Japanese foreign minister tags Chinese as a `threat'

AFP , TOKYO

Japan's Foreign Minister Taro Aso yesterday said that China was becoming a "considerable threat" because of its rising military spending and nuclear weapons, sparking a fresh row between the neighbors.

China is "a neighboring country with 1 billion people and nuclear bombs whose military spending has been growing by two digits every year for 17 consecutive years," Aso told reporters.

"And the content of that is extremely unclear. If I say what this means, I recognize that it is becoming a considerable threat," he said.

Aso, an outspoken hawk appointed in late October, made the comment when asked about the recent remark by Seiji Maehara, the conservative head of the main opposition Democratic Party, that China is a "realistic threat."

"As Mr. Maehara put it, it is true that [China] is stirring up a threat and worries," he said.

China reacted angrily, saying its economic might was benefiting Japan.

"As a foreign minister, to so irresponsibly incite such groundless rhetoric about a China threat, what is the purpose?" foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang said at a regular briefing.

"China's development has made commonly acknowledged contributions towards the world's peace and stability, bringing East Asian countries, including Japan, great development opportunities," he said in Beijing.

Aso's remarks came just after the release of a new Chinese government paper reiterating that Beijing intends to become a peaceful world power.

Prominent ruling party lawmaker Taku Yamasaki said yesterday he would visit China next month in the hope of holding talks with Chinese President Hu Jintao, who declined to meet Koizumi at two recent regional summits.

Addressing business leaders later yesterday, Aso said Japan wanted to be the leader in Asia, where China's influence is steadily growing.

"Japan is the first country in Asia to complete a number of achievements: modernization, democratization, realizing a market economy, suppressing rising nationalism and closing the gap between rich and poor," Aso said.

"As a democracy and market economy, Japan together with the United States has the power to be a stabilizing force," he said.

Koizumi's government has taken an increasingly hard line with China this year as Beijing moved to scupper Japan's hopes of getting a permanent seat on the UN Security Council.

Beijing argued that Japan must show more regret for the past before it is admitted to the council, where China is the only Asian country with permanent membership and veto power.

Chen says he has learned his lesson in his latest e-letter

By Chiu Yu-Tzu

STAFF REPORTER

President Chen Shui-bian has pledged in his weekly newsletter that he will do his best to bridge the gap between the political parties in the wake of the Dec. 3 local elections.

In the latest issue of the "A-Bian E-Newspaper," which is published today, the president said the confrontation between the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the opposition parties over the last five years has seriously affected the functioning of government and damaged the interests of all Taiwanese people.

Saying that he was deeply touched by recent letters that he had received from the public via the e-newsletter, the president said he had gained some useful insights into public opinion about the current political situation.

Stable environment

"People want to see a stable political environment, which will allow all the parties to work together. I'd like to take the lead in dealing with the political turbulence. I hope all the parties can compete in a positive way and fight together for the national interest," Chen said.

The president said that the DPP's defeat in the local elections earlier this month would definitely not affect the government's persistence in the promotion of Taiwanese consciousness, more democratic reform and clean governance.

Among the letters Chen received, some senders expressed their disappointment about the continuing struggle among the various factions of the DPP, while others said they would like to have more information about whether Chen was involved in or had managed to stay detached from the party in-fighting.

Reform support

Others said that they firmly supported the government's plans for reforming the 18 percent preferential interest rates for retired public servants and military personnel and also tackling the illegally-gained assets of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT).

Others suggested the president should learn when to keep quiet on important issues and when to leave dealing with the media and rumors to experts and so prevent such events from hurting relations between the nation's political parties.

Pan-blue camp fuels the Wu charade

It is difficult to know whether to laugh or cry at the antics of would-be Taitung County commissioner Wu Chun-li. It is disheartening that Wu, a man convicted of corruption, received the kind of support that he did in the local government elections.

Because of the conviction, Wu knew he would be suspended immediately after taking his oath of office. So he turned his defiance of the local government into a farce of comical proportions, "divorcing" his wife in an effort to circumvent the legal restrictions on appointing a spouse or relative as his deputy.

The legality of this maneuver is in question, and Wu may have broken the law by faking a divorce. And it seems unlikely that he will be successful in exploiting a loophole allowing him to run for the county commissioner's post again in a by-election.

