PRC stalling on human rights: House speaker

AFP, WASHINGTON
Sunday, Jun 07, 2009, Page 1

US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Friday that she saw no progress in China on human rights, regretting that neither economic reforms nor US pressure were making Beijing budge.

But Pelosi vowed to be “relentless” in keeping the heat on Beijing over its human rights record, rejecting suggestions that she backed away from her longtime advocacy on the issue during a recent trip to China.

Pelosi deplored that Beijing was still holding prisoners for taking part in the Tiananmen Square democracy protests crushed 20 years ago.

“Twenty years later people are still being incarcerated for speaking out about anything other than the party line,” Pelosi said. “I don't know that this is an evolution.”

“I know that just our advocacy didn't accomplish any more freedom in China. So somehow or other we have to find a way to do that,” she told the Brookings Institution think tank.

Pelosi said she praised China's leadership in her meetings for lifting millions out of poverty, calling it a “remarkable” achievement.

“The problem I have is that — people say, 'Well, look at Taiwan, look at [South] Korea, different places' — economic reform leads to political reform,” she said.

“What I see in China is that economic reform is being used to suppress the political reform — 'You have a job, okay, I'm happy.' So it isn't the natural peaceful evolution, which they really never subscribed to,” she said.

Pelosi denied perceptions that she had softened her stance on her recent trip by not speaking out publicly in China on human rights.

She said she was able to raise human rights concerns at the highest level as House speaker, the third-highest leader under the US Constitution.

She said she directly petitioned Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) to free jailed rights activists.

Pelosi said she had no regrets about infuriating Beijing's leaders in 1991 by unfurling a banner in Tiananmen Square in tribute “to those who died for democracy in China.”

“It isn't that my view has changed so much as my role has changed,” Pelosi said. “This is a relentless pursuit of mine.”

“If we do not speak out for human rights in China and Tibet, we lose moral authority to speak out for them anywhere,” she said.

US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton disappointed many human rights activists in February by saying that rights concerns would not impede US cooperation with China on issues such as the global economic crisis.

But Clinton made a public appeal to China this week to come clean on how many died in Tian­anmen Square and to free prisoners — a plea quickly rejected and denounced by Beijing.

Pelosi on Thursday invited Tiananmen Square leaders, including Wang Dan (王丹) — the former floppy-haired student who had topped Beijing's most-wanted list — to join her at the US Capitol to commemorate the uprising.

She said that despite her record — she joked she was the “most hated person” in China last year for her strong support to Tibet's spiritual leader the Dalai Lama — Chinese leaders were “incredible” in their hospitality.

Music to mark Tibet anniversary
　

'SENSITIVE': Heavy metal band Chthonic said they had hoped to hang a banner in Xinyi District with ‘Free Tibet’ in large Chinese characters, but had to switch to English
　

By Loa Iok-sin
STAFF REPORTER
Sunday, Jun 07, 2009, Page 3
　

Tibetan activists will hold a Free Tibet Concert next month to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the 1959 Tibetan Uprising, saying they hope to show that President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) stand on Tibetan issues is not representative of all Taiwanese.

Freddy Lim (林昶佐), lead vocalist of heavy metal band Chthonic, said yesterday: “We want to tell the world that we Taiwanese stand by the values of freedom and democracy and that whatever Ma says [about Tibet] doesn’t represent us all.”

Ma said earlier this year that he was in favor of autonomy for Tibet but not independence.

The July 11 concert, arranged by Guts United Taiwan and Taiwan Friends of Tibet, is the latest in a series of events to mark the 50th anniversary of the Tibetan Uprising.

The failed uprising was followed by the Dalai Lama’s flight into exile.

Lim said he had invited the Dalai Lama to the concert when they met in Dharamsala, India, earlier this year.

“The Dalai Lama told me that he would love to come to Taiwan anytime if he could, but it depended on other factors, too, such as the Taiwanese government’s attitude,” Lim said.

Although it may not be possible for the Dalai Lama to attend the concert given that Ma said last year and earlier this year that the timing was “not appropriate” for a visit, the Dalai Lama gave his blessing to the concert, Lim said.

Lim and about a dozen other volunteers yesterday handed out flyers for the concert at Vieshow Cinema Square in Taipei.

