Bush's saying he was "opposed" to the defensive referendum rather than using a weaker formula such as "does not support" and Bush's direct criticism of the "leader of Taiwan" instead of referring to the Taiwan government in general terms.

Deputy Secretary-General to the President Joseph Wu also said that Taiwan would like to show understanding that the US government must make a goodwill gesture to Wen, but Taiwan was also comforted by the fact that the Bush administration had shown no special favor toward China in the triangular US-Taiwan-China relationship.

"We can see that the US reaffirmed it will get `involved' if China takes military action against Taiwan," Wu said

"And the remark was not modified by any precondition such as an act of provocation by Taiwan," he said, adding " we can say that the US intended to make its stance clearer to both sides of Taiwan Strait," he said.

Bush's comments on referendums draw mixed reaction in Washington

By Charles Snyder

STAFF REPORTER IN WASHINGTON

Thursday, Dec 11, 2003,Page 3

US President George W. Bush's warning to President Chen Shui-bian about his plans for a referendum was not a complete surprise in Washington, but they were received differently by different observers. Most felt that, in view of Chen's insistence on holding a referendum, they were inevitable.

Bush's remarks distressed con-servatives in Washington who were among Bush's biggest supporters and were instrumental in forging his Taiwan policy. One told the Taipei Times he considered Bush's remarks "sickening."

John Tkacik, senior fellow in Asian studies at the Heritage Foundation, said, "for the president of the United States to appear on the podium with the premier of communist China and take to task the democratically-elected president of Taiwan for the purpose of purportedly moving in the direction of unilateral change in the status quo is jarring."

"Obviously, President Chen will not be making decisions unilaterally. He will have the approval and votes of over half of Taiwan's voter" on the referendum," Tkacik said.

Taiwan's future "is something for the people of Taiwan to decide, not the people of China or the people of the United States," he said.

Alan Romberg, director of the China program at the Henry L. Stimson Center, said that with Chen's insistence on holding the referendum and China's sharp response, "the actions in Taiwan were beginning to create some risk to peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait.

"The administration has tried very hard to deal with this quite privately. Obviously there was a sense that this wasn't having an effect," he said.

The referendum was seen as "provocative, and therefore destabilizing and contrary to US interests," Romberg said.

"There is a sense in this town that Chen is simply ignoring US equities here," he said.

David Brown, associate director of Asian studies at Johns Hopkins University, said he felt Bush's pressure would not deter Chen from going ahead with the referendum.

Brown said Chen was "too personally identified with it" and has bragged in campaign rallies how he has handled the situation with Washington successfully.

"I don't see how he cannot go ahead and schedule this unless the opposition in some fashion prevents him from doing it," Brown said.

"Chen has painted himself into a corner on this referendum in such a way that if he were to announce that he wasn't going to go ahead with it, he would look spineless to his supporters," he said.

US experts greet Bush's comments with shock

REGIONAL ISSUES: Some were outraged, while others said Bush's statement was motivated by the need for Chinese pressure on North Korea

BY Debby Wu

STAFF REPORTER

Thursday, Dec 11, 2003,Page 1

American legal experts described US President George W. Bush's concession to Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao yesterday as "disgusting."

President of International League for Human Rights Scott Horton said that he was "shocked" to hear Bush's remarks and he believed Bush did not speak for the majority of the American people whom past surveys have shown to support Taiwan's self-determination and referendum rights.

Horton said that the remarks on opposing any unilateral change to the status quo in the cross-strait relationship were actually a result of the US' keen desire to get China's active support on the North Korea issue.

He pointed out that North Korea grabbed the chance to misbehave with missile tests and development of nuclear weapons while the US military has been overextended with two simultaneous military campaigns, in Afghanistan and Iraq.

As a result, the Bush administration concluded that China's help was needed to resolve the Korean issue, Horton said.

"President Bush made the concession to China because the US is keen to get China involved in the talks with North Korea, and it is disgusting the US made such concessions to an authoritarian state," Horton said.

Horton said that most senior US government officials, however, considered Bush's statement as a concession that would be valued by China and cost them nothing.