Nevertheless, a group of pan-blue legislators yesterday declared their support for Wu after he came to Taipei and made an appearance at the Legislative Yuan.

The pan-blue parties can be relied on to oppose anything the government proposes, so this is hardly a surprise. But it is still a mistake. These legislators are feeding the perception that, in his standoff with the government, it is Wu that is the victim. But he is not.

The real victims in this case are the people of Taitung and the rule of law.

Wu was convicted before an independent and impartial court. He had every opportunity to defend himself during the trial, and can still appeal.

So why, then, is the pan-blue camp so willing to support this man? Is it asserting that the nation's entire criminal justice system is a sham?

Apparently not. The pan-blue camp's membership has been perfectly willing to go to the courts whenever they feel slighted, as we saw with former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairman Lien Chan and People First Party Chairman James Soong's libel case against the president, or the myriad attempts to challenge the validity of last year's presidential election. And they are enthusiastic about trying to drag pan-green figures before the courts on corruption charges.

Where, in all this hypocritical muckraking, is "Mr. Clean," KMT Chairman Ma Ying-jeou? Why won't he take this opportunity to say that he is against corruption, even as his party benefits from it?

This situation is emblematic of the current political stalemate. At the point in the development of a democracy when leadership and foresight are most required, none is to be found. Few politicians, in either camp, seem to understand that there are times when partisan wrangling only weakens the political system, with everyone coming out the loser.

The pan-blue camp, and Wu himself, have cited his performance at the polls as justification for giving him a "second chance." The reasoning appears to be that because he is popular, it does not matter if he is corrupt. This is a very dangerous mentality, but unsurprising for the KMT, with its lengthy record of authoritarian rule.

Still, no one has offered a convincing argument why there is a danger in letting the law take its course in the case of the Taitung County commissionership. If a by-election were held and Wu were not allowed to run, it is likely that a pan-blue candidate would again win. There is absolutely no reason, other than spite, to oppose the government on this matter. If Wu has been wronged in the courts, then let him declare this on appeal.

And if he is guilty, how can any lawmaker with a conscience thrust him upon the people of Taitung?

Taking the `K' out of Taitung

By William Meldrum

The popular party drug ketamine (also known as K or Special K) is a dissociative drug, a drug that blocks signals to the conscious mind from other parts of the brain, most often the physical senses. Is this drug the reason that voters in Taitung County elected a commissioner whose corruption conviction is under appeal and who is an alleged vote-buyer on bail, or are criminal politicians acceptable?

If one presumes that voters do not approve of corruption, then K might be the answer. In the lead-up to the election, perhaps in order to find some relief from the mud-slinging, cacophony of improbable promises and low-rent slapstick that passes for a campaign, 62,189 people, or 59.18 percent of Taitung's voting population, may have been under the influence of ketamine.

Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia, says that at a medium to high dosage level users may experience difficulty in perceiving distance and duration as well as suffering from visual update lag. There have been reports of users seeing surroundings in two distinct images, as if the brain was unable to merge what each eye sees. There were, after all, three candidates in the County commissioner election. Seeing three of them twice would make six heads in total, and that could have been the reason behind the focal folly when it came to placing the chop on the voting slip.

Even at a low dosage, K users may experience hallucinations, especially in dark rooms, or in this case, curtained polling booths. Deprived of the blue, orange and green representing the parties on ballots, voters may have overcompensated for the dearth of color heralding the three independent candidates and been victim to the darker shades of illegality when voting.

In the event of an excessive dose, users may go into a `K-hole,' a state of deep dissociation wherein other worlds or dimensions are perceived without any recognition of personal identity. Kindhearted voters may have succumbed to utopian fantasies in which convicted criminals appeared as avuncular avatars of the common good, son of Sam becomes Santa Claus and so on.

And yet, if Special K is simply a breakfast cereal and the good folk of Taitung County are not the hipster K crowd imagined here, there is real cause for concern that both the rule of law and democracy are both so cynically mocked. The authorities need to move swiftly to show that criminals in public office are not OK and that politics in Taiwan is not the K-hole that it so frequently appears to be.

William Meldrum

Taipei

Be wary of China

By Dai Kai Feng

Recently, both the domestic and foreign media reported how Chinese paramilitary police shot dead a number of villagers during protests over the government's compulsory confiscation of land in Dongzhou, Guangdong Province.

