Patience running out in clean-up effort
　

STRANDED: More than 10,000 people are still trapped in isolated townships around the nation, running out of food and water, while hundreds are feared dead

By Loa Iok-sin and Shelley Shan
STAFF REPORTERS, WITH AGENCIES
Friday, Aug 14, 2009, Page 1

“Everybody is paying attention to Xiaolin Village and Namasiya Township, and nobody cares about the thousands of people trapped in Taoyuan Township. There is a reservoir of water that was caused by a landslide that has dammed a river upstream. I don’t know if it has eroded away yet.”— a Taoyuan Township resident
　

Pressure mounted on the government yesterday to speed up operations as patience ran thin among relatives waiting for news of the thousands of residents trapped by mudslides, collapsed bridges or raging rivers in remote mountainous villages — with some feared buried alive — in the aftermath of Typhoon Morakot.

Kaohsiung County Commissioner Yang Chiu-hsing (楊秋興) said yesterday that about 300 people in Xiaolin Village (小林) in Jiasian Township (甲仙) were feared dead.

Xiaolin was one of the areas hardest hit by the flooding and landslides brought by Morakot.

The village was almost completely flattened by landslides — of 395 houses, only two remain.

Although more than 200 Xiaolin villagers have been rescued in the past two days, Yang said yesterday afternoon that the county government feared the worst.

As the county government compared the number of rescued Xiaolin villagers and those who are confirmed to be alive but are awaiting rescue to the number of people living in Xiaolin, Yang said: “I’d say the number of people unaccounted for was probably somewhere around 300.”
　

Meanwhile, about 1,000 people in Taoyuan Township (桃源) and 1,500 in Namasiya Township (那瑪夏) are believed to be trapped.

“Everybody is paying attention to Xiaolin Village and Namasiya Township, and nobody cares about the thousands of people trapped in Taoyuan Township. There is a reservoir of water that was caused by a landslide that has dammed a river upstream. I don’t know if it has eroded away yet,” a Taoyuan Township resident said in tears. “I only hope that it will stop raining.”

What the survivor was worrying about did happen — a landslide that had dammed the upstream section of the Laonong River (荖濃溪) eroded away by noon yesterday. Fortunately, downstream villagers fled the area minutes before it burst.

However, the resulting flash flood destroyed a warehouse for explosives used in construction, flushing about 8,000kg of explosives into the ­Laonong River. While experts said the explosives would not likely cause any immediate danger, authorities warned people who live downstream and rescuers to watch out for the explosives.

“It’s too slow.”— Chen Fu-rong, head of a funeral association in Kaohsiung

Several survivors in Liukuei Township’s Sinfa Village (新發), standing next to a collapsed bridge that connected the community to the outside, signaled for help to rescuers that flew by in helicopters.

A rescue team tried to cross the river, but the raging waters prevented them from doing so — one rescuer almost drowned.

According to the emergency operation center in Chiayi, approximately 10,200 people were still trapped in Alishan (阿里山), Meishan (梅山), Chuchi (竹崎), Jhongpu (中埔) and Fanlu (番路) townships as of 2pm yesterday. A representative told the Taipei Times that the number was calculated based on information from the Household Registration Office.

Despite the fact that most structures have collapsed in Taiho Village (太和) and Meishan Township, a Chiayi Fire Department rescuer said that all villagers — except for four who died — are safe and will soon be rescued.

However, in Fanlu, a man surnamed Ma (馬) said in a news clip broadcast by SET-TV that they were running out of food.

“We only have about one or two days of food supplies,” he said. “A helicopter came a couple of days ago to drop off food and other supplies, but it happened only once.”

A storm survivor who has been stranded for six days in Taitung County’s Jinfong Township (金峰) sent out an e-mail yesterday saying that about 1,000 survivors of a massive mudslide in the mountainous area were on the verge of starvation.

“Even greens and taro roots gathered in the wild have been consumed,” Lin Feng-shu, an elementary school teacher, said in the e-mail.

