Sotomayor secures confirmation
　

HISTORIC DECISION: The federal judge is set to be sworn in today as the US’ 111th Supreme Court justice. She will be the third woman and first Hispanic on the court

AP, WASHINGTON
Saturday, Aug 08, 2009, Page 1
　

Sonia Sotomayor won confirmation on Thursday as the first Hispanic US Supreme Court justice in a Senate vote that capped a summer-long debate heavy with ethnic politics.

Sotomayor, US President Barack Obama’s first Supreme Court nominee, will be sworn in today as the court’s 111th justice, third woman and first nominee by a Democrat in 15 years.

The Senate vote was 68-31.

The 55-year-old daughter of Puerto Rican parents was raised in a New York public housing project and educated in elite universities before rising to the highest legal echelons, spending the past 17 years as a federal judge.

A majority of Republicans lined up against her, arguing she would bring personal bias and a liberal agenda to the bench. But Democrats praised Sotomayor as an extraordinarily qualified mainstream moderate and touted her elevation to the court as a milestone in the journey toward greater equality in the US and a reaffirmation of the American dream.

Obama, the first black US president, praised the Senate’s vote as “breaking another barrier and moving us yet another step closer to a more perfect union.”

Minutes before the vote, Senator Robert Menendez, the Senate’s lone Hispanic Democrat, said: “History awaits, and so does an anxious Hispanic community in this country.”

“When she places her hand on the Bible and takes the oath of office, the new portrait of the justices of the Supreme Court will clearly reflect who we are as a nation, what we stand for as a fair, just and hopeful people,” he said.

The Senate chamber was heavy with drama as senators took the rare step of assembling at their desks for the vote, rising from their seats to call out “aye” or “nay.” The longest-serving senator, 91-year-old Robert Byrd who has been in frail health following a long hospitalization, was brought in in a wheelchair to vote in Sotomayor’s favor. Edward Kennedy, a Democrat suffering from brain cancer, was the only senator absent.

Sotomayor replaces retiring ­Justice David Souter, a liberal named by a Republican president, and she is not expected to alter the court’s ideological split.

Still, Republicans and Democrats were deeply at odds over confirming Sotomayor, and the battle over her nomination highlighted profound philosophical disagreements that will shape future fights over the court’s makeup as Obama looks to another likely vacancy — perhaps more than one — while he’s in the White House.

Panel has no mandate for referendum debate: DPP
　

BOUNDARIES: The DPP said the Executive Yuan’s referendum screening panel was trying to ‘expand its power’ using a debate on the party’s ECFA referendum proposal

STAFF WRITER, WITH CNA
Saturday, Aug 08, 2009, Page 3

The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday questioned a Ca­binet panel’s mandate to hold a debate on whether a proposed trade pact with China should be put to a national referendum.

DPP Spokesman Cheng Wen-tsang (鄭文燦) said that although the Executive Yuan’s referendum screening panel, in compliance with the Referendum Act (公民投票法), was authorized to determine whether a proposed economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) between Taiwan and China can be put to a popular vote, the panel was not empowered to host a debate on the issue.

The 21-member screening panel said on Thursday that it would sponsor a public hearing on Aug. 18 to discuss the DPP’s initiative on asking voters to decide if a referendum should be held on the proposed ECFA.

The panel said it would invite officials from the Ministry of Economic Affairs, including Minister Yiin Chii-ming (尹啟銘), DPP representatives such as DPP Chairwoman Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and a panel of experts to debate the agreement’s pros and cons in a public hearing.

The panel will decide on Aug. 27 whether the DPP’s referendum proposal meets the criteria laid out in the Referendum Act.

Cheng accused the panel of trying to “expand its power” to by organizing a public hearing.

He said that while the Referendum Act barred questions related to budgets, taxation, investment, salaries and government personnel from being posed in a referendum, the proposed agreement, which could affect the domestic job market and people’s livelihoods, did not fall into those categories and therefore could be put to a popular vote.

The DPP filed an application with the Central Election Commission (CEC) on July 20 to hold a referendum on the proposed pact with China. The party’s petition must be approved by the CEC screening panel before it can progress to the next stage, in which it will need to obtain the signatures of at least 850,000 eligible voters for the referendum to be held.

Ministry estimates show that GDP could fall by 0.176 percent if the two sides fail to sign an ECFA by Jan. 1 next year, when the “ASEAN plus one” trade bloc — comprised of ASEAN member states and China — is established.

Not signing an ECFA could also drive down Taiwan’s annual exports by 0.421 percent, reduce imports by 0.601 percent and cut the trade surplus by US$180 million, the ministry estimated.

The DPP, however, has said that an ECFA between Taiwan and China would compromise Taiwan’s sovereignty and job market.

Falun Gong practitioner home after China ordeal
　

By Loa Iok-sin
STAFF REPORTER
Saturday, Aug 08, 2009, Page 3

“She was tortured in detention — Chinese state security agents tried to keep her awake all the time, forced her to write self-criticisms, tried to brainwash her and threatened to hurt her family.”— Theresa Chu, Falun Gong practitioner and attorney

Taiwanese Falun Gong practitioner Shao Yuhua (邵玉華), who was arrested in China late last month, was released and returned to Taiwan on Thursday.

Shao, a former Chinese national who moved to Taiwan 11 years ago after marrying a Taiwanese and who now holds Republic of China (ROC) citizenship, traveled to China last month with her daughter to visit her family in Nanyang, Henan Province.

On the morning of July 31, several Chinese state security agents arrested her at her sister’s house, where she was staying.

After receiving the news from Shao’s family in China, her husband, Cheng Shu-ta (鄭書達), along with other Falun Gong practitioners in Taiwan, launched efforts to rescue Shao by using both their own connections in China and asking for help from government agencies in charge of cross-strait affairs, including the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) and the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF).

“We asked the SEF to contact [China’s] Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait a day after [the arrest] happened, and the Ministry of Justice also made rescue efforts through channels created by the cross-strait mutual judicial assistance agreement,” MAC Vice-Chairman Liu Teh-hsun (劉德勳) told the Taipei Times.

“Fortunately, the mission was successful and Shao was released and returned to Taiwan [on Thursday] afternoon,” Liu said.

Falun Gong practitioner and attorney Theresa Chu (朱婉琪) said yesterday that Shao’s arrest and the seven-day detention that followed was because she was a Falun Gong practitioner.

“[Shao told me] that she was tortured in detention — Chinese state security agents tried to keep her awake all the time, forced her to write self-criticisms, tried to brainwash her and threatened to hurt her family,” Chu said.

Chu said Shao’s release was the result of international attention as well as strong protest from Falun Gong practitioners worldwide.

A draft outline of Shao’s self-criticism — which she said was written by Chinese state security agents — that she brought back from China listed “unlawful acts” such as “distributing Falun Gong information,” “providing financial support to Falun Gong activities” and “spreading and teaching Falun Gong.”

It was not known whether Shao had told the Chinese law enforcement personnel that she was an ROC citizen at the time of her arrest.

The Falun Gong newspaper Epoch Times reported yesterday that Shao thanked everyone for the rescue effort as she stepped out of the airport on Thursday and urged continued efforts to save all Falun Gong practitioners in China who are suffering because of their religions beliefs.