On an overpass connecting two buildings in the square behind Lim hung a Tibetan flag and a large banner bearing the words “Free Tibet” in English and a picture of Lim and his wife, Chthonic band leader Doris Yeh (葉湘怡).

Yeh said they had planned to have a banner with “Free Tibet” printed big in Chinese, “but the owner of the building was afraid that it was too sensitive and the Taipei City Government could find excuses to not approve it or bully [the owner] because of the ad.”

The concert will feature 10 Taiwanese bands and artists including Chthonic, Fire Extinguisher, LTK Commune, Dog G, Panay, Chang Jui-chuan (張睿詮) and Enno Cheng (鄭宜農) as well as a wide variety of music from folk to rock and hip-hop, Lim said.

Independence gaining momentum
　

By Tung Chen-Yuan 童振源
Sunday, Jun 07, 2009, Page 8

At a recent meeting with Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Wu Poh-hsiung (吳伯雄), Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) and Taiwan Affairs Office Chairman Wang Yi (王毅), stated that the basis for mutual trust between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait was “opposition to Taiwanese independence.”

But public opinion surveys conducted over the past year by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) and Research, Development and Evaluation Commission (RDEC) show the numbers of people identifying themselves as Taiwanese and supporting Taiwan independence are not falling. On the contrary, it is the numbers of people identifying themselves as Chinese and supporting unification that show a downward trend.

These figures indicate that China’s policies of opposing Taiwanese independence and trying to use cross-strait links to promote unification are failing.

The surveys carried out by the MAC show the proportion of people broadly supporting Taiwanese independence climbed from 23.1 percent in March last year, before President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) took office, to 27.3 percent in October. It then fell back to 21.8 percent in April this year. Among all those who expressed an opinion, the proportions were 23.4, 28.2 and 23.5 percent respectively. In contrast, the proportion of respondents broadly supporting unification dropped from 12.2 percent in March last year to 6.2 percent in October, recovering slightly to 8.8 percent in April this year. Among those expressing an opinion, the figures are 12.3, 6.5 and 9.5 percent respectively.

Polls conducted by the RDEC in May each year show the proportion of people in Taiwan identifying themselves as Taiwanese was approximately 63, 67 and 65 percent respectively for the past three years, while the proportion of those identifying themselves as Chinese fell from 15.4 percent in 2007 to 13.6 percent last year and 11.5 percent this year. The remainder either identified themselves as both Taiwanese and Chinese or gave no clear response.

Ma has said that the people on each side of the Taiwan Strait both belong to the same Chinese nation and that they only have different household registrations, not different nationalities. In spite of what Ma said, and despite burgeoning cross-strait economic and social exchanges, these poll results show that most people in Taiwan now identify themselves as Taiwanese and that the number of people identifying themselves as Chinese continues to fall.

As the number of people identifying themselves as Taiwanese continues to grow, the great majority of people in Taiwan think the Ma government has a duty to uphold Taiwan’s sovereignty and identity in the course of talks on cross-strait economic deregulation. In an opinion poll conducted by Wealth Magazine (財訊) at the beginning of April, 65.7 percent of respondents said they do not want Taiwan to yield to China on politics and sovereignty for the sake of economic benefits, while just 19.7 percent said it would be permissible to do so.

Following the third round of talks between Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) Chairman Chiang Pin-kung (江丙坤) and Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS) Chairman Chen Yunlin (陳雲林) in Nanjing in April, many people in Taiwan expressed doubts at to whether the Ma administration was doing all it could to uphold Taiwan’s sovereignty and identity.

In a poll published in the Chinese-language newspaper the China Times on April 28, 35 percent of respondents said they thought the talks had weakened Taiwan’s sovereignty, while an equal number thought they had not. An opinion poll done by the MAC showed that 39.5 percent of the public think Taiwan’s sovereignty had been compromised in the course of cross-strait talks, while 54.3 percent think it has not. The SEF also conducted its own poll, in which 39.7 percent of respondents expressed the view that cross-strait talks were harmful to Taiwan’s sovereignty, while 49.3 percent said they are not.

However, although nearly 40 percent of the public feel that the Ma administration is not doing all it should to uphold Taiwan’s sovereignty and identity, more than 60 percent are in favor of holding talks on cross-strait economic deregulation and making such changes systematic.

