Paralympic Games on Sep 11, 2004

President celebrates Paralympic Games with flag ceremony

By Huang Tai-lin
STAFF REPORTER

President Chen Shui-bian yesterday presented a flag to his wife, Wu Shu-chen, who will head the nation's paralympics delegation to the 2004 Paralympic Games in Athens.

While commending the courage and spirit of the athletes who will take part in the international paralympic games, Chen also expressed concern over Wu's physical condition.

"[I am] always quite concerned about the strain on A-chen's physical condition that the journey may impose everytime she travels abroad on my behalf," Chen said, calling Wu by her nickname.

Wu was paralyzed from the waist down after being hit by a truck in an assassination attempt in 1985.

"She told me that although being in a wheelchair means a lot of inconvenience for her in moving around, `running around' is still the way to go to widen Taiwan's diplomatic space and let people know about Taiwan's situation," Chen said. "It is for this reason she insists on making the trip, regardless of how demanding it may be on her physically."

"And in spite of my worries of her physical condition, I am in full support of her decision [in heading the paralympics delegation]," the president said at a ceremony yesterday. The event was staged to generate support and encouragement for the members of the delegation before they head to Athens tomorrow on a chartered flight.

The Paralympic Games are the Olympics for athletes with disabilities. The Paralympic Games are usually held in the same year and at the same venue as the regular Olympic Games.

The nation's delegation includes 25 athletes and is accompanied by physicians, coaches and therapists. The group is slated to arrive in the Greek capital of Athens five days prior to the games, which will be held from Sept. 17 to Sept. 28.

While encouraging the physically challenged players to strive for excellence in the games as they work to overcome their physical restrictions, Wu also expressed her hope that every player would show sportsmanship in the course of participating in the games.

"To take part in the game is not just for striving for good performance but also a learning experience in the course of the contest itself," Wu said.

Aside from attending the games' opening ceremony on Sept. 17, the first lady will also visit the athletes' village and will attempt to attend every competition in which Taiwanese athletes are scheduled to compete in order "to do all she can to support our players."

Towering infernos

Nation must clarify goals to world

By Hsu Szu-chien

On the eve of the last typhoon the Legislative Yuan passed four major constitutional amendment bills, including a reduction of the number of seats in the legislature, the establishment of the single member district, two-vote system, the abolition of the National Assembly and the inclusion of the referendum into the Constitution.

Irrespective of how this was actually achieved, these bills were passed with the support of all major parties. Although the jubilation of some was tempered by the disappointment of others, the most important thing here is for the government to make clear to the international community -- and especially China -- the international significance of these amendments.

By "international significance," I am referring in particular to the process of constitutional reform and the inclusion of the referendum. Key here is the possibility that the amendments are surreptitiously paving the way for a legal basis for Taiwanese independence.

Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer and Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong have both recently called on Taiwan to restrain itself and not to anger China by making any moves towards independence, saying that in such an event they would not support Taiwan. From their words, one would think that Taiwan had been threatening to make such a bid of late.

In fact, they made no mention of what exactly Taiwan had done to prompt their remarks. It does seem that it had little to do with what they have actually observed, and more to do with pressure from China, which accuses Taiwan of seeking independence. This pressure merely serves to increase tensions across the Taiwan Strait.

There is probably no better example of this than the speech given by Wang Zaixi, vice director of China's Taiwan Affairs Office, at the opening of the conference on the "Peaceful Unification of China," held in Hong Kong on Aug. 6. In his speech, Wang said that the administration of Chen Shui-bian is refusing to give up the idea of constitutional reform as a step in the process of establishing a legal basis for Taiwanese independence, and has also refused to give up its timetable for this independence.

He went on to say that on the surface, the "authorities" of Taiwan have recently been less vocal in promoting independence and separation from China, and have been less blatant in their actions. They have, however, allowed Lee Teng-hui to represent them in their insistence on independence, pushed for the referendum and a new constitution and publicly backed the "Action for a Taiwanese Constitution" campaign.