Lin sent the e-mail yesterday after Taiwan Power Co and Chunghwa Telecom managed to restore Internet services, which were disrupted by Typhoon Morakot after it struck Taiwan last Friday.

“Please help us quickly,” Lin’s message said.

Taitung County Government said that as of yesterday about 16,000 people in Taimali (太麻里), Jinfong, Dawu (大武) and Daren (達仁) townships were cut off from the outside world because of the surging water in the Taimali River (太麻里溪). However, they had received supplies by helicopter, officials said.

Residents there had begun to clean up their homes by hand and on empty stomachs, a staff member of a local government office said.

The military yesterday said it had deployed 4,000 more soldiers to the rescue effort, bringing the total to 38,000, after criticism that the government was too slow in mobilizing rescue efforts. The government said its operations had been hampered because many areas of the country were cut off when roads and bridges collapsed.

Anger at the authorities, however, was apparent among surviving villagers, who said more victims could have been saved if the government had moved sooner and faster.

“How can they be so slow? Clearly they should be sending more helicopters, right?” said Yan Min-rong, 29, as he pored over lists of survivors at a rescue hub in Kaohsiung County’s Cishan Township (旗山).

“It’s too slow,” said Chen Fu-rong, head of a funeral association in Kaohsiung, as she stood alongside the bodies of victims. “They don’t care about the south. They just care about the north.”

President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) was confronted by relatives complaining about his government’s handling of the crisis yesterday when he traveled to Yunlin County to inspect relief efforts.

TV footage showed dozens of people surrounding Ma, with one man angrily asking: “What is the government doing? It’s too late, they cannot be saved.”

Since the weather was good for most of yesterday, 113 helicopter flights were able to drop off food, water and other necessities at devastated areas in Liukuei and Namasiya, while 878 more survivors were rescued.

Meanwhile, rescuers yesterday morning confirmed 6,500 people who had been stranded near Alishan (阿里山) and more than 700 in Liukuei. But hundreds of villagers said that many more people could have been buried alive because some villages were either flattened or badly damaged in the typhoon.

While numerous bridges were severely damaged by mudslides and debris washed down the rivers, and many roads were rendered impassable in mountainous regions, the Directorate-General of Highways (DGH) reported that of the 132 damaged and blocked roads, 59 had been reopened.

Vice Minister of Transportation and Communications Yeh Kuan-shi (葉匡時) said the DGH had identified eight key areas that could not be accessed by any road at this time.

“Highways leading to these areas must be opened first so that food, goods and other resources can be delivered to the victims,” he said.

The roads on the list include Highway 18 to Alishan, which was severely damaged by mudslides, making it completely inaccessible until at least Oct. 15.

DGH contractors still cannot cross the section of Highway 21 from Jiaxian to Xiaolin and Namasiya. The contractors are also unable to pass the section of Highway 20 from Liukuei to Laonong (荖濃), Baolai (寶來), Taoyuan and Meishan villages, he said.

The sections of road between Maolin (茂林) and Duonah (多納), between Lidao (利稻) and Meishan on Highway 20, between Sandimen (三地門) and Wutai (霧台) on Highway 24, and between Taimali and Fonggang (楓港) on Highway 9 are also severely eroded. They won’t become accessible until next week.

“The typhoon damage is different from the damage caused by the 921 Earthquake,” Yeh said. “As soon as we clear debris, landslides come to undo our work.”

On Wednesday, two excavators that were on Highway 27 were washed away by the mudslides.

The Taiwan Railway Administration (TRA) said the South Link (南迴鐵路) will not resume full operation for another five months because the Linbienshi Bridge (林邊溪橋) and two other bridges were inundated by water. Currently, trains can operate between Pingtung and Nanchou (南州) as well as between Taitung and Taimali.

As of 10pm yesterday, the death toll from Typhoon Morakot had climbed to 116, with 59 people listed as missing and 45 injured, the Central Emergency Operation Center said.

