Ma urges other parties to attend forum
　

ALL WELCOME: Taiwan’s delegation to the KMT-CCP forum in Hunan Province will include former DPP legislator Hsu Jung-shu and party member Fan Chen-tzung
　

By MO YAN-CHIH
STAFF REPORTER
Friday, Jul 10, 2009, Page 1

President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) urged members of all political parties to attend this weekend’s forum between the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

The official title of the “KMT-CCP forum” should be “a cross-strait economic and cultural forum” and other political parties should seize the opportunity to discuss cross-strait policies at the event, Ma said.

“The forum is co-hosted by the KMT and the CCP, but it should be called a cross-strait forum. Participation is not limited to KMT and CCP members,” Ma said at a Presidential Office meeting with KMT Chairman Wu Poh-hsiung (吳伯雄) and the delegation heading to the forum this weekend.

Commenting on a Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) regulation passed on Wednesday that bars party members who have served as party or elected officials from participating in the forum, Ma said members from other political parties should also participate in cross-strait exchanges to have a better understanding of China.

“The cross-strait policy will not have enough strength and representation if only the KMT is participating in the establishment of the policy,” Ma said.

The “KMT-CPP forum” was initiated in 2005 by former KMT chairman Lien Chan (連戰) and Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) in his capacity as CCP general-secretary during a visit by Lien to Beijing. The forums are aimed at promoting cross-strait economic and trade cooperation. The first meeting was held in Beijing in 2006.

Taiwan’s delegation to the forum this year, which will be held tomorrow and on Sunday in Hunan Province, will include about 270 people, including former DPP legislator Hsu Jung-shu (�?Q) and former Council of Agriculture minister Fan Chen-tzung (范振宗), who is a DPP member.

Ma said he was glad to see DPP members participate and expected the forum to attract more people from diverse backgrounds.

Wu said KMT members only accounted for about 25 percent of the delegation, which includes people from cultural, educational and financial fields, as well as college students.

“The KMT keeps an open mind about the forum and welcomes people from all fields to join the forum,” he said.

Ma said the forum would focus on cultural and educational issues, including intellectual property rights for cultural products. He also expressed his desire for Chinese to learn traditional Chinese characters.

KMT Deputy Secretary-General Chang Jung-kung (張榮恭) said Vice Minister of Education Lu Mu-lin (呂木琳), Council for Cultural Affairs Vice Chairman Chang Yui-tan (張譽騰) and vice minister of the Government Information Office George Hsu (許秋煌) would participate in the forum as “special guests.”

Hsu yesterday said he had accepted an invitation from the KMT to attend the forum as the issues to be discussed at the symposium were related to his work.

Hsu said he would attend the forum in a private capacity.

“It’s a rare opportunity to attend the forum. I hope I can collect useful information on cultural affairs [in China],” he said.

GIO Minister Su Jun-pin (蘇俊賓) said he was happy to see Hsu attend the forum and hoped the information concerning films, TV and popular music in China that Hsu would collect would benefit the development of related industries in Taiwan.

OBJECTION

KMT Legislator Chiu Yi (邱毅), however, objected to government officials attending the forum.

“The KMT-CCP forum is between the two parties. Given the need to separate the party’s affairs from the government’s, I believe it is inappropriate for government officials to take part in the forum,” Chiu told reporters at the legislature.

Chiu said that communication between Taiwanese and Chinese officials should take place at negotiations between the semi-­official Straits Exchange Foundation and China’s Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait.

KMT Legislator Wu Yu-sheng (吳育昇), on the other hand, said there was nothing untoward about the officials attending the forum as long as the schedule was transparent.

Meanwhile, DPP legislators Yeh Yin-jin (葉宜津) and Huang Wei-che (黃偉哲) expressed doubts about the legitimacy of the forum.

They said that any actions related to China should be carefully and critically examined to ensure that they do not jeopardize Taiwan’s stability and national dignity.

At a separate setting yesterday, the DPP said that it would not go easy on party members attending the event, and that violators would be subject to disciplinary action.

UNIFICATION STRATEGY

Acting DPP spokesman Chao Tien-lin (趙天麟) said the party’s opposition to the forum was clear and that the meeting was nothing short of a unification strategy.

“Any member should understand this, especially senior members,” Chao said, referring to Hsu Jung-shu and Fan.

