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Coral reef threatened by Chinese
　

SCOURGE: Unquenched appetite for Hong Kong’s world- famous Cantonese seafood, like fish and lobster, is the principal reason behind the threat

By Benjamin Yeh
AFP, DONGSHA, TAIWAN
Monday, Jul 28, 2008, Page 2
　

Chinese fishermen have been accused of poaching in Taiwan’s first marine national park, where authorities say their destructive methods are endangering the area’s ecology.

“Chinese fishing boats have been posing the gravest threat to the fragile ecological system here,” said Shaw I-pung (蕭一鵬) of the Marine National Park headquarters, speaking of the tiny coral atoll called Dongsha Island.

“They have been using illegal methods like poisons, dynamite and electricity to exploit marine resources in the region,” he said.

The scourge of boats scouring the seabed for food destined for Hong Kong restaurants is combining with global warming as a major cause of coral reef bleaching, he said.

The Dongsha Islands, comprising Dongsha Island and two coral reefs which are submerged at high tide, straddles a strategically important sea route at the north of the South China Sea linking the Pacific and Indian oceans.

The island is a coral atoll with a land area of 2.4km². It measures 0.9km from east to west, and 2.7km from north to south.

Shaw said the unquenched appetite for Hong Kong’s famed Cantonese seafood is to blame.

“Most of the marine catches here, like fishes and lobsters, are quickly sent to Hong Kong, which touts itself as the world’s biggest living fish market,” he said.

Chinese fishermen, plus some Vietnamese, use cyanide to stun fish and catch them live for higher commercial prices, he said.

“Cabrilla can be sold for US$30 per kilo in Hong Kong and some other fish even sell for up to US$100 per kilo,” Shaw said.

Dongsha is 267km away from Hong Kong and 380km from Kaohsiung City.

“Smaller fish and corals were destroyed by the poisons, largely cyanide, which is easily available in China,” Shaw said.

However, “the destructive way of fishing has been endangering the coral reefs near Dongsha,” which Shaw described as an “ocean rain forest” and a biodiversity hot spot.

Academics found there are 264 species of coral, 556 species of fish and 140 species of bird — many of them migratory — in that area.

Taiwan’s coast guard says it has stopped 3,820 ships infiltrating the prohibited Dongsha waters since they were deployed in 2000.

Taiwan withdrew its Marines from Dongsha in 2000 in what the government said was a move to help alleviate tensions in the South China Sea.

Currently there are around 200 coast guard personnel are stationed on Dongsha and armed with a fleet of six patrol boats — three 10-tonne vessels and three other eight-tonne boats. There are no civilian inhabitants.

But the fleet is apparently not strong enough to serve as a “deterrent” to the Chinese and Vietnamese invaders.

“They often come back after we leave,” a coast guard officer said on condition of anonymity.

The government is now building the first permanent pier on the island to house the three incoming 20-tonne boats.

“Bigger ships would help us battle invaders as they increase our cruising capability,” said Liu Kuo-lieh (劉國列), the Dongsha coast guard commander.

As part of its ocean conservation efforts, the government inaugurated the Dongsha Marine National Park in January last year. The park administration is centered on the monitoring and conservation of the local ecology.

Listen to the voice

KMT must return from fantasyland
　

By Lin Cho-shui 林濁水
Monday, Jul 28, 2008, Page 8

Former President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) needed six years to drive his popularity ratings below 40 percent. President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) managed the feat in just two months. Public confidence in the government is now close to collapsing.

Premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄) has said that Singaporean officials are envious because Taiwan’s inflation figures are much lower than theirs, and the second-best in Asia after Japan. Vice Premier Paul Chiu (邱正雄) says economic fundamentals are good and that foreign investors are optimistic. The government blames its problems on rising global raw material costs. Even if all these claims are correct, they will do nothing to improve public confidence.

The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) only has itself to blame for the public’s hopes being so high.