Cabinet does about-face in rejection of foreign aid
　

By Jenny W. Hsu and Shih Hsiu-chuan
STAFF REPORTERS
Friday, Aug 14, 2009, Page 1

The government yesterday did an about-face, saying it would accept foreign aid after the public expressed indignation over the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ (MOFA) decision to refuse all foreign assistance except for cash.

“We welcome all kinds of help from all countries. We will provide a detailed list of the items that we need very soon,” Executive Yuan spokesman Su Jun-pin (蘇俊賓) told a press conference following the weekly Cabinet meeting yesterday. “The list could include personnel, aircraft and heavy machinery.”

On Tuesday, MOFA said it was only accepting cash donations and declined all other forms of assistance, such as goods and search and rescue teams.

MOFA spokesman Henry Chen (陳銘政) told reporters at the time that Taiwan was grateful for the kind offers of help extended by the international community, but said that Taiwan was capable of handling the disaster on its own.

Chen’s comments drew fire from the public, which panned the government as being money hungry and apathetic toward the plight of flood victims.

Angry citizens bombarded the ministry with complaints yesterday, urging it to immediately open the borders to foreign aid.

Some bloggers compared the Taiwanese government with the military junta in Myanmar when it blocked foreign humanitarian groups from helping after Cyclone Nargis devastated the country last May, leaving thousands to fend for themselves.

The government’s position on accepting foreign aid remained unclear through Wednesday, with Presidential Office Spokesman Wang Yu-chi (王郁琦) quoted by media as saying that the Presidential Office respected MOFA’s decision and its professional judgment, while Premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄), at a separate setting later on Wednesday, said Taiwan was willing to accept help from other countries and would make requests when necessary.

Su yesterday said the remarks were a misunderstanding.

“The main concern of the Executive Yuan was that any aid should be able to meet the needs of the disaster areas,” Su said. “The Executive Yuan first asked each government department to determine which items were in sufficient supply. As for other equipment and whether we need foreign help in frontline rescue operations, related government departments will decide whether it is proper based on their expertise. The government is working on collecting information and doing further studies.”

Soon after the government said it was willing to accept aid from other countries, US$1.1 million in medical supplies and food arrived from Singapore, making it the first foreign donor to help out with supplies after Typhoon Morakot battered southern Taiwan over the weekend.

MOFA deputy spokesman James Chang (章計平) said that as of yesterday, the government had received much more than US$500,000 in donations from the international community, adding that more was still being tallied.

So far, 50 countries have expressed condolences and willingness to lend a helping hand if needed, he said.

Earlier yesterday, while inspecting Matou Township (麻豆) in Tainan County, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) denied that his government had rejected international aid, saying that Taiwan welcomed assistance from the international community.

“So far the US, Japan, Singapore and the mainland have donated money, and we have accepted it with pleasure,” Ma said in response to media queries about MOFA’s rejection of aid.

Legislators across party lines yesterday supported the government’s call for foreign aid.

“Which is more important now, saving lives or [saving the government’s] face? Everyone knows perfectly well that saving lives is the first priority,” Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lo Shu-lei (羅淑蕾) said. “We should welcome all foreign aid that can help us speed up the process of disaster relief and rescue efforts.”

KMT Legislator Wu Ching-chih (吳清池) agreed, saying that the government should invite foreign rescue teams to help with the relief.

Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Huang Sue-ying (黃淑英) said accepting foreign aid was necessary because the government was “obviously incompetent” in disaster relief.
　

Chinese expert on Taiwan contradicts Ma’s ECFA claims
　

By Ko Shu-ling
STAFF REPORTER
Friday, Aug 14, 2009, Page 1

The essence of cross-strait economic integration is to advance the undertaking of peaceful unification with China, a Chinese expert on Taiwan affairs said at a cross-strait forum yesterday.

Li Fei (李非), deputy director of the Taiwan Research Center at Xiamen University, said China’s policy of pushing cross-strait economic exchanges has three benefits.

First, it will strengthen China’s economic power and propel economic development in the region. Second, it will stabilize cross-strait relations and spur the two sides’ policy interactions. Finally, it will push forward peaceful unification through economic integration.

