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DEMOCRACY: Mainland Affairs Council Vice Chairman Chiu Tai-san urged Beijing to heed the president's proposal that Taiwan and China engage in peaceful talks
CNA , NEW YORK
Democracy and freedom are universal values for the whole world, and Taiwan has set a good example for China in this regard, Mainland Affairs Council Vice Chairman Chiu Tai-san said in New York on Saturday.

Chiu made the remarks at a seminar held in New York to commemorate the 15th anniversary of the June 4 Tiananmen massacre in 1989.

Academics from around the world and Chinese pro-democracy activists took part in the seminar, including Feng Congde, a prominent student leader in the June 4 pro-democracy movement in Beijing, who now lives in exile.

Expressing his admiration for the sacrifice that the students and other people made for the movement, Chiu said that 15 years later, amid changing times, Taiwan's democratization has caught up with the mainstream trends of the international community, while the whole world is paying more heed to democratic developments in China.

If greater democratization in China can help reduce tensions and differences between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait, Taiwan's experiences in democratic development in turn are good examples for China, Chiu said.

He urged the Beijing regime to study the proposal raised by President Chen Shui-bian in his inaugural address that Taiwan and China should seek to engage in improving bilateral ties based on dignity, reciprocity and security.

"The status quo must be fully respected and negotiations should replace confrontation," Chiu quoted Chen as having said.

Yu Jie , an academic from Beijing, said the Internet has provided a new space for the public and intellectuals in China to dedicate themselves to the promotion of pro-democracy activities on an equal footing.

Feng attributed the failure of the bloody 1989 pro-democracy movement to unsuccessful organization and the way the activity was handled by the students, which led to it being crushed by the military.

Pan Qing, who has lived in exile in New Zealand since 1989, called the Tiananmen massacre a vigorous reflection of the Beijing regime's nature, one based and cemented by ignorance of human rights and by authoritarian rule.

Chen Xiaoya , a historian, said that the Tiananmen massacre brought to light the fact that the Beijing regime has maintained power by the use of violence and cheating.

The media have reported that the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) intends to sell all its media businesses as a single package for about NT$8 billion.

These media businesses include Chinese Television Company, Ltd (CTV), Broadcasting Corporation of China, the Central Daily News and the Central Motion Pictures Corporation.

Private enterprises such as Eastern Multimedia Corp and Chinatrust Group have shown their interest in the deal.

As a media reform group, Campaign for Media Reform is strongly disappointed with the KMT's handling of its party-run media businesses.

The campaign believes that the KMT's ownership of media businesses is actually the product of particular historical conditions.

Some were directly taken over from the Japanese colonial government and are the property of the Taiwanese people, while others received their operating permits through special channels under the party-state system of the past.

From the perspective of reason and law, it's inappropriate for the KMT to sell its media businesses to private enterprises for profit, as if the party is dealing with its own assets.

This campaign expects the KMT to abandon assets it gained unjustly under its authoritarian rule, demonstrate an ambition to reform and return these assets to the people for public services.

The excessive commercialization of Taiwan's media environment has led to public discontent with the media's performance.

If the KMT sells its media businesses to private enterprises, it will certainly worsen the media environment, leaving a negative impression that there is only money in the eyes of the KMT.

If the KMT can transfer its media businesses to public welfare groups in an appropriate way for the sake of public services, not only would this better satisfy the public and improve the media environment, it would also show that the KMT was responsible enough to rule the nation and that it could do so with long-term vision.

First, the KMT should immediately stop planning to sell its media businesses to private enterprises.

The KMT should also plan to return these media to the people, turning them into organizations for public services, so as to demonstrate its broad vision and governmental competence.

Second, the ruling and opposition camps should negotiate a law regarding inappropriately obtained party assets as soon as possible.

This law would be taken as the legal tool for the handling of the KMT's media busi-nesses.

The Democratic Progressive Party should take the initiative to come up with policies that would give the proposed "public media group" a priority option to take over these media.

Third, if the KMT really does not care about public opinion, reality and historical justice, and insists on selling its media businesses, agencies such as the Government Information Office and the Ministry of Transportation and Communications should not approve the sale.

