Editorial: US leaves Taiwan to tango alone

US President George W. Bush handed a big present to Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao during Wen's visit to Washington. During the press conference after their meeting, Bush said that "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." Bush's remarks have deeply hurt Taiwan.

It is understandable that the US needs to maintain close, cooperative relations with China on the issues of North Korea, terrorism and bilateral trade.

Bush might have misunderstood the nature of Taiwan's defensive referendum. Or he might have been trying to be courteous to his guest. But his remarks against Taiwan were a serious mistake.

First, referendums are merely a deepening of Taiwan's democracy and civil rights and are compatible with the values of democratic societies the world over, including the US. Second, the proposed referendum, which will oppose China's missile threat and its threats to use force against Taiwan, does not involve any change to the status quo.

There have been suggestions in Taiwan that the country's first-ever referendum should be on the sovereignty issue, but the government did not accept this idea.

Taiwan is facing criticism even though it is not suggesting a change to the status quo. This is unfair.

"No use of force by China, no independence for Taiwan" has always been the US government's policy toward the two sides of the Taiwan Strait. The cross-strait situation, however, is a dynamic one. China is continuing with its military buildup and missile deployments against Taiwan. The situation has already been tipped out of balance.

A defensive referendum opposing the Chinese missile threat merely expresses a wish on the part of the Taiwanese people and reminds the world of China's military threat. The only change in the status quo that this referendum asks for is that China end its military threat.

It is as if Taiwan is being robbed by a knife-wielding thug and yet the police scold the nation for screaming for help. This is absurd.

Interaction between the two sides of the Strait ended because China refused to have any contact with President Chen Shui-bian. As a result, the two sides have been unable to hold negotiations on issues such as the fight against cross-strait crime.

A defensive referendum is a concrete action aimed at telling the Chinese government that military threats are a dead end, and that the people of Taiwan will not accept peace at gunpoint. Only when China faces up to the existence of Taiwan's government can the two sides talk. Taiwan cannot tango alone.

People should have the freedom to choose their destinies. This is a universal value of democratic societies. The international community condemned Indonesia for using force to suppress East Timor's pursuit of independence. The world has also voiced support for Aung San Suu Kyi, back under house arrest for her pursuit of freedom for her compatriots. The Dalai Lama also receives sympathy from around the world for his pursuit of religious freedoms for Tibet and for opposing China's oppression.

In contrast, Taiwan is being restrained from even expressing its desire to be free from missile threats.

The history of the US would have been very different if the French government had tried to appease Britain and refused to side with freedom and justice 200 years ago, when the American people were resisting British rule and seeking independence.

If Bush's remarks were merely meant to please his guest, then he should return to the proper track of freedom and democracy. If the US is trying to play a two-pronged strategy, then it should note that the balance has tipped. The situation could deteriorate beyond repair if the US makes no redress quickly.

Wen's trip angers human rights groups

THREE-DAY VISIT: The Chinese premier's arrival in Canada coincided with International Human Rights day and activists urged Ottawa to take up their concerns with Beijing

AP , TORONTO

Friday, Dec 12, 2003,Page 5

As Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao arrived in Canada on International Human Rights Day, groups supporting Tibetan and Taiwanese democracy and improved human rights urged Ottawa to press their concerns.

Wen arrived Wednesday. His three-day Canadian visit follows a trip to Washington, where US President George W. Bush told him what he wanted to hear: that the US opposes any unilateral steps by Taiwan toward independence.

Wen was scheduled to meet retiring Prime Minister Jean Chretien on his last full working day yesterday before meeting Chretien's successor, Paul Martin, later in the day. Martin replaces Chretien on Friday.

Amnesty International, the Canada Tibet Committee, a group promoting Tibetan autonomy, and the Falun Gong spiritual movement, which is banned in China, said they would rally at Wen's appearances in the capital.

Jason Wan, spokesman for the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Canada, said he hoped Canada's support for democracy in the world would not bypass Taiwan.

"We hope that the Canadian prime minister will urge China to respect the democratic rights of the Taiwanese people," Wan said.