Li made the remarks during the first annual forum on the global development of businesses across the Taiwan Strait and the eighth annual cross-strait scientific and economic forum in Taipei City yesterday morning.

Li caused a stir in February when the Washington Post published an interview in which he suggested that Taipei’s plan to sign an economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) with Beijing “represents an important step toward the possibility of unification of the longtime adversaries.”

He told the Post that the agreement would be a significant milestone in gradually warming relations between the two sides.

“It’s a start toward full cross-strait economic integration and a necessary condition for marching forward toward final unification,” Li said.

The Presidential Office later dismissed concerns that signing the economic pact would be one more step toward unification, insisting that the government would make the nation’s interests the priority when dealing with China.

While the administration has tried to play down the political implications of an ECFA, Li yesterday said that to intensify trade and economic cooperation with Taiwan would facilitate Taiwan’s economic reliance on China and increase the might of China-based Taiwanese businesses.

Analyzing Beijing’s strategy for promoting cross-strait economic cooperation with Taiwan, Li said the top priority was to develop trade relations and let market power gradually become the driving force behind economic exchanges.

As bilateral talks were resumed under the so-called “1992 consensus,” Li said future political negotiations would be based on the “one China” principle under the pretext of negotiations on issues concerning the economy or people’s livelihoods, as well as technical or administrative issues.

The development of political relations between the two sides would consist of several steps, he said. They were: engaging in political dialogue, ending cross-strait enmity, signing a peace treaty, conducting political negotiations on such issues as Taiwan’s political status and finally, undertaking negotiations on unification.

The second priority was to dole out small favors to “Taiwan compatriots,” he said, adding that “you don’t get something for nothing” and that “a man with big wisdom makes big compromises, and a man with small wisdom makes small concessions.”

As the normalization of economic exchanges is attained, Li said, efforts must be made to institutionalize economic ties, including establishing a “cross-strait economic cooperation mechanism” and signing a “cross-strait economic cooperation agreement.”

NCC investigates handling of victim requests at ERA
　

By Shelley Shan
STAFF REPORTER
Friday, Aug 14, 2009, Page 3

The National Communications Commission (NCC) is investigating allegations that ERA News (年代新聞) took calls from victims of Typhoon Morakot and did not relay their requests for help to the authorities after broadcasting them.

Jason Ho (何吉森), director of the NCC’s communication content department, said the commission had received three separate messages through its online system about an article allegedly written by an anonymous ERA News employee.

“We have sent an official notice to ERA News and asked them to explain to us how they handled the information gathered from those calls,” Ho said. “To be on the safe side, we will verify the details ourselves via other sources.”

The anonymous ERA news employee published an article saying the television station had allegedly mishandled the victims’ requests.

“I received a call from Mr Tsou (鄒) in Jiaxian Township (甲仙鄉), and he gave me a list of addresses of missing persons that need to be rescued. I asked around, and the reply I got was: ‘Why do you have to type out the addresses? Why do we have to handle requests? The people only called and told the anchors. That’s it!’”

“People kept calling in, and we urged them to call us and assured them that their requests would be handed on to the rescuers,” the employee said. “The truth was that the requests were written on pieces of paper that just piled up on the desk. I was trying to find out the answers to my questions, and all I got was a weird smile and a gesture that meant to shush me up. From 8am to 3am, nobody bothered to do anything with the requests.”

“We took advantage of vulnerable and anxious people as news sources, so that these beautifully dressed reporters could make live broadcasts and pretend that they cared about the callers,” the employee said.

ERA News issued a statement on its Web site denying the allegation.

“Our news team crossed many collapsed roads and rapid torrents to reach victims,” the station said. “We also made lists of callers’ requests and sent them to the Central Emergency Operation Center and our offices in central and southern Taiwan. We cannot say that we did everything perfectly, but we are sincere and determined.”

ERA added it would file a lawsuit against any person producing or spreading untruthful statements.

