70,000 gather to tout peace

HUMAN CHAIN: The former president said that the people of Taiwan must be united in opposing Chinese threats, and holding hands was the way to accomplish it

By Chang Yun-ping

STAFF REPORTER

Monday, Feb 02, 2004,Page 1

More than 70,000 people in Tainan County yesterday successfully joined hands to form a 62km-long human chain as a precursor to the upcoming 1-million-person human chain scheduled to be formed on Feb. 28 to demonstrate Taiwanese people's desire for peace and opposition to China's missile threats.

Former president Lee Teng-hui, the organizer of the "228 Hand-in-Hand Rally," yesterday participated in a walkabout and motorcade tour to show support and his regard for the people joining the line.

The rehearsal yesterday was led by Lee and Kaohsiung City Mayor Frank Hsieh.

Addressing the crowd, Lee said "the rehearsal has successfully been accomplished today and we've gained precious experience in how to act when the 1 million people rally takes place on Feb. 28. The efforts off each of you have paid off."

Lee said the event signifies the will of Taiwanese people to counter aggression from China, which has never given up on its desire to possess Taiwan.

"China has never changed in its ambition to consume Taiwan. Therefore, the people of Taiwan should stand up to protect the nation with their own hands and express their will to resist such aggression," Lee said.

The former president said Taiwan needs to be further democratized, which requires a comprehensive recognition from all the nation's people of their national identity.

"Although the martial law period has long been over, psychologically, the people have yet to be rid of the martial law blues. That's why all the people of Taiwan should join together, regardless of ethnicity, gender, age or political orientation, to counter the missile threat from China and to show the world that Taiwan is a peace-loving, democratic country," Lee said.

He urged the people to speak their minds and support the home-grown political power led by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) with all their heart and soul in the coming presidential election.

The rehearsal, held in Tainan County with the backdrop of President Chen Shui-bian's hometown, received exuberant support from Tainan residents, who lined up along Provincial Highway No. 1.

The event climaxed at 2:28pm, when all the participants linked their hands together and chanted the slogans "anti-missile" and "peace referendum."

As the rally in Tainan County yesterday is a precursor for the upcoming "228 Hand-in-Hand Rally," the organizer plans to hold another rehearsal across five counties and cities in northern Taiwan on Feb. 14.

The event was organized by a national association supporting Chen, which is a joint alliance comprising many private groups and headed by former president Lee.

Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) Secretary-General Lin Chih-chia said although the party has mobilized 200,000 people to participate in the event on Feb. 28, difficulties remain in soliciting enough people for a human chain which is 500km in length from northern Keelung County to southern Pingtung County.

Lin said the organizer was particular concerned about an envisaged gap in the mountainous area of the central Miaoli County, which is populated with Hakka people and has been lackluster in its support of the pan-green camp.

DPP Legislator Tu Wen-ching is the only legislator rep-resenting the DPP in the constituency in Miaoli, and the party holds no seats on the county council.

N Korea tested chemical arms on prisoners: BBC

GAS CHAMBERS: A program produced for British television presents evidence indicating that the repressive state tests chemical weapons on humans

REUTERS , LONDON

Monday, Feb 02, 2004,Page 1

A BBC program says North Korea is killing political prisoners in experimental gas chambers and testing new chemical weapons on women and children.

Titled Access to Evil and scheduled to be aired yesterday, the program features an official North Korean document that says political prisoners are used to test new chemical weapons.

In a statement, the BBC said the documentary included comments by Kwon Hyuk, a new name given to a former military attache at the North Korean embassy in Beijing and chief of management at Prison Camp 22.

Using a drawing, he describes a gas chamber and the victims he says he saw at the prison in the northeast of the secretive communist state, near the Russian border.

"I witnessed a whole family being tested on suffocating gas and dying in the gas chamber. The parents, a son and a daughter. The parents were vomiting and dying, but till the very last moment they tried to save the kids by doing mouth-to-mouth breathing," he said.