Hsu Jung-shu and Fan both stressed that their plans remained unchanged.

Additional reporting by Shih Hsiu-chuan, Flora Wang and Jenny W. Hsu

China claims it has evidence Rio Tinto staff were spying

AGENCIES , BEIJING, SYDNEY AND MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA
Friday, Jul 10, 2009, Page 1

China said yesterday it had evidence proving employees of mining giant Rio Tinto, including an Australian, stole state secrets.

“Competent authorities have sufficient evidence to prove that they have stolen state secrets and have caused huge loss to China’s economic interest and security,” foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang (秦剛) told reporters.

Australian Stern Hu (胡士泰), chief representative of Rio Tinto in Shanghai, was detained on Sunday along with colleagues who are suspected of espionage and stealing state secrets for foreign countries, Qin said yesterday.

Authorities in Shanghai earlier said Hu was being held along with three Chinese nationals who are Rio Tinto sales employees.

Rio is the world’s second- largest iron ore producer and its Shanghai office, where the men worked, focuses on sales and marketing to China.

PROPOSAL

Tensions between China and the miner rose after Rio dumped a proposal from its largest shareholder, state-owned Chinalco (中國鋁業), to inject US$19.5 billion into the firm in favor of a rights issue and joint venture with BHP Billiton.

Asked whether the detention of the four employees was linked to Chinalco’s failed deal, Qin said it would be “improper” to exaggerate the case.

Qin refused to comment on the nature of the state secrets.

Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said his officials had yet to talk to Hu after his weekend detention and were keen to ensure he had not been mistreated.

“One of the reasons why we want access to him, is to satisfy ourselves as to his welfare, to satisfy ourselves as to his well-being and to get some indication from him as to how we can be of assistance,” Smith told ABC television.

Smith described the spying accusations as “very surprising” and said the government was seeking urgent access to Hu and wanted to know more ahead of tomorrow’s deadline for consular access to Hu by Australian diplomats in China.

IRON ORE

China is Australia’s second-largest export customer behind Japan, buying A$36 billion (US$28 billion) of mostly commodities in the 11 months ended in May. Last year, more than half of China’s imports from Australia were of iron ore.

Rio Tinto has spearheaded difficult talks with China over new iron ore contracts, which missed a key deadline at the end of last month.

Australian media has reported speculation that the detentions were linked to alleged manipulation of the iron ore market, while the Chinese press has accused Rio of withholding products to drive up prices.

The Securities Times quoted unnamed “industry insiders” as speculating the detentions may have been over suspected bribery.

Meanwhile, a Chinese steel executive who had “close contact” with Hu has been detained by Beijing police, the newspaper 21st Century Business Herald reported yesterday.

Tan Yixin (譚以新), general manager of Shougang International Trade Engineering Corp (首鋼國際貿易工程公司), oversaw iron ore purchases, the Herald reported. It gave no indication that the two cases were linked.

China vows to maintain stability
　

TENSE TIMES: Although Xinjiang’s capital appeared to be under control, a major test for the government will come when Uighurs gather for Friday prayers

AP , URUMQI, CHINA
Friday, Jul 10, 2009, Page 1

China’s top communist leaders vowed to maintain stability in the west of the country in their first public comments yesterday on the ethnic riots that killed more than 150 people, and accused overseas forces of orchestrating the violence.

An urgent nine-member Politburo Standing Committee meeting, led by Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤), called on Communist Party members and officials at all levels to mobilize to restore order, and promised punishment to rioters and leniency to participants who were misled by agitators.

“Preserving and maintaining the overall stability of Xinjiang is currently the most urgent task,” the politburo said, an account carried by the official Xinhua news agency said.

Security forces kept a firm grip on Xinjiang’s capital, Urumqi, as residents tentatively emerged to go about daily life.

Red stickers put up outside apartment compounds said, “Don’t listen to any rumors” and “Keep calm and maintain public order.”

Crowds of Han Chinese cheered as trucks full of police that were covered in banners reading, “We must defeat the terrorists” and “Oppose ethnic separatism and hatred,” rumbled by.

With the city apparently under control, the next major test for the government will come today, when large numbers of Muslim Uighurs gather for their weekly prayers.