Canada has a "one China" policy and does not formally recognize Taiwan. Ottawa gives more government aid to Beijing than anywhere else, including US$46 million in 2001-2002, a government official said.

Trade tops the visit's agenda, with Chretien and Wen set to sign nine agreements, including provisions for wheat and livestock sales.

China is Canada's third-largest trading partner after the US and Japan. Canadian exports to China jumped from US$2 billion in 1999 to US$3 billion last year.

After the Chinese communist revolution in 1949, the new regime under Mao Zedong annexed the mountainous region of Tibet and its 6 million people.

Ottawa's Tibet policy follows the one-China approach. Canada, which is home to about 3,000 Tibetans, does not recognize Tibet's government in exile led by the Dalai Lama.

Thubten Samdup, president of the Canada Tibet Committee, wants Ottawa to act as a middleman to peacefully negotiate Tibetan autonomy.

"We would like to see Canada act the role of an honest broker at an international conference," Samdup said.

Amnesty International said it wanted to highlight China's poor human rights record under Wen, especially an increase in executions.

"If he's really serious about wanting to improve the human rights situation in China then he'll listen to these things and then go home and perhaps do something about it," said Carole Channer, who monitors China for Amnesty International Canada.

Jason Loftus, a promoter of the Falun Gong, said he hoped Ottawa would "give a message to the premier while he's here, which is that these are problems that you have to address."

Isolation leaves nation at risk, rights group says

Scott Horton, president of the New York-based International League for Human Right, visited Taiwan this week. Horton spoke with 'Taipei Times' staff reporter Debby Wu on Wednesday about President Chen Shui-bian's winning the league's International Human Rights Award this year, Taiwan's status and the Taiwan-US relationship

By Debby Wu

STAFF REPORTER

Friday, Dec 12, 2003,Page 3

"There's an attack on the human rights movement coming from the so-called `Asian values,' especially led by Beijing."

－Scott Horton, president of the International League for Human Rights

Taipei Times: Could you talk about President Chen Shui-bian's winning the International Human Rights Award?

Scott Horton: He had been a candidate for several years, and he was first considered before he was elected president. We thought the whole situation in Taiwan, with its really remarkable movement toward democracy, hasn't gotten enough attention in the world.

Second, there's an attack on the human rights movement coming from the so-called "Asian values," especially led by Beijing, but also Singapore and Kuala Lumpur taking this view.

For us, it's particularly interesting to see that here in East Asia we have a country that has thrown off its authoritarian roots and become a vibrant democracy. It embraces human rights, and sees nothing culturally European or Western about it.

We spent some time looking at his [Chen's] program and his personal records, and we thought they absolutely merited being honored and recognized, so we decided to do this.

But what happened is SARS intervened. We were originally going to do this [give Chen the award] at the beginning of the year. In fact, we looked at the schedule for election, and thought we'd do it at the beginning of the year because we don't want people thinking this has anything to do with the president's election campaign.

Then the SARS epidemic happened, and we had scheduled an award dinner earlier in the year and it had to be cancelled because travel was cancelled.

It wound up being rescheduled to the end of October, and we, frankly, weren't so happy about the delay because it began to move into the election period. But we can't say that we were going to give you an award but now we are taking it back because you're going on a political campaign.

Looking at the Kuomintang [Chinese Nationalist Party, KMT] here -- it is a party with an authoritarian tradition, almost a totalitarian tradition, which has been strongly criticized by us for as long as we have existed.

But this party is transforming itself from this model of authoritarianism into a more modern pluralistic party, and that's one of the things we see as extremely positive here on Taiwan.

We are a bit concerned that things become a bit too politicized, and the whole human-rights issue becoming a political issue between the DPP [Democratic Progressive Party] and KMT. From that perspective it's extremely unfortunate. We don't want that.

We want all the political parties to embrace this cause, and there should be no reason for differentiation.

TT: Could you talk about Chen's high-profile reception in the US?

Horton: Every time I talked to the State Department, it was always, "Well of course we think very highly of President Chen," "We're delighted to see he gets this award," "he deserves this" and then, a-ha, "So what will we say to the PRC diplomats because they will be very concerned?"

So they're [the State Department] concerned to work out something to appease China and to show that they adhere to the basic notion of sole representation of China.