Chen relatives ask for leniency
　

GO EASY: Prosecutors said the former first lady’s brother and sister-in-law should be given lighter sentences because they had not benefited financially from their crimes
　

By Shelley Huang
STAFF REPORTER
Friday, Aug 14, 2009, Page 4

Former president Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) son Chen Chih-chung (陳致中) and several others yesterday appealed to the court to be lenient in light of their admissions to money laundering.

Chen Chih-chung, his wife Huang Jui-ching (黃睿靚), and former first lady Wu Shu-jen’s (吳淑珍) brother Wu Ching-mao (吳景茂) and sister-in-law Chen Chun-ying (陳俊英) are co-defendants in the trial against the former first family. The four are charged with helping the former first family launder money to overseas bank accounts.

In closing arguments, prosecutors said that although Chen Chih-chung and Huang pleaded guilty to money laundering, they did not answer key questions in the investigation into the former first family’s finances.

“The money laundering activities of the defendants cannot be justified by the defendants’ claims that they were unaware [that anything illegal was going on] and that Wu Shu-jen was so domineering that they could not refuse her requests,” prosecutors said.

The prosecution asked the court to hand down an “appropriate” sentence for Chen Chih-chung and Huang.

In his defense, Chen Chih-chung said he had not been able to answer all of the prosecutors’ questions because his father had never discussed the family’s overseas finances with him. He apologized to the public and said he had done everything he could to wire the money back to Taiwan.

Chen Chih-chung and his wife had promised to wire about NT$1.2 billion (US$36.6 million) from Swiss accounts and paper companies back to Taiwan as a condition to enter plea-bargaining. However, none of the money has been remitted because the accounts have been frozen by Swiss authorities, who said the money could only be returned to Taiwan through judicial means because of regulations for mutual judicial assistance.

Huang said through tears that she had done what was expected of a wife — obeying her husband’s family — and never thought she would one day face criminal charges.

She asked the court to be lenient and give her the opportunity to be a good mother to her child because she could not bear to be parted from her daughter.

“My daughter should not bear responsibility for the mistakes of [adults],” she said.

Wu Ching-mao and his wife Chen Chun-ying also appealed to the court to hand down lighter sentences, saying they were not aware they were breaking the law by letting Wu Shu-jen use their bank accounts to send money overseas.

The couple said they were not very educated and did not understand the law but regretted their actions and were sorry.

Prosecutors asked the court for lighter sentences for the two, saying they had shown remorse and had not benefited financially from helping the former first family.

The price of incompetent leadership

Friday, Aug 14, 2009, Page 8

It is now a week since Typhoon Morakot struck Taiwan. Amid growing public anger, the government is struggling to demonstrate that it can handle this crisis and its formidable ramifications.

Even now, thousands of people remain trapped in mountain villages — running out of food and running out of time. The risk of disease is growing. Official rescue efforts, including military helicopters and special squads on the ground, are finally beginning to resemble an operation that reflects a disaster of this enormity.

But it remains a mystery how a government with one of the most combat-ready militaries in the world at its disposal can allow so many people to be in harm’s way for so long.

Stricken areas in the central and southern mountains are now even more vulnerable to flash flooding and mudslides given the massive damage inflicted on mountain topography. The volume of debris thrown downstream — violently widening and raising river beds, in places forming dams — and the collapse of natural water retention mechanisms in catchment areas mean the risk of severe flooding has increased in the short term, hampering reconstruction efforts and forcing governments to reassess the viability of dozens of communities.

It would be preferable to say that discussion of political fallout from this disaster should wait until all victims are out of harm’s way. The problem is that disarray in sections of the official rescue effort and the utter ineptitude of the government in communicating with the public demand accountability now.

This is not merely because natural justice demands swift action, but because replacing Premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄) — whom the Disaster Prevention and Protection Act (災害防救法) authorizes to coordinate disaster relief, though this is barely perceptible in his behavior — and key ministers could fortify rescue missions and save lives.

Meanwhile, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) continues to display a stunning lack of leadership by trading in risible word games, insisting that he has not refused offers of material assistance from foreign governments. The fact is that his Presidential Office spokesman, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the military stated a few days ago that no assistance was required.

