Chinese lawyer’s family gets asylum in US: supporters

AFP, WASHINGTON
Monday, Nov 23, 2009, Page 1

The US granted political asylum to the wife and children of jailed Chinese civil rights lawyer Guo Feixiong (郭飛雄), who the family says is suffering abuse, supporters said on Saturday.

Guo, who is serving a five-year prison sentence for “running an illegal business,” became well-known for his work on behalf of villagers who tried to remove a local boss of the Chinese Communist Party accused of corruption.

His wife, Zhang Qing (張青), their teenage daughter and eight-year-old son sneaked out of China into Thailand in February, said ChinaAid, a US-based group that supports underground Christians.

The UN High Commission for Refugees initially rejected their appeal for refugee status, but ChinaAid’s president Bob Fu went to Thailand to intervene and arrange for them to come to the US, the group said.

TO TEXAS

The family found out on Thursday that US authorities had granted them asylum, the group said. They are now living in Midland, Texas, where the children have enrolled in school.

Zhang had become a target herself with her children were barred from attending school after she issued open letters to Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤), Premier Wen Jiabao (溫家寶) and US leaders calling for her husband’s release.

In an interview with Radio Free Asia, Zhang said that her husband had suffered abuse since his latest arrest in September 2006, including having his hands and feet tied together to a hardboard bed for 42 days.

“I have heard so many times that he has been brutally beaten and that he has sustained injuries — this on top of the torture he had endured before,” she told the US-funded radio station.

NOT ALONE

Guo is one of a number of prominent lawyers and rights activists in prison in China.

The wife and two children of leading lawyer Gao Zhisheng (高智晟) — who has defended pariah groups such as coal miners, underground Christians and the banned Falungong spiritual movement — also escaped to the US via Thailand earlier this year.

Unlike during previous visits by US leaders, China did not release any dissidents during US President Barack Obama’s visit last week.

Coral reefs disappearing at an alarming rate
　

ALMOST GONE: The underwater coastlines of Taiwan used to be lush with animal and plant life that has since all but disappeared because of overfishing and pollution
　

By Vincent Y. chao
STAFF REPORTER
Monday, Nov 23, 2009, Page 2

Decades ago, the coastal areas surrounding Taiwan were filled with lush underwater vegetation, schools of multicolored fish and a kaleidoscope of healthy and abundant coral reefs.

Take a trip underwater today and you’ll find that all this has changed.

The water remains crystal clear, but now all it reveals is a deep, cold ocean virtually devoid of life, said Allen Chen (陳昭倫), an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Biodiversity Research Center.

The fish from these waters have either been served on seafood platters or have moved on to distant, safer waters, he said. The vegetation has disappeared following the collapse of what was once a healthy and sustainable eco-system.

Now the last vestiges of a different time are also in danger of disappearing from Taiwan’s coasts.

Chen said the coral reefs on ­Taiwan’s coastlines were ­disappearing at an alarming rate. A study conducted by the Taiwan Environmental Information Center (TEIC) shows coral reefs have been retreating in 11 of their 16 testing locations. Moderate increases were found in the other five.

“Overfishing, pollution and wastewater are all really big problems for the coral reefs,” said Lulu Keng (耿璐), the project manager at TEIC.

Using volunteers and testing methods from the worldwide Reefcheck Foundation, her organization will continue testing the health of reefs throughout the year.

Coral reefs can be found in most coastal waters around Taiwan and its outlying islands save the eastern coast. They are living eco-systems that form in tropical and subtropical waters. Chen said they were also an essential ingredient for a healthy and sustainable ocean.

“Coral reefs are essentially communities, they need fish and other marine life in order to be sustained and vice versa,” Chen said.

The fish provide essential ­nutrients that maintain the structure of the coral reefs, which in return provides marine life with a habitat.

“Think of coral reefs as an office building. What happens when all the cleaners, security guards and maintenance staff disappear?” Chen asked.

He said that the Fisheries Agency needed to regulate fishing to allow the coral reefs a chance of survival.

However, when asked to comment, the Fisheries Agency denied any direct correlation between the fishing industry and disappearing coral reefs and fish stocks.

