Chen Chu gives support to film, human rights
　

PROTESTS: The mayor said Kaohsiung's image as a supporter of freedom would suffer if it were to cancel screenings of the film on the Uighur activist
　

By Flora Wang and Loa Iok-sin
STAFF REPORTERS
Tuesday, Sep 22, 2009, Page 1

Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊) yesterday reaffirmed the city's commitment to screening a documentary on Uighur independence activist Rebiya Kadeer to highlight the city's support for human rights despite opposition from Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) councilors.

The move came as two directors pulled their films from the city's upcoming film festival in protest and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) announced plans to screen the film nationwide.

Fielding questions from KMT City Councilor May Zai-hsin (梅再興) at the city council, Chen said the city's image as a supporter of freedom and human rights would suffer a serious blow if the city government canceled the screenings.

May compared Kadeer to Osama bin Laden and Adolf Hitler, urging the mayor to halt the screenings.

Chen told the councilor that the city government would not change its plan to screen the documentary because of protests by Beijing.

“Taiwan is a free and democratic society. We respect the choice of the organizers of the Kaohsiung Film Festival,” Chen said.

“The best way to deal with Kadeer's documentary is to allow the public to see for themselves what the film is about,” she said.

The festival has attracted controversy since its organizers announced early this month it would include The 10 Conditions of Love featuring Kadeer.

Representatives from the city's tourism sector have complained about cancelations by Chinese tour groups, saying the groups are avoiding Kaohsiung because of the planned screenings.

The city government said on Saturday it would not cancel the screenings, but brought the date forward to today and tomorrow. It also said that tomorrow's screening will move to a bigger venue, FE21 Mall's Vieshow Cinema, because of increased demand.

Chen said the decision was made to prevent the controversy from escalating.

Chen said yesterday that she understood the concerns of the tourism sector, but “it would be too dangerous to allow Kaohsiung City's tourism development to fully depend on China's goodwill.”

But DPP City Councilor Huang Chao-hsing (黃昭星) said the city government should also screen the film at every park in the city.

“Are we going to sacrifice our democracy, freedom and dignity for money? Kaohsiung City is not a prostitute who will give up her dignity for money,” Huang said.

Two film directors — Chen Li-kuei (陳麗貴) and Chen Yu-ching (陳育青) — said yesterday they were withdrawing their films in protest against the city government's decision to bring forward the documentary's screening.

“Following such disgraceful action, we wouldn't know how to face the audience if we were to show our documentaries on Taiwan's struggle for freedom and democracy as planned in the section of the festival called 'The Power of the People,'” Chen Yu-ching said by telephone.

Chen Yu-ching is the director of My Human Rights Journey (我的人權之旅), a documentary on the prison on Green Island (綠島), where political dissidents were jailed during the White Terror era.

Director Chen Li-kuei also announced the withdrawal of her film The Burning Mission: Rescue of Political Prisoners in Taiwan.

On the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights last year, the city government announced it would create a special section titled “the power of the people” dedicated to films about human rights and freedom in this year's festival.

Both films were scheduled to be shown in this section.

“We regret that Mayor Chen Chu failed to defend the professionalism and independence of the festival and dishonored the 'city of human rights' title that Kaohsiung has given itself,” the two said in a joint statement.

“Bowing to political pressure and showing the film in a 'special screening' before the festival is not only a humiliation to the filmmaker, but also a rejection of the dream that Rebiya Kadeer pursues,” they said.

“Since the Kaohsiung City Government did not carefully consider all factors and does not respect the professionalism and independence of the festival, we would like to express our deepest regrets and withdraw our films,” the statement said.

DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday urged the central government to intervene, instead of letting the city government shoulder all the pressure from China.

“Cross-strait relations are the responsibility of the central government,” Tsai said. “It should share some of the burden.”

DPP spokesman Chao Tien-lin (趙天麟) said the party would “respect Kaohsiung's decision as an independent government body.”

However, the party would try to hold screenings of the film around the country, Chao said.

Beijing bans knife sales amid security fears, retailers say

AFP, BEIJING
Tuesday, Sep 22, 2009, Page 1

China has temporarily banned knife sales in Beijing after two stabbings, major retailers said yesterday in the latest sign of official security fears ahead of National Day on Oct. 1.

Staff at foreign and domestic retailers in the capital, including Wal-Mart and Carrefour, said the ban was issued over the weekend, as Beijing clamps down to prevent disruption to festivities marking China's 60th birthday.

