Taipei loses delegates to WHO meet

BAD TIMING: Because of travel restrictions and the delivery of invitations by a `third party,' the nation's delegation will have to do without two SARS experts

By Melody Chen

STAFF REPORTER

Two Taiwanese experts invited by the World Health Organization (WHO) to join the global SARS conference in Malaysia will not attend the event because of WHO travel regulations, the Department of Health (DOH) said yesterday.

Su Ih-jen, director of Center for Disease Control (CDC), said Chang Shang-chwen and Chen Pei-jer, two doctors from National Taiwan University Hospital, cannot join the conference because they have been in contact with SARS patients.

According to the health advisory of the WHO SARS conference, participants arriving from areas with recent local transmission can only attend the event under certain conditions.

"A person who has (1.) in the last 10 days been in close contact with a SARS case or (2.) has worked in or visited hospitals handling SARS cases should not travel within or outside the country of exposure," the health advisory said.

The advisory adds that participants having the above conditions are allowed to travel within or outside the country after a 10-day period without exposure to SARS patients or hospitals handling SARS cases has passed.

"It was already too late for Chang and Chen to isolate themselves after the WHO's invitation cards, which were sent by a third agency, arrived in Taiwan. The arrival date of the cards was only five or six days away from the conference time," Su said.

Su, who did not clarify whether the "third agency" referred to China, said the lack of a "formal and transparent" communication channel between the WHO and Taiwan has caused problems for the Taiwanese experts who have been invited to attend the SARS conference.

The WHO invited five Taiwanese experts to attend the SARS conference due to be held in Malaysia's Sunway Lagoon Resort Hotel, close to the nation's capital Kuala Lumpur, on Tuesday and Wednesday.

The other three experts who were invited were Su, Academia Sinica researcher Ho Mei-shang, and PFP Legislator Kao Ming-chien.

Taiwan's delegation to the conference, consisting of more than 10 health officials and headed by Su, will depart for Malaysia this morning.

"This is the first time the WHO has invited Taiwan to attend its international conference and present papers," Su said.

In a press conference held in the DOH yesterday afternoon, Cabinet Secretary-General Liu Shih-fang introduced members of the delegation and their mission.

Kao, the fifth Taiwanese expert invited by the WHO to attend the conference, however, was absent from the delegation. His name was bypassed during the introduction of the delegation members.

"All delegation members here represent our government ? Kao was not an official delegate appointed by our government," Liu said.

Liu also noted the government is well prepared to respond to any move China may try to make to affect Taiwan's national status in the conference.

"The WHO should treat China and Taiwan equally," Liu said.

Meanwhile, Su said Taiwan will try to present a report in a conference entitled "National Response," which five countries and one region will attend.

Even if Taiwan fails to present the report, the delegation has prepared reports based on Taiwan's containment of SARS to distribute to participants at the conference, Su said.

One step toward name rectification

By the Liberty Times editorial

`Taiwan belongs to the Taiwanese. It does not belong to China. Taiwan is part of the world, not part of China. ... Taiwan has all the elements of a country, including people, territory, government, sovereignty, as well as autonomous national defense and foreign ties.'

A recent survey conducted at the request of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs indicates that around 60 percent of people support printing the word "Taiwan" on passports, far exceeding the 20 percent of people who oppose this. Upon briefing the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Legislative Yuan and obtaining the support of the majority of lawmakers across the ruling and opposition camps, the ministry has decided to issue passports with the word "Taiwan" on them.

For the longest time, passports of Taiwan have created all sort of disruptions in transit. One can hardly blame customs officials because of the close resemblance of the names on the passports of this country and China and, unfortunately, they are not as educated on the cross-strait situation as we would like them to be. There are those who harbor reservations about adding the word "Taiwan" to passports. But most greet the change with gladness and a sense of relief.

Taiwan is a sovereign nation in terms of how people live their lives and how its government has complete control over a distinct territory. Passports are a form of identification that also serve to carry visas that allow passage into countries. The people here of course have every right travel abroad with their chin held up high. Unfortunately, due to the unique situation of this country, foreigners often are incapable of distinguishing the differences between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait. The name of the two countries, both in English and Chinese, are easily confused with one another, causing the people of this country to become subjects of unfair treatment.

