20050624

School punished for taking down flag

APPEASEMENT: The MOE is investigating to see if any laws were broken after the Hsiuping Institute of Technology removed the flag for the benefit of Chinese guests

STAFF WRITER

The Ministry of Education on Friday announced administrative punishment against the the Hsiuping Institute of Technology over the removal of the national flag and a portrait of Sun Yat-sen from the venue of a graduation ceremony to please a visiting delegation from China on June 12.

Premier Frank Hsieh told Minister of Education Tu Cheng-sheng to launch a thorough investigation of the incident.

The ministry has already demanded that the institute review its conduct and make improvements. The school also had its reimbursement budget of NT$30 million for the last year's academic year frozen.

The ministry's initial investigation of the incident has revealed discrepancies between recorded video footage and the institute's explanations of the event.

A study of video footage of the graduation ceremony showed that there was a three to five minute delay between the end of the national anthem and the entry of the "special guests," during which time the flag and portrait of Sun were hastily removed.

The institute has been unable to give a satisfactory explanation. Also, in the application for the visit, the Chinese delegation was to participate in the graduation ceremony from 3pm on June 12. In fact, the delegation did not enter the hall until 3:10pm, after the flag and portrait had been removed.

The ministry said that the institute had failed to provide adequate evidence for the coincidental timing of the removal and the delegation's presence.

Moreover, Du Ruicheng deputy principal of the Shandong University of Technology, who headed the delegation from China, said on his departure from Taipei Friday night, that he had told members of the host institute that his delegation wished to "avoid" association with Taiwan's national flag and anthem.

This suggests that Hsiuping Institute of Technology had a prior agreement over the removal of the two national symbols. This contradicts the institute's statements that the flag was removed simply because the flag raising mechanism was inoperable, and that the removal of these symbols and the presence of the Chinese delegation was purely coincidental.

Chang Kuo-bao, head of the Technology and Vocational Education Department of the Ministry of Education, said the case now had to be handed to the Immigration Office of the National Police Agency and the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) to ascertain if there had been any violation of laws related to the visit of Chinese nationals.

If further irregularities are uncovered, Chang said that other, more severe punitive measures may be taken against the institute. This could include a moratorium on invitations to Chinese nationals for up to three years.

Tu emphasized that the ministry upheld the harsh measures being taken, saying that the removal of the national symbols as a gesture of goodwill to the visiting Chinese delegation was a negative example that could have a pernicious influence upon public perception.

The institute's chief secretary Lin Tsang-min has already resigned to take responsibility, but Tu said that consideration of the incident would not end with the resignation. The premier has demanded a study of the guidelines regulating the conduct of cross-strait exchanges to ascertain if the recent visit violated the principles of equality and mutual respect.

The MAC issued guidelines for the reception of exchange visitors from China in 1997 which state that host organizations in Taiwan should request that visitors respect the flag and Sun's portrait at event venues, and if they request that these be removed, the host organization should explain Taiwan's position on the issue and refuse to comply with their request. MAC said that the institute had clearly failed to conform to these guidelines.

North Korea angry over defector in US

AP , SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA

North Korea condemned US President George W. Bush yesterday for meeting a prominent defector who suffered a decade of abuses in a prison camp, saying the move chilled the atmosphere for the communist nation to return to nuclear disarmament talks.

Meanwhile, a high-ranking North Korean delegation in Seoul held a rare meeting yesterday with South Korea's president as the two sides held high-level talks to arrange family reunions and military contacts across their Cold War border at bilateral talks running alongside efforts to coax the North back to nuclear negotiations.

South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun urged the communist state to seek a peaceful resolution of the nuclear issue soon at a meeting with North Korean chief Cabinet counselor Kwon Ho-ung, Roh's spokesman Kim Man-soo said.

The two Koreas scheduled a closing session for their talks yesterday evening but it was later delayed, indicating there was still more negotiating to be done on an agreement.

"It cannot be interpreted as anything other than a move pouring cold water" on efforts to resume the nuclear talks, KCNA wrote in a commentary.

Just last week, the North's reclusive leader Kim Jong-il held a surprise meeting with a visiting South Korean envoy that raised hopes of the country's return to the talks it has boycotted for a year -- saying it could resume negotiations if it gets appropriate respect from Washington. Roh noted yesterday that Kim had also said the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula was the dying wish of his father, North Korea's founding ruler Kim Il-sung.