The huge discrepancy between economic realities and public expectations is the direct result of the KMT’s election strategies during its time in opposition: they demonized Chen’s Taiwan, saying it was an abyss of suffering. Chen even helped a bit by wooing now Vice President Vincent Siew (蕭萬長) and current Straits Exchange Foundation Chairman Chiang Pin-kung (江丙坤) and saying that a good economy wouldn’t necessarily translate into voter support. Still, the public believed that Chen’s government performed badly.

The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government tried to defend itself, saying that Taiwan’s economic growth equaled South Korea’s, and that although average income did not reach the same level as in South Korea, inflation and poverty figures were much better than in South Korea, Singapore or Hong Kong. Because of the KMT’s demonization tactics, the public did not buy these arguments.

The problem for the KMT government is that the public now rejects its explanations by applying the same standards to Ma’s government. This is even truer since the situation under Ma is worse than it was under Chen.

The KMT’s demonization of Chen was based on two arguments. First, the nation’s average economic growth rate during the KMT era was more than 8 percent and China’s economy is currently growing at a rate of more than 10 percent. No matter how you looked at it, Taiwan fell behind.

Second, the KMT created the impression that everything depended on China. If Taiwan took its China medicine, everything would be fine and every industry would prosper. There was no reason to fear the US subprime crisis, global inflation and other international difficulties: The China panacea would improve economic growth, and lower unemployment and inflation figures — Ma’s 6-3-3 election promise — while the stock market would break through the 20,000 point mark. These daring promises excited the public, and because the DPP refused to buy into this reasoning, everyone began waiting for the KMT to lead Taiwan out of the chaos.

None of this has happened since Ma took office. In just two months, public hope has been replaced by a threefold confidence crisis.

First, there is a sincerity crisis. There is a suspicion that Ma issued election promises willy-nilly simply to win the election, and there are also suspicions that Chiu will support the market with the help of the government’s four major funds and NT$8 trillion (US$263 million), and that he keeps saying that foreign investors are positive about Taiwan’s economic prospects despite the fact that they are on the selling side day after day.

Second, there is a crisis of ability and confidence. The government has been very uncertain in its dealing with inflation, the plunging stock market and the inaugural cross-strait direct flights. There have also been problems related to the Financial Supervisory Commission and the central bank. All this has caused falling confidence in the administration’s ability to lead and implement policy.

Third, there is a lack of confidence in the nation’s future. This is the most serious problem. There is only one remedy, and it is supposed to be a panacea, but it still is completely ineffectual. This uncertainty has plunged the country into its deepest confidence crisis in decades.

The ups and downs of the stock market are a reflection of the economic situation, but extremely large fluctuations are the result of investor psychology. To everyone’s surprise, the government completely reversed the order of its already planned cross-strait policy to calm short-term investor sentiment, but without any accompanying measures. It also said that it would complete the deregulation of 25 economic and trade areas before year’s end, without being able to specify what these measures would be. This is an even more preposterous version of the Chen administration’s policy of issuing a benefit a week.

Not knowing what to do, the government is shoving a cocktail of medication down Taiwan’s throat, hoping that something will work, while the patient gets more nervous.

The only way for the KMT to save the situation is to put an end to the fairy tale the party itself created, give up its unrealistic fantasies and take a look at reality so it can set up reasonable goals and cross-strait economic and trade policies. This means the party has to admit to its mistakes. While difficult, it is the only way it can save itself.

Lin Cho-shui is a former Democratic Progressive Party legislator.

Listen to the voice

‘Crisis’ is the right word for situation

Monday, Jul 28, 2008, Page 8

Democratic Progressive Party Chairwoman Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said recently that the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) rule has caused an unprecedented crisis for Taiwan’s sovereignty. The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) responded with a statement that it “strongly resented” Tsai’s “unsubstantiated comments.” The council said that the basic premise of its cross-strait policies have always been to put Taiwan first and benefit all Taiwanese, and that a closed-door policy will weaken Taiwan strategically, eat away at Taiwanese identity and sacrifice the interests of all Taiwanese.