Police have said a Chinese man stabbed two people to death and wounded 14 on Thursday in the Dashilan shopping area near Tiananmen Square, where a military parade and other events are planned for Oct. 1.

On Saturday another Chinese man slashed an elderly French woman with a knife in the same area just south of the large square, a French embassy spokesman said.

The motive in each incident was not clear and both assailants were apprehended. The French victim was not seriously hurt.

“We have not been able to sell vegetable or fruit knives for the past two days. It may have something to do with the Dashilan incidents,” said a female staffer at a branch of the Jingkelong supermarket chain who would not give her name.

A female worker at a Carrefour branch said: “The order came down to us but it did not say why.”

The state-run China Daily said the ban would last until after National Day.

China is planning a huge celebration at Tiananmen Square to mark the founding of the communist state in 1949.

Preparations have included a huge security clampdown, with thousands of extra police stepping up security checks on highways and the underground rail system.

State media reported yesterday that flights out of Beijing would be delayed on the morning of Oct. 1 as part of ramped-up security. Authorities implemented a similar airport shutdown last year for the opening of the Beijing Olympics.

Chinese authorities are grappling with a wave of reported syringe attacks in the restive western region of Xinjiang and have announced jail terms of up to 15 years for seven people.

State press said yesterday that police in the northern city of Xian had arrested a pair of suspects over two stabbings there — one using a sharp bamboo stick and the other a nail — and had stepped up patrols.

City authorities have mobilized nearly 30,000 police and other security personnel to step up patrols in public places, the <> said, adding that 100,000 civilian volunteers would carry out street patrols.

Report says birth rate in Taiwan is lowest in world

STAFF WRITER, WITH CNA
Tuesday, Sep 22, 2009, Page 2

“The great bulk of today’s 1.2 billion youth — 90 percent — are in developing countries.”— Carl Haub, Population Reference Bureau

A study conducted by a US non-profit organization has found that Taiwan has the world’s lowest fertility rate, with an average of one child per woman, and that its fertility rate is declining.

Carl Haub, a senior demographer at the Washington-based Population Reference Bureau (PRB), wrote the report on birth rates in low fertility countries, which was published on Aug. 12 on the PRB Web site alongside the PRB’s 2009 World Population Data Sheet.

The data sheet said Taiwan registered only eight births per 1,000 people, the lowest level in the world.

The nation’s population as of June was 23.1 million, it said.

The world’s highest fertility rate was in Niger, with 7.4 children per woman, PRB said.

The data sheet also showed that the global population reached 6.8 billion this year and is on track to total 8.1 billion in 2050.

China has the world’s largest population, at 1.33 billion, but by 2050 India is expected to take that spot, with a projected population of 1.75 billion. China’s population is projected to be 1.437 billion in 2050.

In its report, PRB said that although the fertility rate continued to fall in developed countries, the global population would reach 7 billion in 2011, just 12 years after it hit the 6 billion mark.

PRB president Bill Butz said such growth was “unprecedented in world history.”

The report said that during the 20th century, nearly 90 percent of population growth came from less developed regions — parts of Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean and Oceania — as a result of declining death rates.

“The great bulk of today’s 1.2 billion youth — 90 percent — are in developing countries,” said Haub, adding that eight in 10 youths live in Africa and Asia.

In the next few decades, “these young people will most likely continue the current trend of moving from rural areas to cities in search of education and training opportunities, gainful employment and adequate health care,” he said.

As a result, one of the major social questions in the next few decades will be meeting their expectations, Haub said.

PRB seeks to gather and publicize information about population growth, health and the environment to advance the well-being of current and future generations.

DPP urges Penghu vote ‘no’ to casinos
　

ISLAND REFERENDUM: Legislator Chen Chieh-ju rebutted the Penghu County Government’s claims that casinos would bring prosperity by citing statistics from Las Vegas
　

By Loa Iok-iok and Shelley Huang
STAFF REPORTERS
Tuesday, Sep 22, 2009, Page 3
　

Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) urged the party’s supporters yesterday to vote “no” in the casino referendum scheduled to be held in Penghu on Saturday.

The legislature passed amendments to the Offshore Islands Development Act (離島建設條例) in January that would allow construction of casinos on the islands if more than 50 percent of local residents agree to the plan in a referendum.

“The DPP made it very clear before the casino amendment to the Offshore Islands Development Act was passed in January because the potential threat that large casino resorts will have to Penghu’s ecosystem,” Tsai told a news conference at party headquarters.

