Hu tells politburo China is losing its competitive edge

AP, BEIJING
Monday, Dec 01, 2008, Page 1

Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) warned that China has started to lose its competitive edge in trade amid the global financial crisis as he told Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leaders the challenge posed a test to the government’s ability to rule.

China’s economic growth is expected to fall to about 9 percent this year, down from last year’s 11.9 percent. That would be the fastest decline of any major economy, but Chinese leaders worry about possible unrest as unemployment rises, especially in export industries where factories are shutting down as global demand plummets.

“External demand has obviously weakened and China’s traditional competitive advantage is being gradually weakened,” Hu said, the People’s Daily newspaper quoted him as saying.

Hu told members of the CCP’s politburo that the financial meltdown posed critical challenges to a government that has staked its legitimacy in part on competent management of a rapidly developing society.

“Whether the pressures can be turned into a driving force and the challenges turned to opportunities ... is a test of our ability to control a complex situation, and also a test of our party’s governing ability,” Hu said.

He urged party leaders to step up efforts to reform its economic growth model to achieve development that is sustainable.

He said greater effort should be made to raise living standards, use resources more efficiently and develop rural and urban areas, the report said.

The remarks came after National Development and Reform Commission Chairman Zhang Ping (張平) warned on Thursday that the impact of the global financial crisis is worsening and that rising job losses could fuel instability.

But a government researcher said that despite the impact of the global slowdown, the country’s economy is expected to grow by 10 percent next year as domestic consumption grows with rising personal incomes.

“Personal income continues to increase as millions of migrant workers flow into the city to get their lives improved. Enlarging demand for houses and autos will form huge and lasting consuming power,” said Zhang Liqun (張立群), a researcher at a think tank attached to the Cabinet’s planning agency.

Beijing said it would spend 18 trillion yuan (US$2.6 trillion) next year to help blunt the impact of the global financial crisis.

Blogger group formed to protect rights, sovereignty
　

STANDING TOGETHER: When three bloggers were arrested waving Tibetan flags during the visit of Chinese envoy Chen Yunlin, they found help from fellow bloggers
　

By Loa Iok-sin
, STAFF REPORTER
Monday, Dec 01, 2008, Page 2

Concerned about Taiwan’s future under the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government, which advocates closer ties with China, a group of pro-Taiwan bloggers launched a Taiwan Bloggers Association (TBA) yesterday, vowing not only to defend Taiwan’s sovereignty but also its freedom of speech.

“Back in March, another blogger and I decided to organize a ‘pain-healing’ gathering for pro-Taiwan bloggers [after the Democratic Progressive Party lost the presidential election],” Billy Pan (潘建志), one of TBA’s co-founders, told members at the group’s inaugural meeting yesterday.

“We posted the announcement only six days prior to the event, but somewhere between 700 and 800 bloggers came out that day,” Pan said. “Some friends of mine and I were amazed to see what can be accomplished via the Internet, and discussed the possibility of creating a group to coordinate all bloggers with similar ideas.”

During TBA’s preparatory stage, there were a few circumstances that served as the test run.

On Aug. 30, when tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets to express their discontent with the government’s performance on President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) 100th day in office, the bloggers succeeded in mobilizing more than 4,000 people via the Internet, Pan said.

On Oct. 31, the TBA called together more than a thousand people to show their support to Taiwan Association of University Professors chairman Tsay Ting-kuei (蔡丁貴) — also a TBA member — who was on his sixth day of a hunger strike outside the Legislative Yuan to demand changes to amendments to the Referendum Law (公民投票法).

Earlier last month, when three bloggers waving Tibetan flags during the visit of China’s Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait Chairman Chen Yunlin (陳雲林) were arrested by police, they also found help and support — including an attorney who is also a blogger — on the Internet.

The “Mango Daily” incident was only the latest addition to the long list of bloggers showing their solidarity with each other.

The Mango Daily is a blog that often criticizes KMT policies while poking fun at KMT politicians. It was shut down by the blog service provider, Yahoo-Kimo, more than a week ago after the blogger, nicknamed Black Jack, posted a controversial article.

Hundreds of bloggers protested by sending letters to Yahoo-Kimo, accusing it of violating freedom of speech. Some even moved to boycott the Internet portal. Yahoo-Kimo finally agreed to reinstate the Mango Daily last week.