Ma’s sophistry comforts no one and solves nothing. The key here is not the letter of a law or the exactitude of public pronouncements, but whether the president and the Cabinet are utilizing resources competently and quickly and solving problems even as lives hang in the balance.

Now that the government has admitted to gaps in its disaster preparedness in requesting assistance from overseas, there is another issue that is worth considering.

Following the 921 Earthquake in 1999, US medical professionals studying the adequacy of the response identified a lack of central command, poor communication, lack of cooperation between the government and the military and various medical logistics problems as issues that demanded government attention.

Elsewhere, Taiwan’s Red Cross, in conjunction with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, spent three years developing a handbook and training manuals to improve and promote disaster response. The materials were bilingual and hundreds of copies were produced. But the program, which required ongoing training, allegedly floundered after a management change. The new team, according to a Red Cross report in May 2005, suffered from “limited upper management interest.”

The secretary-general of the new management team was Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌).

Who needs foreign help?

Friday, Aug 14, 2009, Page 8

On Tuesday, Ministry of Foreign Affairs deputy spokesman James Chang (章計平) said that “Taiwan would not request foreign assistance at present because there were sufficient resources and the disaster relief mechanism was working well.” (“Aid workers race against time,” Aug. 12, page 3). Was this true?

According to a news report by cable channel SET-TV on Tuesday evening, more than 400 victims were rescued that day, but there were still at least 57 people missing and about 700 more trapped in disaster areas. Transferring these 700 people to a safer area would take more than one day.

Keep in mind that Typhoon Morakot had hit the country four days earlier, on Aug. 7. The anxious and frustrated families of these victims have fought over being a rescue priority. The crash of an exhausted rescue helicopter mission further broke the hearts of many Taiwanese. On what basis then did the administration of President Ma Ying-jeou state that “there were sufficient resources and the disaster relief mechanism was working well?”

If Taiwan had accepted international assistance, these 700 trapped victims could get to safer ground faster; the crew members of the chopper that went down might have had time for a proper meal; and the families of the victims might be able to rest instead of fighting over assistance.

Time is running out. By not accepting the offer of international assistance, many more people are suffering and might not be able to survive.

I do not know why the Ma administration made this decision, but I do know that the victims and their family members will always wonder if things could have been better if there had been international assistance.

Once Taiwan recovers from this devastating disaster, whoever took this decision not to ask for or accept international assistance should be subject to investigation. Taiwanese will not forgive mistakes made by this inefficient, apathetic, cynical and arrogant government.

MENG-MEI CHEN
Lausanne, Switzerland

Risks of Obama giving in to China
　

By Li Thian-hok 李天福
Friday, Aug 14, 2009, Page 8

At the G20 meeting in London in April, Beijing persuaded Washington to engage in a serious discussion of Taiwan’s future at the next meeting between Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) and US President Barack Obama. Earlier press reports said Hu might visit the US to attend the opening of the UN General Assembly next month and call on Obama at the White House. However, the latest report from Washington is that Obama will visit Beijing in November.

The change of venue for the Obama-Hu summit does not augur well for the US. It smacks of the past tradition of a “barbarian king” trekking to the imperial court to pay tribute. As an invited guest, Obama may find it harder to stand firm in protecting the interests of the US and its allies.

Last month, Taiwanese communities abroad launched a “10,000 letters to Obama to save Taiwan” campaign. The urgency of that campaign has not been diminished by the change in the timing of the summit between Obama and Hu.

The negotiations at the Cabinet and sub-Cabinet levels will take place next month and in October, and it is important that Taiwan’s message reaches Obama and his foreign policy team before then.

Developments in the international community have made Taiwan’s survival as a democratic nation increasingly challenging. The economies of the US and China are interdependent: The US looks to China to fund its economic recovery efforts, while China’s export-dependent economy needs access to the US market.

The two nations need to cooperate in managing global economic recovery and climate change. Washington expects Beijing’s assistance in dealing with the nuclear ambitions of North Korea and Iran. The US owes China nearly US$1 trillion, causing then presidential candidate Obama to warn that it is “hard to say no to your banker.”