But I think it's quite clear that everyone in the foreign policy community in the US recognizes Chen Shui-bian as a democratically elected head of state of a country of 23 million people, and PRC is not a democratically elected government.

TT: Peng Ming-min [who attended a human-rights roundtable held by Academia Historica together with Horton] said that the status quo in cross-strait relationship is that Taiwan is a sovereign independent nation. What do you think of that?

Horton: Yes, I think that's correct. As a matter of fact, Taiwan is a sovereign independent state that has democratic institutions. That's the status quo.

The problem the people in this country see with the status quo is Taiwan's isolation from the international community, which leaves Taiwan in a very weak position to articulate its interests.

It's difficult to see a way to reenter the international community without addressing the Taiwan question, that is, the identity of the nation as Taiwan as opposed to the Republic of China [ROC], with the name Republic of China implying a claimed direct representation of China.

In the international legal world we have that issue come up many times before, with the Koreas and the two German states previously. Ways were found to accommodate and to deal with that issue previously.

It can't be addressed with the People's Republic of China only because of the radical position China takes, the extreme Chinese position, the Chinese unwillingness to negotiate, bargain or discuss.

One of the consequences of the extreme Chinese position is that it made it impossible for this country to appear on the international stage using the name China. Simply impossible.

For the human-rights perspective, the people on Taiwan have an absolute right to decide these issues, whether they want to call themselves Republic of China or whatever. These issues are fundamental rights.

Once you get beyond that then you do have the question still of what the international community will accept, and for instance, just the name of countries.

For instance, when Yugoslavia fell apart, one of the constituent states of Yugoslavia declared itself as Macedonia. Greece refused absolutely to accept this name of Macedonia, saying Macedonia is a province of Greece and this is provocative -- actually the same word China uses -- and so on.

If one country raises objections, it has the right to raise its objections and there has to be some accommodation.

So in the case of Macedonia, it was called the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia -- a ridiculous name. That was the name everyone could agree on.

And with ROC on Taiwan, you have just the same question. It's not the only case in the world.

TT: Do you think Taiwan should depend so much on the US to assert its human rights?

Horton: The answer is that it's not in the interests of any state to be totally dependent on another state for the protection of their rights. That's the fundamental point.

People in Taiwan should pursue positive relations with the US, but they should pursue positive relations with the entire world community. And they should pursue actively membership in the world community.

The validation of your rights against another country that's threatening or being aggressive depends again very strongly on these international mechanisms. Taiwan is exposed, not being a member of this community. This is a political question for the Taiwanese people.

Chen urges US to look at its democratic roots

BASIC HUMAN RIGHTS: The president said the hostile US reaction to his plan for a referendum does not conform with the principles upon which the US was founded

By Lin Chieh-yu

STAFF REPORTER

Friday, Dec 12, 2003,Page 3

President Chen Shui-bian urged the US yesterday to review its founding spirit, saying that to unilaterally put Taiwan under the threat of ballistic missiles and depriving the Taiwanese people's right to freedom from fear does not conform to the fundamental values of the US.

"Every country in the world is equal and all human beings are equal," Chen said. "It is not right that while almost all people in the world can enjoy the freedom from fear, only the people of Taiwan are denied this basic right.

"According to the founding spirit of the US, China's military threats and deployment of missiles would not be regarded as a matter of course," Chen said. "According to the US' founding spirit, the resolution and efforts of 23 million people in Taiwan to seek peace and democracy should not be regarded as acts of provocation."

Chen said he had realized the meaning of the US' founding spirit during his visit to New York this October. He said this spirit is the pursuit of democracy, the love of freedom, the respect of peace and the defense of human rights.

"The significance of the `defensive referendum' is to protect Taiwan's status quo and to continue to develop its achievement of carrying out these four universal values," he said.

rights roundtable

Chen made the appeal while meeting with Scott Horton, president of the International League for Human Rights, who arrived in Taipei earlier this week to attend a human rights roundtable organized by Academia Historica and the preparatory office of the National Human Rights Museum.

"The reason the league gave the 2003 Human Rights Award to the 23 million people of Taiwan is because it believes all the people of Taiwan should enjoy basic human rights," Chen said.

