Hong Kong paper on Sep 03, 2004

Hong Kong paper: China airbrushed Jiang out of picture

ELUSIVE LEADER: For reasons that remain shrouded in mystery, Jiang Zemin is missing from two doctored 1992 photos, says newspaper

AP , Hong Kong

Former Chinese president Jiang Zemin was there, and then he wasn't -- according to pictures published in Hong Kong yesterday that suggested China's official news agency might have airbrushed him out of a historic photo.

The Standard newspaper ran three versions of a 1992 photo of Chinese leaders, saying at least two images had been doctored, and Jiang had apparently been removed for reasons that remain unclear.

Photo alterations were common in China during the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s and 1970s, when propagandists would delete purged officials from pictures that had shown them next to leaders.

But political scientist James Sung in Hong Kong said the tactic is rarer these days. Jiang remains the powerful head of China's military.

The photos printed yesterday show China's late paramount leader, Deng Xiaoping, shaking hands with Hu Jintao, who in the early 1990s was a rising Communist Party star and became president early last year.

Their poses and smiles are identical, but the backdrops are different.

One picture, distributed by the state-run Xinhua News Agency on Aug. 13, shows Deng and Hu with a dimly lit audience in the background. But another version, run on Aug. 19 by Xinhua's Oriental Outlook's weekly, shows Jiang standing between Deng and Hu, the Standard said.

The picture with Jiang seems to be the "genuine article," the Standard said, asking: "So why the surgery?"

There was no clear answer.

At Xinhua's photo center in Beijing, staffer Yang Jiali said she wasn't familiar with the picture and declined to comment.

A third version of the photo, which recently appeared in Hong Kong, had a pitch-black background

Peace means preparing for war, Chen says

DETERRENCE: While Chen stressed the need to upgrade the nation's defensive capabilities, the national defense minister asked legislators to approve the arms budget

By Lin Chieh-yu
STAFF REPORTER WITH CNA

On the eve of Armed Forces Day, Minister of National Defense Lee Jye urged the Legislative Yuan to approve the government's budget of NT$618 billion for weapons procurements as soon as possible.

"Taiwan's national security can neither rely on enemies' goodwill nor foreign assistance," Lee said, adding, "defense capabilities need to be enhanced."

Lee made his remark during the annual ceremony for awarding outstanding military officials and soldiers. He said that since China is expanding its armaments across the Strait, Taiwan must aggressively purchase advanced weaponry so it does not end up on the down-side of the balance of power.

Lee said the US-made Patriot PAC-3 air defense system, the diesel-electric powered submarines and P-3C maritime patrol aircraft met Taiwan's strategic goals of self-defense and deterrence.

President Chen Shui-bian had announced on Monday night during his state visit that the annual Han Kuang military drill, which was originally scheduled to take place on Sept. 9, would be canceled as a gesture of determination of his desire for peace. Media reports indicated that China also canceled its military exercise on Dongshan Island after withdrawing 3,000 troops.

Lee said that Chen's good intentions, however, reminded the military that to expect goodwill from an enemy is unrealistic.

"Those who intend to invade Taiwan as well as those who want to absorb the Republic of China -- they are our enemy," Lee said.

"We therefore hope that the entire country will support the approval of the military weapon procurement budget," he said.

Meanwhile, Chen said yesterday in a televised speech broadcast to mark Armed Forces Day on Sept. 3 that his administration will never compromise the country's sovereignty and dignity in its pursuit of better relations across the Taiwan Strait.

In his speech, Chen stressed that Taiwan has been an independent, sovereign nation since 1911 and China should not ignore this fact nor the status quo.

Chen said that he is determined to push for cross-strait reconciliation, cooperation and peace. Nevertheless, he also said his administration will never sacrifice Taiwan's national sovereignty, security and dignity in pursuing its policy goal of improving ties with mainland China.

In addition to its missile threat, Chen said, China has also stepped up its so-called "three warfares" -- psychological warfare, media warfare and legal warfare -- in an attempt to shake the military's morale, undermine local "psychological defenses," and forge a legal basis to invade Taiwan.

Chen was referring to Beijing's plan to enact its so-called "unification law" which would define Taiwan as a special "political area" of the People's Republic of China and thus provide a legal basis for Beijing to take the country by force.

Noting that his administration has on numerous occasions extended the olive branch to Beijing, Chen said he hopes Chinese leaders will respond to Taiwan's goodwill.

Chen reiterated that Taiwan has no intentions of engaging in an arms race with China. Nevertheless, he encouraged all military personnel to continue stepping up combat readiness.

"Combat preparedness is by no means tantamount to an arms race," Chen said. "Readiness is the best way to prevent a war. We must reinforce our equipment in order to protect our hard-won liberal democracy and social stability," the president said.

Taiwan-born Chao speaks at Republican convention
DPA , New York

US Labor Secretary Elaine Chao, a Taiwan-born immigrant, gave a prime-time address endorsing President George W. Bush's re-election Wednesday night at the Republican Party's national convention.

The four-day pageant, which was to end yesterday after Bush accepts renomination to run in the Nov. 2 presidential elections, has been orchestrated to broaden the center-right party's appeal beyond the traditional conservative base to voting blocs including new immigrant ethnic groups.

Chao's speech at the convention in New York follows a major address on Tuesday by California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, an Austrian immigrant and Hollywood action star who is among the world's most recognized celebrities.

US Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Chao's husband and a Republican leader in Congress, introduced her at the convention.

"Elaine is a living testament to an America that invites the best from all over the world to serve as its leaders today," he said.

An academic economist, Chao described how she left Taiwan with her mother and sister to cross the Pacific on a freighter and joined her father in California, where he had arrived three years earlier.

"It wasn't the Mayflower, and it wasn't the Love Boat, but [the ship] brought us to this magical country and reunited our family, so it was beautiful to me," she said.

The family eventually moved to New York City's borough of Queens.

"At first, the American language and culture were difficult hurdles for us to overcome," Chao said. "Faith, hard work and the kindness of new friends carried my family forward and made it possible for me to become the first Asian Pacific-American woman to serve in the Cabinet of a president of the United States."

Norman Minetta, a former Democratic congressman from California and Japanese-American, is Bush's secretary of transportation.