Congress rallies in support of Taiwan
　

NOT THE COMMUNIQUES: Despite protests from Beijing, bipartisan efforts reaffirmed the US' strong support for Taiwan's democracy and a promise to help it defend itself
　

By William Lowther
STAFF REPORTER IN WASHINGTON
Thursday, Mar 26, 2009, Page 1

The US House of Representatives has reversed the work of a subcommittee and put the teeth back into a resolution offering strong support for Taiwan on the 30th anniversary of the Taiwan Relations Act (TRA).

In a series of sometimes dramatic speeches on the floor of the House, members of the Committee on Foreign Affairs voiced extraordinary praise for Taiwan and pledged to help preserve its independence.

Passing the newly robust resolution unanimously, members of the House seemed to be fired up by an attempt last week by Eni Faleomavaega, a Democrat from American Samoa, to water down the resolution.

Faleomavaega, chairman of the Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific, changed the wording of the original resolution when it reached his subcommittee before going to the full House.

He removed a reference to the TRA being the “cornerstone” of US relations with Taiwan and said that it was simply “vital” to relations.

Congressional insiders said later that in making the change Faleomavaega had bowed to Chinese pressure.

Beijing wants the three joint US-China communiques to be known as the “cornerstone” of the US-Taiwan-China triangular relationship because in them the US acknowledges the Chinese position that Taiwan is part of China.

But on learning from the Taipei Times about Faleomavaega's actions, Coen Blaauw, executive director of the Formosan Association for Public Affairs (FAPA), launched a campaign to get the all-important word “cornerstone” put back into the resolution.

FAPA alerted members of the Congressional Taiwan Caucus to the significance of the change, members of FAPA's professionals group sent hundreds of e-mails protesting the change, and association officials talked directly to influential Foreign Affairs Committee officials.

As a result, the resolution was changed back to its original wording and the word “cornerstone” was reinserted.

To emphasize the point, several members of Congress deliberately used “cornerstone” in their speeches on the floor of the House.

“It was a meaningful victory,” Blaauw said.

Howard Berman, a California Democrat and chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, said on introducing the amended resolution: “Taiwan has the potential to play a very constructive role in international affairs. I would urge that special consideration be given to Taiwan's desire to gain observer status with the World Health Assembly later this spring. I urge China to do more to reach out to both the people and the government of Taiwan.”

“I am confident that the Taiwan Relations Act will remain the cornerstone of our relationship with Taiwan,” he said.

Lincoln Diaz-Balart, a Florida Republican, said: “This resolution reaffirms the United States' commitment to the Republic of China on Taiwan and describes the Taiwan Relations Act as the cornerstone of US-Taiwan relations.”

“It stresses the concept of peace through strength and has served as a key deterrent to Communist Chinese military aggression and its attempts at forced reunification. As members of Congress, we will do all that is necessary so that the people of Taiwan will have the tools they need to defend themselves. We must, and we will, continue to remind the world that Taiwan's security is of the utmost importance to the US Congress,” he added.

“We must do everything in our power to continue protecting Taiwan and ensuring its survival,” said Shelley Berkley, a Democrat from Nevada.

Republican Dan Burton said Taiwan was a “true friend.”

“They [Taiwanese] have been with us through thick and thin. There have been times when I think we have not been as good a friend to them as we should have been,” he said.

Mario Diaz-Balart, another Florida Republican, said: “The people of Taiwan should know and the world should know that the US Congress stands with this strong and proud democracy.”

And Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Florida Republican and ranking member of the Committee, said: “This resolution recognizes the TRA as the cornerstone of the unbreakable relations that exist today between the US and Taiwan.”

“We are reconfirming our commitment to strengthen the US-Taiwan relationship and our support for the defensive needs of the Taiwanese people. Taiwan has become a beacon of hope to all who aspire to democracy in the Chinese cultural world. Now more than ever, we must ensure that the people of Taiwan are provided with the defensive weapons needed to ensure that no sudden change in the status quo by the use of force undermines their political aspirations,” he said.

