20050731

On the prowl

Women from the Rukai tribe of Daromak attend a traditional wedding ceremony in Tunghsing Village, Taitung County, yesterday. The young women in this part of the dance circle are wearing clothing that identifies them as single.

GETTING IMPATIENT: A day after talks between Japan and Taiwan on disputed fishing grounds failed to reach any agreement, fishermen threatened new protests

Taiwanese fishermen threatened more protests against Japan yesterday, a day after talks in Tokyo to solve a long-standing fishing dispute in contested waters ended without a breakthrough.

Since early last month, Taiwanese fishermen have repeatedly protested being chased away by Japanese patrol boats from an area in the East China Sea.

The area, rich in marine resources and prospective oil reserves, is near a disputed island chain called Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyutai in Taiwan. The uninhabited islands are now controlled by Japan, but are also claimed by Taiwan and China.

Friday's meeting was the 15th round of talks since they began in 1996. Negotiators discussed how to manage fishing in areas where the exclusive economic zones of each side overlap, but only agreed to hold another round of talks in Taipei next March.

The failure to reach an agreement angered some Taiwanese fishermen, who threatened to take action against the Japanese coast guard if they were driven out of disputed waters again.

"If the Japanese threaten our fishermen, we will stand together and take action," fisherman Chen Chien-ming told cable station TVBS in Ilan, the home base for many fishermen active in the disputed area. Chen didn't elaborate on what kind of action they would take. Ilan lies about 60km southeast of Taipei.

Premier Frank Hsieh yesterday urged his fellow countrymen, especially fishermen, to hang on and remain calm regarding the negotiations of fishing rights between Taiwan and Japan.

"It is not easy to solve an international dispute. It is impossible to immediately come up with a decision or a result. But we shall stay the course, remain calm and hang in there," Hsieh said. "The government did not and will not do anything stupid to jeopardize our fishermen or sacrifice their legal rights."

The premier made his remarks during a press conference in Fuhsing Township, Taoyuan County. Hsieh said that the government will protect fishermen if they are challenged by Japanese government patrol boats in controversial areas where exclusive economic zones claimed by both Japan and Taiwan overlap.

Hsieh said that in Friday's negotiations, Japan and Taiwan reaffirmed a previous agreement that the zone within a radius of 12 nautical miles (22km) from the Diaoyutais will be a protected area off-limits to fishermen.

"Aside from that [restriction], our fishermen can do their work freely and will be protected," Hsieh said.

Regarding the Diaoyutais' sovereignty, Hsieh said that it has become a complicated international dispute and will not easily be solved. However, for now the Japanese government bans its citizens from landing on the islands, as does the Taiwanese government.

"The government is doing everything it can to maintain its sovereignty and protect its fishermen's legal rights," Hsieh said. "But it can take a long time for good things to take place. We need to be patient."

China's Chunghua Matsu Cultural Exchange Association is pursuing a "united front" strategy by actively trying to recruit Taiwanese temples to join the association, according to a report in a local Chinese-language newspaper.

About 60 Matsu temples around the country are said to have been made members of the association's board of directors, the report said.

It added that the Ministry of the Interior (MOI) is taking the matter seriously, and has instructed all local governments to inform Matsu temples that membership in a Chinese organization is illegal and could result in heavy fines.

The request sent out by the ministry cited article 33 of the Act Governing Relations Between Peoples of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area.

That article states that citizens or groups who are members of an officially prohibited Chinese party, government, army or other organization may be fined between NT$100,000 and NT$500,000.

The report said that the Chunghua Matsu Cultural Exchange Association was founded on Meizhou Island in China's Fujian Province in October last year under the leadership of Zhang Kehui, a vice chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC).

CPPCC Chairman Jia Qinglin attended the association's opening ceremony and delivered a speech.

According to the report, the ministry took an interest in the matter after finding out that the Chinese association had intensified its drive to enroll local temple associations, and that some Taiwanese temples and organizations had applied for membership and accepted official positions in the association.

The report said that the association sent a religious exchange delegation to Taiwan in May in order to present local Matsu temple officials with certificates, to promote tourism and as proof of having been appointed as officials in the association.

However, officials at several temples expressed surprise tha they are listed as members of the association's board, saying that they never applied for membership and knew nothing about the organization.

Those temples included two Matsu temples in Tainan, the Shengmu Temple and the Luerhmen Tianhou Temple, one in Tucheng, the Orthodox Luermen Shengmu Temple and one in Tachia called the Chenlan Temple.

The Chaotien Temple in Peikang was said to have accepted membership in order to promote religious exchanges when it was first approached by the Chinese association. But it submitted a request to annul its membership as soon as it found out that the membership violated the act.

CLARITY: The word `Taiwan' has been added to the Presidential Office's Web site so that visitors won't confuse the country with the People's Republic of China

In a bid to avoid the confusion between "Republic of China" and "People's Republic of China," the Presidential Office decided to add the word "Taiwan" next to "Republic of China" on its Web site yesterday.