From the perspectives of both human rights and national sovereignty, this problem has to be dealt with. With the inclusion of the word "Taiwan" on the passports, foreigners can begin to understand that the holders of these passports are from the democratic and prosperous Taiwan. The measure obviously will have a positive impact in terms of protecting the integrity of our countrymen and our image.

Within the country, people use the national identification cards; abroad they use passports. It may be said that passports are the identification cards of the global village. Besides the convenience offered, there are many other reasons people support changing the passport.

Over the past few months, Taiwan has come under attack by the SARS virus. The people here are not only exhausted from the fight against SARS, but must also deal with the various blows from China at the same time. In difficult hours such as these, even more people saw with their own eyes how China was willing to openly lie to the international community in an effort to keep intact the illusion of "one China."

On Wednesday, again under pressure from China, the World Health Organization (WHO) refused to remove Taiwan from the list of countries on which it has issued placed a travel advisory, although Taiwan already had met the requirements for such a removal. The rampage of the epidemic here is near the end, yet China still wants to bully its way through the situation by drawing false ties between China and Taiwan. This is a total disregard of the welfare of the people here. How can the people who warmed up to China continue to hold any illusion about it?

The reason for the repeated setbacks in Taiwan's efforts to join the WHO and to seek removal of the travel advisory was none other than the obstruction and meddling of China. Taiwan must protect its national integrity. This is a goal built on strong popular consensus. However, the opposition and ruling camps continue their battle over ideologies, pointing their gun barrels toward their own countrymen rather than their common enemy. Not long ago, the pan-blue leaders even boasted about pushing for Taiwan's membership in the WHO and other international nongovernmental organizations under the so-called "one China based on the ROC Constitution" and the "one-China roof."

On the other hand, proposals about a public referendum on Taiwan's participation in the WHO were labeled as needlessly making troubles and paving the way for Taiwan independence. Actually, based on China's enforcement of the so-called "one China" principle during the SARS epidemic, everyone should see that the only goal of China with respect to Taiwan is to make it part of China. Currently, the international community in general acknowledges Beijing as the sole representative government of China. The so-called "one China based on the ROC Constitution," and "one China roof" may come off as innovative, but in reality this kind of false advertising only diminishes the status of Taiwan.

Taiwan belongs to the Taiwanese. It does not belong to China. Taiwan is part of the world, not part of China. China has spared no efforts to strike blows against Taiwan. Even though Taiwan has already become a member of the WTO, China is still trying to downgrade the status of Taiwan's membership there. Taiwan has all the elements of a country, including people, territory, government, sovereignty, as well as autonomous national defense and foreign ties. The top leader of this country is also elected through democratic elections.

The reality of Taiwan's status as a sovereign nation cannot and will nt be changed as a result of all the low blows by China. Many countries are simply paying lip service to China's so-called "one China" principle as a result of China's rogue diplomacy. These countries have also built and maintained substantive relationship with Taiwan. Under the circumstances, the people of Taiwan must voice their demands and fight for their rights in the international community, unless they want to forever rely on others.

Adding the world "Taiwan" to the passports may be merely an "unsatisfactory yet acceptable" measure to many, but it at least helps protect the integrity of the country and the national image. It is a measure worthy of recognition.

China wages silent war on dissident thought

Beijing has used the war on terror as an excuse to round up more than a thousand people on charges of endangering state security

By John Kamm

With rare candor, China's government recently released statistics on people arrested and prosecuted for endangering state security, the most serious political offense in the criminal code. China's top prosecutor, Han Zhubin, revealed that more than 3,400 people were arrested from 1998 to last year for such crimes as subversion, incitement to subversion, espionage and trafficking in state secrets.

Arrests and prosecutions for endangering state security have risen sharply since Sept. 11, 2001. In the two-year period that ended on Dec. 31 last year, more than 1,600 people were prosecuted for endangering state security, most after the terror attacks on the US. Many of those arrested and prosecuted hail from Xinjiang, an autonomous region in the northwest of the country that is home to a large and restive Muslim population.