After the end of the Cold War, then US president Bill Clinton drastically reduced the size of the US armed forces. Then came the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the US and the prolonged wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and now Pakistan. The US military is stretched thin, especially in East Asia. High priority is thus placed on deterring a conflict in the Taiwan Strait. However, when avoidance of any confrontation with China becomes the overriding goal, the US becomes susceptible to overt or implied intimidation by China’s People’s Liberation Army.

During a conference at George Washington University on May 19, luncheon speaker Henry Nau said Obama had swung the pendulum too far away from the policies of his predecessor, former US president George W. Bush. The Obama administration has cut the military budget and stressed counterinsurgency at the expense of conventional sea and air power. But diplomacy without leverage won’t work.

In his June 4 speech in Cairo, Obama eloquently extolled the virtues of democracy, then followed with a caveat that “there is no straight line to realize this promise ... Each action gives life to this principle (that governments should reflect the will of the people) in its own way, grounded in the traditions of its own people. America does not presume to know what is best for everyone.”

This language sounds like the excuses made by many authoritarian regimes (see “The abandonment of democracy,” by Joshua Muravchik, published in the July/August issue of the Commentary).

The de-emphasis on promoting democracy, unfortunately, could also mean that the Obama administration may not place much value on Taiwan’s democracy serving as a model for autocratic China.

Lastly, President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) pro-unification policies give pro-China realists among the US policy establishment a convenient pretext for dropping support for Taiwanese freedom. There is even talk of a G2 cooperation, whereby Washington would cede control and management of East Asian affairs to Beijing, thus pushing China toward the path of military aggrandizement, unrestrained nationalism and, eventually, confrontation with the US.

So what is the danger to Taiwan from the upcoming US-China summit? It is the possibility that Obama may privately cave in to Hu and shift the US policy goal dramatically from “peaceful resolution” to “peaceful unification.” Alternatively, Obama may even openly endorse a peace accord between Taiwan and China, an idea which both Beijing and Ma support. Either event would signify the cessation of US support for Taiwan and virtual abrogation of the Taiwan Relations Act.

Former US secretary of state Colin Powell once said that the “peaceful reunification” of Taiwan with China is US policy. When corrected, he grudgingly replied: “The term of art really is to have a peaceful resolution,” implying that US policy favored peaceful reunification but it was not politically correct to openly admit it.

In 2007 the prestigious Council on Foreign Relations of New York (the publisher of Foreign Affairs) published a task force report on US-China relations in which it obliquely advocated a US policy of peaceful unification. The task force was composed of 30 experts from US business, military, government and academia. There was only one dissenting opinion — Arthur Waldron, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania who advocated supporting Taiwan’s freedom.

Obama is surrounded by China-leaning advisers and it is doubtful he will have time to digest Taiwan’s complex problems. His team consists mainly of realists who regard democracy and human rights as secondary considerations in conducting US diplomacy. So there are ample reasons to present the Taiwanese views and concerns to Obama, and to do so quickly.

Some people have asked: Would there be any legitimate basis for the US to interfere with Ma’s unification agenda since Ma was elected with more than half of the popular vote?

Adolf Hitler also gained power through an election, but he quickly turned around and destroyed the democratic institutions of the Weimar Republic. Similarly, Ma is turning the clock back to Taiwan’s White Terror era by suppressing freedom of speech and assembly, by pressuring the judiciary to act as the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) political tool and by reinstating the worship of dictator Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石).

Second, the Taiwan Relations Act states that the objective of the US is to preserve and enhance the human rights of the Taiwanese people. There is no human right more basic than the right to self-determination. When Ma tries to surrender Taiwan to China against the wishes of the great majority of Taiwanese, Obama has a responsibility under the TRA to act.

Third, neither the Republic of China (ROC) nor the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has a legitimate claim of sovereignty over Taiwan. China ceded Taiwan in perpetuity to Japan in 1895. Japan in turn gave up its title to Taiwan and the Pescadores in the San Francisco Peace Treaty, which did not designate a beneficiary.