The meeting of the politburo — China’s most powerful body — took place on Wednesday shortly after Hu, also head of the Communist Party, returned after cutting short a trip to Italy where he was to participate in a G8 summit.

“In particular, we must emphasize the thinking of stability above all else to the cadres and masses of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang,’’ the politburo said, according to Xinhua.

It instructed cadres to pursue tough punishment for rioters who committed “serious criminal acts of beating, smashing, looting and burning.”

“We must by law severely attack those hard core elements who planned and organized this incident and seriously violent criminals,” the politburo said. It also called for “preventive measures” against “enemy forces who would undermine ethnic unity” and stressed the need to preserve social stability.

China also rejected calls to raise the unrest at the UN Security Council.

“The Chinese government has taken decisive measures according to law. This is totally China’s internal affair. There’s no reason for Security Council discussion,’’ Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang (秦剛) told a news conference.

Also See: Beijing tries opening to foreign press

Also See: Chinese nationalism surfaces amid Xinjiang conflict

Also See: Uighurs in Central Asia look on with fury at bloodshed

Government decries Xinjiang violence
　

By Shih Hsiu-Chuan
STAFF REPORTER
Friday, Jul 10, 2009, Page 1

The Executive Yuan yesterday decried the violence in China’s Xinjiang region and called on Chinese authorities to handle the situation with more tolerance.

Executive Yuan spokesman Su Jun-pin (蘇俊賓) quoted Premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄) as telling yesterday’s weekly Cabinet meeting: “We regret the communal violence in the Urumqi area in the past few days and are concerned about the heavy casualties resulting from the incident.”

“Zhonghua minzu [中華民族, Chinese people] are people who stand firmly for all ethnicities coexisting in harmony. In accordance with the UN Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the UN Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, of which both Taiwan and the mainland are signatories, people have freedom of belief, religion, assembly and association,” Su quoted Liu as saying. “Those are basic rights and universal values.”

It was the first time Liu had commented on the unrest that started on Sunday.

Liu refused to answer media queries on the crackdown on protesters on Tuesday, saying that he did not have sufficient information on the situation.

He urged the Chinese military and other parties to keep calm and exercise restraint and demanded that Chinese authorities protect Taiwanese and their property in China, Su said.

Meanwhile, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) has continued to stay silent on the issue.

Presidential Office Spokesman Wang Yu-chi (王郁琦) said the Mainland Affairs Council would address the situation instead of Ma.

The council issued a statement yesterday, calling on all parties to remain calm and communicate with each other in a peaceful and rational manner.

It also reminded Chinese authorities that social stability could be maintained only on the basis of upholding human rights.

The council expressed the hope that China would accelerate reforms in line with the two UN-sponsored human rights covenants.

“Only through reform and progress on all fronts, not just economic growth, can a harmonious society be achieved,” the council said.

Chen refuses to testify against ex-bookkeeper
　

TRIAL: Although the former president said he would not testify against Chen Chen-hui, the judge told him that he could only decline to answer certain questions

By Shelley Huang
STAFF REPORTER
Friday, Jul 10, 2009, Page 3

Former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) yesterday refused to testify against his co-defendant Chen Chen-hui (陳鎮慧), his former bookkeeper, who is accused of helping the former president embezzle money.

Chen Shui-bian said his court-appointed attorneys told him he could refuse to testify in Chen Chen-hui’s trial because he harbored mixed feelings toward his former bookkeeper.

However, Presiding Judge Tsai Shou-hsun (蔡守訓) of the Taipei District Court told the former president that while he could refuse to answer certain questions, he could not refuse to testify entirely.

After Tsai ordered a recess in which Chen Shui-bian conferred with his attorneys, the former president told the court he would be willing to testify out of respect for the court.

REWARDS

Meanwhile, former premier Chang Chun-hsiung (張俊雄) yesterday testified that he “should have” received a monetary performance reward from Chen Shui-bian.

Tsai had scheduled yesterday’s hearing to question Chang on whether he received NT$2 million (US$60,700) from the former president.

The purpose of the hearing was to determine the authenticity of some of the expense reports related to the presidential “state affairs fund,” a government fund earmarked for official purposes to be used at the president’s discretion.

Prosecutors previously argued that Chang and former vice premier Yeh Chu-lan (葉菊蘭) had not received money they had been promised by Chen Shui-bian, implying that the former president lied about rewarding government officials with bonuses when in fact he took the cash reimbursements from the government fund for his personal use.