"I don't think the Bush administration and its senior foreign policy advisors care even a second about the referendum issue in Taiwan. It's not important to them."

"What is important to them now is to bring China along as a collaborator in the North Korea talks," he said.

Jordan Paust, the University of Houston Law Foundation professor of law, also described Bush's words and the concession they implied as "frightening" and "disgusting."

Paust said that the US walked the same road of self-determination itself, and Taiwanese people should also be allowed to determine their own future.

Meanwhile, Senior Advisor to President Peng Ming-min said that what Bush meant by "status quo" was not clear and he would not put too much emphasis on it.

"The status quo in the cross-strait relationship is that Taiwan is a sovereign independent nation," Peng said.

Peng said that it was China, by targeting 500 missiles at Taiwan, that was attempting to change the status quo.

Horton, Paust and Peng all responded to Bush's remarks during the International Human Rights Roundtable held by Academia Historica and Preparatory Office of National Human Rights Museum yesterday.

Beijing still myopic in approachs to Taiwan

By Chiang Chen-hou

Thursday, Dec 11, 2003,Page 8

The development of cross-strait relations is proceeding along two axes.

First, Beijing is shifting its strategy regarding the Taiwan issue from a direct way to an indirect way, which means the Chinese government is resorting to pressuring the Bush administration in order to influence Taiwan's internal affairs.

Second, it is obvious that both the pan-green camp and the pan-blue camp will converge on the ideological spectrum after the passage of the referendum legislation.

Given the development of these two trends, China is going to run short of ways to deal with Taiwan-related issues.

Since the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) came into power in 2000, the Chinese government has adopted the "wait and see" policy.

Beijing opposes any kind of peaceful dialogue with Taipei. That is because it regards the DPP government as equivalent to Taiwan independence, and the Chen Shui-bian administration won't commit itself to Beijing's "one China" principle or give up the "state-to-state" model of cross-strait relations.

Therefore, Beijing continues to intimidate Taiwan by the use of force, while expecting the pan-blue camp, which stands for the "one China" principle, to return to power on the other.

Most importantly, the Chinese government is attempting to manipulate its political leverage to affect Washington's stance with regard to cross-strait relations.

Unfortunately, Beijing under-estimates the US commitment to democracy. There is no grave reason for the Bush administration to interrupt Taiwan's pursuit of democracy as the DPP government has succeeded in portraying the referendum as a sine qua non of the nation's democracy. Chen repeatedly emphasized -- in an interview with the The New York Times -- that holding a referendum would have no bearing on the so-called unification or independence issues.

Likewise, Beijing has to persuade the Bush administration to believe that holding a referendum is equal to Taiwan independence. The Chen administration has shown considerable flexible political finesse in this respect.

In the case of the referendum legislation, furthermore, the Chinese government was disappointed with the pan-blue camp.

Beijing had expected that the pan-blue camp would block the legislation of a referendum law. But the pan-blue camp has long been accused of standing in line with China, and they decided to make an about-face on this issue to eliminate this accusation.

As a result, the pan-green and the pan-blue camps will take similar standpoints toward the Chinese government in some ways. In other words, Beijing should drop its unrealistic expectations of Taiwan's political parties.

The people in Taiwan are the key. It is impossible for the government to approve Beijing's "one China" precondition for talks if most Taiwanese people oppose it. This is related to the nation's democracy rather than Taiwan independence.

If Beijing can't figure this out, the standoff between two sides of the Taiwan Strait will probably continue.

As the experience of the 1996 presidential election showed, both military intimidation and verbal attacks by Beijing are counterproductive.

Chinese civilization is famous for its benevolence and peace-loving nature instead of hostility and bellicosity.

Unfortunately, most Taiwan-ese people feel that Beijing's policy toward Taiwan completely contradicts that principle of Chinese civilization.

Chiang Chen-hou is a doctoral student at the University of Denver's Graduate School of International Studies.

It's official: DPP chooses its man

NO SURPRISES: The DPP selected President Chen Shui-bian as its 2004 election candidate; the party also announced the principal heads of the re-election drive

By Chang Yun-ping

STAFF REPORTER

Thursday, Dec 11, 2003,Page 1

President Chen Shui-bian yesterday was officially nominated by his Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) as its presidential candidate.