“Now we urge all our supporters to vote ‘no’ in the casino referendum,” she said.

Tourism in Penghu should be developed in a sustainable way by focusing on the island’s rich culture and diverse ecosystem.

“Only large casino resorts, not ordinary Penghu residents, would benefit from the construction of casinos,” Tsai said.

She also voiced concern that if Penghu develops casino-centered tourism, casino groups might eventually control local politics and economy, as shown by what happened in Macau showed.

DPP Legislator Chen Chieh-ju (陳節如) rebutted claims by the Penghu County Government that casinos could bring prosperity to the county by creating 25,000 jobs and attracting 5 million visitors a year.

“If we look closely at Las Vegas, it’s clear that the county government is lying,” Chen said.

Citing figures from last year, Chen said there were 266 casinos in Las Vegas, with more than 22,000 employees and attracting nearly 51.6 million visitors. The net income of the casinos totaled about US$1.1 billion, generating around US$925 million in taxes for the Nevada state government, she said.

“There are 266 casinos in Las Vegas, but Penghu will only have two,” Chen said. “If we calculate the number of visitors based on Las Vegas’ example, Penghu will only have 380,000 visitors per year. Where did the county government get 5 million?”

Even the biggest casino in Las Vegas only has between 8,500 and 9,000 employees, she said, adding: “I don’t see how two casinos would create 25,000 jobs.”

Based on the Las Vegas example, “the county government would only get about NT$900 million [US$27 million] in taxes a year from the two casinos, which means that each of the 95,146 residents could be allocated about NT$946 a year,” Chen said.

Meanwhile, the Anti-gambling Legislation Alliance held a demonstration outside the Ministry of Justice yesterday to protest Minister of Justice Wang Ching-feng’s (王清峰) comment in the legislature last week that a Penghu prosecutor’s remarks against casinos were “inappropriate.”

She was referring to Penghu District Prosecutor Wu Hsun-lung.

The alliance said Wang’s comments, not Wu’s, were inappropriate because they were made before she had carefully evaluated the situation. The alliance brought with them a letter from Wu to the minister, in which the prosecutor said he would rather give up her job than agree to casino resorts in Penghu.

Tsai Rei-tsong (蔡瑞宗), director of the ministry’s Department of Prosecutorial Affairs, accepted the alliance’s petition.

Tsai said the ministry would respect Wu’s right to freedom of speech if Wu was making the comments in his personal capacity. However, if Wu was commenting on the casino issue as a prosecutor, this was something the ministry would frown upon.

Chen’s case highlights judicial shortcomings
　

REFORMS NEEDED: A law professor, a lawyer and a former member of the Judicial Yuan said that many questions had been raised by the way the case was handled
　

By Ko Shu-ling
STAFF REPORTER
Tuesday, Sep 22, 2009, Page 3

“Except for sending out a clear message to future presidents that they will be severely punished for committing graft, I don’t see the ruling doing the country any good.”— Kao Yung-cheng, executive director of the Judicial Reform Foundation

The corruption case against former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) and his family has prompted a wide range of responses.

Some said that it shows the nation’s judiciary is hard on corruption and secret political donations. Others, however, argue that it was a clear example of political persecution by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT).

Most analysts agree that it illustrates the shortcomings of a legal system in transition.

Chen, who has been in custody since December, has asked his lawyers to file an appeal. Despite his repeated calls for the court to release him, the district court overruled his last request. The current detention order expires on Friday.

The life sentences meted out to Chen and his wife has sparked a heated debate.

Shilin District Court Judge Hung Ying-hua (洪英花) criticized procedural aspects of the trial and was quickly shot down by President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), who reportedly dismissed her criticism as a violation of legal ethics.

Minister of Justice Wang Ching-feng (王清峰) said it was up to the Judicial Yuan to decide whether Hung’s outspokenness was appropriate. The Judicial Yuan said judges should be careful what they say.

Jiang Huang-zhi (姜皇池), an associate professor of law at National Taiwan University, said the case was more of a political vendetta by the KMT than a crackdown on corruption. If the legal system genuinely wanted to be tough on corruption, he said, half of the KMT members would be thrown into jail.

While Chen seemed to have high hopes for his appeal, Jiang said the former president had no choice but to trust the legal system, which he said has made tremendous progress over the years despite repeated criticism.

Nevertheless, there was still a lot of room for improvement, Jiang said.