“If you’re treated unfairly, or if you see someone else being treated unfairly, you must speak out,” Black Jack, another of TBA’s co-founders, told the meeting yesterday. “Always remember that unity is power.”

“The online world is an intangible one, but we can make a difference in the real world if we stand together and use the Internet as a tool of coordination,” Pan said.

International groups must let Taiwan in, ex-UN official says
　

PUT PEACE FIRST: Citing the Korean experience, Lee Samuel said that any efforts to find solutions through peaceful means should be encouraged

STAFF WRITER, WITH CNA
Monday, Dec 01, 2008, Page 3

A visiting former UN commission head said Taiwan should be allowed to take part in international organizations for the sake of peace and prosperity in East Asia.

“Taiwan should be given the opportunity to relate to other members in international agencies,” if the world expects lasting peace in the region, Lee Samuel, former secretary-general of the Korean National Commission for UNESCO, said in an interview with the Central News Agency on Saturday.

With the Taiwan Strait long considered a flashpoint in the region, the issue has to be dealt with if countries in the region intend to establish a peaceful grouping similar to the EU, he said.

He said, however, that “peace is more important” than any potential agreement on Taiwan’s status between the two sides of the Strait. The most important thing is for divided countries to develop a way to coexist with each other through dialogue and cooperation, he said.

Citing the Korean experience, he said that any efforts to find solutions through peaceful means should be recognized as positive and that governments in disputes have to venture, once there is a chance of securing peaceful results.

However, the process of external negotiations should be based on internal consensus obtained by means of adequate communication, he said, or “peaceful talks with an outside enemy can also produce inside enemies.”

In the 1960s, Lee was exiled from South Korea because of his participation in the April Student Revolution, which eventually brought down then-president Syngman Rhee. When Lee returned to his homeland some 20 years later, he became involved in civil movements and advocated unification of the Koreas.

Wild Strawberries plan rally without police permit
　

By Flora Wang
STAFF REPORTER
Monday, Dec 01, 2008, Page 3
　

The Wild Strawberry Student Movement is planning to hold a rally in front of the Presidential Office, without seeking a permit, to voice dissatisfaction with the government’s lukewarm attitude toward amending the Assembly and Parade Law (集會遊行法), representatives of the movement said yesterday.

Hsu Jen-shou (?? told a press conference at Liberty Square in front of the National Taiwan Democracy Memorial Hall that protesters staging silent sit-ins around the country would gather at the square for the rally on Sunday.

An estimated 1,000 people will begin their march at 1pm to the Executive Yuan, the National Police Agency (NPA) and the Legislative Yuan, before heading to the Presidential Office, he said. The rally is scheduled to end at 4pm.

The students will not seek police approval as required by the assembly law but will only “report” their plans to law enforcement authorities, in line with the amendments advocated by the movement.

Around 100 academics who have expressed support for the students will also attend, he said.

The students have staged nationwide sit-ins since Nov. 6 in protest at use of “excessive” force by police against demonstrators during Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait chairman Chen Yunlin’s (陳雲林) visit.

The students are demanding that President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and Premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄) apologize and that NPA Director-General Wang Cho-chiun (王卓鈞) and National Security Bureau Director-General Tsai Chao-ming (蔡朝明) resign from their posts. The students have also called for immediate amendments to the assembly law to scrap the requirement that demonstrators secure a permit from police.

“Three weeks have passed [since we began demonstrating]. Our government has not shown any remorse but endorsed the use of excessive force by police,” Wild Strawberries spokesman Lo Shih-hsiang (羅士翔) said. “We are going to take this to the streets, to the Executive Yuan, the Legislative Yuan and the Presidential Office. We will step up together and show the government we will never stop defending human rights.”

Highlights of the rally on Ketagalan Boulevard will include a mock funeral procession to mourn the demise of human rights, Hsu said.

Students from Kaohsiung will carry a 2m bamboo puppet of Ma dressed in a military uniform to symbolize his “returning Taiwan to authoritarian rule,” said Yao Liang-yi (姚量議), a student from Kaohsiung.

Hsu said the public was welcome to join the rally, but that the movement would not tolerate violence or interference by any political parties.

“The tone of the movement has been non-violent and peaceful,” Hsu said, adding that students will ask that people remove any political symbols before joining the rally.