The former president is charged with embezzling NT$104.15 million in government funds.

MEMORY PROBLEMS

In witness statements Chang made to Special Investigation Panel (SIP) prosecutors, the former premier said he could not recall whether Chen Shui-bian had given him a NT$2 million reward.

However, after a few days, Chang said in a written statement to the SIP that he had indeed received monetary rewards from the former president.

In court yesterday, prosecutors probed Chang about the discrepancy.

He answered that because his memory was poor, he could not recall the reward when questioned by prosecutors. However, after he gave the matter more thought, Chang said, he remembered that he “should have” received money from Chen Shui-bian because he performed very well during his two terms as premier.

However, Chang said he could not provide further details, such as when and where he should have received the money, citing poor memory.

Uighurs in Central Asia look on with fury at bloodshed

AFP , ALMATY
Friday, Jul 10, 2009, Page 5

Uighur community leaders in Central Asia have reacted with fury to the deadly riots in their ancestral Xinjiang region of China, even as governments in the former Soviet states refuse to interfere.

Many in the half-million-strong Uighur community in Central Asia allege that the unrest is a consequence of decades of repression by Beijing of Uighurs in Xinjiang, a Chinese region that borders both Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan.

Their anger is predictable given that the Uighur population living in Central Asia is descended from refugees who fled China in the 1930s and 1940s after two failed attempts in those decades to form an independent Uighur state.

“The Uighurs wanted to protest peacefully against the authorities’ policies towards them. But because of the police it ended in tragedy,” said Torgan Tozakhunov, deputy director of the Uighur cultural center in Kazakhstan.

“These events are a violation of human rights. A true genocide of the Uighur people is in progress and the Chinese authorities will have to answer for these crimes in front of the international community,” he said.

Kazakhstan is home to 220,000 Uighurs, the biggest such community in Central Asia, with the rest of the population spread amongst the other mostly Turkic ex-Soviet republics of the region.

“The Chinese authorities provoked the troubles in Xinjiang because the World Uighur Congress is growing in influence and China wants to present it as a terrorist group,” said Rakhimdzhan Khapisov of the Ittipak group in Kyrgyzstan, home to 50,000 Uighurs.

China accuses the World Uighur Congress — led by US-based exile Rebiya Kadeer — of fomenting the riots from abroad although diaspora leaders claim that the unrest broke out when police fired on demonstrators.

In one of the worst spikes in ethnic tensions to have hit China in decades, 156 people died in the unrest on Sunday in Urumqi, the Xinjiang regional capital, China’s official Xinhua news agency said.

Now, even with Beijing pouring troops into Urumqi in an attempt to stabilize the situation, fresh violence has still flared as Han Chinese and Muslim Uighurs arm themselves with makeshift weapons.

Despite the anger amongst the Uighur diaspora, governments in Central Asia have kept a guarded silence over the events, with the growing importance of trade ties with Beijing foremost in their minds.

This is despite the fact that Uighurs are well integrated into society, especially in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. Kazakhstan Prime Minister Karim Massimov is himself an ethnic Uighur.

The countries’ former Soviet-era master Moscow issued its first reaction on Wednesday, three days after the rioting began, in a statement demonstrating a reluctance to interfere.

“The events there are an exclusively internal matter for the People’s Republic of China,” the Russian foreign ministry said.

Beijing tries opening to foreign press
　

NEW TACK: China seems to have learned the importance of getting its viewpoint out through the foreign media instead of imposing a news blackout like it did in Tibet

AP , BEIJING
Friday, Jul 10, 2009, Page 5
　

When riots broke out in the restive west this week, China took a different tack with foreign journalists: Instead of being barred, reporters were invited on an official tour of Xinjiang’s capital.

The approach, a stark reversal from last year’s handling of the Tibetan unrest, suggests Chinese authorities have learned that providing access to information means they can get their own message out, experts said.

“They are getting more sophisticated in how they’re handling foreign and domestic media coverage of a crisis. It used to be in a time of major crisis, you get a blackout ... Now the approach is to get the government’s viewpoint out there,” said Rebecca MacKinnon, a journalism professor at the University of Hong Kong.