“Fishing is already heavily regulated in most coral reef areas,” Fisheries Agency Deputy Director-General Chen Tian-shou (陳添壽) said.

Instead, he drew attention to the problems of global warming and climate change, which he said had a much bigger impact. He also said that protection of coral reefs fell under the jurisdiction of many agencies, including the Forestry Bureau.

The comments from the Fisheries Agency reflect the failure to coordinate a common approach to the problem, Allen Chen said. He added that government agencies must work together in producing a comprehensive plan that includes regulation, protection and education — before it is too late.

Reports released by the UN’s Environment Programme state that threats to 58 percent of the world’s coral reefs were a result of “overfishing, coastal development and other human activity.”

The agency also said that by late 2000, 27 percent of the world’s coral reefs had disappeared.

One thing is certain — coral reefs are recovering more slowly after the typhoons and tropical storms that battered Taiwan earlier this year.

“Typhoon Morakot [in August] showed how fragile these coral reef systems have become,” Keng said.

She said she found mounds of “broken and overturned reefs” after leading a group of divers to inspect the typhoon’s aftermath.

In Lanyu (蘭嶼), coral reefs were reduced to 17 percent as a result of the typhoon, from 67 percent coverage in 2004. Other islands, including Liouciou (小琉球) and Penghu (澎湖), suffered similar damage.

However, there is still cause for optimism, Keng said, citing a case in which divers found out first hand how resilient coral reefs could be if left undisturbed.

“Divers who visited the Northeast and Yilan Coast National Scenic Area (東北角暨宜蘭海岸國家風景區) last year said there was nothing to see, that the coral reefs were mostly dead,” she said. “However, this year, we found that after being left alone, the coral reefs had mostly regenerated … It was beautiful.”

Coral reefs are home to dozens of fish species and are an accurate measure of how we are treating our oceans, Allen Chen said.

“Healthy coral reefs lead to a healthy ocean, which in turn is the key to the health of people,” he said.

Hundreds protest government policies in ‘Autumn Struggle’
　

By Shelley Huang
STAFF REPORTER
Monday, Nov 23, 2009, Page 3

“Even though we are here because of various issues of public concern, we are all united by the single cause of countering corruption of government officials by business groups and establishing social justice.”— Lai Hsiang-ling, Raging Citizens Act Now spokesperson

Hundreds of people from social welfare and labor groups, including Raging Citizens Act Now! (RCAN), took to the streets yesterday to voice their opposition to several government policies, from imports of US beef to the environment and labor issues.

At least 35 groups and NGOs participated, including the National Federation of Independent Trade Unions, Taiwan International Workers Association, Lo Sheng Residents, the Collective of Sex Workers and Supporters and several Aboriginal communities.

Protesters gathered at the Council of Indigenous Peoples at noon and marched to the Council of Labor Affairs. From there, they marched to the Department of Health and the Executive Yuan, concluding on Ketagalan Boulevard in front of the Presidential Office. All the while, demonstrators shouted slogans such as “Government kills all, labor unions are furious” and “Citizens are raging!”

Aboriginals shouted “against forced relocation.”

Labor unions, meanwhile, put on skits to express their anger toward a proposed amendment to the Labor Union Act (工會法) that they argue would cause a breakdown of labor unions and undermine their influence.

On their march to the Department of Health, protestors also expressed their anger at government officials who failed to protect the health of the nation by agreeing to let in imports of US ground beef and beef offal.

One of the leaders of the protest, RCAN spokesperson Lai Hsiang-ling (賴香伶), said it had been four years since the social activist groups teamed up for the event, named the “Annual Autumn Struggle.”

“Even though we are here because of various issues of public concern, we are all united by the single cause of countering corruption of government officials by business groups and establishing social justice,” she said.

Ma’s lack of leadership hurts the KMT

Monday, Nov 23, 2009, Page 8

As Taiwan enters the countdown to local government elections on Dec. 5, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) has launched a series of TV commercials, but its chairman, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), is conspicuous by his absence. The KMT said this was a deliberate decision to keep the focus on local issues. But Ma has said that any candidate who needs his support can count on his help. This contradiction reveals the KMT’s ambivalence toward Ma’s role in the year-end polls.