In an opinion poll conducted by the MAC at the end of April, 66.7 percent of respondents said the three agreements arrived at in April’s talks between the SEF and ARATS would have a positive effect on Taiwan’s economic development, while 23.7 percent thought the effects would be negative. In a survey published by the SEF in the middle of last month, 60.9 percent of respondents said they were satisfied with the nine agreements achieved between the two sides over the past year, while 28.2 percent were dissatisfied.

The results show that the government should uphold Taiwan’s sovereignty and identity at the same time as pursuing policies of opening up and encouraging cross-strait exchanges. Finding the right balance between these two things will not be easy, as the government has to try and achieve a consensus at home at the same time as dealing with pressure from China.

On her recent visit to Beijing, Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊) did her job in promoting the Kaohsiung World Games, but she also used the words “our central government and President Ma Ying-jeou” when addressing her Chinese hosts.

Taiwan’s two main parties should consider these factors and close ranks around the position of “subjective opening up,” which means upholding Taiwan’s sovereignty and identity at the same time as pragmatically encouraging more open social and economic relations across the Taiwan Strait.

While promoting cross-strait exchanges and deregulation, the government should not sacrifice Taiwan’s sovereignty and identity. As to the Democratic Progressive Party, it can denounce the Ma government for leaning too much toward China, but it must at the same time put forward its own pragmatic proposals for cross-strait exchanges. This is what the broadest section of public opinion in Taiwan demands.

Tung Chen-yuan is an associate professor in the Graduate Institute of Development Studies at National Chengchi University.
　

The KMT has refined the art of self-denial
　

By James Wang 王景弘
Sunday, Jun 07, 2009, Page 8

‘The KMT has surrendered to the “one China” framework, so it does not think the nation has been “belittled” regardless of how Taiwan is trampled on.’

During his visit to Beijing, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Wu Poh-hsiung (吳伯雄) “humbly” referred to the Republic of China (ROC) as daonei (島內, “on the island”) when addressing Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤). Wu later defended himself by saying he had not intended to belittle Taiwan. When President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) tried to defend Wu, it sounded as if he were blaming Wu for being a pro-independence activist.

The Ma administration’s admission of the “one China” principle has already denigrated Taiwan and destroyed the ROC. With Taiwan becoming an “area” of China, an “island” or “Taipei,” is there any room left for the ROC? Given this, how can the Ma government negotiate with China on an equal footing?

The only thing that seemed to be equal during Wu’s visit to China was the handshake with Hu. Other than that, Hu appeared to be lecturing a local governor in his capacity as head of state, bestowing favors and giving admonishments. And Wu seems to have enjoyed it.

Although Hu received Wu in his capacity as general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), he intentionally brought up the past during the meeting, reiterating the “six points” he made to mark the 30th anniversary of the “Message to Compatriots in Taiwan” to highlight his status as “head of state.”

This move involved many hidden motives. The “Message to Compatriots in Taiwan” was a statement that China made to summon late president Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國) to surrender and Hu’s six points followed along the same lines.

Not only are these points based on the view that China and Taiwan belong to “one China,” Hu also said patronizingly that he “would try his best to respond to urgent calls from Taiwan.”

Wu seemed to be proud of taking orders as he did not make his position clear and also avoided terms like “Taiwan,” “Taiwan’s view” and instead used the expression “on the island.” Worse, in his defense of Wu, Ma said the phrase “on the island” had been used in a pro-Taiwanese independence publication.

However, the publication used it to belittle the KMT government, not Taiwan. When Ma used this argument, he seemed to blame Wu for being a pro-independence activist.

The KMT has surrendered to the “one China” framework, so it does not think the nation has been “belittled” regardless of how Taiwan is trampled on. The so-called “mutual non-denial” approach is just window dressing.

The Ma administration has repeatedly denied itself before China has even had a chance to do so. Wu is one example, as is Department of Health Minister Yeh Ching-chuan (葉金川), who lost his control when being confronted by Taiwanese students in Geneva last month.

They do not understand that denial of oneself in the international arena is more serious than being denied by others, nor that the consequences of remaining silent when being denied by others are more serious than the consequences of protesting.

James Wang is a media commentator.