The State Council Information Office, the government’s main public relations arm, extended a highly unusual invitation to the foreign media on Monday, just one day after the worst ethnic violence in decades left 156 dead and 1,100 injured in the regional capital of Urumqi. The goal?

“To help foreign media to do more objective, fair and friendly reports,” Xinhua said in a statement.

Journalists from 60 different foreign media organizations traveled to Urumqi on Monday. They were taken to the largest hotel in town where the government had set up a media center. Special reporting passes were issued and press conferences were arranged.

Still, not everything stayed within the government’s control. On Tuesday, as reporters were escorted around town to see the damage from Sunday’s rioting, a group of about 200 Uighur women, wailing and shouting, appeared to protest the arrests of their husbands and sons in the ensuing crackdown.

For the government guides, who tried to herd reporters on buses as TV cameras rolled, it was a totally unscripted moment.

Despite the access, foreign journalists still reported problems in the field. The Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China said it had received reports of security forces detaining TV crews and other reporters, confiscating equipment and even damaging a video camera.

Two Associated Press TV producers were detained for more than three hours and questioned about their reporting. Their equipment was returned and eventually they were taken back to the media hotel.

During the protests in Lhasa and other Tibetan communities last spring, the government maintained a virtual news blackout.

For China, the picture that emerged from Tibet was a highly negative and often more simplistic version of a complicated history, MacKinnon said.

“I don’t know what sparked their change of approach this time but I think one of the results of not allowing Beijing-based press corps into Tibet last year was that the story ended up being covered outside of China. It resulted in the exile community being able to frame the story,” she said.

Chinese nationalism surfaces amid Xinjiang conflict

AFP , URUMQI, CHINA
Friday, Jul 10, 2009, Page 5

“We will keep the motherland unified even if we have to fight. China is one country.”— Bao Wei, university student

Yelling “national unity” and “love our country” as he carried a heavy metal pipe, Bao Wei was one of hundreds of Han Chinese showing the raw power of Chinese nationalism in Xinjiang’s conflict.

“We are patriots. We are just out here to defend our country,” said Bao, a 22-year-old university student, as he and a group of about 25 ethnic Han roamed the tense streets of Urumqi, Xinjiang’s capital.

Like thousands of other members of China’s dominant ethnic group, Bao was enraged by weekend rioting by Uighurs, a Muslim minority that has long complained of Chinese repression. At least 156 people died in the violence.

Nationalist feelings, which have surged in recent years in China, have bubbled to the surface in Urumqi’s unrest and become a rallying cry for many Han.

“We will keep the motherland unified even if we have to fight. China is one country,” Bao said.

In similar unrest in Tibet last year, Tibetans who despise Chinese rule attacked and killed Han. But in Urumqi, Chinese security forces that initially focused on protecting Han have had to quickly pivot, pouring in thousands of riot control forces to prevent mobs of Han wreaking vengeance.

Since China’s leaders discarded many tenets of communism three decades ago in their transition to capitalism, authorities have increasingly filled the rhetorical gap with appeals to patriotism.

After last year’s Tibet riots, China’s state-run media and the Internet were aflame with anger over perceived Western bias, and there has been debate among Chinese intellectuals calling for a more assertive China.

“We will not accept these separatists wrecking our national unity,” said Han Yi, an employee with an Urumqi courier company.

Han spoke as he watched a mob of about 200 Han, some holding small Chinese flags, chase several Uighur men on Wednesday, severely beating two of them.

“Do you know Chinese history? Then you know about our 100 years of shame,” he said, using the Chinese term for the century of domination by foreign powers that ended in 1949.

“The great Chinese people will always stand up for themselves from now on,” he said.

Nicholas Bequelin, a Hong Kong-based researcher with Human Rights Watch, said such government tactics were both predictable and dangerous.

“It is throwing oil on the fire,” he said, adding that tension between the two ethnic groups appeared more pronounced among younger, poorer migrants into the city.

“The scapegoating of outside forces does not acknowledge some of the key reasons for anger among the Uighurs,” he said.

Chinese authorities seem to have been caught off-guard by the Han reaction.

In leaflets dropped over the Urumqi hot spots by helicopters this week, Wang Lequan (王樂泉) , the top Chinese official in Xinjiang, appealed specifically to the Han to stay calm.