These elections are not crucial for the balance of power. The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) may at best take control of one or two more cities or counties. But even one more could boost the DPP’s morale and help it make a comeback in 2012.

The pendulum effect is coming into play. The KMT, dominant in the legislature, won a landslide victory in last year’s president election. But voters are now fed up with the party’s indolence, arrogance and conceit, and are likely to express their discontent next month.

Recent polls show that, while the KMT still enjoys higher approval ratings than the DPP, Ma is less popular than DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文). Many KMT candidates have distanced themselves from the president as they see his aura dimming. It is reminiscent of how former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), toward the end of his second term in office, became a political liability to the DPP, and its legislative candidates hoped that he would stay away from their campaigns. Now it is KMT candidates’ turn to worry that Ma could erode their standing with voters.

The Ma administration has not made up for its poor performance over Typhoon Morakot in August. If possible, it has gone from inept to mind-boggling incompetence. The uproar over its US beef import policy and the resulting waffling on the part of the Cabinet are one example.

The party has hit several stumbling blocks. Four KMT legislators have had their elections annulled by the courts because of vote buying, and were all replaced by non-KMT legislators in by-elections. Reports of vote buying in the KMT Central Standing Committee election prompted Ma, in his role as party chairman, to order a rerun. Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) admitted taking a trip to Indonesia with a paroled former gangster while he was still KMT secretary-general. He then offered piecemeal explanations. His lack of candor only added to suspicion that he had something to hide.

More recently, the media has had a field day over KMT Legislator Wu Yu-sheng’s (吳育昇) extra-marital affair. Wu is one of Ma’s leading factional supporters, and this scandal, erupting not long after Ma stressed the importance of morality and integrity, was a slap in the president’s face.

Meanwhile, the government’s handling of the signing of a financial memorandum of understanding between China and Taiwan made Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) and lawmakers from both the pan-blue and pan-green camps see red over the administration’s failure to brief the legislature.

With the DPP calling on the public to teach the Ma government a lesson, the KMT has failed to come up with fresh policies to woo voters. Instead, its candidates appear eager to distance themselves from the central government and Ma altogether.

The KMT needs to work out a competitive election strategy. If Ma wants to help his party’s candidates, then he needs to show some substance. If, however, he thinks his involvement will prove a liability, then he should stay in Taipei and focus on his presidential duties.

ECFA assessments are unrealistic
　

By Wang To-far 王塗發
Monday, Nov 23, 2009, Page 8

The administration of President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) insists on signing an economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) with China and is using an assessment report by the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research as an endorsement. The institute has assessed the impact of the cross-strait economic pact based on the Global Trade Analysis Project (GTAP) model. The Ministry of Economic Affairs then made “expert adjustments” to the report to minimize or eliminate any negative impact before concluding that an ECFA with China would raise the nation’s economic growth by about 1.7 percentage points and increase the number of employed by about 260,000.

However, this illusion is a result of numerous hypotheses that defy economic reality. The GTAP model is a full employment model, implying that production resources can move freely between industries — for example, that engineers can work at a farm and that farmers can work at an information technology (IT) company — to exclude the possibility of unemployment.

Under this model, when an unfavorable impact on certain industries results in unemployment, full unemployment will be restored because markets will cause a reduction in wages or induce workers to transfer from a negatively affected industry to an industry benefiting from the impact. This model, however, does not tell us how long this adjustment will take and how great the cost will be.

The insitute’s assessment says the electrical, electronics and transport equipment industries will be the hardest hit by the proposed ECFA, while the chemical, plastic, rubber, mechanical and agricultural industries benefit the most. The result of the assessment is that many workers in the electrical and electronics industries will transfer to agricultural and chemical industries. In other words, some IT engineers will become farmers. Will there really be farming jobs for those who want them. Is it possible for farmers to switch to IT jobs?

More seriously, assume that the substitution elasticity for Taiwanese and Chinese products is zero. The GTAP model uses the level of market overlap to estimate the replacement effect, but it fails to consider the replacement effect on domestic products in the local markets. In other words, the assessment report only mentions that following the signing of an ECFA with China, Taiwanese products may replace products from Japan, South Korea, ASEAN countries and so on in the Chinese market and Chinese products may do the same in Taiwan, but it ignores the possibility of cheap and inferior Chinese product rip-offs replacing Taiwanese products. This is a key issue, and the issue that will most affect Taiwan.