Moreover, they should order the KMT to deal with these media in accordance with public interests.

In particular, the wireless broadcast band used by CTV, one of Taiwan's four terrestrial television stations, must not be sold or transferred in any form to private enterprises.

Former president Lee Teng-hui has become so fed up with the endless pan-blue lies on TV news shows that he has given up watching them, and instead has tuned in to a drama serial about Genghis Khan. We are puzzled at the portrayal of the Great Khan in this TV series, since the former president suggests that his was an inspirational story, and that he was a great role model, a devotee of Western culture and a great humanitarian.

Well it's true that a fellow who went from eating rodents in the Gobi to reigning as emperor of one of the greatest land empires the world has known probably knows more about leadership than even Lee Iacocca. But a great humanitarian? After all, this is the man who made terror a system of government and massacre an instrument of policy; who said "A man's greatest work is to break his enemies, to drive them before him, to take from them all the things that have been theirs, to hear the weeping of those who cherished them."

One of the things that we can be pretty sure Genghis would not have had much truck with is that latest Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) vacuity, "soft power." And we can guess how he would have handled the pan-blues over the past few months. But since the Genghis option is not open to us, what alternative might there be?

Let us meet this question with another. Why is there not a raft of lawsuits tying up the pan-blues in every possible court in the land for their flagrantly illegal behavior? Criminal lawsuits should be launched against Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Lien Chan and People First Party Chairman James Soong for incitement to riot, conspiracy to cause a breach of the peace and, most seriously, sedition, given their well-documented attempts to provoke a military coup.

Civil actions for defamation should be brought by the staff of Chi Mei Hospital in Tainan over accusations of their complicity in "bulletgate." Both the Tainan City government and National Police Administration might also launch civil cases against the pan-blues over accusations ranging from incompetence to malfeasance. A class-action suit, also for defamation, might usefully be filed on behalf of the 200,000 volunteer election workers accused of "rigging" the election, and, should the pan-blues lose the recount, a similar action might be brought by the Central Election Commission.

Some indication of what might be done lies in the DPP's suit against KMT Secretary-General Lin Fong-cheng , who accused the DPP of starting the riot in Ketagalan Boulevard on April 10 when it was, as is well known, started by pan-blue-supporting gangsters. But far more needs to be done, including of course the impeachment and removal from office of Ma Ying-jeou , both for his abject failure to uphold the law in Taipei City in the week after March 20 and his flagrant violations of the law regarding the granting of assembly permits. And there should be a rigorous investigation of Lien's tax avoidance and more vigorous pursuit of Soong over his Chung Hsing Bills finance fraud. Finally, we need to see an investigation into the White Terror by a state-appointed judicial commission with the power to recommend criminal prosecution.

This might not contribute to a spirit of reconciliation, but the pan-blues have shown no interest in such a process anyway. It is about time they started paying for the lies they have propagated and the damage they have wrought, and time for those who have had to suffer from these pan-blue behaviors to "break their enemies, to drive them before them, to take from them all the things that have been theirs." To all those with an ax to grind against the pan-blues we can do no better than quote the advice of that implacable foe of Batman, the Joker: "Don't get even, get mad."

Few if any government officials, experts or academics who have an interest in cross-strait relations would disagree that the next four years will likely be a time of important changes and perhaps high tensions. Many problems are intractable and will require political will, innovative policies and the right people to address them.

With regard to cross-strait relations, what are the more immediate priorities of the three principal players? For the US, it has an upcoming election that inevitably means short-term solutions, or temporary fixes on problems that arise before election day. National security interests will trump economic problems. It must continue to engage itself in a difficult war on terrorism worldwide on the one hand, and cope with a war to expand democracy in the Middle East on the other. On cross-strait relations, therefore, Washington's objective is peace and stability there while it addresses these two wars elsewhere.

China, too, has larger priorities elsewhere. Economic growth must continue or risk social instability. To maintain that growth, Beijing has had to accept constraints in dealing with issues in the international community.

China's focus for the short term is to prevent Taiwan's de-jure independence. That objective has not been successful, particularly its hopes for a more congenial Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) or the election defeat of the Democratic Progressive Party in Taiwan and even for its problems in Hong Kong.

