20050904

He also heaped blame on the pan-blue camp.

He said that Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Ma Ying-jeou's misdirected "Taiwan discourse," and the pan-blue camp's "kowtowing" to China and plan to veto the arms-procurement package had caused more damage to national security.

"Ma's Taiwan discourse is nothing but a lie to win more votes in the 2008 presidential election. It is clear that his ultimate goal is to unite with China, and the pan-blue camp's attempt to veto the arms procurement package is a product of this mindset," Lee said.

Lee made the comments yesterday in a lecture at a forum held by the Northern Society.

Lee said three major problems were leading to what he called a "drifting of thoughts," or confusion and changeable feelings about national identity. In addition to the lack of a consensus on national identity, Lee said that growing economic dependence on the Chinese market and Beijing's attempts to spread its way of thinking to Taiwan's young people by encouraging them to study in China are pushing Taiwan away from the "correct path."

Lee also said the recent export of Taiwan's fruit and agricultural products to China will mean the nation's prized agricultural technology will eventually be exported to China.

When asked how to oversee the DPP government, so that people's "drifting of thoughts" will not worsen, Lee said that the key was for the public to speak with unity.

"Everybody should hang together and propose the ideas we talked about today to the government. If the government chooses to ignore people's voices, then do not vote for it," Lee said.

Taiwan seeks mechanism to work with the US, Japan

CNA , TAIPEI

The government is pushing for the establishment of a regular high-level communication and dialogue mechanism with the US and Japan, Presidential Office Secretary-General Yu Shyi-kun said yesterday.

Yu added that the establishment of this mechanism "has not yet matured."

Taiwan and Japan have had close exchanges, but a common communication platform between Taiwan, the US and Japan is lacking, he said.

Second phase

Yu also touched on the government's promotion of "second phase" constitutional reform, as well as positive developments in Taiwan-US relations.

He pointed out that China's military expansion, its enactment on March 14 of the "Anti-Secession" Law targeting Taiwan and its recent joint military exercises with Russia were all factors that had raised concerns around the world.

These developments had not only affected US strategic deployments around the globe, but also impacted on the interests of the US and Japan in the Asia-Pacific region, he said.

Common objective

Yu said that US and Japanese officials had listed the peaceful resolution of the "Taiwan issue" as a common strategic objective in a Security Consultative Committee meeting in Washington in late February.

He said that a new international situation and China's military threat had helped deepen Taiwan-Japan and Taiwan-US relations.

The government is in the process promoting a regular high-level communication mechanism with the US and Japan, Yu said.

He added that a regular security consultative committee meeting between Washington and Tokyo served as a communication mechanism.

Yu will travel to Japan tomorrow in order to attend the Taiwan-Japan Forum on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Dialogue

Although the forum is an unofficial dialogue mechanism between the two countries, it would help boost bilateral relations to a "para-alliance level" in regard to common values of democracy, freedom and peace, and was therefore significant, he said.

CONCERN: The Premier told a Japanese newspaper that he is Worried about China’s military expansion and that Japan, and the US should jointly ensure peace

Premier Frank Hsieh said in an interview with a major Japanese daily that he is concerned about China's military buildup and that it is necessary for the US and Japan to jointly ensure security in the wan Strait.

The premier said that he welcomes US and Japanese officials listing the peaceful resolution of the Taiwan issue as a common strategic objective in a Security Consultative Committee meeting in Washington in February this year.

He said that peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait not only relates to the two countries, but is also linked closely to peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific region, adding that it is only natural that the two countries are concerned about the stability in the Taiwan Strait.

The premier said that he is deeply concerned about China's recent military buildup, pointing out that the buildup has exceeded what is warranted to deter Taiwan from moving toward independence. China is a country moving toward hegemony, he said.

On the cross-strait military balance, Hsieh said that Taiwan currently enjoys an edge. But he said that if the arms procurement package to buy crucial weapons from the US doesn't clear the Legislative Yuan, then the military balance will tip in China's favor by 2012.

