20051209

SIGNATURE DRIVE: A Taiwanese human-rights group has launched an appeal in support of a Chinese lawyer who they claim is being unfairly persecuted in China

Taiwanese human-rights activists have launched a campaign in support of Gao Zhisheng, a Chinese human rights lawyer who was forced to close his law office for one year after he appealed to the Chinese government to stop persecuting Falun Gong.

The Association of Falun Dafa Practitioners, based in National Taiwan University, made the announcement yesterday during a forum it held on cross-strait human-rights issues.

"While China hasn't ceased in its persecution over the past six years, the change of strategy from glaring repression to a clandestine crackdown has misled many people into thinking that it has softened its violence against Falun Gong," said Elvi Chang, a representative of the task force on human rights of Taiwan Falun Gong.

Gao's case aroused wide concern for Falun Gong in the international community, with more than 43 lawyers from 13 countries jointly signing a letter addressed to the Chinese government, in which they demanded the authorities repeal Gao's shutdown order, Chang said.

The task force on human rights of Taiwan Falun Gong took the lead in joining the efforts of the international community by initiating their own signature drive expressing sympathy for Gao.

Gao got the shutdown order from China's Ministry of Justice late last month, shortly after he sent a letter of appeal to Chinese President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao.

The shutdown order, issued by China's Ministry of Justice, said that Gao's firm was being closed because he failed to re-register with the authorities after moving into a new office.

Chang, however, said that the international community had deep suspicions over China's claim.

"The US Commission on International Religious Freedom said in a letter to US President George W. Bush that the firm was discriminated against because some of its clients included practitioners of Falun Gong as well as an unregistered Protestant pastor," he said.

"The international organization Amnesty International also claimed that the move to close the firm came shortly after the firm's director sent an open letter urging the Chinese government to end its persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in China," he added.

Chen Kuide, executive chairman of the Princeton China Initiative in the US, said that Gao's case was just the tip of the iceberg.

"The violation of human rights in China is an institutional problem. To prevent its autocratic regime from collapsing, it will continue oppressing human rights," he said.

John Wei, an attorney, said that Taiwan has little understanding of the current human-rights situation in China, which is regrettable.

"Despite the difficulty of overhauling China's political institutions in the near future, it is very important for other free societies to keep overseeing and urging China to improve its human rights. It should be an issue of concern for the people of Taiwan," Wei said.

In related news, Zhao Yan, a researcher for the Beijing bureau of the New York Times who has been imprisoned in China for more than a year, was named journalist of the year on Wednesday by the international press freedom advocacy group Reporters Without Borders.

Zhao, 43, was arrested in Shanghai on Sept. 17 last year, and accused of leaking state secrets. He is being held in Beijing and has not yet had a court hearing.

The accusation, which both Zhao and the Times deny, came 10 days after the publication of an article in the Times saying that former president Jiang Zemin had offered to give up his final leadership position. Jiang retired on Sept. 19. The newspaper has denied that Zhao provided that information.

When US President George W. Bush visited China last month, Zhao was included in a list of human-rights cases that were considered of particular concern to the US.

In its citation about the choice of Zhao for the award, Reporters Without Borders said, "As a journalist engaged in denouncing corruption in rural areas, Zhao Yan was the ideal victim for the secret services."

Taiwan needs to restock its air-defense missiles and ships systems and should move ahead with a multibillion-dollar arms package offered by the US to strengthen its defenses, the Pentagon's top arms dealer .said on Wednesday.

"We very much want to see them concentrate on their defense," Air Force Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kohler said.

Kohler heads the Defense Security and Cooperation Agency, which handles governmentto government arms sales.

Opposition parties have blocked the legislature 40 times from considering an US$11 billion arms package, which has been scaled back from US$18 billion. The money would be used for eight diesel-electric submarines and 12 P-3C Orion anti-submarine aircraft built byLockheed Martin Corp.

President Chen Shui-bran wants the US weapons to balance military might with China, which the Pentagon says has up to 730 missiles pointed at Taiwan.

Kohler said the country should get on with the special budget issue. "It's been very frustrating," he said. "I think they've turned some of their defense issues into a political football."

"Our position is that until we see some movement on the special budget it's premature for us to go out and start talking to people in detail on what might actually be contracted," Kohler said. "We're waiting for the Taiwanese."

The government also plans to buy six anti-missile Patriot PAC-3 batteries built by Raytheon Co, but has dropped them from the special budget and said it will buy them under its normal defense budget.

The US first offered the deal in 2001 but the pan blue opposition, led by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), which favors closer ties with China, says it is over priced, provocative and unnecessary.

Strawberry generation

Three models show off fresh strawberries yesterday while taking a dip in a hot tub in Tahu Township, Miaoli County. The show was part of an activity designed to promote the fruit and boost the local tourism industry.

BAFFLING: A former US official said at the launch of his translated book that no one knew exactly what the US' `one China' policy was because the name is so confusing

"In the end, the policy is a failure, because no one knows what it is -- and in a philosophical sense, if no one knows what it is, then it doesn't exist."－John Tkacik, Heritage Foundation scholar

A former US official said yesterday in Taipei that US President George W. Bush's recent speech in Tokyo was a strong signal that he is committed to improving relations with Taiwan.