"People of Taiwan have the right to say no to China's missiles and we can clearly express our wishes to avoid war," Chen said.

"We propose such a humble request to exercise our fundamental right," he said. "If there still is someone trying to restrict us, we will feel regret. It is discrimination against the 23 million people of Taiwan."

US President George W. Bush had expressed concern about the referendum movement after a closed-door meeting with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao on Tuesday.

"We oppose any unilateral decision by either China or Taiwan to change the status quo," Bush said. "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."

unperturbed

Chen and Premier Yu Shyi-kun on Wednesday both pledged the government's resolve to hold a national referendum on the date of the presidential election, March 20, to ask China to renounce military action against Taiwan and to withdraw its ballistic missiles targeting Taiwan.

Chen reiterated yesterday his plan for the referendum and appealed to the US to support such a democratic and peaceful measure.

Horton praised Chen's firm stand to go ahead with the referendum. He said the referendum was a basic human right of people in a democratic society, which should be respected, protected and valued.

"I think that President Bush said the wrong thing," Horton said.

"During his recent visit to London, Bush pointed out explicitly that democracy, human rights and self-determination are the three pillars of peace," he said.

China's ignorance

Horton added that Wen's accusation that Taiwan was using the referendum as an excuse to split the country stemmed from Wen's ignorance of democracy.

Horton said he supports Chen's referendum.

"Only by going ahead with the referendum can the Taiwanese people's basic human rights be protected." he said.

Horton also said China is opposing Taiwan's right to hold referendums because Beijing feels threatened by democracy.

Academics mete out blame for soured relationship on both Bush and Chen

MISSTEPS: Visiting political scientists found fault with both sides, with some saying Chen betrayed an ally and others saying Bush caved in to a communist regime

By Stephanie Wen

STAFF REPORTER

Friday, Dec 12, 2003,Page 3

US President George W. Bush's latest comments about Taiwan and President Chen Shui-bian's agenda were the focus of attention at a conference on China hosted by National Chengchi University's Institute of International Relations yesterday.

One of the attendees of the conference, titled "The rise of China revisited: perception and reality," was Ross Munro, director of Asian Studies at the Center for Security Studies in Washington, co-author of The Coming Conflict with China, who said he was furious about the latest development in the US-Taiwan relationship.

"This is serious. I do not completely agree with what President [George W.] Bush did. I do not like the language he used, but I understand why he did this," Munro told the Taipei Times.

He said he doesn't think that people in Taiwan understood how serious the situation is. The Bush administration was the most pro-Taiwan administration in American history, he said, and Chen had soured that relationship.

Munro made reference to Taiwan's ungratefulness by describing a US official's anger toward Chen as "the anger of an old friend who feels their friendship has been abused."

Munro believed Chen has made a mistake.

In contrast to Munro's condemnation, June Teufel Dreyer of the University of Miami's political science department, and commissioner of the US China Security Review Commission, felt that the latest development couldn't be blamed on Chen.

"I think [Chinese premier] Wen Jiabao, as a guest of this country [the US], has no right to make demands on the US," Dreyer said.

She noted that China has been giving US headaches over its huge trade deficit and violations of its WTO agreements and has been unhelpful to the US in the war on terror or solving the North Korea nuclear proliferation problem.

Just as Munro was dismayed with Chen, Dreyer expressed her rage with Wen's trying to make an analogy of US president Abraham Lincoln fighting to keep the US together with China's wanting to absorb Taiwan.

"The South wanted to be part of the United States until the slavery issue came up, but obviously Taiwan has not been part of China. It was a colony of Japan for over 50 years. It was only a province for China for barely 10 years and that was more than 100 years ago," she said.

"I think this was a very poor analogy and I think Bush should have corrected him [Wen] instead of allowing it to stand," she said.

Dreyer supports Taiwan's right, as a sovereign state, to hold referendums and amend or rewrite its Constitution when it is clearly inapplicable.

"I am hoping that the Bush administration will revise its stance," she said.

While Dreyer does not blame Chen for the uproar in US-Taiwan relations, she said her position is not totally different from that of Munro.