“Now more than ever, we must ensure that Congress is fully consulted on a regular basis on both our overall relations with Taiwan and our planned future arms sales,” she said, adding: “Let us send a strong, unequivocal message to Beijing that we are unwavering in our commitment to democracy, to free markets and to the people of Taiwan.”

In response to the resolution, Taiwan's de facto embassy, the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office, released a statement saying it “deeply appreciated the bipartisan and uniform support of the US Congress.”

The Chinese government called on the US to acknowledge that Taiwan is part of China.

“Our position is consistent, we hope that the US side can support ... the one-China principle,” Fan Liqing (范麗青), spokeswoman of China's Taiwan Affairs Office, told journalists in a brief statement.

She was referring to diplomatic agreements between China and the US in which the US acknowledges Beijing's claim “that there is but one China and Taiwan is part of China.”

Congress passed the TRA after then-US president Jimmy Carter shifted recognition in 1979.

Chen calls case a KMT political vendetta
　

By Ko Shu-ling
STAFF REPORTER
Thursday, Mar 26, 2009, Page 1
　

Former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) yesterday lambasted the administration of President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) for waging a political vendetta against him and members of the former government, saying that democracy and the rule of law had regressed to the dark age of the Martial Law era.

“I am here solemnly protesting,” he said in a statement read by Chin Heng-wei (金恆煒), editor-in-chief of Contemporary Magazine, at an international press conference in Taipei. “My protests and accusations are not just for my own benefit ... but for the sake of Taiwan's freedom, democracy, human rights, justice and its independence.”

Chen denied any wrongdoing in his statement yesterday. He said his wife, Wu Shu-jen (吳淑珍), had wired leftover election funds to overseas accounts without his knowledge, but denied it was dirty money.

Yesterday's press conference attracted some Chen supporters who chanted “release A-bian [Chen's nickname],” “A-bian innocent” and “political persecution,” and held banners that read “Taiwanese are not Chinese, just like Americans are not Englishmen” and “Taiwan jiayou.”

“I believe the verdict in my case has long been reached in advance and that my sentence has already been determined because it is not really up to the prosecutors and judges who are merely following orders to make such decisions,” Chen said in the statement.

Conducting more judicial proceedings would not hide the fact that the government is waging a political vendetta against its political opponents, his statement said, adding that the Ma administration was using its campaign against corruption as a cover-up to smear and vilify the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) for promoting Taiwan-centered consciousness.

“I may be the first person persecuted, but I believe I will not be the last one,” Chen said.

The former president said that a new authoritarian regime was taking shape, and with the Chinese Nationalist Party's (KMT) one-party rule working in consonance with the Chinese Communist Party, Taiwan's judiciary had become a tool for political suppression and persecution.

He criticized the Ma administration for leaning heavily on China in exchange for small favors, adding that after the KMT returned to power, it launched a relentless campaign to “purge and cleanse” the former DPP administration.

The best example, he said, was their decision to handcuff him, hold him incommunicado and isolate him from the world soon after Chinese envoy Chen Yunlin (陳雲林) visited Taiwan.

He said he was willing to put his political donations under public scrutiny, but the same standards must apply to all politicians, including the KMT's dubious assets.

Chen was first detained last November and released in December. He was detained again and has remained in custody since Dec. 30. Chen was indicted for money laundering, accepting bribes, forgery and embezzling NT$15 million (US$450,000) during his presidency. His wife was charged with corruption and forgery in connection with Chen's use of a special presidential fund known as the “state affairs fund.”

At a separate setting yesterday, the DPP slammed prosecutors for delaying their investigations into KMT officials' use of their special allowances. DPP legislators filed lawsuits in May 2007 with the Supreme Prosecutors' Office, accusing 97 KMT officials — including Vice President Vincent Siew (蕭萬長), former KMT chairman Lien Chan (連戰), KMT Chairman Wu Poh-hsiung (吳伯雄) and KMT ­Secretary-General Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) — of misusing their special allowances during their tenure as public officials.

“More than 600 days have passed, but prosecutors have not completed their probe and publicly announced the results,” DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) told a press conference.

Prosecutors, who only investigated pan-green officials but not pan-blue officials, had become government tools who use double standards in dealing with government officials' use of their special allowances, she said.