Concern grows for fate of Taiwan

Monday, Dec 01, 2008, Page 8

After six months in power, the most common criticism against President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration involves its pro-China leanings and its use of the judiciary and police to carry out political attacks and undermine human rights. The front page of the Nov. 24 issue of the US weekly Defense News ran a story headlined “In Taiwan, Arrests Raise Echoes of Martial Law.” The article mentioned that arrests of Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) members had led to allegations that the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) “is back in the business of political repression.”

Since Ma’s government took office, the human rights situation has deteriorated, which is a shameful milestone in Taiwan’s democratic reform. On the one hand, this two-faced government claims to be following the law, while on the other, it openly uses violence against the demonstrators, restricting freedom of expression and arresting and settling scores with its political enemies. It has severely abridged the universal values of freedom and human rights. This is frightening and leads to worries that the ghost of the authoritarian past has come back to life.

The government is using the state’s monopoly on legal violence to suppress human rights, which has drawn strong domestic disapproval, while international human rights organizations have issued a series of statements calling for Ma and his administration to put an end to this worrying turn of events.

Among human rights organizations, Freedom House issued a statement on Nov. 20 calling on the government to set up an independent commission to investigate clashes between police and activists protesting against Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait Chairman Chen Yunlin’s (陳雲林) visit to Taiwan and to show that Ma “is interested in upholding the democratic values of transparency and accountability.” The statement also said the inquiry should “investigate claims that police are selectively enforcing the law,” “examine controversial passages in Taiwan’s Assembly and Parade Law [集會遊行法]” and “protect citizens’ rights to freedom of expression and assembly.”

Freedom House was particularly concerned with police use “of heavy-handed tactics — including physical assault, arbitrary detention and destruction of property — to prevent Chen from seeing symbols of Taiwanese or Tibetan independence, as well as broader demonstrations against the Chinese regime.”

The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) on Nov. 20 expressed its “deep concern regarding the detention and attacks against citizens protesting peacefully during the visit of Chinese envoy Mr. Chen Yunlin. FIDH believes that such arrests and violence are grave violations of human rights, under the pretext of national security.”

Ma’s mentor at Harvard, Jerome Cohen, has also published an article calling for the establishment of an independent commission to investigate the incidents. Former American Institute in Taiwan chairman Nat Bellocchi and several others wrote an open letter to the Ministry of Justice expressing their “deep concern about the recent series of detentions in Taiwan of present and former Democratic Progressive Party government officials.”

In other words, the Ma administration’s use of police violence to suppress the public, its persecution of political enemies and its bias against pan-green individuals has caused widespread concern in the international community.

Ma and his government, however, act as if they have heard nothing of this outpouring of international and domestic concern and are not interested in offering a positive response. The Wild Strawberries student protests and their sit-in are demanding that the government apologize, that the National Security Council secretary-general and the National Police Agency director step down and that the Parade and Assembly Act be amended.

The government refuses to apologize or dismiss any officials and the law will not be amended because the pan-blue camp holds a majority in the legislature. As for the suggestions that an independent commission be set up, the government hasn’t even responded and it is quite obvious that it has no intent to listen to the advice.

As for the concern that the government has selectively investigated pan-green individuals, the justice minister argued it was in the nature of corruption cases that government officials be targeted, since it is only they who have the power and the opportunity to get involved in corruption. Since opposition politicians — as were the KMT during the previous government — do not hold official positions, prosecutors have no reason to investigate them. This kind of reasoning is farcical at best. Certainly those pan-blue politicians who were investigated in connection with the special allowance funds for government chiefs were in government at the time. And how could it be that only Ma was investigated, while all the other pan-blue investigations were shelved, yet almost every single investigated pan-green politician was charged?

It is true that DPP Yunlin County Commissioner Su Chih-fen (蘇治芬), who was illegally detained, is a local government official, but wasn’t it equally true that all those pan-blue county commissioners and mayors charged with violating the law are also local government officials? Why were only the DPP county commissioner detained and held incommunicado, while pan-blue commissioners and mayors can go on with their lives as if nothing had happened? The ministry of justice’s statement was mere sophistry.

The Ma administration claims to abide by the law while it uses national security as a reason to control the judiciary and the police to trample on human rights. Taiwan’s democracy is in danger of collapsing and the shadow of the White Terror is looming dark over our heads.

Only by wielding the banner of human rights and freedom and opposing the government’s systemic violence by taking protests to the streets and bringing accusations to the attention of the international community can we fight back.

This is the only way to safeguard Taiwan’s democracy and save future generations from being trampled under the steel boots of authoritarianism.