No
gambling, 'pornography' for Chinese tourists
AP, BEIJING
Monday, Jun 23, 2008, Page 1
Chinese visitors to Taiwan will not be allowed to gamble or engage in
"pornographic activities," China's state news agency reported yesterday.
The warning was issued by the Cross-Strait Tourism Association, Xinhua news
agency said. It followed the signing of breakthrough agreements on charter
flights and tourism promotion between the two sides earlier this month.
“Travel agencies are not allowed to arrange gambling, pornographic and
drug-related activities and other activities harming cross-strait relations,”
Xinhua said.
It did not explain what it meant by “pornographic activities.”
Chinese travel agency managers have arrived in Taiwan on a fact-finding mission
to inspect tourism infrastructure, such as hotels and transportation. They were
to visit Sun Moon Lake yesterday, the Central News Agency reported.
The officials are visiting Taiwan for 10 days, the maximum allowed under the
agreement that permits 3,000 Chinese tourists a day to visit Taiwan.
Taiwanese hoteliers, airlines and tour operators hope big-spending Chinese
tourists will prove a shot in the arm to Taiwan’s travel sector, although
limited capacity and continuing political differences between the two sides
dictate limits on numbers and itineraries.
Rice
reiterates the US' support of Taiwan
UNDER PRESSURE: The US
secretary of state went on to say that she thinks the UN membership referendum
held during the presidential election "was just provocative"
By Loa Iok-sin
STAFF REPORTER
Monday, Jun 23, 2008, Page 3
"Look, our relations with Taiwan are not bad. We were concerned that some of
the things that [former president] Chen Shui-bian tended to do were just
outright provocative and we had to say so."— Condoleezza Rice, US secretary of
state
Although the US encourages improvements in the Taiwan-China relationship, US
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in a recent interview that she wants to
remind people that the US has a strong relationship with Taiwan, and would like
to see "Taiwan have real space in the international community."
Rice made the comments in an interview with the Wall Street Journal editorial
board on Thursday.
She was responding to a question whether the election of President Ma Ying-jeou
(馬英九) had opened an opportunity to improve the relationship between the US and
Taiwan.
“Look, our relations with Taiwan are not bad,” Rice said. “We were concerned
that some of the things that [former president] Chen Shui-bian [陳水扁] tended to
do were just outright provocative and we had to say so.”
Rice went on to say that she thinks the UN membership referendum held alongside
the presidential election “was just provocative.”
She said that the US has been encouraging improvements in cross-strait
relations, but she also wants to “remind everybody that the United States has a
relationship with Taiwan as well, and that we want to see things like Taiwan
have real space in the international community, like through the WHO.”
While saying the referendum was a provocative move, Rice stressed that “we also
want to make sure that China understands that it’s not just provocative behavior
on the part of Taiwan that we would oppose, but provocative behavior on the part
of China.”
As Rice has said she believes that the dynamics in the cross-strait relations
have changed, she also said that the US would keep an eye on future
developments.
Asked for comment, political commentator Paul Lin (林保華) said he thought that
Rice made the statement because the US realized the cross-strait relationship
has developed too rapidly following Ma’s election, and wants to slow it down to
a more reasonable speed.
“Before, the US had Taiwan under a lot of pressure and had been very friendly to
China,” Lin told the Taipei Times via telephone. “After Ma’s election, the US
should be putting more pressure on China so that the two sides of the Strait can
be balanced.”
“But the statement should’ve come much earlier, and the pressure [on China]
should be much heavier than this,” he said.
Diaoyutais
similar to Taiwan
The Diaoyutais a nd Taiwan are very similar in name, fate and history.
“Diaoyutai” and “Taiwan” have the common syllable “tai” (meaning “terrace”) in
their names. The former means “fishing terrace” and the latter “terrace bay.”
The names suggest the close relationship between the two — like brother and
sister.