Help healing with an apology

Thursday, Mar 26, 2009, Page 8

How a government handles controversies — especially ones that touch upon issues as delicate as ethnic equality — not only demonstrates its sincerity in resolving problems but also its core values. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government’s handling of the uproar surrounding former Government Information Office (GIO) official Kuo Kuan-ying (郭冠英) is therefore regrettable.

More than two weeks have elapsed since allegations first made headlines that the acting director of the information division at the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Toronto had written a series of articles demeaning Taiwan and Taiwanese under the pseudonym Fan Lan-chin (范蘭欽).

After repeated denials that he was Fan, Kuo on Monday owned up to writing the articles. With hateful and derogatory language, Kuo denied the scale of the 228 Incident and advocated ethnic cleansing.

Article 1, Clause 1 of the the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, passed by the UN in 1965, says: “The term ‘racial discrimination’ shall mean any distinction, exclusion, restriction or preference based on race, color, descent, or national or ethnic origin which has the purpose or effect of nullifying or impairing the recognition, enjoyment or exercise, on an equal footing, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural or any other field of public life.”

In view of the fact that these inflammatory articles so clearly constitute discrimination against one or more ethnic groups and attempt to distort history, it is painful that President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and Premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄) took so long to condemn them.

It is even more appalling, however, that no word of apology has been offered by a high-ranking member of the government over the fascist opinions espoused by a GIO official.

Article 7 of the Constitution says that “all people of the Republic of China are equal before the law regardless of gender, religion, race, social status or political affiliation.” Article 114 of the Criminal Code says that any government official who violates duties related to foreign affairs with the result of “incurring harm to the Republic of China” shall be sentenced to at least seven years in prison.

Kuo was given two demerits by the GIO on Monday and relieved of his civil servant status not because of what he had written, but because his “inconsistent” explanations to the GIO on whether he was the author and a series of remarks he made to the media constituted “defiance of the government.”

Although Ma and Liu have since condemned Kuo’s writings as “unquestionably extreme and discriminatory,” the lack of a formal apology from the government could fuel suspicion that it is not particularly upset by the revelation that this hate speech was penned by a GIO official.

Ma and his administration can help Taiwan overcome the anger surrounding the Kuo-Fan incident by demonstrating their dedication to ethnic equality and harmony. Rather than stopping at condemning Kuo’s articles, they should drive the message home with an apology on behalf of the government.

He said it'd be OK to kill my wife
　

By J. Michael Cole 寇謐將
Thursday, Mar 26, 2009, Page 8

‘Taiwan’s handling of its ethnic mix is commendable ... That success, a clear sign of maturity in a people, is often overlooked when people speak of the Taiwanese miracle.’

We met when I worked as an intelligence officer in Canada, part of an organization that at times risked making racism and hatred for the “other” — in that case, mostly Arabs and Muslims — a normal policy. After nearly three years in that suffocating environment, whose siege mentality I could no longer bear, I resigned, choosing to abide by the values of humanity and inclusiveness that I cherished and believed defined me as a Canadian.

Throughout the long, difficult months that preceded my decision, my partner, a Taiwanese, was always supportive and helped me in uncountable ways, as did other members of her family.

Soon afterwards, we left Canada — her adopted homeland — and moved to Taiwan, where I sought to build a new life and write a book about what I had gone through at the Canadian Security Intelligence Service.

What immediately struck me in Taiwan was the warmth, friendliness, selflessness and generosity of its people, at a level I had possibly only encountered in Cuba on my two visits there.

A product of a multicultural society myself, I was also greatly pleased to discover that in this young democracy, people of various ethnicities lived alongside each other peacefully, Taiwanese interacting with peoples from Southeast Asia, Chinese, Hakka, Japanese, Aborigines and the growing influx of Westerners like myself with respect and humanity. Even on touchier issues like homosexuality, Taiwanese have at times been far more progressive and open-minded than many Western countries — or even Quebec City, where I was born and where a family member, herself a homosexual, has had to live in hiding.

This is not to say that “interracial” relations in Taiwan are always harmonious, or that there haven’t been instances of abuse. But no society is pristine.