He said that recently, the Taiwanese "authorities" -- disregarding the tide of public sentiment -- have insisted on major acquisitions of advanced weapons from the US and continued their so-called pragmatic diplomacy. Despite the rhetoric, there is still no clear indication of what actually constitutes maneuvering into a position of creating a legal basis for independence.

Nevertheless, there is a need for the international community to have a better understanding of these constitutional amendment bills. The Beijing-based China News Service has already published an article saying that despite their compromise on the issue of giving the people more say in constitutional reform, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) was able to make the holding of referenda constitutional, something that they have been seeking ever since the party was established.

The article continued to say that if the DPP is able to increase its control of the legislature, they will be able to pass further constitutional reforms, thus winning back the people's right to initiate reform. But due to the fact that referendums are now constitutional, they will also be able to instigate a referendum on altering the status quo on territorial issues, or even the name of Taiwan itself. This, they said, is an extremely dangerous development.

However, motions related to territorial issues or constitutional reform would first require a quarter of the total amount of legislators to raise the motion, three quarters of them to vote, and for three quarters of those who participate in the vote to support the resolution. Then, the referendum would still need support from 50 percent of the electorate in order to pass.

Given these restrictions, the pan-greens have no chance of making any changes to definitions of territory or to the name of the country, unless they are able to secure the support of 75 percent of the legislature and the agreement of half the voters in a national referendum.

For all intents and purposes the chance of this happening is quite low. So how could this be considered an "extremely dangerous development?" What's more, these last amendments were put forward by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT).

Are they really suggesting that the KMT are helping the DPP in their slow march to independence?

Irrespective of whether the Chinese officials and media are intentionally or subconsciously focusing on the worst-case scenario -- no matter how unlikely that scenario is -- they are succeeding only in deepening their misunderstanding of what is happening here. This can only be bad for stability on both sides of the Strait.

The logic in the China News Service article may be contorted and murky, but the Taiwanese government would do well to take note. In their recent international remonstrations, China has been relying on its economic influence and the issue of regional stability to force other countries into showing where their allegiances lie.

They are asking them to say, rather one-sidedly, that they would not join the fray and support Taiwan in the event that conflict begins in the Strait -- as if any problem would be the result of Taiwan's actions.

Neither Singapore nor Australia have gone on to say what they would do if any conflict arose that was not precipitated by the Taiwan side. Is this showing a responsible attitude towards stability in the Strait? China's strategy is to heap accusations on Taiwan, create tensions across the Strait, and make the international community blame Taiwan for the situation.

By this logic, China will likely use the constitutional amendment bills to claim that Taiwan is steering a course for independence. In light of this it is important for the government to make clear to the international community just what these recent amendments are, and what their significance is. This would include clarifying referendum procedures -- especially the fact that the public does not have the right to initiate referendums for constitutional amendments.

In their explanation of what is happening, the government should include a number of points. First, they must correcting misreadings and misunderstandings fostered by the Chinese and international media. Second, they should show how responsible Taiwan is being, and not give the impression that we are only interested in domestic political infighting.

The recent amendments are a good example, since they passed with the support of both the government and opposition.

Third, the government should reiterate the fact that it keeps its word. In these recent amendments there was no mention of sovereignty, territorial issues or unification or independence -- as Chen promised in his May 20 speech.

The government must act to clarify these crucial points, through all available channels. Otherwise, China's misreading and misinterpretation of Taiwan's political development will prevail, and Taiwan will once again lose points with the international community.

Hsu Szu-chien is an assistant research fellow at the Institute of International Relations, National Chengchi University.

Honoring Peng's manifesto

In 1964, Peng Ming-min together with his two students, Hsieh Tsung-min and Wei Ting-chao, wrote the Manifesto of Taiwanese Self-Salvation.

Over the past 40 years, this manifesto has provided the guiding principles in the struggle for an independent, fully free, sovereign and democratic Taiwan for Taiwanese all over the world.