In his acceptance speech Chen said he would persist with reforms aimed at the normalization of Taiwan's democracy.

Chen proposed a three-stage plan to accomplish this.

"First, I will seek to normalize cross-strait relations and political competition after March 20 next year; second, to terminate the existing legislative chaos after the [December] 2004 Legislative Election in order to balance legislative and administrative powers; and third, to push for a new constitution in 2006 to turn Taiwan into a "normal, complete and great democratic country," Chen said.

Heading a presidential campaign under the slogan of "Believe in Taiwan, persist with reforms," Chen said the coming campaign would decide whether Taiwan could stick to its course as an independent state separate from China and whether it could further democratic reforms, or face the comeback of the corrupt and authoritarian regime of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT).

Chen is expected to announce Vice President Annette Lu as his running mate this afternoon at the DPP's Taipei headquarters.

Meanwhile, five major party figures are ready to assume roles in managing Chen's campaign. Premier Yu Shyi-kun is to become director general of the campaign headquarters, DPP Secretary General Chang Chun-hsiung will head the party's campaign affairs department, Kaohsiung City Mayor Frank Hsieh will be campaign director in southern Taiwan, Taipei County Commissioner Su Chen-chang would direct campaign management in northern Taiwan, and Presidential Secretary General Chiou I-jen will be the executive director of the campaign team.

On the economic front, Chen promised to make Taiwan's economic growth rate increase to 5 percent next year, reduce the unemployment rate to 4 percent by 2005 and expand the overall industrial R&D budget to more than 3 percent of the GDP.

Legislators seek blacklist papers

DECLASSIFICATION: DPP Legislator Hsiao Bi-khim co-sponsored a draft law seeking to uncover and collate classified material on former political dissidents

By Fiona Lu

STAFF REPORTER

Thursday, Dec 11, 2003,Page 2

Two Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers yesterday pushed for the declassification of official documents on people blacklisted by the former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) regime.

"The draft Statute Governing Declassification of Blacklist Documents was presented today to honor Human Rights Day. We hope that the bill, when passed, will reveal the truth of our history," said DPP Legislator Hsiao Bi-khim yesterday.

"The statute was drafted after consulting a law formulated in Germany after unification. It gave people the right to look up confidential documents filed by the East German intelligence agency during the illegal surveillance of its people," Hsiao told a news conference.

The KMT's illegal surveillance and prevention of political dissidents from re-entering the country during and after the martial law era not only violated the Constitution's protection of individual freedom of movement, it also caused tragedy for many families here, Hsiao said.

She added that the documents awaiting declassification should be publicly displayed to educate people and remind democratically elected governments to be vigilant in upholding the rule of law.

The KMT government drew up the blacklist during the martial law era to prevent political dissidents, mostly Taiwanese studying overseas, from returning to the country.

Hsiao and fellow DPP Legislator Chen Tang-shan developed the draft, which would instruct the National Archives Administration to set up a task force charged with collecting and declassifying papers containing the backgrounds and indictments of people that fell foul of the KMT authorities.

DPP lawmakers said these documents were currently dispersed among different organs, including the Bureau of Immigration, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, overseas embassies and the KMT's party history archive.

A list of 440 victims of the KMT regime's blacklist was presented by Hsiao, many of whom had been prevented from coming home for decades. The total number of blacklist victims could be more than 10,000, according to researchers who have presented papers at conferences on the subject.

Presidential advisor Alice King, World United Formosans for Independence Chairman Ng Chiau-tong, former Taiwan Independence Party Chairman Hsu Shih-kai, DPP deputy secretary general Lee Ying-yuan and Legislator Trong Chai also attended yesterday's press conference.

"The call to declassify the documents ... signals that the country realizes the principle of governance must rely on a complete system of democracy and law," Chai said.

He added that further progress in declassification would prove that party-state regimes with a perverted sense of power that used intelligence agents to control their people would eventually fall and become the ashes of history.

Endorsing the draft, Ng Chiau-tong said he looked forward to seeing the statute passed "so that I can find out how terrible and brutal I have really been in describing KMT agents."