20051027

'Cheated' foreign minister offers to quit

STUNNED: Mark Chen said his ministry was taken completely by surprise by Senegal's decision to recognize Beijing, as a top security official said ties with all allies are risk

By Chang Yun-ping and Ko Shu-ling

STAFF REPORTERS

Offering his resignation, Minister of Foreign Affairs Mark Chen yesterday said Taiwan had been cheated by Senegal for resuming diplomatic ties with China, but his ministry would watch closely for signs of other West African nations following suit.

Chen said he felt "cheated" over the development given that Senegal had "repeatedly promised" that China's economic activity in the country would not affect its diplomatic relations with Taiwan.

"For some time we've seen a significant number of Chinese people active in Senegal, yet Senegal repeatedly promised that economics and politics were separate issues and that it would not sever ties with Taiwan. They kept on making these promises. This time, we've really been cheated," he said.

The minister was speaking at yesterday's legislative Foreign and Overseas Chinese Affairs Committee, where the focus of the discussion was on the diplomatic setback.

The loss of Senegal, whose economy is considered to be reasonably strong compared with other Western African states, generated concern among lawmakers that Senegal's switch to Beijing would encourage Taiwan's other allies in the region to do so too.

Taiwan now maintains diplomatic relations with 25 countries, of which Malawi, Sao Tome and Principe, Gambia and Burkina Faso are in West Africa.

The minister yesterday warned there was concern that Taiwan's entire roster of allies would succumb to Beijing's diplomatic clout.

But he said that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs would make every effort to preserve relations and reinforce communication with them.

Legislators from across party lines yesterday lambasted the ministry for not staying on top of the situation, and only knowing about the news after the Senegalese foreign minister signed the communique in Beijing at 6.30pm on Tuesday.

Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Yang Li-huan asked why the ministry had been in the dark given that a letter from Senegalese President Abodoulaye Wade to President Chen Shui-bian regarding the matter had been written two days before the announcement.

"Why did we not know that they had already prepared this letter two days ago and that they had waited until they signed the diplomatic communique with Beijing before releasing this letter to us?" Yang asked.

In the letter, Wade said that "between countries, there are no friends, only interests."

Mark Chen admitted that his ministry was neither vigilant nor cautious enough in failing to receive prior warning to the severing of ties. He said he was willing to take full responsibility for the setback, and would offer his resignation.

However, the pan-green legislative caucuses yesterday lambasted Beijing, and called on former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairman Lien Chan, who is currently in China, to lodge a protest.

"We solemnly condemn Beijing for exercising two-handed tactics," Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus whip William Lai said. "While [Beijing] celebrated the 60th anniversary of Taiwan's Retrocession Day, they deliberately picked this day that Japan ended its rule over Taiwan to steal another of our diplomatic allies."

Lai called on Lien to lodge a protest with the Chinese government and return to Taiwan immediately to express the indignation of the Taiwanese people.

"We are asking Lien to act like a retired vice president and stand up to China because he still receives a huge retirement pension from the taxpayers," Lai said.

DPP Legislator Tien Chiu-chin said that if Lien were a "real man," he would have had the guts to voice a protest against Beijing's "dollar diplomacy."

"Taiwan's only enemy is China," DPP Legislator Wu Bing-ray said. "If the opposition parties do not work together with the government to face China, I'm very much worried about the future of this country."

Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) caucus whip Mark Ho criticized Senegal for "sucking up to Beijing" and privileging economic interests over friendship.

Premier Frank Hsieh yesterday asked the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to review the handling of relations with Senegal and make sure the "same mistakes" are not repeated.

Meanwhile, National Security Bureau Director-General Hsueh Shih-ming said yesterday that diplomatic relations with every ally were now at risk.

"Our diplomatic ties with the Vatican are also at risk. The Vatican currently will not accept China's conditions of a resumption of diplomatic relations," Hsueh said during a meeting of the legislature's National Defense Committee. "But if they agree on the conditions, the Vatican could break diplomatic ties with Taiwan at any time."

China had spent about US$600 million to "lure" Senegal, Hsueh said.