"Normally, a family sticks together [in the gas chamber] ... and individual prisoners stand separately around the corners. Scientists observe the entire process from above, through the glass."

Asked how he felt about the children, he said: "It would be a total lie for me to say I felt sympathetic about the children dying such a painful death. Under the society and the regime I was in at the time, I only felt that they were the enemies. So I felt no sympathy or pity for them at all."

North Korean officials in London were unavailable to comment. BBC journalist Olenka Frenkiel said she had three independent confirmations that Kwon Hyuk was genuine.

The human rights group Amnesty International said it had been unable to confirm previous reports of such testing.

"We have heard of these allegations but we cannot confirm them," a spokeswoman said.

North Korea -- described by US President George W. Bush as part of an "axis of evil" because of a nuclear weapons program and an authoritarian system -- has denied accusations of human rights abuses.

A top-secret North Korean document also says political prisoners are used for "human biological experimentation and for production of biological weapons," the BBC said.

It interviews a person said to be a former prisoner in North Korea who had been ordered to poison others.

"An officer ordered me to select 50 healthy female prisoners. One of the guards handed me a basket full of soaked cabbage, told me not to eat it but to give it to the 50 women," Sun Ok-lee said, according to the BBC statement.

"All who ate the cabbage leaves started violently vomiting blood and screaming with pain. It was hell. In less than 20 minutes, they were quite dead," Sun said.

Frenkiel said she had also seen other official North Korean documents, one of which referred to the transfer of a prisoner "for the purpose of human experimentation of liquid gas for chemical weapons."

Chen seeks support for referendum

LOOKING FOR FRIENDS: The president went on a drive in central Taiwan in an effort to build support for his administration's plan to hold a controversial nation-wide referendum

By Lin Chieh-yu

STAFF REPORTER

Monday, Feb 02, 2004,Page 3

President Chen Shui-bian yesterday called on Taiwanese citizens to support the realization of the referendum plan, saying that it will be the nation's first opportunity to let their aspirations be known to the world.

It will also serve as a new mechanism to protect the dignity of Taiwanese, he said.

"The referendum willl be a joyful event for the nation," Chen said. "We must wipe out all obstacles to achieve the mission of exercising the nation's first direct expression of democracy."

Chen noted his administration's achievements since the power transfer after the 2000 presidential election, saying that the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government accomplished many goals, including dealing with corruption cases spawned by the former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government, along with other various reform measures and initiatives to improve the nation's infrastructure.

The DPP held a series of large-scale campaign rallies to promote the national referendum in Taichuang County, yesterday.

The party's grassroots leaders in central Taiwan and its ally, the Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU), gathered to to urge supporters to press for the DPP's Chen-Lu ticket in the upcoming presidential election.

They will face the pan-blue ticket of KMT Chairman Lien Chan and People First Party Chairman James Soong.

Vice President Annette Lu said during last night's rally that the referendum will be a crucial opportunity to display Taiwan's stance to the international community as well as to warn about China's ambition of absorbing Taiwan.

"If the referendum is not held, the failure is not going to President Chen's election, but the fate of Taiwan," Lu said.

Kaohsiung City mayor Frank Hsieh and Mainland Affairs Council chairperson Tsai Ing-wen also attended the rally in support of Chen.

Tsai praised Chen's performance over his past four years in office, especially in carrying out reforms and endeavoring in improving cross-strait relations.

"Some attack President Chen for doing bad job on cross-strait policy," Tsai said. "As the head of the government's China affairs department, however, I completely disagree with those who criticize him."

"During past four years, I have witnessed President Chen's hard work. He's succeeded in not only maintaining stability and peace in the Taiwan Strait, but he has also protected Taiwan's dignity.

"Many Taiwanese businessmen in China tell me that only President Chen can ensure them a safe home as well as protect their rights," Tsai said.

Hsieh said that the referendum will not only strengthen the nation's democracy, but will also maintain Taiwan's dignity in the international community.