With that word, the country's formal title now reads as the "Republic of China (Taiwan)" rather than "Republic of China" in the English vision. Traditional and simplified Chinese characters are also included on the Web site also have the word "Taiwan."

"We received suggestions from our international friends stating that the name of `Republic of China' is often mistaken for the `People's Republic of China,'" Chen Wen-tsung, Presidential Office spokesperson said yesterday. "In order to avoid the unnecessary confusion and inconvenience, we decided to add the word `Taiwan.'"

Although the map of Taiwan shown in the top-left corner indicates that the Web site is indeed about Taiwan, it is not conspicuous, Chen said.

Chen also said the Presidential Office received many letters from overseas which spoke of Chinese leaders such as former Chinese president Jiang Zemin and Chinese President Hu Jintao.

"These mistaken letters not only cause trouble for the Presidential Office but also bring inconvenience to the senders, as the office is unable to forward these letters to the Chinese government," Chen said.

China is usually referred to as the "People's Republic of China" in English. In order to reduce the confusion caused by the similarity of the two country's official names, President Chen Shui-bian announced in January 2002 that "Taiwan" would be added to the cover of all new Taiwanese passports.

The passport policy raised suspicions from opposition parties about a lurch toward independence.

Manking an effort

Seven of 15 finalists in the third Miss Taiwan beauty pageant line up on stage during a press conference announcing the finals yesterday. The motto for the finals, which will be held next Sunday in the Chungshan Hall in Yangmingshan, is: ``If you make an effort, Taiwan can be even more beautiful.''

In the face of China's growing military threat, President Chen Shui-bian has proposed the concept of a "new balance in the Taiwan Strait." This "new balance" includes three items.

The first is to ensure that "the democracy of Taiwan -- a core member of the world's community of democracies -- is not threatened or destroyed by China through non-peaceful means." The second is to "join with the other members of the global `community of democracies' in assisting non-democratic nations, such as China, to develop democracy." The third is "to explore ways to normalize relations and resume dialogue with China under a peace and stability framework for cross-strait interaction, thereby promoting stability and prosperity in the Asia-Pacific region."

This "new balance" is a framework being promoted by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government, and it is based on the twin tenets of Taiwanese democracy and cross-strait peace. In the past, the cross-strait issue has been confined to the unification-independence debate.

During the rule of Chiang kai-shek and his son Chiang Ching-kuo, this took the form of a political power struggle between the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). As local political power began to rise in Taiwan with the development of the localization movement, a "Taiwan consciousness" began to awaken, and the struggle between Taiwan and China changed.

In the Chiang era, the cross-strait issue was viewed as an internal matter for China, but under former president Lee Teng-hui it evolved into what he called "special state-to-state" relations. From this point on, the power struggle between the KMT and the CCP morphed into something altogether different -- from a battle for who would rule all of China, to a fight over Taiwan's sovereignty.

The fundamental nature of China-Taiwan relations has now changed. China should now treat Taiwan as an independent nation of equal status. This is the only way it can comprehensively resolve the ongoing conflict and establish a structure for good relations.

Unfortunately, Chinese leaders are still stuck in outmoded ideas of a power struggle with Taiwan. China has proposed numerous absurd policies under the "one China" paradigm in their efforts to appeal to the Taiwanese people. At the same time, Beijing is expanding its military and enhancing its deployments in an effort to force Taiwan's submission through the threat of attack.

Most worrying is that the international community -- whether because of a misunderstanding of history or because they have succumbed to Chinese pressure -- is unable to see the real situation in the Taiwan Strait, and continues to see the cross-strait issue as a power struggle. As a result, Taiwan's ability to survive in the international community is undermined.

The concept of a new power balance in the Strait breaks through the "one China" lie by telling the international community that the reality of the situation is that there is one country on each side of the Strait. It also identifies Taiwan's sovereignty and independence with its democracy by highlighting the difference between a system of savage communism and a civilized liberal democracy, and stressing that the two countries have no jurisdiction over each other.

In other words, the conflict between China and Taiwan involve not only a struggle over sovereignty, but also a contradiction between communism and democracy. China's threat to Taiwan is a threat to all democratic countries. Moreover, China's missiles can already reach India, Russia, the entire US, Australia and New Zealand. This is proof that China's rise is not peaceful, but rather a serious threat to global stability.

We cannot deny the great imbalance in national power between Taiwan and China. Taiwan must side with democratic countries such as the US, Japan and the EU member states to be able to resist China's ambition to annex Taiwan.

When Chen proposed the concept of a new power balance, he linked Taiwanese democracy to cross-strait peace, and tied Taiwanese security to the development and stability of democratic countries around the world. This is praiseworthy. His goal in proposing this concept in the face of China's military threat was not only to defend Taiwan, but to become a pillar of strength for democratic states around the world who are also resisting communist totalitarianism.

Whether we look to history or international law, Taiwan's sovereignty and independence are undeniable facts. Given Taiwan's disadvantages, economic development and a more robust national defense remain the only ways to guarantee that our sovereignty will not be violated.