"I should be responsible for not knowing that Senegal was going to recognize China until the news was announced. I and other NSB officials should be disciplined," he said.

PRC government moves to reduce rate of executions

AFP , BEIJING

"[W]e will try to execute less people to avoid any unjust cases."－Xiao Yang, chief justice of the PRC Supreme Court

China has pledged to cut the number of people it executes as the Supreme Court initiated reforms returning the review of death sentences to China's top court, state press said yesterday.

"Although China still has the death penalty to punish severe criminals, we will try to execute less people to avoid any unjust cases," Chief Justice Xiao Yang told the National People's Congress.

He made the comment when revealing details of a reform plan that would require a special high court tribunal to review death sentences handed out at lower levels, Xinhua news agency said.

Xiao did not say when the new plan would be implemented.

According to Amnesty International, China executes more criminals annually than the rest of the world combined.

China refuses to reveal precise figures, but academics believe that up to 10,000 people are put to death every year.

China's apparent softening of its position comes after a series of unjust executions came to light this year that further exposed the widespread use of police brutality and the extraction of confessions through torture.

According to Chinese law, the high court should review all death penalties, but in the 1980s, in order to implement a "strike hard" campaign against crime, the high court allowed the top provincial courts to review execution cases.

Xiao said the new reforms would return the final review of the cases to the Supreme Court.

Although provincial courts are required to review death sentences in their regions, this is rarely done in a courtroom situation.

Instead, it is often only a review of court documents surrounding the original verdict, rights groups say.

According to Xiao, in 2003 the Supreme Court rejected 7.2 percent of the death sentences brought before it for review, while commuting 22 percent to life in prison.

During the same period, provincial high courts disallowed 4.4 percent of the death-sentence verdicts for lack of sufficient evidence and revised 38 percent to lesser punishments, he said.

According to Amnesty, around 68 crimes including non-violent offences such as tax fraud, embezzling state property and accepting bribes are punishable by death in China.

In March, Premier Wen Jiabao said China "cannot" abolish the death penalty due to "national conditions," but outlined the need for the Supreme Court to better review cases involving capital punishment.

The use of the death penalty in China is so routine that the state has built special mobile execution vans where lethal injections can be administered immediately after the final verdict is read.

China has also been accused of taking body parts from executed criminals and selling them on organ donor markets.

China-based Taiwanese split over identity

AP , BEIJING

In an upscale Beijing restaurant, a youthful real estate developer from Taipei muses ruefully over the possibility of union between China's communist colossus and his home country.

"When I first came here 18 months ago I thought that if China takes over Taiwan it's OK," says Chang Chieh, 24. "But now I think that the Taiwan government cannot allow such a thing to happen. It would be a terrible thing for our people."

Beijing has been working to convince Taiwanese that "common" language, culture and ethnicity make integration into China an inevitability, and a national duty.

But interviews with Chang and others among the around 300,000 Taiwanese professionals who have come to live in China as a result of thawing relations suggest the gap between the two sides is substantial, going beyond China's one-party rule and Taiwan's democracy.

"Taiwanese people think differently from people on the mainland," Chang says. "In China it's been a real struggle to survive. So people are a lot tougher here. If you put a Taiwanese child down in China, he'll be eaten up alive."

Opinion polls in Taiwan say only about 10 percent of its 23 million people want immediate reunification with China. About 15 percent support formal independence, while the remainder favor maintaining the status quo.

Conversations with Taiwanese in China suggest that 56 years of separation have taken a toll on whatever once existed of a common identity.

Shen Zhi-xing, 35, an architect who came from Taiwan early last year, says a key divergence was the 1966-1976 Cultural Revolution that convulsed China.

She says Taiwan's insulation from the event meant it preserved its "Chinese culture" while China was destroying its own.

"I don't even think of myself as Chinese," she says. "When I return to Taiwan I feel like I have come to a completely different place. The gap is very substantial."

Vincent Yang, 42, a Taiwanese businessman now based in Shanghai, is also disdainful of talk of a common national identity.

"We really feel that China and Taiwan are different places," he says. "I don't see any reason why we should unify."