The premier also said that Taiwan will further promote direct cross-strait chartered flights, as implemented for the Chinese New Year holiday, and engage in consultations on chartered cross-strait cargo and passenger flights.

After reaching agreement with China on the chartered flights, Taiwan will open its doors to Chinese tourists and will exchange views with China on cooperation in cracking down on cross-strait crime, Hsieh said.

He also said that to maintain peace and the status quo in the Taiwan Strait, Taiwan will adopt a flexible attitude, adding however that until China becomes a democratic and pluralistic country, he does not trust China’s “peaceful rise.”

On Friday, Beijing gave the go-ahead to four Taiwan airlines to fly over Chinese airspace. This move is significant not only from a historical perspective, as for first time in half a century Chinese airspace is being opened up to Taiwanese aircraft, but also in terms of future developments in cross-strait relations. It seems obvious that the Taiwan government is now more than ever losing its grip on the pace at which cross-strait relations is evolving, more specifically when it comes to the issue of cross-strait direct links.

With Beijing partially opening up its airspace to Taiwan airlines, how much longer can total direct links be put off? Unfortunately, so far, Taiwan seems ill prepared to deal with the effects of full direct links.

The four airlines that received approval from Beijing are China Airlines and its subsidiary Mandarin Airlines, as well as EVA Airways and its subsidiary Uni Airways. However, it is worth noting that Beijing actually did not approve all of the air routes for which applications were submitted. The applications submitted for flying over northern China to other foreign destinations including Frankfurt and Paris were uniformly rejected. On the other hand, had these applications been approved, these new routes would have brought the airline operators even more time and energy savings than on the routes approved. As a result, EVA Airways accepted an alternative route via southern China proposed by Beijing, while China Airlines expressed the hope of continued negotiations with Beijing. However, the hope of negotiations ultimately leading to approval of the route originally requested by the airline is slim.

The official reason cited by the Chinese aviation authorities was that the proposed routes were "over-crowded."

However, spectators believe that the real reason were much more sensitive: national security reasons. Frankly put, the routes over northern China proposed by the airline operators were too close to Beijing and possibly other militarily sensitive zones.

The thing is that China may be big enough for alternative routes to be used, circumventing the need to fly over "sensitive zones." The same cannot be said about Taiwan. Now that Beijing has agreed to partially open up its airspace to Taiwanese airlines, is the Taiwan government ready to say "no" when a request for reciprocity is made? In view of the size of the island, it would be hard to carve out routes that keep a safe distance from all the "sensitive zones" of Taiwan.

As accurately pointed out by many commentators, this move by Beijing is but another precursor to full-blown cross-strait direct links. Almost simultaneously, numerous other proposals and discussions related to similar "precursors" to direct links have been entertained. With the Mid-Autumn Festival coming up in only a few weeks, there are again talks regarding special chartered direct flights for the holiday. Then, there are proposals regarding the opening up of chartered commercial direct flights over weekends on a regular basis for businessmen shuttling between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait, as well as chartered direct flights for tourists. This is not to mention the proposal by the Executive Yuan to initiate talks related to commercial cargo and chartered passenger flights simultaneously.

With so many different proposals and talks all ultimately aimed at direct links, it seems almost impossible for the Taiwan government to measure or control its policies on the matter. But the question is whether Taiwan can deal with the avalanche of problems that will crop up once full-blown direct links are established.

A high-ranking Chinese official, Zhu Xiangdong, died in an accident in Taipei this past week. He was supposedly visiting Taipei as a scholar on invitation by a local university. However, the university in question has denied ever issuing such an invitation. Didn't the Taiwan government also think it could keep things under full control when it opened up cross-strait academic exchanges years ago?