Fourth, Ma won the ROC presidency by mouthing false promises. Ma is basically Chinese, serving as Beijing’s agent in governing Taiwan as a special administrative region of the PRC. Ma has given up any legitimate right to rule Taiwan despite the votes he garnered. He does not represent the interests of Taiwanese. He has even subverted the republic he supposedly leads.

Finally, China played no role in liberating Taiwan from Japan’s colonial rule. US forces, which suffered huge casualties during World War II, were the ones who did that. The US, as the leader of the allied forces, has a legitimate right to intervene in any process dealing with Taiwan’s future international status.

As was pointed out in the letter to Obama, the US is vulnerable to a seminal geostrategic disaster in East Asia. The US’ national security and its democratic values both call for unwavering support of Taiwan’s freedom by reaffirming the Taiwan Relations Act, strengthening trade relations and military cooperation with Taiwan, and bolstering US naval and air presence in the Western Pacific, as mandated in the Act.

Li Thian-hok is a ­freelance commentator based in Pennsylvania.

ECFA will bring no trade benefit to Taiwan
　

By Hsu Chung-hsin 許忠信
Friday, Aug 14, 2009, Page 8

A report published by the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER) showed that the effects of trade diversion and trade creation from signing an economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) with China would not be beneficial to Taiwan’s overall economic development.

After the signing of an ECFA, China’s exports to Taiwan would increase. Taiwan’s exports to China would increase, too, but this would have the effect of crowding out Taiwan’s exports to the US, Japan, Southeast Asia and Europe. This trade diversion would result in Taiwanese manufacturers losing market share to Chinese firms, which have lower production costs.

At the same time, it would make Taiwanese industries that enjoy comparative advantages heavily reliant on the Chinese market. The overall effect would be to make Taiwan’s economy even more dependent on China than it already is.

Besides, under the impact of zero tariffs under an ECFA, Taiwan’s electrical, electronics, medical equipment and other industries would be certain to shift their production to China to take advantage of the cluster effect, leading to a decline in production in these sectors in Taiwan. China would be the one to benefit from the trade diversion in these fields. Taiwan wants to develop its biotechnology sector, in which medical equipment is the field with the most potential. Unfortunately, as the institution’s report showed, the medical equipment sector is one of those that would suffer from the impact of an ECFA.

Electronics forms the foundation of modern technology, as well as the information and networking sectors, and is the cornerstone of a modern defense industry. These are the industries that attract Taiwan’s technical and scientific elite. They cause relatively little pollution but offer high profit potential. They are also areas in which Taiwan competes well with Europe, the US and Japan. It is hard to understand, therefore, why the Taiwanese government is willing to give up these industries in favor of high polluters like chemicals, plastics, machinery, upstream textiles, petrochemicals, catalysts and steel.

The CIER report does say that Taiwan’s chemicals, plastics, machinery, upstream textiles, petrochemicals, catalysts and steel industries would benefit from the trade creation effect of the proposed ECFA, but these are all relatively high-pollution industries with high external costs.

Besides, Taiwan does not have advantages in these industries compared with other countries. Over the past 50 years, these sectors have not been the focus of Taiwan’s development or professional training. So, while developing these sectors may gain Taiwan a share of the Chinese market, it would also make Taiwan a concentrated location for high-polluting industries within the greater China economic sphere.

One of the main reasons put forward by the government for signing an ECFA with China is that it would benefit the textiles sector. However, industries listed in a report published by the Ministry of Economic Affairs on July 27 as likely to suffer from the impact of an ECFA include many textile products such as stockings, shoes, underwear, towels, knitwear, bedding and swimwear, and these findings were confirmed by the CIER report.

Taiwan’s home appliance makers use Japanese technology, import components from China and assemble their products in Taiwan. With no tariff protection under an ECFA, this model would break down under competition from cheap equipment made in China.

Hsu Chung-hsin is an associate professor of law at National Chung Cheng University.