“If the Han mobilize against innocent Uighur, not only is this wrong, but won’t it also upset all of the ethnic groups?” Wang, who is known for his tough rhetoric against Uighur “separatism,” said in the leaflet.

Even some Han residents of Urumqi expressed concern over the nationalist rhetoric.

“They are calling for unity of the motherland. But right now, everybody just needs to calm down,” said Yi Jing, a Han woman in her early 20s as she watched Wednesday’s mob attacks on Uighurs from a fast-food restaurant.

“Now I don’t think there will ever be unity between the Han and the Uighur,” she said.

Turkey calls for end to violence

AP , ANKARA
Friday, Jul 10, 2009, Page 5

Turkey’s prime minister called for an end to “savagery” in the western Chinese region of Xinjiang that has killed at least 156 people, including many minority Uighurs who share ethnic bonds with Turks.

“Our expectation is for these incidents that have reached the level of savagery to be rapidly stopped,” Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday.

RESPONSIBILITY

Erdogan and Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu made separate calls to China to bring “those responsible to account” in a transparent manner.

“We are following the events with great concern, worry and sadness,” the prime minister said.

The reaction of the Turkish leaders echoed public anger in Turkey after local media and pro-Uighur associations suggested that most of the victims were Uighurs.

Several newspapers have printed gruesome images of dead people in the streets of Urumqi following the clashes, triggering protests outside Chinese diplomatic missions in Ankara and Istanbul over the past two days.

“The public conscience cannot accept these images,” Erdogan said, adding that Turkey would take the issue to the UN Security Council.

About 500 Turks — members of a civil servants’ union and a far-right nationalist group — laid black wreaths in front of the Chinese embassy before dispersing peacefully. A similar protest was held outside the Chinese consulate in Istanbul.

Also on Wednesday, a lawmaker from Turkey’s ruling Islamic-rooted party resigned from a Chinese-Turkish parliamentary friendship group to protest the Chinese government’s handling of the incidents.

BOYCOTT

A consumers’ group meanwhile called for a boycott of Chinese goods.

“We attach great importance to our friendship with China and we regard the Uighurs as a bridge for this friendship,” Davutoglu said.

Turkey regards the Uighurs as brethren and is concerned about China’s treatment of the minority group in the sprawling, far-flung western region of Xinjiang which has long been a source of trouble for China’s communist government. Turkey is home to a sizable Uighur community.

Hard to tell friends from enemies

Friday, Jul 10, 2009, Page 8

News that a close relative of a senior military intelligence official is living in a hostile country would be enough to set alarm bells ringing in most countries. Such a revelation would probably lead to the official in question being forced to recall his relative or being disciplined in some way.

Not so in Taiwan.

Reports this week that the daughter of Lee Wen-fang (李文芳), a section director at the Military Intelligence Bureau, is studying in China may have raised a few eyebrows among legislators, but other than some concerned voices being raised, no action was taken. Lee’s bosses in the armed forces seemed satisfied that the situation posed no threat to national security.

But then one shouldn’t be all that surprised by the lack of concern shown among security officials when the man at the very top of the national security ladder is himself compromised to a startling degree. Indeed, National Security Council Secretary-General Su Chi (蘇起) has skeletons in his closet that would have precluded him from ever obtaining such an important position in most democracies.

In November 2005, for example, then-Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator Su reportedly stayed at the Central Chinese Communist Party (CCP) School guest house in Beijing for three days. During his stay he was alleged to have made a speech to senior CCP members and People’s Liberation Army leaders attacking the US for interfering in the Taiwan problem and opposing US arms sales to Taiwan on the strength of a referendum that failed only because of an unreasonable KMT boycott. This episode unsurprisingly caused top US officials to question Su’s loyalties.

With Su’s wife and brother relying on Chinese money — his wife recently completed a book tour and made money from selling food mixers there, while his brother teaches at a Chinese university — can Su really be expected to protect Taiwan’s national interest when facing off with Beijing?

With such a man in charge of national security, others could be forgiven for thinking their comparatively minor transgressions are acceptable.

Although cross-strait relations may have improved since President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) came to power last year, China still has more than 1,400 ballistic missiles trained on Taiwan and continues tailoring the modernization of its military machine with one specific aim in mind — the annexation of Taiwan.

