20050919

Justice hopes for Taiwan's businesspeople in China

HELP AT HAND: William Kao has set up an association that aims at helping out Taiwanese businesspeople suffering in China because of fraud and other problems

BY SHIH HSIU-CHUAN

STAFF REPORTER

After having property worth US$1 million stolen from his factory in Beijing in 1999, William Kao established an association for victims of investment fraud in China and has since dedicated himself to demanding justice for Taiwanese businesspeople based in China, known as taishang.

In order to get a picture of the real investment environment in China, Kao interviewed more than 100 taishang, recording their stories and setting out to make the non-economic risks known to those thinking of exploring the huge Chinese market.

"It is encouraging to hear the Chinese authorities say that they will offer economic favors to Taiwanese-funded firms, but people have to keep in mind that it is not always economic factors that cause so many taishang to fail in China," Kao said, responding to a series of measures Beijing recently proposed aimed at supporting taishang.

The measures include up to 30 billion yuan (US$3.9 billion) in loans to be made available by a state bank, a newly established agency for solving business disputes and a promise to meet the requests of taishang on issues such as health, education, and living services.

"These are just China's tricks. Based on my personal experiences and those of many others, pillaging taishang's property is China's real state policy," he said.

Before becoming a full-time organizer of the victims association, Kao was a successful businessman, who started a factory manufacturing glass-fiber-reinforced plastic products in the Yanjiao Development Zone, East Beijing, at the end of 1997.

Initially everything went well, with the production line in operation and the first container-load being sent to the US within three months of the factory opening. Kao never expected that all his property would soon be stolen by his Chinese counterpart, Yue Hongjun, during the Lunar New Year holiday of 1999.

"At that time, three employees were on duty in the factory, and they were helpless to prevent the 40 people from moving all the machinery equipment, materials, molds, and finished products away. They plundered everything and then began manufacturing the same products in Yue's factory," Kao said.

Kao said that his legal case has been suspended in the court, which is a situation that many Taiwanese businesspeople endure.

"As far as I know, and from interviewing more than 100 Taiwan-ese victims, very few people win their lawsuits. And those who have won the lawsuits didn't get compensation. One victim told me that the Chinese judge and governmental officials asked him to share half of the compensation with him after he won the case," Kao said.

According to government statistics, the number of cases of taishang filing complaints to Taiwan's Strait Exchange Foundation (SEF) has exceeded 1,200, and the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait, the SEF's counterpart in China, has had up to 5,000 complaints filed.

"I believe that these statistics are still not a true reflection, since many taishang are warned by the Chinese Public Security Bureau not to disclose their experiences, as it is then more likely that they will get their property back," Kao said.

These cases have proved that the Law of the People's Republic of China on Protection of Investment by Compatriots From Taiwan, enacted in 1994, and its rules for implementation issued in 1999 are actually useless, he said.

"While it's true that China hasn't enacted such a law for other foreign investors, it doesn't mean that Taiwanese investors are better protected. On the contrary, foreign investors receive better protection thanks to the power that their governments have. The Taiwanese government is incapable of backing taishang," Kao said.

"I know a US citizen who was sentenced to 16 years in prison because of tax evasion problems in Shanghai. The US government not only raised its concern with China, but it also sent representatives to visit him many times while he was in prison. I don't think this would happen with taishang and the Taiwanese government," Kao said.

On the basis of these experiences, Kao said that the reason behind China proposing so many benefits for taishang is not for their protection, but for making taishang lower their guard against China's lawless society.

China sends mixed message to mark Japanese invasion

AP , BEIJING

China yesterday observed the 74th anniversary of the Japanese invasion of its northeastern region, with official media urging citizens not to forget the episode, but not to let it poison their feelings toward Japan.

The conciliatory message came amid a spike in tensions over Chinese accusations that Japan has failed to shoulder responsibility for atrocities committed before and after World War II, and over conflicting claims to a chain of potentially oil-rich islands in the East China Sea.

Untold suffering

In a lengthy commentary on Saturday, the People's Daily newspaper told readers the Sept. 18, 1931, attack by Japanese soldiers on a Chinese barracks in the northeast city of Shenyang had unleashed an era of untold suffering.

But the commentary attributed the attack to "a small group of Japanese militarists" -- rather than to the Japanese nation as a whole. It said Chinese should observe it by looking ahead and not dwelling on the past.

"We never want to extend hatred by keeping history in mind. Instead we want to face the future by making history a mirror," the commentary said, using an oft-used rhetorical phrase.

Victims of war

Chinese in more than 100 cities were to mark the anniversary yesterday by gathering around memorials to victims of China's Anti-Japanese War and standing at attention as bells tolled and sirens wailed.

State-run television ran lengthy documentaries showing atrocities during the era.

In Beijing, however, there were no apparent protests or special security arrangements at the Japanese Embassy, where earlier this year angry crowds hurled rocks and bottles in a display of anger over Japan's alleged refusal to take responsibility for its actions in China in the 14 years that followed the Shenyang attack.

State-controlled media

China's entirely state-controlled media has carried a steady stream of anti-Japanese commentary in recent months as the country commemorates the 60th anniversary of Japan's surrender at the end of World War II.

Beijing has also continued to rail against visits by Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to a Tokyo shrine that honors Japan's war dead, including executed war criminals.

They have also objected to allegedly saccharine depictions of the war in some Japanese textbooks.

Hu's N American trip ends amid protests in Vancouver

NINE-DAY TOUR: While the Chinese and Canadian leaders focused on trade ties over lunch, protesters drew attention to China's poor human-rights record

AFP , VANCOUVER, CANADA

The end of Chinese President Hu Jintao's landmark North American tour was marked by protests on Saturday in Vancouver on Canada's west coast, much like it started nine days earlier.