In Taiwan, the government's priorities are largely domestic, but have important implications for the cross-strait relationships. The most urgent is gaining a solid majority from the Legislative Yuan elections in December, or face deadlock on other objectives. Re-engineering the Constitution and the government institutions under it, and implementing the restructuring of the economy all will be high on this list of priorities.

As for cross-strait relations, Taipei is unlikely to accept being pushed into a position that prevents independence, but allows only a unification that it can agree upon. It also will have to insist that any decision on the relationship with China will have to be the choice of its people. Taiwan's "red lines" such as these will likely grow -- and change -- as its democratic system evolves.

China, like Taiwan, does not want the disaster a war would bring, but it does want to move in a direction that will put Taiwan under its fold. It does so by using considerable resources, and perhaps bargaining chips, in influencing the international community to block Taiwan's participation in it. On that score it has been very successful.

`It is unrealistic to use the rules of yesterday to manage the cross-strait relations of today with problems that are so different from those of the past.'

More worrisome, especially from the US standpoint, is the military activity of China, including the modernization of Beijing's military forces. More obvious and therefore even more worrisome is the 500 plus missiles stationed across the Strait and clearly meant to intimidate Taiwan. Recently, Beijing has pressed Washington to restrain Taiwan on a number of issues opposed by China. Though the US administration for the most part has been able to avoid being a mediator for either side, America's need for support in global issues continues to grow.

As for the US, the testimony given to the House International Affairs Committee on April 21 by Assistant Secretary James Kelly is used by government officials to describe US-Taiwan relations.

On political matters especially, there are some issues that may inevitably bring a much more intrusive US involvement in Taiwan's domestic affairs. Though it is not yet clear that will be the case, such issues as a "move in the direction of independence," or "prudence" in managing cross-strait relations, or determining what amounts to a "change in the status quo," or what can be considered "provocative," will require unusual dexterity -- or imagination -- and a need for the right people to manage the relationship.

What is needed most is some ideas that might help address problems -- a better way of communicating with each other in particular. It is unrealistic to use the rules of yesterday to manage the cross-strait relations of today with problems that are so different from those of the past. Washington's attention is much more on other areas of the globe, China has become active in the international community and Taiwan has become a full fledged democracy. That calls for changes in how we communicate with each other -- but as always, with caution and understanding.

One factor that should be studied is how to cope with the speed with which information can impact on policy decisions. A statement in one country by someone who matters is known worldwide almost immediately. The meaning behind that statement often brings a reaction by other countries before it has been publicly explained. This is a world-wide problem, of course, but narrowed down to the sensitive cross-strait relationships it can and should be fixed.

Dialogue between the two sides in some form -- and there already exists such a channel if Beijing wishes to use it -- is the best option by far. It would be useful not only for discussions on political matters, but economic matters, and the ability to deal with tragedies and the inevitable problems of individuals .It would also bring restraint on both sides as they would want the dialogue to continue.

Normal diplomatic communications already exist between the US and China. Dealing with the US' self-inflicted restrictions on communications with counterparts in Taiwan, however, are more complicated but should be a matter between Washington and Taipei. In any event, the US has established its relationship with Taiwan as "unofficial" and it could change the way it is conducted. In any event, it would not in any way change the status quo.

Another option for better communications is the use of a special envoy. Probably more difficult for both the US and Taiwan, is the matter of who talks to whom should such a channel be established. The disadvantage here is that the experts in the bureaucracy, troublesome in time-consuming consensus gathering, but vital in preventing costly mistakes, are not involved.

Still another option that might be useful is establishing a small cross-strait task group in all three governments, who would meet periodically or as needed, for the US separately with China and Taiwan at first but hopefully eventually becoming tripartite meetings, to help prevent misunderstanding. Whatever means used, it is both important and urgent that a regular system of discussing cross-strait issues be done before mistakes or misunderstandings develop.

In countries where national security tensions are uncommon, regular communications are sufficient. Where national security tensions are continuous, the purpose of improving communications is to resolve problems quickly, before misunderstanding jells and tensions grow.