There will be a massive influx of cheap Chinese rip-offs and agricultural produce thanks to the zero-tariff preferential treatment, and this is certain to cause labor-intensive and agricultural industries to collapse, especially small and medium-sized enterprises manufacturing towels, ready-made garments, shoes, bedding and ceramics, thus exacerbating unemployment. In future, Taiwanese may be reduced to migrant workers in China. In the meantime, the high unemployment levels will lower the take-home wages in the nation and lead to a serious income imbalance. These problems are all excluded from the GTAP model.

In addition, when cross-strait customs tariffs are removed and economic regulations relaxed, Taiwanese competitive industries will likely increase their exports to China while edging out exports to other countries, in particular the US, the EU, Japan and ASEAN members. As a consequence, Taiwan’s economic security will come under greater risk and the lifeline of the nation’s economic development will become completely controlled by China. The assessment report only briefly touches on this trade diversion effect, which probably would be the biggest long-term concern resulting from the signing of an ECFA with China.

Wang To-far is a part-time professor of economics at National Taipei University.

Opening up to Chinese students is a bad idea
　

By Chiu Li-li 邱莉莉
Monday, Nov 23, 2009, Page 8

When President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) visited Tainan in May, university students staged a protest against the government’s plan to recognize Chinese college diplomas. Just six months later, the Ministry of Education (MOE) is implementing Ma’s wishes by announcing that diplomas issued by 41 Chinese universities will be recognized and that Chinese students will be allowed to study in Taiwan.

No public consensus has been reached on recognizing Chinese credentials or allowing Chinese students to study at Taiwanese universities. These policies clearly violate the right of Taiwanese students and recent young graduates. It is enough to make one wonder if the ministry only wants to serve China.

The view that accepting Chinese students is a way to increase the student supply is nothing more than “sugarcoated poison.” For better off Chinese families, Taiwan will not be the first choice. Statistics from the ministry’s Mainland Affairs Division show a total of 1,055 Chinese students visited Taiwan for short-term study last year.

Ninety-six Taiwanese colleges and universities have signed academic cooperation agreements with China. From a business perspective, this amounts to an average of about 11 Chinese students per school. Although the ministry is extending the length for short-term study in to one year this year, this will merely lead to an increase of no more than 200 to 300 Chinese students.

In terms of the proclaimed positive effects of the opening up policy, no official dares promise any such benefits. But negative effects are self-evident, as Chinese students will crowd out Taiwanese students from first-class universities. The ministry is lobbying private schools and trying to influence public opinion by confusing things by talking about the stimulus of cultural diversity and breaking up isolationist attitudes.

However, it is clear for everyone to see that while announcing these two policies, the ministry was working under cover to recognize Chinese credentials, although this has been strongly opposed by Taiwanese academia and students. An opinion poll by Taiwan Thinktank found that 73 percent of respondents opposed this policy. The government is trying to achieve its goal through policy maneuvers.

The problem with a serious shortage of students for so-called low-achieving colleges had been ridiculed by the ministry in the past, with the government claiming it would never take over private schools that would have to close down. Now, for the sake of Chinese diploma recognition, it is using student shortages at private schools as an exercise.

For private schools, a few Chinese students are better than nothing, but for the public, this policy of allowing Chinese students in and accepting Chinese diplomas will cause great harm.

The educational version of the “boldly go west” policy will encourage Taiwanese to study in China and become the future “reserve” for Beijing’s united front strategy, while weakening first-class Taiwanese universities’ cultivation of people devoted to this land. On the other hand, certain schools will inevitably cater to the complementary measures for Chinese student by serving as a night school for the Chinese.

Such bad distribution and abuse of educational resources will have a long-term impact, and Minister of Education Wu Ching-ji’s (吳清基) explanation of the government’s rationale for this police is unacceptable.

As next month’s mayoral, county commissioner and councilor elections approach, voters should force the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) to clarify its policies.

Chiu Li-li is a Democratic Progressive Party Tainan City councilor.