Improved economic ties and closer contact have not changed China’s agenda and it is therefore folly for the Ma government to believe that China would not attempt to take advantage of easy opportunities such as the one presented by Lee’s daughter.

A failure to comprehend such threats betrays either a shocking naivete on the part of the government or that Ma and his government don’t consider China a threat, or worse still, both.

But with Ma also dependent on China’s goodwill so that he can deliver on his election promises, the whole notion that he and this government are capable of protecting Taiwan from a slow death at the hands of China’s creeping economic encroachment is plainly absurd.

The question of how a government is supposed to maintain national security and protect Taiwan from a hostile power like China when most of its top officials rely on Beijing in one way or another is a conundrum that not even the best spin doctors of the Ma administration have attempted to explain.

KMT’s policy leaves it flat-footed
　

By Shih Chih-yu 石之瑜
Friday, Jul 10, 2009, Page 8

The director of China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO), Wang Yi (王毅), has given Taiwan the jitters by suggesting the opening up of the Taiwan Strait median line. Such discussions had always been held behind closed doors and bringing it out into the open challenges the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) policy of avoiding discussion of unification, independence or armed conflict.

The KMT has only itself to blame because it has taken satisfaction in its ability to maintain cross-strait peace since it returned to power last year and it feels it should receive full credit for the international acclaim over the detente across the Taiwan Strait.

However, has the cross-strait crisis ever been that serious? Is the contribution of the KMT to cross-strait relations so remarkable? Why has the government decided to adamantly defend the Taiwan Strait median line?

Beijing has suggested opening the Taiwan Strait median line, a symbol of cross-strait animosity, to air traffic. This move has exposed the true colors of the KMT’s policy of avoiding armed conflict and prioritizing cross-strait economic exchanges. It seems the ruling and opposition parties have reached a consensus on defending the median line, and from their and the public’s unanimous reaction, it is clear that very few people consider that absence of armed cross-strait conflict is the same as “true peace.”

However, the idea that the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) must be prevented from taking military action to avoid cross-strait military conflict is built on the premise that the PLA can wantonly engage in military aggression.

It is thus clear that the KMT’s policy to avoid armed conflict is essentially a Cold War containment policy. But the Cold War has ended, and the PLA and the Chinese regime are evolving. If the KMT continues to insist on a containment policy, it will only contain Taiwan.

The Taiwanese independence extravaganza put on by high-level government officials to further their own interests under the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government never really jeopardized cross-strait peace. The reality is the PLA has never wanted to invade Taiwan, nor does Washington want to fight a proxy war between Taiwan and the PLA. The promotion of Taiwanese independence only provided Beijing with an opportunity to give Washington the impression of being a peacemaker while building its own power and creating the impression that it was cooperating with the US to manage the cross-strait situation.

When President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) was forced to define his position, his declaration was never aimed at Beijing and didn’t even have anything to do with maintaining cross-strait peace. After all, cross-strait relations have never been under threat since the great powers started watching over the Strait, and the KMT itself can do nothing to change cross-strait peace. Ma’s motive was thus simply to show independence supporters the KMT’s determination not to abandon Taiwan. In addition, with the opposition spreading rumors about the National Security Council head abandoning arms procurement, the KMT had no choice but to make concessions on the median line issue.

If Taiwan were to declare independence, the median would be the national border. If the KMT had not declared its stance to defend the median line, it would have meant that the party denied the possibility of Taiwanese independence, which would have been tantamount to the KMT destroying its future.

Therefore, consolidating the impression of a war crisis is a KMT strategy to comfort independence advocates. In so doing, the KMT has been given the opportunity to proclaim that it is better qualified to maintain cross-strait peace than the opposition.

The PLA has given up its intention to cross the Taiwan Strait, the KMT has never wanted to provoke its Chinese counterpart, supporters of Taiwanese independence dare not declare war with China, and Washington is far from prepared to go to war.

This is a top national secret with the potential to destroy the government’s legitimacy, and it has now been exposed by Wang’s proposal to open up the median line.

Shih Chih-yu is a political science professor at National Taiwan University.

China can’t save global economy
　

By Sushil Seth
Friday, Jul 10, 2009, Page 8

As the global economic meltdown continues to defy any rational solution, apart from what sometimes looks like throwing good money after bad, there is a naive belief that China might become the ultimate savior with its economic stimulation program.