The Diaoyutais have a Japanese name “Senkaku” (meaning “sharp pavilion”). Taiwan
also has another name, the “Republic of China” (ROC). Having two incompatible
names of different backgrounds for an island, large or small, is the cause of
disputes. The Diaoyutais are claimed by Taiwan, Japan and China. Taiwan is
claimed by Taiwan and China, controlled by Taiwan but threatened by China —
militarily, politically, diplomatically and economically.
Neither the Diaoyutais nor Taiwan were issues before 1945, when both were under
Japanese rule. The key question for the Diaoyutais is whether they were a part
of Taiwan or Okinawa under Japanese rule. If they were a part of Taiwan, they
should belong to Taiwan now. If they were a part of Okinawa, they should belong
to Japan. On the other hand, Taiwan was given up by Japan in the 1951 San
Francisco Peace Treaty without specifying a beneficiary – neither the ROC nor
the People’s Republic of China. Taiwan should belong to the people of Taiwan
after six decades, including two decades of democracy.
It might be premature for President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) to talk about maintaining
sovereignty over the Diaoyutais while Japan effectively controls them. But it is
opportune for Ma to declare Taiwan’s own sovereignty before China comes to
Taiwan.
Charles Hong
Columbus, Ohio
Will China
be a peaceful power?
By Sushil Seth
Monday, Jun 23, 2008, Page 8
With China’s increasing military buildup, there is a growing concern about its
strategic goals in the Asia-Pacific region and elsewhere in the world.
The obvious questions are: Does it want to dominate the region? If not (as
claimed by Beijing), why is it acting so rough and tough with its neighbors over
contested sovereignty and ownership of South China Sea islands and their natural
resources?
If it continues on a course of bullying its neighbors, this could unleash a
regional arms race. Which, in turn, would create regional instability and hinder
Asia’s economic prosperity, of which China has been a major beneficiary.
Making these points in his keynote address at a recent Asian security conference
in Singapore, the US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates reportedly said: “We
should not forget that globalization has permitted our shared rise in wealth
over recent years.”
He added, “This achievement rests above all on openness: openness of trade,
openness of ideas and openness of what I would call the ‘common areas’ — whether
in the maritime, space or cyber domains,” apparently referring to China’s recent
advances in these areas.
Beijing, however, doesn’t accept the US criticism. China’s position is that its
increased military expenditure is defensive in nature, and any instability in
the region is the result of the US seeking to expand military alliances and
develop missile defense systems.
Lieutenant General Ma Xiaotian (馬曉天), deputy chief of the People’s Liberation
Army, put it this way at the Singapore conference: “It is imperative that
China’s armed forces keep up with this tide of world military development.”
Besides, Ma said, “China’s growing economy and fiscal revenue make the defense
budget increase both a logical and imperative reality.”
In other words, with or without perceived US containment of China, its military
buildup would rise as a corollary of China’s growing economic prosperity.
If, as Ma says, there is a logical correlation between China’s growing economy
and increasing military expenditure, by that logic China’s determining, if not
dominating, role in the region is also an “imperative reality.”
The question then is: How would this fit into an existing set of rules and norms
(of openness all around), as suggested by Gates?
And as China goes about actively pursuing its policy of securing resources in
Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia and Latin America for its sustained
economic growth, this is bound to put it into competition, if not confrontation,
with the existing stakeholders of the international system, like the US and the
West in general.
But there is a view in the US that China, which has so far benefitted
economically from the existing international order, can be persuaded to continue
operating within the system indefinitely.
In a recent Foreign Affairs article, John Ikenberry argued that, “The United
States cannot thwart China’s rise, but it can help ensure that China’s power is
exercised within the rules and institutions that the United States and its
partners have crafted over the last century.”
This should be possible, argues Ikenberry, because even if China were to
overtake the US economically, it is “much less likely that China will ever
manage to overtake the Western order.”
And it will have to reckon with it.
And this should ensure for the US and its Western allies a powerful, if not the
most powerful, role in the international order crafted by them over the last
century.
There is one catch, though, in this neat scenario — an assumption that the West
will operate as a monolith when dealing with China. Which might not necessarily
be the case, with Beijing’s growing clout allowing it to play favorites to
undermine the Western bloc.