Because of different opinions over the death toll, the riot grabbed the attention of the international community. The shootings show the vicious nature of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), that party that claims China is "peacefully rising" on one hand, but in order to maintain its rule, resorts to armed force when suppressing its own people on the other.

Before the Dongzhou incident, some people still fostered the illusion that China would change as its economy booms. As recently as last month, US President George W. Bush prodded Beijing to emulate Taiwan and create a free Chinese society.

On Oct. 19, China's State Council issued a white paper entitled Building Political Democracy in China, which put special emphasis on its "present political and democratic achievements." The real purpose, however, was to cover up any domestic controversy by, as the report put it, "establishing a harmonious society."

However, according to recent statistics from Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council, there were more than 74,000 protests in China last year. These figures reveal that democratic consciousness is rooted in the minds of Chinese people and is on the rise. Nevertheless, the white paper has only one aim: promoting the interests of the CCP above everything else. Their "social democracy with Chinese characteristics" is, in fact, nothing but an excuse for a one-party autocracy. This violates modern democratic values.

Therefore, everyone should be wary of the current situation in China, as violent clashes may eventually lead to unrest on a nationwide scale and greatly weaken the government's legitimacy. To reduce domestic pressure, China then might manufacture an "external crisis" such as a conflict or a war.

Also, the people of Taiwan should be aware of the heinous crime committed by Chinese officials in slaughtering their own people and expose all the abuses of the CCP. From what we have seen of the killing of protesters, we can only hope that the Chinese government eventually reforms its political system. Or maybe one day the Chinese people will demonstrate their united power and topple their tyrannical government.

Dai Kai Feng

Taichung

China not profitable for most US companies

By Cao Chang-qing

Now that the local government elections are over, it is time to turn our attention to the cross-strait trade situation.

If the soon to be convened Economic Development Advisory Conference decides to further relax government policy on cross-strait trade, this is likely to lead to a massive outflow of money from Taiwan and increase the risk of Beijing using commercial means to force Taiwan into accepting "one country, two systems."

In the US, people have been calling for a reassessment of the trade relationship with China as Beijing's unconventional trade practices have hurt the US economy. This year, the US's trade deficit with China will reach a record high of US$200 billion.

The respected business consultant Ethan Gutmann in his book Losing the New China has a number of important observations which are helpful responses to these problems.

Gutmann worked in China for many years and was involved in television production, and also served as a business consultant. He rapidly made his way into the expatriate community of US entrepreneurs in China and was even deputy chairman of the government liaison committee of the American Chamber of Commerce. As a result, he obtained a deep insight into the operation of foreign businesses in China and the corruption within the country. This information is known to many China experts and businesspeople, but they remain silent to avoid offending their hosts. Gutmann is unusual in that he has had the courage to write a truthful account, and his four conclusions are worth repeating:

First, most US companies in China have not made money. Gutmann says that under a third would be able to show quarterly profits, and if you factor in their initial investment, perhaps only 5 percent have really turned a profit.

Second, Gutmann says the China market is a black hole into which money sinks without trace. This is because it is not a normal society, but rather a place where lying officials, a rigid and harsh bureaucracy and rampant piracy rule.

Third, Gutmann said that if foreign companies want to succeed in China, they must adopt one of three measures. One is to be led by the Chinese Communist Party, in the manner of Laurence Brahm, who owes his success to toeing the party line in innumerable articles that read as though they were from the People's Daily. Another is through bribery of high officials and the third is flattery. An example of this is the behavior of Cisco Systems, who provided China with firewall technologies to control the Internet, even going so far as to sell this technology at half the price. Another example is Yahoo, whose search engine in China will reject terms such as "Taiwan independence," and "Falun Gong."

Fourth, Gutmann claims that many US companies in China falsify their accounts to their parent companies to show a profit. They organize vanity trips in which US executives can hobnob with high-level Chinese officials.

Gutmann describes the debauchery that is commonplace among the foreign business community, including sexual orgies and drug taking. He says that China offers three sources of attraction: economic, cultural and sexual, suggesting that local woman fall over themselves to fulfill the sexual demands of well-heeled foreign executives. In today's China, where sexual liberation has joined hands with economic reform, most young people have thrown themselves into the reform movement. Unfortunately, this reformist zeal mostly takes place below the waist.

Gutmann's book is clearly something that Taiwanese policy makers and businesspeople can read with profit.

Cao Changqing is a writer based in New York.