During the speech, Bush had suggested that China emulate Taiwan by giving its people more political and religious freedom and hailed Taiwan's commitment to democracy.

John Tkacik, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, made the remarks at the launch of the Chinese version of his new book Rethinking One China. Tkacik called the US' "one China" policy a `failure' because the policy's substance is exactly the opposite of the abbreviated name that is used to describe it.

Taiwan has experienced over half a century of practical independence, and Taiwan's people have begun to think of this country as an independent nation, Tkacik said.

He said that he tried to demonstrate with the book that if the name of the US' policy toward Taiwan is called "one-China" then it confuses everyone, and prevents the US and Taiwan from achieving their common strategic goals.

"Not only are Americans confused by the policy, but also the Taiwanese, and so are the Japanese, and the Europeans and Canadians, Australians and Asians. Even Chinese leaders are befuddled by the policy," he said.

"In the end, the policy is a failure, because no one knows what it is -- and in a philosophical sense, if no one knows what it is, then it doesn't exist," he said.

Tkacik said that Taiwan is at a crossroads and maintaining the Taiwanese people's sovereignty over their country and preventing China from turning it into another Hong Kong should be their top priority.

Despite saying that the US will not change its commitment to help Taiwan defend itself, Tkacik said that persistent pressure from the US' for Taiwan to avoid "provoking" China has led the Taiwanese people to feel unsure about international support for their democracy.

At the book launch, Lin Chen-yi, a research fellow at the Institute of European and American Studies of the Academia Sinica, said that the US' "one China" policy gave the totally wrong impression to other countries, namely that Taiwan is part of China.

Lin Wen-chung, a professor from the Institute of China Studies at National Sun Yat-Sen University, said that the US' "one China" policy is not in the interests of Taiwanese people as it weakens the US' position on enhancing its relations with Taiwan as well as encouraging China to step up its military deployment against Taiwan.

The Bush administration has proven itself adept at undermining the political and the strategic standing of the US across the globe, and this is as profoundly evident in Taiwan as it is with the "War on Terror."

Most importantly -- from Taiwan's perspective -- the optimism that greeted Bush's outspoken support for this country in 2001 in the face of China's threatening attitude has now disintegrated. Bush and his advisers appear to be at a loss as to the implications of developments in Taiwan's political arena, and this has been reflected in the way Washington deals with such contentious issues as the procurement of US arms.

The Bush administration's attitude toward Taiwan has been the paragon of hypocrisy, as was witnessed again yesterday. US Air Force Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kohler, who in his post as the head of the Defense Security and Cooperation Agency is in essence the top government arms dealer, criticized Taiwan for "turning defense issues into a political football."

Ignoring the obvious fact that "defense issues" are innately "political" in every democracy, especially the US, the more salient point is that Washington blasts Taiwan for not spending enough on defense, even as it refuses to approve weapons systems that the Ministry of National Defense has requested.

For example, the White House has refused to allow Taiwan to purchase the AGM-88 High-Speed Anti-Radiation Missile (also known as the HARM), which is a missile designed to destroy radar-equipped air defense systems. It has also denied Taiwan's official request for pricing and availability data on the Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAMs) -- the package that turns freefall bombs into smart bombs.

The US' reasoning was that these weapons are offensive, not defensive, in nature.

One does not have to be a Clausewitz fanatic to understand that in terms of the strategic application of military power, Taiwan is in no position to launch an assault on China. And since this is the case, why limit the tactical options available to Taiwanese commanders, should they one day have to defend their country?

Surely this situation is not beyond the understanding of Donald "Pre-emptive Strike" Rumsfeld.

Yet this disconnect in US policymaking is not the provenance of the military alone, and it speaks of a misunderstanding of Taiwan's political situation.

Many Taiwan observers in the US have interpreted the Democratic Progressive Party's tribulations, and the subsequent support that the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) has received, incorrectly.

There is no question that the fortunes of the administration of President Chen Shui-bian are at a low ebb, and that the status of KMT Chairman Ma Ying-jeou is rising.

However, analysts should be careful to interpret this phenomenon in the context of domestic politics, and not as an indication of a major shift in Taiwanese attitudes toward cross-strait policy.

There is nothing yet to indicate that Ma and the KMT, should they attain power in 2008 -- as seems likely at this early juncture -- will be willing to sign an "interim agreement" with the Chinese Communist Party, as one US academic claimed earlier this week.

Ma is not KMT former chairman Lien Chan, and his previous comments regarding a possible rapprochement with China have been suitably ambiguous. And there has been nothing to indicate a shift in Taiwanese attitudes toward China. Instead, the people of Taiwan have remained sturdily cautious, embracing the economic benefits of cross-strait ties while rejecting the stridency of Beijing's military posturing.

Incompetence and crass arrogance have been a hallmark of Bush and his Cabinet since his first day in office. It is only recently that this has translated into a lack of support for him domestically. The lasting effects of his foreign policy blunders may take years to bear bitter fruit for the US, but they are already degrading his country's options here.