It has been a year since the last round of nuclear talks convened June 23 last year, with the North refusing to return citing "hostile" US policies. The US government said Wednesday it would provide 50,000 tonnes of food to North Korea in a humanitarian decision unrelated to efforts to convince the North to abandon its nuclear weapons program.

At this week's talks between the Koreas, South Korea has proposed the sides resume military talks next month. It also requested that family reunions at the North's Diamond Mountain resort restart in August, and that relatives unable to make the trip be allowed to see each other via the Internet.

`It is a pity that Japan lacks politicians with a "united front" ideology. This has led to Tokyo aggravating its relations with South Korea and Taiwan on maritime issues, and not being able to resolve the territorial disputes with China.'

In order to curry favor with Western nations, China is willing to recognize an "unequal treaty" -- once regarded as a "undying humiliation" -- and permanently cede what it regarded as its territory to Russia.

China signed several treaties with powerful nations ceding territory over the past century.

It ceded the most land to Russia, but it also had great hopes of reclaiming this territory, for soon after the October Revolution of 1917, the Soviet government declared that all treaties with China concluded by former Russian governments were invalid and that the Soviet government would give up all territories that had been seized earlier.

China seems to ask for trouble because it has targeted territories that are difficult to be retrieved, such as Hong Kong, while ignoring Russian territories that could be easily reclaimed.

China is also in a desperate bid to claim back independent, sovereign nations such as Taiwan.

What is China's strategy? It wants to establish an anti-US united front in order to maintain its political power from being eroded.

So as long as it can maintain its one-party dictatorial regime, China can afford to lose a certain amount of territory to this end.

China can make concessions in territorial disputes to countries ranging from communist, pre-communist and dictatorial countries to developing countries, such as Russia, Vietnam, North Korea, Myanmar, India, the Philippines and Malaysia.

But, it cannot do this with Hong Kong and other sovereign nations such as Japan and Taiwan, for these are all Western-style democracies.

Using territorial disputes, China has been pushing the notion of "contesting every inch of land," inciting nationalist sentiment and denouncing democracy.

Because the US-Japan Security Consultative Committee dared to state that those two countries had an interest in restraining China's military expansion, Beijing has made Japan its primary enemy. In response, Japan should elevate relations with its neighboring countries to counterbalance China's territorial expansion.

It is a pity that Japan lacks politicians with a "united front" ideology. This has led to Tokyo aggravating its relations with South Korea and Taiwan on maritime issues, and not being able to resolve territorial disputes with China.

In order to launch an all-out effort to tackle China, Japan must first seek political resolutions to the disputes with Taiwan and South Korea. If such disputes cannot be settled in a timely manner, Japan should at least put them aside for the time being.

Independent Aboriginal Legislator May Chin recently tried to lead a group of Taiwanese Aborigines in a protest at Japan's Yasukuni shrine over memorial tablets for Aboriginal soldiers.

Her visit was entirely hypocritical. Meanwhile, the discontent over the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Forces' harsh treatment of Taiwanese fishermen has been used by Taiwan's pro-China forces, chiming in with China's recent anti-Japanese protests, but also obstructing hopes of Taiwan and Japan working together to stop Chinese expansionism.

Just as Taiwan's pro-China forces have needed to oppose the US in their efforts to curry favor with Beijing, they now must also oppose Japan.

It is unfortunate that there are Taiwanese who follow this lead in opposing both the US and Japan.

Although the recent standoff between Taiwanese and Japanese fishing vessels has encroached on Taiwanese fishermen's rights and caused damage to Taiwan's economy, it has not resulted in bloodshed. The dispute can still be resolved through negotiations.

Unfortunately, some politicians are styling themselves as patriots and attempting to sensationalize the issue.

But when China moves to annex Taiwan, how patriotic are these politicians going to be? Will they denounce China's threat? Will they express their anger in front of the media? Will they be brave enough to stage an anti-China protest in China?

Given that the same group of people are obstructing the arms-procurement bill and advocating conflict with Japan, what kind of intentions do they harbor? Their anti-Japanese stance only serves to antagonize Tokyo so that China can benefit.

The people dressed up as fishermen demonstrating outside Japan's Interchange Association in Taipei didn't sound too local, and they even managed to tie the US into their protests, opposing the joint defense agreement with Japan.

These pro-China people have simply demonstrated that they are minions of the "communist bandits."

Therefore, when the government and the people stand up for the rights of Taiwan's fishermen, they must be careful that they do not allow themselves to be used by pro-China forces, compromising the nation's security and giving an advantage to China.