"Eight years ago, despite strong opposition from conservative politicians, including the KMT's James Soong and Ma Ying-jeou, Taiwan implemented its first direct presidential election," Hsieh said. "And now, once again, they oppose Taiwan's first national referendum just because they would rather please China."

"The referendum movement is a historical step to protect Taiwan's dignity, sovereignty, and democracy, and therefore, the presidential election is not just a battle between President Chen and the KMT's Lien Chan, but a struggle between Taiwan's 23 million citizens and Beijing's `authorities,'" Hsieh said.

Referendum can influence Beijing

By Tung Chen-yuan

Monday, Feb 02, 2004,Page 8

Many people have criticized President Chen Shui-bian recently, believing that the "preventive referendum" the government is about to hold is completely useless. How can the people of one country ask another country to withdraw missiles or even give up the use of force simply through a referendum? If that were the case, why does Taiwan need national defense anyway? Nevertheless, in view of the changes in China's Taiwan policy in recent years, holding a preventive referendum does have a chance of bringing some positive changes to Beijing's policy.

At present China's Taiwan policy can be generally described as "one center, two basic points" -- it centers around its own economic development, with US pressure on Taiwan and influencing the Taiwanese people as the two basic points.

Based on this policy of "one center, two basic points," Beijing has changed many principles of its Taiwan policy ever since Chen came to power. As long as Taiwan does not declare independence, China will pragmatically face Taiwan's public opinion and political reality, and appropriately adjust its Taiwan policy to establish stable cross-strait relations -- so as to focus on boosting economic development and maintaining social stability.

Before the 2000 presidential election, Beijing hinted that it might use force against the island if Chen was elected.

After the election, however, no radical action was taken.

Beijing responded in a very low-profile manner and said that it would "listen to Chen's words and watch his deeds."

Next, after Chen, a "pro-Taiwan independence element," came to power, China accepted the three principles in its Taiwan policy that had been unacceptable before.

First, after August 2000, China has changed the definition of the three-stage "one China" principle, and the new definition is almost the same as the one the National Unification Council had proposed.

Second, China no longer takes the "one China" principle as the premise for direct-links negotiations, a principle which it firmly insisted on in the past.

Third, China has actively requested that Taiwan accept the "1992 consensus." But Beijing actually denied the consensus during the Chinese Nationalist Party's (KMT) rule.

Beijing is unwilling to admit that "one China, with each side having its own interpretation" is the 1992 consensus to this day, saying that the consensus was "both governments across the Taiwan Strait insisting on the `one China' principle." But many Chinese academics have already said that Beijing is likely to accept the consensus of "one China, with each side having its own interpretation" if the blue camp comes to power. In addition, US pressure may further change China's Taiwan policy.

Looking at the two referendum questions recently proposed by Chen, the first involves peaceful resolution of the cross-strait issue and opposition to China's military threats. The second promotes "negotiation with China on the establishment of a `peace and stability' framework for cross-strait interactions."

The essence of the questions has long been the content of US cross-strait strategy.

Today, by clearly telling international society in a democratic way that the Taiwanese people "long for peace and negotiation and oppose threats," we can stimulate international society's support.

At present China relies on US pressure on Taiwan to a great extent. However, Beijing also has to express a certain amount of good will toward Washington to win US support. For example, before US President George W. Bush took office in early January 2001, Chinese vice premier Qian Qichen publicly talked about Beijing's new definition of the "one China" principle during an interview with the Washington Post in order to stop Washington from selling weapons to Taipei.

In September of the same year, Qian said again that China would patiently wait for unification if Taiwan accepts the "one-China" principle. His words indirectly vetoed the third condition for a Chinese attack on Taiwan proposed in China's "three-ifs" white paper (if Taiwan refuses a peaceful settlement of cross-strait unification through negotiations) -- a condition that the US strongly opposes.