This seems to be the thrust of US policy toward China, as reflected in Gates
urging Beijing to be transparent and open. And if it doesn’t, the ensuing
regional instability would adversely affect its economic prosperity.
Beijing is obviously expected to take heed of likely adverse economic
consequences from not operating within a Western-designed system.
It is clear that neither China nor the US is keen on military confrontation.
China is keen to build on its economic growth and political and military power.
Any military confrontation in the short term will impede, if not reverse, this
process, thus creating obstacles on its way to become a superpower.
In the case of the US, it is sufficiently over-stretched in Iraq, Afghanistan
and elsewhere to want to avoid undertaking further military activity to
complicate its situation. This has given China considerable leeway to expand its
political influence in the region.
But despite all its problems, the US still remains the only superpower with
economic, political and military preponderance. China, though, is working fast
to catch up. And when it does, it might find the existing Western-crafted
international order rather constricting and constraining for its expanding
economic, political and military goals.
As John Mearsheimer observes: “If China continues its impressive economic growth
over the next few decades, the United States and China are likely to engage in
an intense security competition with considerable potential for war.”
In the short term, though, China is keen to amass a panoply of military hardware
to deter the US from risking a military confrontation with Beijing by making it
potentially costly. This applies especially to Taiwan.
Gone are the days when by moving two aircraft carriers into the region during
the 1996 Taiwan Strait crisis, the US was able to deter China from a risky
military adventure against Taiwan.
Although the Taiwan situation is apparently calm now with the new political
order in Taipei, it is far from resolved.
China’s military buildup, with a growing fleet of submarines, missiles of
varying range, attack aircraft and other long-range weaponry, certainly has a
medium and long-term strategy to not only project power but also to assert it.
One example of this was the sudden appearance of a Chinese submarine close to
the US aircraft carrier, Kitty Hawk, near Okinawa in 2006.
Aware that it will take China quite some time to reach military parity with the
US, Beijing has been simultaneously working on building up its expertise and
capabilities in asymmetrical warfare, like disabling (if necessary) the US’
satellites and computer networks — now an integral part of its command, control
and communications system.
It is fervently hoped that China can make a peaceful transition to great power
status. But it hasn’t happened before with other powers — like Germany and Japan
— judging by the two world wars. Will China be different? Only time will tell.
Sushil Seth is a writer based in Australia.
Unicorn-like deer spotted in Italy
Monday, Jun 23, 2008,Page 15
|
|
| The deer is shown in this
undated photo provided by the Center of Natural Sciences in Prato,
Italy.
|
A deer with a single horn in the center of its head — much like the
fabled, mythical unicorn — has been spotted in a nature preserve in Italy, park
officials said earlier this month.
“This is fantasy becoming reality,” Gilberto Tozzi, director of the Center of
Natural Sciences in Prato, told the Associated Press.
“The unicorn has always been a mythological animal.”
The one-year-old roe deer, which is nicknamed “Unicorn,” was born in captivity
in the research center’s park in the Tuscan town of Prato, near Florence, Tozzi
said.
He is believed to have been born with a genetic flaw; his twin has two horns.
Calling it the first time he has seen such a case, Tozzi said such anomalies
among deer may have inspired the myth of the unicorn.
The unicorn, a horse-like creature with magical healing powers, has appeared in
legends and stories throughout history, from ancient and medieval texts to the
adventures of Harry Potter.
“This shows that even in past times, there could have been animals with this
anomaly,” Tozzi said by telephone. “It’s not like they dreamed it up.”
Single-horned deer are rare, but not unheard of. Even more unusual is the
central positioning of the horn, experts said.
“Generally, the horn is on one side (of the head) rather than being at the
center. This looks like a complex case,” said Fulvio Fraticelli, scientific
director of Rome’s zoo. He said the position of the horn could also be the
result of a trauma early in the animal’s life.
Other mammals are believed to contribute to the myth of the unicorn, including
the narwhal, a whale with a long, spiraling tusk. (AP)
