Dec. 5,2000 --- To: Trent Lott, Denny Hastert, George W. Bush

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U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson continued to voice concern over mainland China's dismal human rights record, but praised an agreement by Beijing to expand dialogue with the U.N. as “a very significant move.”

Following talks with mainland China's Vice Foreign Minister Wang Guangya, Robinson signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on technical cooperation designed to help Beijing comply with two international human rights covenants that Beijing has signed but not ratified.

“This is a very significant move and I would like to acknowledge it as such, it is a very positive step and I believe we can build on this cooperation to encourage ratification on the two covenants,” she said.

Beijing has signed the U.N. Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the Covenant on Political and Civil Rights, but has yet to ratify them. President Jiang Zemin earlier this year vowed the former covenant would be ratified by the year's end.

Robinson was slated to meet with Vice Premier Qian Qichen later Monday and with Jiang on Tuesday when they would hold the first seminar under the MOU.

Over the last few years, Robinson said, mainland China had made no progress in the areas of freedom of expression, association and religious belief and cited rights concerns voiced by members of the Falun Gong spiritual group which Beijing banned in July 1999.

“Last March, I noted progress in certain areas and I identified three areas where there was in my view no progress and indeed potentially stepping back; in freedom of expression, freedom of association and freedom of religious belief,” she told journalists.

“These remain areas of concern and I hope to discuss them further with the vice minister,” she said.

Although the MOU had four areas of focus, including human rights education, punishment for minor crimes, training of police and economic and cultural rights, Robinson said she would continue to press the Chinese government on overall rights issues.

Mainland China has beefed up its intelligence operations in Taiwan and a sizable number of politicians and military officers might have been won over, a high-ranking security officer said.

An estimated 23,000 mainlanders visit Taiwan each year since the government lifted the ban on such travel in 1988, the National Security Bureau Deputy Director Han Kun told a military seminar. Over 3,000 of them are here on spy activities, he said.

The revelations raised many eyebrows as many politicians and businessmen are calling for more liberal exchanges across the strait.

“Some talkative high-ranking government officials are also unknowingly giving away secret information when conversing with foreign guests.”

The security officer said that he particularly worried about the true identity of some 2,000 Chinese stowaways still at large on the island.

“It is increasingly difficult to crack down on those illegal as their organization is getting more and more sophisticated,” Han said.

To better meet its policy goals, Beijing agents have abandoned their “no contact” principle in dealing with the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), Han quoted his intelligence sources as saying.

A great many mainland security officials flooded Taiwan during the presidential campaign earlier this year, but were led to wrong conclusions, in part by the loose speeches made by rival campaigns, Han said.

To avoid repeating the same mistake, Beijing's intelligence agency has laid out an operational guideline featuring attacking the DPP, dividing the Kuomintang (KMT) and infiltrating the People First Party, Han said.

Han expressed worry that some military officials might have been converted en masse for political reasons. In the past those caught spying for mainland China were financially motivated, he pointed out.

He conceded the current security procedures for hiring government employees is rather loose.

However, Han's volley of revelations drew criticism from lawmakers across party lines.

Saying that direct links across the strait will be unavoidable when both sides gain accession to the World Trade Organization, DPP legislative leader Hsu Tain-tsair warned against an unwarranted “red scare.”

“National security can no longer be used as an excuse to ban bilateral contact in an increasingly globalized economy,” Hsu said. “Without solid evidence, the government must not accuse any one of treason.”

KMT lawmaker Lee Sen-zong tied Han's story to a political gambit to demonize the opposition.

“The KMT is always consistent on its mainland policy, not inclined to any scheme of division,” Lee maintained.

Wu Poh-hsiung, a KMT vice chairman, has just ended a trip to mainland China where he met with top Beijing leaders.

If mainland agents intend to infiltrate opposition parties, Han should seek remedies rather than make accusations, Lee said.

The outspoken Secretary-General Wu Nai-jen of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lashed out at the opposition parties' call to form a coalition Cabinet to resolve the political tension.

“The opposition is just trying to seize administrative power from the DPP government,” said Wu, who claimed that it is impossible for President Chen Shui-bian to axe the premier at present time.

“The DPP will never yield to pressure,” said Wu, even though the opposition parties vowed that they would recall the president if disruption between the Legislative Yuan and the Cabinet continues.

The ROC Constitution states that the Executive Yuan is the highest administrative organ of the country and shall be responsible to the Legislative Yuan. But incumbent Premier Chang Chun-hsiung is often criticized by the opposition parties as being a puppet of the president.

The opposition should propose a non-confidence vote to dissolve the Cabinet if things are as they have described, said Wu.

However, the president could dissolve the Legislative Yuan if a non-confidence vote is passed, a result that may end the term of many legislators, especially those of the major opposition Kuomintang (KMT).

This could be the real reason behind the opposition parties’ repeated moves for the motion to recall the president, a solution many DPP legislators term an “expensive yet ineffective” formula to resolve the political turmoil.

KMT Legislator Ting Shou-chung said he has collected more than enough signatures from his cohort to propose the recall motion in the Legislative Yuan.

The DPP government should follow the constitution and try to negotiate with the opposition parties in order to appoint a premier who is accepted by all parties, according to KMT Legislator Chen Horng-chi, one of the key members of the alliance.

Tsai made the appeal in response to a report by National Security Bureau Director Han Kun on Friday that China has managed to infiltrate Taiwan's government, political parties and military by bribing relevant officials.

Tsai said Han’s report was “no news.” In fact, he said, some US officials told him in private during his trip to Washington, DC in September 1999 to lobby for the Taiwan Security Enhancement Act that China has deliberately “bought up” Taiwan officials under its “united front” tactics.

Tsai claimed that many of Taiwan’s military intelligence gathering channels in China are now controlled by communist authorities.

As a result, Tsai said, Taiwan now has to spend large sums of money to obtain military intelligence reports on China from the US, Japan, Hong Kong, Australia, Russia and several European countries.

Tsai further made a warning that if the relevant government agencies --- as well as intelligence and military authorities in particular --- fail to tighten security measures and immediately conduct a large-scale “loyalty check” on serving and retired intelligence personnel, no foreign country will be willing to forge intelligence exchanges and cooperative ties with Taiwan in the future. This would present an even greater to challenge to securing Taiwan’s security in the future.