When we reread this manifesto on its 40th anniversary today, we can see that the nation's politics and social systems have been evolving along the path laid out in this document. Some examples of this evolution are the abolition of martial law, the removal of bans on forming political parties, the removal of censorship and bans on publishing newspapers, the reelection of the national legislatures and the establishment of a popular election for the head of state. All of these things represent implementations of the manifesto's guiding principles.

Some of the goals that remain to be accomplished are rewriting the Constitution to guarantee basic human rights, achieving true democracy by establishing an effective administration responsible to the people, unifying the country's population regardless of a person's place of origin and establishing a new country with a new government in order to participate in the UN as a new member -- and to strive together with other nations for world peace. Fortunately, we have begun to achieve these remaining goals.

The Taiwanese are pleased that former president Lee Tung-hui will participate in the series of events commemorating the 40th anniversary of the manifesto. Peng and Lee are both well respected and, indeed, have been proclaimed the founding fathers of an independent, democratic Taiwan. It was reported that the two secretly made commitments to each other that they would devote themselves, for the rest of their lives, to building an independent, democratic Taiwan. This was true even when the two were separated -- when Lee was president of Taiwan and Peng exiled to the US by Lee's political party. The two have been good friends since their days as college students. Ironically, they became keen rivals when they both ran for the presidency during the first popular election in Taiwan in 1996. But even during this race, they maintained their mutual respect for one another.

The commemoration of the 40th anniversary of the Manifesto of Taiwanese Self-Salvation recognizes and honors Peng's lifelong devotion to Taiwan. It also provides a time for us to review and to rethink our history. The commemoration should inspire us to redouble our efforts to speed, deepen and strengthen our democracy. We are reminded to hope that the remaining goals of the manifesto will be accomplished soon.

Thomas Chen   New York

China is all stick and no carrot

China's hope to unify Taiwan is in fact similar to the Chinese Nationalist Party's (KMT) hope to unify with the People First Party (PFP) and the New Party. Both China and the KMT are parent entities trying to draw separated and independent bodies back into itself. But these individual entities are already conscious of their independence and therefore resist unification.

Nevertheless, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the KMT seem to have different strategies regarding unification. In the past, the KMT applied public pressure to try to force the PFP and the New Party to come back. But its attempts repeatedly failed. Now, the KMT has adopted a new strategy -- luring them over by gain -- which has produced better results. In fact, the New Party announced on Wednesday that the party's eight candidates will run in the year-end legislative elections under the name of the KMT, to allow for more legislator-at-large seats. The New Party's action may further worsen the struggles between the pan-blue camp's own candidates. But the party is integrating into the body of the KMT, and unification will inevitably result.

Although KMT Chairman Lien Chan and PFP Chairman James Soong have discussed merging prior to the year-end legislative elections, PFP legislators worry that such a scenario would be disadvantageous to PFP candidates. What's more, people inside the PFP believe the party will enjoy a great surge of support in the elections, which would give them a better position from which to negotiate a merger following the elections. This is also the reason why Soong has declared that the two parties won't merge prior to the elections, and that merger discussions will only be held in February next year. The KMT, however, has correctly identified the PFP's difficult economic situation, and has declared that the PFP can use a KMT-owned building on Bade Road. Acceptance of this gift by the PFP will make a KMT-PFP merger so much harder to avoid, and it is only the terms and conditions that will change.

China is aiming over 600 missiles at Taiwan and threatens the nation through constant military exercises. Chinese officialdom and media also constantly issue verbal threats against Taiwan, humiliate the nation on the international stage and take away the country's international living space. These strategies only force Taiwan to strengthen its defensive arms arsenal, improve its military exercises, stimulate a Taiwan consciousness to unite the people of Taiwan and nourish a mood of hatred to resist China. In short, these strategies only force Taiwan further away from China. The CCP should learn from its "older brother," the KMT. When the KMT tried to coerce the PFP and New Party back into the fold, a merger seemed unlikely. But now that it is tempting them with legislator-at-large seats and office buildings, prospects look much brighter. If China insists on continuing its campaign of verbal and military threats, this will only be counterproductive. If they offered some incentives, things might be different.