The legal proceedings were marred, he said, including the leaking of confidential information to the media.

While it was unclear if the leaks came from prosecutors, Jiang urged reporters to exercise self-restraint when obtaining such information to refrain from misleading public opinion and pressuring the judiciary.

Judicial Reform Foundation executive director Kao Yung-cheng (高涌誠) said he did not fully agree that Chen’s case was a political vendetta, but felt the sentencing was too severe.

Chen was bearing the consequences of doing a poor job in tackling problems caused by transitional justice and judicial reform during his eight-year presidency, Kao said.

Among the shortcomings in the case, Kao said, was the quality of prosecutors and judges, whom he described as conservative and keen to follow public opinion.

“The judiciary must be hard on corruption, but it must also take human nature into account rather than merely following the letter of the law,” he said.

“Except for sending out a clear message to future presidents that they will be severely punished for committing graft, I don’t see the ruling doing the country any good,” he said.

The judicial process was controversial, but was not handled fairly after the problems were raised, Kao said.

The problems he cited included the district court’s unusual transfer of the case to Judge Tsai Shou-hsun (周守訓), who had acquitted Ma in a corruption case linked to his terms as Taipei mayor, and the pre-trial detention of Chen, which raised constitutional questions.

Kao questioned Tsai’s inconsistency in his positions on Chen and Ma’s cases, saying that it was unfair to interpret the president’s discretionary fund and the mayor’s differently.

Kao also criticized the Witness Protection Act (證人保護法), whose spirit he said was to ensure lighter sentences for those who confess.

He said he was not against reducing or exempting the sentences of witnesses if they cooperated, but the system was flawed because a witness was likely to exaggerate the facts in order to gain a better deal.

The Council of Grand Justices has accepted a request to interpret the constitutionality of the transfer of Chen’s case, and Kao urged the council to deal with the issue in a speedy manner.

Politics could be playing a role in the council’s delayed decision because some grand justices do not want to be labeled as Chen supporters by upholding the constitutional challenge to the transfer of judges.

Hung was entitled to speak out because her criticism was aimed at procedural aspects rather than the verdict itself, Kao said.

The judge, however, might want to take a lower-key approach by expressing herself through internal channels, he said, but it was also debatable whether Ma should have denounced Hung for violating legal ethnics.

To restore confidence in the judicial system, the legal system must be overhauled to ensure fairness in the judicial process, Kao said.

“Without fairness, the verdict will be questionable,” he said.

He also proposed putting civilians on the judges panel to decide a case.

To guarantee the quality of professional judges, he said, a law must be enacted to weed out inferior judges.

Former Judicial Yuan vice president Cheng Chung-mo (城仲模) said the modern concept of justice had been progressing and changing for more than a century, but the results in Taiwan were unsatisfactory.

Apart from rebuilding the system, Cheng said the judicial education and training programs must be revamped as well.

A law school graduate can become a judge at age 24, Cheng said.

“Some of them probably haven’t even been in love. How do you expect them to judge a murder or insider trading case?” he said. “The court panel handling a former president’s case should be formed by judges of a higher caliber and better credentials.”

Cheng, a former grand justice, said the composition of the Council of Grand Justices might not be the major factor in its delayed interpretation of constitutional questions concerning Chen’s case, but it was a significant one.

“No matter who nominated them, they must realize that their responsibility is to be fair, determine the truth and facilitate justice — not to serve the interest of the president who nominated them,” he said.

If the council had upheld the constitutional challenge, he said, it would invalidate Chen’s trial.

While Chen seemed optimistic, Cheng said he was afraid history would repeat itself if particular judges were again assigned to handle Chen’s case.

Between obstinence and capitulation

Tuesday, Sep 22, 2009, Page 8

Successful negotiations frequently involve concessions on the part of negotiators. If common ground is to be found between parties with conflicting goals, give and take is unavoidable.

Negotiators generally make concessions on matters of lesser importance while being more hard-nosed on core interests — which are usually identified before negotiations begin.

Since the late 1980s, when Taiwan and China began informal negotiations, such considerations have not only defined each side’s core interests, but also the pace of negotiations, sometimes leading to their unraveling. This is why former presidents Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) and Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) — and even the Beijing-friendly administration of President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) — insisted on first addressing practical matters of trade, tourism and services before tackling the more contentious aspects of national identity and independence/unification.