During Bush's visit to China early in 2002 and right before former Chinese president Jiang Zemin's visit to the US at the end of the same year, Beijing repeatedly talked to Washington about its current "flexible and practical" Taiwan policy, to convince the US to put pressure on Taiwan to accept it. If Taiwan can clear the US doubts about pushing for a new constitution in the near future, I believe that the results of the referendum will push China to adopt a more flexible and practical Taiwan policy and gain US support for its current policy.

Tung Chen-yuan is an associate research fellow in the Institute of International Relations at National Chengchi University.

Attitudes about PRC have changed

By Chao Chien-min

Monday, Feb 02, 2004,Page 8

President Chen Shui-bian's recent call for a law enabling referendums quickly turned into an international crisis. China, fearing that any such law could be used to move Taiwan toward independence, reacted strongly even before the Referendum Law was approved by the Legislative Yuan.

Wang Zaixi, deputy director of China's Taiwan Affairs Office, warned of the use of force if Taiwanese authorities "collude with separatist forces to openly engage in pro-independence activities and challenge the mainland and the `one China' principle."

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao was slightly more civil.

In an interview with a US newspaper, he said that China would "pay any price to safeguard the unity of the motherland."

A few days after Wen's interview, while commenting on recent developments in Taiwan with Wen at his side, US President George W. Bush said that the US opposed "any unilateral decision 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."

Facing an election and preoccupied with Iraq, Bush cannot afford a crisis in East Asia.

Indeed, he needs China's help in persuading recalcitrant North Korea to negotiate on nuclear disarmament. But Bush is not alone in facing political pressure. Taiwan has its own domestic constituencies that need stroking.

With economic growth slowing to a 50-year low during his tenure, Chen is seeking ways to divert public attention by assuming the role of a daring leader ready to defend national sovereignty. Gone is the moderate policy toward China that Chen espoused previously.

In a policy reorientation, he announced last August that there is "one state on each side of the Taiwan Strait." To further differentiate himself from the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), the party that ruled Taiwan for most of the last half century, and its ally, the People's First Party, Chen has made local values, safeguarding sovereignty and the "two state" theory the theme of his presidency.

A new constitution, backed by a national referendum, is part of this drive to reshape national identity and distinguish the new generation of politicians from those who arrived as exiles from China.

Though a referendum serves as an election gimmick, it is nonetheless a normal democratic tool almost everywhere, and Chen's having called a referendum would not have caused the stir that it has if the Taiwanese public did not seem to back it.

Clearly, public opinion in Taiwan regarding relations with China has changed dramatically. In the past, Taiwanese repudiated ideas like referendums and a new constitution, owing to China's sensitivity.

But recent polls show that Taiwanese attitudes toward China have changed markedly, and that more and more people are less concerned about what China thinks.

Few consider China's rulers to be even remotely friendly, and this growing aversion to China provides daring politicians with room to maneuver.

But Taiwan's policy towards China has also undergone a very different kind of overhaul in the last decade or so, with confrontation replaced by a new engagement aimed at exploring economic opportunities in the vast Chinese market.

Taiwan has been a major supplier of foreign capital flowing into China, contributing twice as much as the US and accounting for roughly 20 percent of China's total inflows. Taiwan is also the driving force in China's high-tech industries. Estimates suggest that 70 percent of the hardware made by China's information technology industry is produced by Taiwanese companies. Taiwan has also allowed links to be opened so that the residents of Kinmen and Xiamen can enjoy unrestrained travel across the Strait.

These goodwill gestures have, however, failed to moderate China's belligerent posture. In addition to missile tests, China has been trying to cajole the US into stopping arms sales to Taiwan. The rumored proposal in October 2002 by former Chinese president Jiang Zemin, in a meeting with Bush, to withdraw Chinese missiles in exchange for termination of US military sales to Taiwan, is but one example.