Hu and Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin toasted each other at a farewell luncheon for Hu inside a luxury hotel, while outside about 300 demonstrators against China's human-rights record screamed: "Shame, shame, shame."

They protested China's claims on Taiwan too, calling it a military threat, and said that Canada should focus less on trade and speak out against China's human-rights abuses.

"China is a bully," said protester Charles Yang, who immigrated in 1964 from Taiwan. He said Canada had recently stood up to the US in a battle over lumber tariffs, but "how about China ... with China, Canada shows no backbone."

He charged that Canada ignores China's military buildup, threats against Taiwan and human-rights abuses "in order to promote trade. It is too short-sighted."

Indeed, trade between the two countries was the focus of Hu's tour of Canada and Mexico. A week earlier, Martin and Hu signed a "strategic partnership" between the two countries in Ottawa.

"I am satisfied with the achievements of the robust Canada-Chinese collaboration," Hu told 850 elite political, business and community leaders at the luncheon on Saturday, insulated inside the large hotel ballroom from the din of the protesters and supporters outside.

Hu said he hoped the two countries would double bilateral trade by 2010 and work together on major international and regional issues toward "world peace and development."

Martin called Hu's visit "a great success" and recited a list of things the two countries have in common, including regional diversity and an enormous geographic size.

It was Hu's first trip to North America since he assumed the president's office in 2003 and only the third by a Chinese president since diplomatic relations were established in 1970.

China agreed to postpone a visit to Washington because of US President George W. Bush's busy schedule handling the Hurricane Katrina disaster.

Martin also said the world has much work to do on development, security and human-rights issues, noting both he and Hu recently appeared at the UN in New York.

Human rights earned only a brief mention, even though the issue has drawn hundreds of demonstrators throughout Hu's tour.

Maybe Premier Frank Hsieh really is a seer and was able to predict the current awkward political situation.

Before the new legislative session began on Tuesday, he had already taken the example of Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to heart and requested that the pan-blue camp, if it didn't support the Cabinet's flood control bill, overturn the government with a vote of no confidence and let President Chen Shui-bian dissolve the legislature.

That Hsieh was blocked from delivering his policy report as scheduled on the legislative session's opening day shows he is an intelligent, far-sighted politician, albeit not clever enough to find a way out of his predicament. Instead, he sat there silently, like a character out of a Hemingway novel, waiting unhurried until the bitter end.

The call to dissolve the legislature is of course merely words and not a well thought out political plan. Since a new election would carry potentially high costs for incumbents, lawmakers from both the blue and green camps are unwilling to follow through on the call. And even if an election were to result in the pan-blue camp retaining its majority, it is still not certain that Chen would let them form a Cabinet, since the legislature no longer has the right to approve the premier. Here is why: Chinese Nationalist Party Chairman Ma Ying-jeou is utterly unwilling to amend the Constitution. The only amendment he would agree to is giving the legislature power to ratify the appointment of the premier.

It is this constitutional shortcoming that has led to the past few years of political deadlock. The governing party's minority in the legislature dictated the development of the conflicts over both the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant four years ago and last year's clash over the 319 Shooting Truth Investigation Special Committee Statute. Although the opposition tried to use the legislature to manipulate the shooting investigation issue, executive power remains in the hands of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).

The outcome, when the opposition forced the issue, was the unconstitutional and unworkable 319 Shooting Truth Investigation Special Committee Statute. Faced with the opposition's obstruction, the DPP has been unable to move issues such as the arms purchase, the flood control bill or the right to approve Control Yuan members out of the Procedure Committee and have them passed into law.

Nor is it able to dissolve the legislature and put the issue to the public. This situation has created a political problem that is impacting the people of Taiwan and has become symbolic of the government's inability rule.

In fact, Chen cannot take the initiative to dissolve the legislature. Nor does the legislature have the right to ratify the appointment of the premier. Although the administration has been hampered by the pan-blue camp majority, it is really no more than harassment of the executive.

But the pan-blue camp remains in high spirits as Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Ma Ying-jeou is clearly being urged on in his bid for the 2008 presidential election. By embarrassing Hsieh in the legislature, the pan-blue camp clearly believes that it can further boost Ma's chances.

This is probably why pan-blue legislators seem to have lost all sense of restraint. Even the sensible Ma seems pleased about their ridiculous performance, while the general public does not even seem to be bothered by the farce.

The political impasse has led to endless conflicts, and with the politicians acting so willfully, the people have realized they can no longer count on politicians to look after their interests. This is a clear example of how the Constitution has succumbed to politics; whether it is the pan-blues undermining the government or the pan-greens reacting fiercely, the model is one of party-to-party confrontation. It is this that has led to a stalemate over the past five years that has hurt both sides grievously.

Even if the public has decided to unseat the government, it will have to wait until 2008 when the next presidential elections are held. By then, will Taiwan's democracy have degenerated into that of a banana republic? This is not a prophecy of doom, but rather a rational prediction of the ugly fate that awaits Taiwan if the present situation persists.

In fact, most people in Taiwan have become disillusioned with the political parties and politicians of both sides. But they can't envision any changes to the current situation. They also tend to look askance at so-called constitutional reform, as they are aware that no politician has a blueprint for reform that goes beyond the immediate concerns of the 2008 presidential election.

The nation has reached a crossroads. It is the pessimistic yet sensible Taiwanese people rather than the selfish politicians that have to decide if they want to shake off this predicament. Whether it is by punishing parties in the year-end mayoral and county commissioner elections, or through a grassroots constitutional movement, it is necessary for the people to find a constitutional framework to keep the two parties in line. This will be the greatest challenge to Taiwan's democracy.

Hsu Yung-ming is a research fellow at the Research Center for Humanities and Social Sciences at Academia Sinica.