Not all Taiwanese here agree.

Liu Jie, a 46-year-old businessman who has lived in China since 2001, thinks the cultural similarities are significant and argues that there can be a successful union between Taiwan and China -- although he doesn't think that can happen soon.

"These things take time," he said.

Holy see willing to cut ties to Taiwan: Vatican diplomat

REUTERS, ROME

Pope Benedict's top diplomat said on Tuesday that the Holy See was always ready to end relations with Taiwan and return its embassy to Beijing, but that China must respect religious freedom and treat the Vatican fairly.

"We have said many times that it [Taiwan]is not an obstacle," said Cardinal Angelo Sodano, Vatican Secretary of State, adding the Vatican was ready to start dialogue at any time.

READY TO GO TO BEIJING

"I have sand many times that if we had contacts with Beijing, our charge d'affaires who is in Taiwan would go to Beijing, not tomorrow morning, but tonight," he told reporters on the sidelines of a university event.

China has had no diplomatic ties with the Vatican since 1951, two years after the communist takeover.

Beijing has insisted that diplomatic ties cannot be resumed unless Rome first severs links with Taiwan.

But Sodano said the Vatican wants freedom for Catholics in China and to be allowed to reopen its embassy in Beijing with no conditions attached.

"The Holy See cannot be treated worse than other states. When other states have ended their relations with Taiwan they moved immediately to Beijing, Why can't the Holy See, if it ends its contacts with Taiwan, go immediately to Beijing?" Sodano said.

This was an apparent reference to China's accusations that the Vatican wants to interfere in its internal affairs.

China refuses to allow the Vatican to appoint bishops and it refuses to allow Catholics to recognize the authority of the Pope.

Instead, Chinese Catholics must belong to a state-backed church known as the Catholic patriotic Association.

"The Holy See has always said we are ready for dialogue, ready for contacts, ready to explain its traditions, but we have to always insist that the Church is one, in the entire world, in all cultures," he said.

China’s communist government refused to allow four bishops from China to attend a synod at the Vatican that ended last Sunday.

For three weeks four empty seats were kept in the hall where the prelates met to remind the more than 250 other bishops of their absence.

In his homily closing the synod, Pope Benedict said he was sure that the suffering of the Chinese Church "will not remain fruitless." Pi authority of the Chinese Church "will not remain fruitless."

TENUOUS RELATIONS

In response, Minister of Foreign Affairs Mark Chen Yesterday admitted that the Vatican was one of the "dangerous areas" where diplomatic ties are under threat, adding the "Taiwan's ambassador to the Vatican has been gingerly up holding the diplomatic bond every day."

Chen said he knew the new Pope did not like the communist system, which forbids religious freedom, and yet he could not ignore the fact that there are a tremendous number of Catholics in China and therefore the Pope might have to do something about it.

"We know it's dangerous and I've been reminding the ambassador to pay great attention to the situation there and to constantly express our voice to the Vatican in order to uphold the ties," he said.

KMT to blame for Taiwan's international status: DPP

By Jewel Huang

STAFF REPORTER

DPP Legislator Tien Chiu-chin held a news conference yesterday to coincide with the 60th anniversary of the UN and urged people to learn the truth about how Taiwan got stuck in its present international fix and remember the historical lessons.

"Taiwan is the only nation that could not experience the joy of the UN's 60th anniversary as the rest of the world celebrated the day on Oct. 25," Tien said.

Tien pointed out that it was the KMT government that sacrificed Taiwan's interests and rights because of its "one China" illusion. It ignored the US and Japan's efforts to help and its actions eventually led to Taiwan being marooned in international isolation.

"People might think that it doesn't matter if Taiwan joins the UN or not," Tien said.

"But in fact, for any nation, it is increasingly important to be a member," especially in the face of the growing tide of globalization. Many matters concerning people's rights and economic development require statehood in order to enable participation," she said.

In organizations such as the IMF, the WTO and the World Health Organization (WHO), Taiwan has been obstructed from obtaining full member status, Tien said.