It is ironic that neither the KMT nor the CCP can offer anything to win the support of the people of Taiwan. Even though there are many who don't believe that the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government has performed particularly well, they have even less confidence in the KMT. The KMT has neither the goals nor the ideals with which to attract the support of the Taiwanese or to convince the PFP or New Party to merge with it. All it offers are party assets and political advantage. If China wished to tempt Taiwan toward unification, all it can give are economic advantages and international political space. But in exchange, Taiwan would have to give up the guarantee of democracy, freedom and human rights. We can see what happened to Hong Kong under "one country, two systems." If Hong Kongers find it intolerable, Taiwanese would find it more so. Basically, China has nothing to offer Taiwan.

Chen policy made with an eye on December

By Liu Kuan-teh

During his short stopover in Hawaii en route to Taiwan's diplomatic ally Panama last month, President Chen Shui-bian offered an olive branch to his counterpart in China. He called off the annual Han Kuang military exercise in the wake of media reports that China had apparently canceled its military exercises on Dongshan island.

While displaying goodwill to Beijing and calling for a resumption of cross-strait peace talks, Chen also criticized China's planned enactment of a unification law as an apparent move to destroy the peaceful status quo in the Taiwan Strait. What is the rationale behind Chen's two-handed approach to cross-strait relations?

By selecting the historical site of Pearl Harbor as the setting for his speech, Chen successfully increased Taiwan's international profile by presenting a peace-loving gesture. His moderate stance also met the Bush administration's expectations of a simple and low-key transit.

Chen's new elaboration on cross-strait interactions should be judged from both an international and domestic perspective. He won the presidential election by a razor-thin margin and his promotion of a national referendum against China's deployment of ballistic missiles caused regional concern and misunderstandings about his motives.

To minimize misinterpretation, Chen's inaugural address on May 20 set a tone of pursuing peaceful cross-strait relations, as well as incrementally reengineering the Constitution. The speech won overwhelming praise for cooling down cross-strait tensions.

The cancellation of the Han Kuang drill was portrayed as part of a continuing process to defuse suspicions surrounding the arms race between Taipei and Beijing. As China's growing military build-up endangers the cross-strait military balance, Taiwan's unilateral reinforcement of its own defensive capability is no longer enough to deter Beijing's threat. To prevent conflict, it is a smart move for Chen to appeal to the international audience by characterizing Taiwan as not only a weaker country in terms of military capability but also a democratic nation.

Nevertheless, showing goodwill does not necessarily mean relinquishing Taiwan's sovereignty. Chen solemnly reminded the whole world of the political consequences that Beijing's enactment of the unification law would have. The law will not only legitimize the use of force against Taiwan but will also administratively define it as a "political and autonomous region" of China. This is a total violation of Taiwan's hard-won democracy and sovereignty.

Having won his re-election bid, Chen is keenly aware that there are still many things to be improved in terms of establishing healthy and stable cross-strait relations. It is imperative for Chen to keep a steadfast position on his China policy while at the same time remolding his international image as a peace-driven political leader.

On the other hand, as the nation's Taiwanese consciousness becomes stronger after the presidential election, Chen must carefully consider public opinion and the international political atmosphere and find a balance between safeguarding Taiwan's sovereignty and normalizing cross-strait relations.

Chen's application of both soft and hard strategies to handle cross-strait relations was to a great extent aimed at the year-end legislative elections. Since public opinion increasingly tilts in favor of a clearer identification of Taiwan's democracy and sovereignty, while at the same time welcoming peaceful and constructive cross-strait interactions, the Democratic Progressive Party government's maneuvering of peace and sovereignty has dominated the campaign tempo.

Liu Kuan-teh is a Taipei-based political commentator.