Tsai’s comments seem valid and it is the council’s strong resentment that appears unsubstantiated. Under the leadership of President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), the government has been falling over itself to get into bed with China and has loosened the restrictions on Taiwanese investment in China to an unprecedented degree and at an unprecedented speed. Ma has accepted the so-called “1992 consensus,” which doesn’t even exist and has used it as the basis for cross-strait negotiations.

Ma has been eager to announce to the world that his government and the Chinese government agree that Taiwan and China both belong to “one China.” Beijing has taken advantage of this to belittle Taiwan, calling it “Taipei, China” and continuing to contain Taiwan diplomatically. We must ask Mainland Affairs Chairwoman Lai Shin-yuan (賴幸媛) if this is not an objective description of the unprecedented crisis now facing Taiwan’s sovereignty.

Taiwan is an independent and sovereign nation and Ma was elected as president on this basis. During the campaign, Ma said he was competing for the presidency of a sovereign country. Once he was elected, however, especially since taking office, he has viewed Taiwan merely as a part of China. He believes the best name to use when Taiwan applies for membership in international organizations is “Chinese Taipei” (中華台北.) In order to please Beijing, Taiwan calls itself “Taiwan Region” on visas for Chinese tourists. Ma has also been content to be referred to as “Mr” instead of “President.”

Again, Lai should say whether Taiwan’s name change to “Chinese Taipei” and “Taiwan Region” as well as the use of “Mr” to refer to the president represent an unprecedented crisis in terms of sovereignty.

During Ma’s campaign, he adopted the mainstream view that the “status quo” must be maintained. Since the election, however, his intentions for unification have become evident.

Judging from Ma’s inaugural speech and policy talks, we can conclude that he does not think Taiwan has any sovereignty at all and that Taiwan is just a geographical term in the “one China” context. In the past, the country on the other side of the Taiwan Strait was commonly referred to as China. Since Ma’s election, it has become “Mainland China” to emphasize that both China and Taiwan are parts of “one China.” These changes in terminology make one wonder if Ma’s statements that the 23 million people of Taiwan must decide its future may already be changing to “Taiwan’s future must be decided by the 1.3 billion people of China.”

Ma has been promoting policies he believes to be beneficial without consulting the public and he has made keeping good relations with China his priority. He has been leaning toward China both economically and politically and this has caused grave concern from countries concerned with security in the Taiwan Strait such as the US and Japan.

Ma’s recent fawning on China has also made those Taiwanese who support unification voice their opinions after having been relatively silent for more than a decade. One long-time unification supporter has openly said that, “The great unification of China is a historical and cultural heritage passed down among the Chinese people over 3,000 years” and that, “Unification with China has become the general trend and it is just a matter of when and how unification will be achieved.”

This is an atmosphere that has not been seen in Taiwan for more than a decade and it has been caused by Ma’s talk of eventual unification. The “Great Unification” mentioned above represents a reversion to old ways that the Taiwanese do not want to see.

Taiwan is indeed facing an unprecedented sovereignty crisis. Ma’s election and the KMT’s control of both government and legislature cannot be viewed simply as a change of government in a normal democratic nation. It implies that an alien regime is using Taiwan’s democracy to restore its hold on power. Taiwan’s path toward normalization could once again turn toward Sinicization, for the KMT are very adept at using talk about economic benefits to sugarcoat the poison they use to bring Taiwan toward annexation.

Ma’s recent actions are not based on putting Taiwan first and benefiting the Taiwanese, but rather on putting China first and hurting the Taiwanese.

Those determined to uphold Taiwan’s sovereignty must be prepared for this crisis and they need a sense of mission. They must gather and consolidate their energy to get ready to rule Taiwan once again. They cannot just sit down and watch while “the Chinese people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait” turn Taiwan into a piece of meat on a chopping board.