China's government has used the war on terror to crack down on those seeking greater autonomy, including those who do so by peaceful means. This includes people like Rebiya Kadeer, a businesswoman imprisoned for sending newspaper articles to her husband in the US, Tohti Tunyaz, a doctoral student in Japan accused of publishing "sensitive documents," and Tursunjan Amat, a poet who recited a pro-independence poem at a public gathering in Urumqi.

Large as the number of such arrests and prosecutions is, the true extent of the government's suppression of independent thought and activity is even greater.

Most members of the Falun Gong and other unauthorized religions are arrested and tried for "using an evil cult to sabotage implementation of the law" -- a crime categorized as "disturbing the social order." Thousands of people are imprisoned for such "evil cult" activities.

Labor leaders are often charged with "organizing an illegal procession" or "disturbing the social order." Dissidents who attempt to fund their activities by conducting private business sometimes find themselves jailed for economic crimes like fraud and illegal publishing. Fang Jue, a reformer who served a four-year term for economic crimes, and Jiang Surang, an underground Catholic priest sentenced to six years for illegally publishing Bibles, were both punished in this way.

Dissidents picked up by the police but not formally arrested sometimes wind up in re-education camps or in psychiatric hospitals run by the public security bureau.

Those sentenced to two- or three-year terms of "re-education through labor" are not included in the statistics on endangering state security released by Procurator General Han.

The names of only a few of the thousands arrested for political crimes are known. An exhaustive search of official and unofficial sources turned up fewer that 150 names of individuals arrested for endangering state security in 1998 to last year, a "transparency rate" of less than 5 percent. Indeed, we know more about the arrests made after the Tiananmen protests of 1989 than about those arrested today.

What we do know about those arrested is as disturbing as the arrests themselves. For example, about one-quarter are non-Han Chinese, principally Tibetans and Uighurs. China is more than 90 percent Han. Sentences for non-Han Chinese are typically longer than those imposed on Han Chinese.

Moreover, almost everyone arrested for endangering state security is convicted. Appeals, when filed, are routinely rejected. In the one or two cases of acquittal, another charge is filed and a conviction obtained. That happened to Yue Zhengzhong, who sent an intercepted letter to the US Embassy praising the 1999 bombing of China's embassy in Belgrade. Prosecuted for inciting subversion, Yue was ultimately convicted of "making a false accusation." He had written that those killed deserved their fate.

Although some of those convicted of endangering state security are charged with violent crimes -- for example, two Tibetans were recent sentenced to death for "inciting separatism" and setting off bombs -- the great majority involve non-violent speech and association.

Dozens of leaders of opposition groups -- most unknown to the outside world -- were imprisoned in recent years. Li Wenshan and Chen Shiqing, leaders of the Chinese Nation's Democratic Party, which has nearly 1,000 members, are serving long sentences in Gansu Province's Linxia Prison.

"Internet dissidents" make up the fastest-growing group of political prisoners. Last month, Huang Qi, an Internet entrepreneur arrested for posting articles criticizing the Communist Party, and four young intellectuals who made up the "New Youth Study Group" to hold online discussions about political reform, were sentenced to long prison terms.

Scholars, too, feel the heat. Xu Zerong, a social scientist trained at Harvard and Oxford, is serving a 13-year sentence in Guangdong Province for photocopying materials on Chinese military tactics during the 1950 to 1953 Korean War.

Many hope that the SARS crisis will encourage China's leaders to become more transparent and accountable. But the way the authorities are handling the epidemic is having the opposite effect. Internal travel restrictions are used to keep lawyers from representing dissident clients. Prisons are closed to outside visitors.

Meetings with foreign governments on human rights -- during which information is provided on political cases -- have been postponed and visits by monitors, including one from the World Psychiatric Association to investigate charges of psychiatric abuse, are on hold.

No one knows when the long-promised visit by the UN Rapporteur on Torture will take place.

We may get a better picture of China's public health system as a result of the SARS crisis, but when it comes to the country's political health, there is little to suggest that criticism will be tolerated or opposition allowed.

Those who attempt to change the way China is governed will be dealt with harshly, their names and fates remaining anonymous.

John Kamm is president of the Dui Hua Foundation.