"Because what a country has the right to do is not always what is wise to do, or prudent to do," she said.

Dreyer suggests that prior communication between the US and Taiwan on the issue of referendum was perhaps inadequate.

"Ultimately, the US is Taiwan's only reliable protector," she said, alluding to Taiwan's need to take US government's position into consideration.

Dreyer said she thinks Chen should go on with his plans for a referendum on election day, "otherwise he will look like a failure to his own supporters."

She suggested diluting the level of what is described as "provocative" by China, by having the wording of the referendum carefully thought out, or combining the referendum on China's missile with referendums on less provocative topics.

"So that Taiwan's people could not just vote for one issue but for five or six," she said.

"I think it is very important to the future of Taiwan's democracy that the people of Taiwan should be able to make their own decisions without having the PRC making decisions for them," she said, referring to the issue of referendums and rewriting the Constitution.

She warned of the danger of allowing the PRC to make decisions for Taiwan.

"China can not be allowed to take [for] themselves the right to decide what is independence `under the guise of democracy.' Otherwise, Taiwan will be slowly strangled by the PRC," she said.

Chen chooses Lu to be running mate

NO MORE GUESSING: Saying he respected her academic ability and wide experience, the president ignored some major figures in his party to nominate Lu

By Chang Yun-ping

STAFF REPORTER

Friday, Dec 12, 2003,Page 1

Vice President Annette Lu will be President Chen Shui-bian's running mate in next year's election, despite fierce opposition within their Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).

One day after Chen was officially nominated as the DPP's standard bearer, he announced that Lu would be his running mate and called on all party members to unite to strive for victory.

Chen's choice of running mate had been a hot topic over the past few months, with Lu's opponents and supporters within the party clashing several times.

Chen yesterday said he had picked Lu once again because of her sound educational background, extensive experience and ability to work with him and to maintain "rule by both sexes."

In her acceptance speech, titled "Extraordinary Era, Extraordinary Future," Lu expressed her appreciation to Chen for choosing her again as his running mate. She said Taiwan would need "extraordinary leadership" in the "extraordinary era" that Taiwan faces in the fast-changing global society.

Lu said Taiwan would face many challenges, including the domestic problems of an aging population and the social impact of more mixed marriages, as well as changing cross-strait dynamics resulting from frequent economic and personnel interactions.

Lu warned the country must beware of Beijing's coaxing Taiwan into unification based on economic and trade ties and cultural integration with China.

She said Taiwan's lack of diplomatic power in major international bodies would result in the "further isolation and marginalization of Taiwan."

In such an "extraordinary era," Lu said Taiwan would need an "extraordinary leadership" to not only guide the country's continuing improvement in productivity, living standards and ecological protection, but also to ensure the nation's full sovereignty, clarify its national identity and normalize its international relations.

Before announcing his choice of running mate, Chen inducted five leaders of the DPP's campaign team. Premier Yu Shyi-kun was named director-general of the campaign headquarters and will lead the Cabinet in promoting the DPP's administrative record.

Taipei County Commissioner Su Tseng-chang and Presidential Secretary-General Chiou I-jen will be executive managers of the campaign organization. Su will also take charge of managing the campaign in the greater Taipei area, where the DPP is relatively weak compared with the pan-blue camp's Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and People First Party.

Kaohsiung Major Frank Hsieh is the deputy head of the campaign team, responsible for electioneering in southern Taiwan.

DPP Secretary-General Chang Chun-hsiung will coordinate operations between the party and the campaign headquarters.

Chang yesterday also set out the timetable for the party's campaign, saying that the DPP's national campaign headquarters would be established on Jan. 15 in Taipei.

Chang said the party would continue to push for the holding of a "defensive referendum," which Chen plans to hold on March 20, despite pressure from the US warning Taiwan not to hold such a vote.

In response to US criticism of the referendum, Chang yesterday acknowledged that the DPP administration had done too little to communicate its intentions to the US. He said the issue needed some time to "cool off" before the government could earn the trust of the US.