DPP caucus whip William Lai, who also attended the news conference, pointed out that it was the KMT who had viewed communist China as a "bandit regime" after it fled to Taiwan in 1949 and it was the KMT who indoctrinated the people of Taiwan to believe that "retaking the Mainland" was the ultimate goal.

"However, as soon as it lost executive power, it gave up on this insistence and instead became the Chinese Communist Party's biggest helper in their unification war with Taiwan," Lai said. "The KMT is totally dishonest."

"KMT members line up to pay tribute to the Chinese authorities these days and promote the policies that attempt to sell-out Taiwan to China," Lai said.

"It should be held responsible for this period of history and learn to curb its evil intentions right away," he said.

A Japanese embassy official provided evidence on Tuesday that China is drilling for natural gas and oil in a disputed part of the East China Sea, although he stressed that Japan was eager to resolve the problem through negotiations.

The official, who refused to be named, showed reporters photos of an alleged Chinese drilling operation, with flames issuing from parts of the machinery -- proof, the official said, that China had begun exploiting natural resources.

China and Japan have been feuding for months over claims to undersea gas deposits in the area. Japan wants China to stop drilling operations immediately until an agreement can be worked out between the countries. Beijing says it is within its rights to develop the region's resources.

While tension is high between the two Asian powers, the official said Japan wants to resolve the dispute through negotiations, not an international court.

Officials have met on the issue three times in the past 12 months, including most recently last month. At that meeting, Japan proposed a joint exploitation of natural resources in the area.

The Chinese operations in the area appear, in some cases, to be straddling a median line between the two countries, the embassy official said, but Japan worries that China might be draining valuable oil and gas from reserves claimed by Japan.

The official also said the Japanese Self-Defense Forces recently spotted Chinese military ships near the drilling operation and had confirmed that parts of a pipeline had been completed linking the operation to the Chinese mainland.

`Therefore, Beijing believes that the KMT will embark on a winning streak that will return them to power in the 2008 presidential elections.'

A pan-blue politician friend of mine told me the other day that during his recent trip to Beijing, he met with a Chinese government official who gleefully told him how happy he was that the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) had finally realized how to launch full-scale media warfare against President Chen Shui-bian and his failings. Thanks to this, Beijing believes that the KMT will embark on a winning streak that will return them to power in the 2008 presidential elections.

Seeing my friend overjoyed with the prospect of electoral success for the KMT, I could not help but pour cold water on his assumptions by saying "Don't get hypnotized by the KMT's media warfare," and that "The KMT had better not force a showdown, for it is still far too early to tell if it is going to be plain sailing for the party."

Since former KMT chairman Lien Chan and People First Party Chairman James Soong visited China this year, the duo have been attempting to ally themselves with Beijing and project an image of the governing DPP as incompetent and corrupt.

Clearly, the pan-blues have learned from Beijing how to launch three types of warfare, namely, media, psychological and legal, against the president, and now take pride in their rising popularity in recent opinion polls. They claim that Chen's popularity has plunged to a unprecedented low, for he is the biggest source of chaos in the nation.

The pan-blues now realize that media warfare that combines politics and the pan-blue owned media, can work wonders. They have become so addicted to the strategy that they are now intensifying their attacks on Chen.

In fact, "collective" and "fictitious" are the two main characteristics of China's media warfare strategy. Moreover, in an attempt to woo support, the speaker usually pretends to be sympathetic to the public by seeking to establish common ground and some sort of link between both sides. If such a strategy is skillfully employed, it could win the sympathy of a lot of people.

However, the recent wave of attacks launched by the pan-blues seem to have become stuck in a rut, continuously lauding China while denigrating Taiwan. In failing to go beyond personal attacks aimed at former president Lee Teng-hui and Chen, the blue camp's campaign appeals only to the already converted, and will not succeed in persuading anyone else.

Although the recent spate of criticism of Chen has caused his popularity rating to plunge, in the heat of an election campaign, all these accusations are likely to be forgotten. As a result, the blue-camp's media campaign is likely to fail.

Wang Kung-yi is an associate professor at the Graduate Institute of International Affairs and Strategic Studies at Tamkang University.