Lately, the estimates of China’s economic growth vary between 6 percent and 9 percent; not bad considering that much of the world is in a recessionary mode.

If true, it might not be long before China is again able to reach the double-digit growth that has characterized it in the last few years.

As with everything Chinese these days, there is a tendency to look at things through rose-tinted glasses. And with the world in the economic doldrums, the tendency is even greater to look for a glimmer of hope somewhere. China appears to hold that promise.

But to extrapolate China’s growth as a vehicle for global recovery is like believing in the tooth fairy.

Leave aside the world; even for China its present economic strategy is a bit dubious. The entire growth strategy of the state directing largesse into infrastructure projects and the like is a stopgap arrangement.

It is based on the hope that, as in the past global recessions, the world economy will soon recover to create demand for China’s falling export sector.

Until then, generous state spending on infrastructure and other state directed projects will hold the fort, hopefully staving off growing social instability.

But there are problems with this line of thinking. Japan’s experience during its decade or more of infrastructure spending is instructive in this respect.

Japan tried infrastructure spending (some good but much of it dubious) to lift its economy during its long period of economic slowdown/stagnation, but with unflattering results. In the end, Japan was helped by its robust export sector.

In other words, because the global economy was healthy and growing, Japan could plug its export sector into it to keep ticking.

Besides, Japan’s domestic spending (though sluggish) constituted a large proportion of its GDP.

But in the case of China, the picture is quite different.

First, the current global recession is unlike the ones before it. Previous recessions were short-lived and economies rebounded with greater vigor. Therefore, China was able to expand its export sector, with only a short diversion at times into large scale infrastructure spending.

The current global recession, though, is systemic, steeped in a mountain of private and public debt. It is, therefore, not going to be a short-lived phenomenon.

And if and when the situation recovers, it is going be slow and painful.

Which means that the world, particularly the US with its seemingly insatiable demand for Chinese goods, is unlikely to pick up the tab on Chinese exports with the same alacrity.

And if China’s is looking for economic nirvana through a revived export sector after a relatively short global recession, it is likely to be disappointed.

At the same time, its state directed investments in infrastructure and bank lending are not a real solution. It is basically filler until normalcy returns, which is more like wishful thinking — at least in its old form — than a hardheaded policy.

Instead of being a vehicle of global economic revival, China has to think more in terms of reviving its own economy in a more meaningful way.

The present infrastructure spending, as part of a nearly US$600 billion stimulus package, will help but it is not going to fix China’s problems. Therefore, it needs to stimulate its domestic consumer spending.

It has successfully managed to depress or contain economic demand at home to produce exportable goods at cheaper prices with a skewed exchange rate. That option is now constrained because of the deep global debt crisis.

Therefore, it has to stimulate its domestic consumer economy. But there are two problems here.

First, China, both at the government and private level, puts great store by a high savings rate of about 30 percent. From the government’s viewpoint, a high rate of saving with low interest rates for its savers, contributes to China’s low cost economy.

And with high private savings as a cushion against adversity, China has been able to manage with the minimum spending on social services and the health of its people.

This must change. China needs to modernize its social spending to take greater care of its people’s education, health, old age and related services. This is long overdue.

The expansion of the social services sector will create domestic demand for a whole range of jobs and goods with a multiplier effect on the economy.

More than anything else, China badly needs to revive and upgrade its rural sector. It can no longer afford to use its depressed rural economy to subside the urban industrial sector.

If it wants to create a broadbased and sustained domestic economy, it needs to put more resources into the rural economy.

This is necessary not only to bridge the urban-rural gap, but also to expand the domestic economy through increased consumer demand beyond the urban middle class of about 300 million people.

It is important to note that 800 million or more of China’s rural folk have been largely left out of China’s industrial economy.

An expanded domestic economy will also create demand for foreign goods once China undertakes to revalue its currency to better reflect the international exchange mechanism.

There is a need for China to shed its hoarding mentality of building up currency reserves, and large domestic savings for some sort of rainy day. It is no longer vulnerable to the foreign manipulation and occupation of the 19th century.

A reinvigorated Chinese economy with a strong domestic base can play a useful role internationally.

But with its historical baggage of a “century of humiliation” and a Leninist political system, it might not be able to deliver.

Sushil Seth is a writer based in Australia.