Satellite detects fumes at N Korea's main nuclear center

REUTERS , SEOUL

Friday, Dec 12, 2003,Page 1

South Korea is investigating but has yet to confirm reports of fresh activity this month at North Korea's main nuclear center at Yongbyon, Unification Minister Jeong Se-hyun said yesterday.

South Korea's JoongAng Ilbo newspaper quoted US and South Korean officials as saying an American intelligence satellite detected fumes rising from a coal-fired boiler at the nuclear lab at Yongbyon. The fumes were traced on four days this month.

Yongbyon, about 90km north of the capital Pyongyang, contains a nuclear reactor and a plutonium reprocessing plant at the center of the year-long crisis over the secretive communist state's attempts to build nuclear weapons.

"We are trying to confirm the activities, but at this stage I have no definitive information to disclose," Jeong told reporters at his weekly news conference in Seoul.

State Department spokesman Steve Pike said he had not heard of new activity in the Yongbyon facility.

"It's the first I've heard," Pike said.

JoongAng Ilbo quoted Seoul officials as saying the fumes were detected on Dec. 2, 3, 4 and 7, and that a truck was spotted travelling in and out of the premises of Yongbyon's five-megawatt nuclear reactor on Dec. 3.

The latest report comes as the US, South Korea, Japan, China and Russia are trying to convene a second round of six-way talks on the nuclear dispute with North Korea to follow an inconclusive first round held in Beijing in August.

Jeong said that a nuclear crisis resolution proposal worked out last week by South Korea, the US and Japan had been conveyed to North Korea by China.

But he said North Korea had not given a reply -- a critical step in getting the talks started before the end of the year, which remains a goal of South Korea.

Echoing remarks on Wednesday by South Korea's Foreign Minister Yoon Young-kwan, Jeong said he didn't think a statement by North Korea on Tuesday calling the three-country proposal "greatly disappointing" represented Pyongyang's formal reply.

North Korea's Foreign Ministry proposed a deal on Tuesday under which it would freeze its nuclear activities in exchange for energy aid and other diplomatic concessions from Washington and regional powers.

Cartoonist and lawmaker remain at odds over VCDs

By Jimmy Chuang

STAFF REPORTER

Friday, Dec 12, 2003,Page 2

Cartoonist Yu-fu yesterday asked People First Party Legislator Chiu Yi to drop his slander suit against him within three days or face a slander suit, while Chiu insisted that he had good reasons for his lawsuit.

"I hereby asked him [Chiu] to drop his suit against me within three days or I will file a suit against him," Yu-fu said. "I think it is time to stop this stupid game."

The pair have been at odds since Nov. 19, when Yu-fu, actress Chiang Hsia, writer Wu Jin-fa and Soochow University professor Shieh Jhy-wey filed a slander suit against Chiu after he accused them of being the writers for the controversial Special Report VCDs, which he said had defamed him.

At that time Yu-fu said that the four would ask for NT$80 million in compensation from Chiu because an unexplained NT$80 million had appeared in Chiu's bank accounts since he became a lawmaker two years ago.

Chiu immediately announced that he would file a countersuit against Yu-fu.

But on Nov. 21, Chiu held a press conference to announce that he would apologize to Yu-fu and Hsieh because he could not find any evidence that they had been the writers for the VCDs.

Yu-fu appeared upset yesterday when he appeared at the Taipei District Prosecutors' Office in response to the prosecutors' summons for Chiu's slander case.

He said that he was really confused by Chiu's actions because the lawmaker had apologized to him but still insisted on suing him.

"I took responsibility for every single word I said," Yu-fu said. "I said that he earned an extra NT$80 million since he became a lawmaker because I got that information from the Control Yuan. It was written down in black and white."

Yu-fu said that government officials' assets are supposed to be supervised and inspected by the public in order to eliminate corruption. Every citizen has the right to question any politician if that person's assets suddenly increase.

Meanwhile, Chiu said Yu-fu has made a huge mistake.

"I have said more than once that the information that Yu-fu got from the Control Yuan was a report of personal assets before I became a lawmaker. Why can't he understand?" Chiu said.

"My apology to him was for the VCD case but my slander suit concerns his false accusation that I embezzled NT$80 million after I became a lawmaker," Chiu said. "This is different matter."