Taiwan’s handling of its ethnic mix is commendable, one of a number of successes it has achieved in its long journey toward nationhood. That success, a clear sign of maturity in a people, is often overlooked when people speak of the Taiwanese miracle.

In the three-and-a-half years that I have lived in Taiwan, its people have opened their hearts on countless occasions, helped me, befriended me and, in the small Songshan community where I live, made me feel part of them, a feat they manage to repeat every single day with smiles, nods, words, neighborly help and in myriad other ways.

Coworkers, neighbors, pure strangers, all, with very, very few exceptions, have reaffirmed, through their words and actions, why it is that I have chosen to make Taiwan my home and why I, like many others who have had a chance to visit, care so much about its future.

So it is with unmitigated horror and disbelief that I read about Kuo Kuan-ying (郭冠英), a senior official at Taiwan’s representative office in Toronto — where I have many Taiwanese friends — writing articles under a pseudonym that for all intents and purposes managed to both deny and commend the 228 Incident, in which between 20,000 and 25,000 Taiwanese were killed, while vaunting the supposed “superiority” of Chinese over Taiwanese “rednecks.”

Kuo also argued that Chinese should occupy Taiwan and keep its “natives” under the kind of authoritarian rule that prevailed during the Martial Law era and exists today in regions such as Tibet and Xinjiang.

As Chinese in this distorted, racist view of the world are “superior,” this implies that my partner, her parents, her family, her best friend’s adorable baby girl Maegan, many of my coworkers and friends, the kind tribal chief I met on a trip to the beautiful Smangus homeland in the mountains of Hsinchu County, and the countless cab drivers, storekeepers, vendors and strangers who have shown me patience and selflessness, are “lesser” human beings — people it would be OK to assimilate, throw in jail, occupy or even exterminate.

Despite what the Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) administration has said, this isn’t free speech. Free speech ends at the shore of hatred and has additional limits when it is a government official doing the writing.

Society has its share of deranged individuals — white supremacists, anti-Semites, Islamophobes and so on — whose skewed views and ideas they might interpret as “freedom of speech.” But societies, built on systems of laws and hundreds of years of accumulated wisdom in the domains of “race,” “ethnicity,” morality, philosophy, religion and so on, should know better. And they do.

This is why my home country, to use one example, prosecuted Ernst Zundel, a Holocaust denier, and in 2005 deported him to Germany, where he was charged on 14 counts of inciting racial hatred. That is why France, to use another example, has made denying the Armenian Genocide at the hands of Turks a crime.

Zundel’s few apologists were nutcase white supremacists and neo-Nazis whom nobody would entrust their children with, let alone allow to run a country. Everybody else recognized evil when they saw it.

Views like those expressed by Kuo are aberrations — that is, unless people in charge and society at large fail to appropriately condemn them, in which case they become dangerous undercurrents, if not systemic, within a specific ethnic group or organization, such as the one I left back in Canada.

Deplorably, it took the Government Information Office far too long to do the appropriate thing: suspend him. This it did on Monday, after Kuo admitted in an interview that he was indeed Fan Lan-chin (范蘭欽), the author of the racist articles.

The Ma administration and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) dragged their feet before stating, in no uncertain terms, that they would not brook such opinions and that there was no place for such hatred within Taiwanese society — both in and outside government.

Surely, had a similar incident occurred in the US or Canada, and African-Americans or Quebecers been the targets of venomous articles, the leadership would have reacted far more promptly. Ma finally did so on Tuesday, but an earlier condemnation was warranted.

Sadly, Kuo isn’t alone in holding those views, and in fact some have wondered why such a fuss was made over this specific case, arguing that the comments were in fact fairly common.

The Ma administration and the KMT must therefore distance themselves from such hatred, or their silence will be tantamount to condoning the view that the woman that I love with all my heart and the beautiful and precious nation she is from are deserving of nothing more than hatred, oppression and cleansing — the very mindset of the White Terror era that had compelled her parents to offer her, her brother and her sister a new life by emigrating to Canada.

J. Michael Cole is a writer based in Taipei.