Now that former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairman Lien Chan and People First Party (PFP) Chairman James Soong smoothed the way for China's "united front" strategy, Beijing has made repeated forays against Taiwan. It has attacked from the outside, supported by the pan-blue fifth column inside Taiwan, who are delighted by the vicious strategy. It is amazing that the blue camp's inability to separate friend from enemy has reached such an absurd level.

Recently, China's offer of tariff-free access to imported fruit from Taiwan was nothing more than an attack disguised as a gift. But the pan-blue camp actually did much of the spade work for Beijing, even creating conflict between fruit farmers and the government. Following the visits by the two pan-blue leaders, other blue-camp legislators have made numerous trips to China, eagerly building a platform for cooperation.

Even though China has about 700 missiles directed at Taiwan, the blue camp continues to block the arms procurement bill and, indifferent to the growing imbalance in military strength across the Strait, they have instead set out to make friends with the enemy. This is not about "connecting with Taiwan," but is simply selling out Taiwan.

Recently, the blue camp has hardened its heart to any kind of ploy to "connect with China." Lien's and Soong's pilgrimages have furthermore achieved another result in encouraging Taiwanese students to study in China, building up a future generation of pro-China supporters, much in the same way as Lien's grandfather sent his father to the "homeland" to study.

The fact that Beijing gives preferential treatment to Taiwanese students is just another aspect of their "united front" strategy. After all, China has been emphasizing the importance of bringing young Taiwanese people over to the "motherland" for more than a decade.

Cultural and educational exchanges exactly meet the needs of China's "united front" strategy. Beijing has always emphasized student recruitment, which to all intents and purposes is allowing students to pay for their own brainwashing. After a few years of this, they become "pure Chinese," so it is hardly a surprise that China's leaders have been so generous in offering scholarships.

Both former president Lee Teng-hui and President Chen Shui-bian have insisted on Taiwan not recognizing Chinese degrees. There is a simple reason for this, and that is that once Chinese degrees are accepted, many Taiwanese universities will have to close their doors and many teachers will lose their jobs. Even the issue of their national identity will become a problem for the younger generation. Only pan-blue politicians with ulterior motives continue to encourage Taiwanese students to embark on their "journey to the West," which may very well result in our next generation calling our enemy's country home.

China, on the other hand, is not at all afraid that Taiwan may see through its ploy. Chinese officials have openly admitted that enrolling Taiwanese students in Chinese schools is part of its overall goal of unifying the motherland, and that the issue must be understood from the vantage point of unification. This makes it clear that the idea of separating politics from education remains an illusion in China. For the authorities in Beijing, education is an opportunity to disseminate ideology.

The Chinese government has clearly instructed teachers at all levels not to see the enrollment of Taiwanese students as strictly an educational issue. The main point of this approach is that accepting Taiwanese students and giving them a Chinese education will increase these students' understanding of China and make them agree with unification. Simply put, they want Taiwanese students to willingly travel to China to be brainwashed.

China's "united front" strategy has not overlooked Taiwanese workers either. China has found various excuses to extend free invitations to cadres from Taiwan's labor unions. Taiwanese workers have felt the hardship of unemployment as a result of large parts of Taiwan's industry setting up shop in China, so when labor union cadres go to China, they are little better than scab labor.

The reason why the KMT was routed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in the past was because the CCP so effectively used its "united front" strategy on workers, farmers and students. The take-over of Hong Kong also taught China a new trick -- to co-opt political and business circles. In dealing with Taiwan, Beijing is putting a combination of the tactics they used against the KMT and in Hong Kong to good use, and Taiwan must tread very carefully.

The effect of China's united front strategy on Taiwanese students is far-reaching. The government must not on any condition accept Chinese degrees and open the door for students to go to China. The government cannot be unaware that the so-called cross-strait educational and cultural exchange long ago deteriorated to become part of China's "united front" strategy. The most important thing in avoiding our young students becoming guinea pigs in China's "united front laboratory" is of course to improve the domestic educational and employment situation.