This hostility extends to almost every field of endeavor. China blocked Taiwan's entry into the Word Health Organization even though the SARS epidemic inflicted heavy casualties on the nation earlier this year. China also managed to convince three nations to shift loyalty away from Taipei's meager diplomatic corps during Chen's three years in office.

Worse yet, two of the cases were timed to humiliate Chen -- one on the eve of his assumption of the Democratic Progressive Party chairmanship and the other before his stopover in New York while on a state visit to Central America.

So in terms of cross-strait stability, China can be said to be every bit as provocative as Taiwan, and matters may yet spin out of control if leaders on both sides continue their recklessness. While smaller Taiwan should be careful not to provoke its giant neighbor, China must come to terms with the workings of a functioning democracy.

Intimidation and suppression can only breed hostility among ordinary Taiwanese.

Chao Chien-min is a professor of Chinese politics, specializing in cross-strait relations, at the Sun Yat-sen Graduate Institute of Social Sciences and Humanities, National Chengchi University.

Editorial: The pan-blues outfoxed themselves

It's been a week of attempts by the pan-blues to stop the referendum.

First we saw the pan-blue presidential and vice-presidential candidates -- Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Lien Chan and People First Party Chairman James Soong -- try to persuade elected local government leaders to "boycott" the referendum by simply refusing to collect referendum ballots or make provisions for their counting -- the plan was never too clear. What this amounted to was the absolutely appalling suggestion that elected officials could decide what voters in a national election could and could not vote for.

That Lien and Soong could even suggest such a thing shows how tenuous the pan-blue commitment to maintaining Taiwan as a democratic state is. Next stop -- deciding which parties voters can vote for.

It is vastly to the credit of the pan-blue local government leaders -- some of them at least -- that they took their responsibilities as elected officials more seriously than the wishes of their party leaders to trash Taiwan's democracy.

The next assault on the referendum came from Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou, who used every opportunity in the first half of last week to call the referendum illegal. Only on Wednesday did we begin to glean Ma's reasons for saying this. It seems that the mayor in his capacity as legal scholar has decided that Article 17, which allows the president to call a defensive referendum when the country faces an external threat endangering its sovereignty, lacks the necessary constitutional check on the arbitrary use of the presidential prerogative. A presidential decision should need some kind of confirmation by another constitutional body, and let us face it, the Cabinet, no more impartial a judge of presidential initiatives than a cheerleading troupe, is hardly an effective constitutional check. Nevertheless, due to the sloppy attention paid by the pan-blues to the Referendum Law's drafting, the Cabinet is the only check on a referendum called under Article 17 there is and Ma knows it.

It is interesting that for all Ma's talk of the illegality of the referendum, the pan-blues have not sought to have that claim adjudicated by the Council of Grand Justices. The reason, we must assume, is that they know this poor drafting leaves their "illegal" claim without a leg to stand on and Ma is simply doing what he does best: misleading and lying to the voters.

The latest attempt to block the law is as ill-founded as Ma's. Article 2 of the law lists what kind of things referendums can be about. And Article 20 says that if the legislature adopts measures corresponding to those in a referendum proposal, then the referendum should be cancelled.

It's a sensible provision; the idea is that since a referendum is usually called to change policy, if the legislature decides to make that change anyway, there is no need to put it to a public vote. So now the pan-blues think that by taking the president's two referendum questions, turning them into statements and passing them as legislative resolutions, they can stop the March 20 referendum in its tracks. Unhappily for them the provisions of Article 2 and 20 do not apply to referendums called under Article 17, as the law makes clear. Once again the pan-blues have found themselves stymied by their poor drafting.

But their real problem is explaining their incompetence to their masters in China. Because the understanding -- correct us if we are wrong -- was that China would let the pan-blues pass the law, which was electorally essential for them, as long as they would make sure that the Democratic Progressive Party would never be able to use it. Now we can see them increasingly frustrated to find that they can't make good on their promise to the people in whose interests they work -- not Taiwan's electorate of course but China's dictators. And thank goodness for that.