Ma’s policies, however, are now engendering a form of dependence, and negotiations have shifted from executive bodies (the Straits Exchange Foundation and China’s Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait) and political parties (the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Chinese Communist Party) to include civil society, with business organizations and interest groups now in the game. In the process, these groups have also been compelled to make concessions, however one-sided they appear.

The problem is that such groups often lack the tools and refinement that allow professional negotiators to make more careful decisions.

One such group that has unwittingly entered cross-strait negotiations is Taiwan’s tourism sector, which has asked the Kaohsiung City Government and the organizers of the Kaohsiung Film Festival not to proceed with the screening of The 10 Conditions of Love, a documentary about exiled Uighur activist Rebiya Kadeer. Tour companies fear the Chinese government will act on its threat to cancel tour and hotel reservations.

Initially, Kaohsiung authorities said the film would be presented as scheduled. Then, in an apparent concession, they announced that the film would be shown ahead of schedule and without film festival trappings and services.

For people like Kaohsiung Tourism Association chairman Tseng Fu-hsing (曾福興), even this concession was “regrettable” — he would rather have seen the movie dropped altogether.

What this decision represents, though, is more than the ordinary give and take: When concessions are made on core values — freedom of expression, in this case — flexibility may appear to some, such as the filmmakers who pulled their works from the festival in protest at the schedule change, as capitulation rather than a concession.

Regrettably, the tourism industry is thumbing its nose at basic democratic principles.

Whatever this rag-tag band of tour operators did for a living before the Chinese started arriving, they must have had to work harder. Of more concern, however, is the likelihood that Beijing is counting not only on greed to bend minds, but also entrepreneurial ineptitude and sloth — longstanding characteristics of the nation’s tourism industry.

Such behavior, added to the Kaohsiung City Government’s dilly-dallying on the matter, could send a worrying signal to pro-Taiwan elements.

Conditions of freedom for a state under siege
　

By Tien Chiu-chin 田秋堇
Tuesday, Sep 22, 2009, Page 8

‘Those who profess to love Taiwan should consider the reasons why.’

Last month Chinese hackers attacked the Web site of the Melbourne International Film Festival, retaliating against the organizers for screening a documentary about exiled Uighur activist Rebiya Kadeer, a film that Australian director Jeff Daniels worked on for seven years.

After the Kaohsiung Film Festival announced that it would screen the documentary, The 10 Conditions of Love, China and Chinese forces in Taiwan issued a series of threats.

Media reports claim that Chinese tourists canceled thousands of room reservations in Kaohsiung because of the Dalai Lama’s trip there, and are threatening to do so again if the documentary is shown.

If this is true, then it is clear that tourism is becoming one of China’s political and economic tools for threatening Taiwanese and their government into accepting Chinese “values.” Beijing, it would appear, will use such bait to manipulate this country and take anything it can get, turning every profession and industry into a Chinese mouthpiece.

Taiwan is a free, democratic, independent and sovereign state. The protection of freedom of expression under the Constitution and other legislation means that the festival has the right to screen this film within Taiwan’s borders regardless of whether one supports Kadeer.

Without this freedom, we would be a vassal of China and lose our international status as independent and autonomous.

If the authorities heed Beijing on this matter, who is to say that the news China censors at home will not soon be deemed taboo by media outlets here?

Those who profess to love Taiwan should consider the reasons why. Among them, freedom and democracy must be safeguarded at all costs.

Taiwan tolerates calls for and against Xinjiang and Tibetan independence because this is a land of freedom and democracy — the universal principles of the 21st century.

Twenty or 30 years ago, junior high school textbooks used to call independence activists the “fifth column” of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), but, as it turns out, they are China’s worst enemy.

In the past, the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) political language manipulated values and confused minds. Today, should we continue to tolerate the fact that China hopes to distort Taiwanese values?

Those who would follow China along its current path should not forget that they enjoy its benefits because they hold the same opinions as China. China is also using them to attack the goal of Taiwanese independence; if one day there are no longer independence forces left in Taiwan, they will be discarded.

Kadeer was once the richest person in Xinjiang and a member of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, a post many dream of obtaining.

Why did she give up the benefits of wealth and being well-regarded by Beijing and sacrifice everything to promote the Uighurs’ right to freedom and autonomy?

The first condition of loving Taiwan is the ability to sacrifice fame and wealth to safeguard the nation’s core values of freedom and democracy — and so are the second to 10th conditions.

Tien Chiu-chin is a Democratic Progressive Party legislator-at-large.