Siew and Hu meet at forum in Hainan

HIGH-RANKING CONTACT: In remarks after meeting with the Chinese president, vice president-elect Vincent Siew said the meeting was `frank, friendly and achieved results’

By Charles Snyder
STAFF REPORTER IN WASHINGTON, WITH AGENCIES, BOAO, CHINA
Sunday, Apr 13, 2008, Page 1

　

Vice president-elect Vincent Siew (蕭萬長) met Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) yesterday afternoon in Hainan, an event hailed by the US as “the best way forward” for Taiwan and China.

The meeting, held on the sideline of the Boao Forum for Asia, made Siew the highest-ranking elected Taiwanese figure to come face-to-face with a Chinese leader since 1949. Siew attended the forum in his capacity as chairman of the Cross-Strait Common Market Foundation, a non-profit organization he founded.

During 20-minutes of talks, Su and Hu said they wanted closer economic ties. They sat side by side after shaking hands and exchanging pleasantries.

Siew, who was accompanied by a 12-member Taiwanese delegation, said that closer economic relations between China and Taiwan would facilitate regional stability and improve the lives of ordinary Taiwanese and Chinese.

Siew expressed hope that Taiwan and China would set aside their disputes with pragmatism and work together to create a bright future that will see a win-win scenario.

I emphasize to you our commitment to stability, our commitment to the resolution of these issues by peaceful means and our desire to see the dialogue take place as the best way to move forward.

John Negroponte, US deputy secretary of state

“Economic development is the mutual expectation of people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait,” Siew told Hu, calling himself an “old soldier” of economic policy.

Hu said he looked forward to seeing the two sides pursue a consensus amid changing social and economic situations.

“I’d like to exchange ideas with Mr Siew on the issue of economic cooperation across the Taiwan Strait,” Hu said in televised remarks.

Both avoided politics in the live broadcast portions of their meeting.

A report by China Central Television (CCTV) later yesterday said that Hu also asked Siew to send his regards to president-elect Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Wu Poh-hsiung (吳伯雄) and former KMT chairman Lien Chan (連戰). CCTV did not refer to the trio’s titles in its report.

Siew, a veteran of the economic forum, has attended it since 2003 and met Hu there in the past. However, the meeting this time round took on much greater significance as Siew is now vice president-elect. He will assume office on May 20.

In a brief statement after his meeting with Hu yesterday, Siew said the meeting was “very frank, friendly and achieved results,” without elaborating.

During the meeting, Siew suggested “facing reality, inventing the future, putting aside controversy and seeking a win-win situation,” said KMT Legislator Su Chi (蘇起), a member of Siew’s delegation.

Siew suggested that direct cross-strait links could start with the implementation of weekend charter flights, Su said, adding that Siew also talked of opening Taiwan to Chinese tourists, normalizing cross-strait economic relations and trade, and reviving mechanisms for cross-strait negotiation.

Later last night, Chinese authorities issued a statement on the meeting in the form of a CCTV report.

“We will continue to push for cross-strait exchanges in areas such as economy and culture, continue to push for cross-strait weekend charter flights and negotiations on issues concerning visits by Chinese to Taiwan,” CCTV reported. “We will continue to care for the wellbeing of Taiwanese compatriots, safeguard the rights of Taiwanese compatriots and push for cross-strait negotiations.”

Asked to describe the atmosphere of the meeting with Hu, Su said: “Good chemistry, harmonious chemistry.”

“We’re basically trying to break ice that is eight years thick. We want to break the ice and usher in a new period in cross-strait relations with economics, trade and investment,” he said.

Yesterday morning, Siew met former Philippine president Fidel Ramos and was expected later to hold talks with former Australian prime minister Bob Hawke.

Commenting on the meeting between Siew and Hu, Lin Chong-pin (林中斌), former vice minister of defense and president of the Taipei-based Foundation on International and Cross-strait Studies, said “the visit signals in concrete terms a beginning of detente across the Strait. So far that [detente] has only been atmospheric,” he said.

The US has endorsed the meeting and other such cross-strait meetings as “the best way forward.”

US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte made the comment in response to questions by Taiwanese reporters after he made a speech on US-Asia relations in Washington on Friday.

Asked about the expected Siew-Hu meeting, Negroponte said: “We believe that the best way to settle differences over the Taiwan Strait is by peaceful means and we think that dialogue between the People’s Republic of China and the authorities, the leaders in Taiwan, is the best way forward.”

“So, yes, I would say that [a Siew-Hu meeting is] a good way forward,” he said.

Earlier, in a keynote address at a conference of the US Asia Pacific Council, the Washington arm of Hawaii’s East West Center, Negroponte said that the US is “committed to the resolution of any differences that may exist between China and Taiwan over [cross-strait issues] to be settled by peaceful means.”

He also said tthat Ma’s election would help advance cross-strait dialogue.

“We think that the recent election and the rejection of the referendums that were put forward actually opens up the possibility of a new dialogue between the PRC and the political leaders of Taiwan,” Negroponte said.

“So I emphasize to you our commitment to stability, our commitment to the resolution of these issues by peaceful means and our desire to see the dialogue take place as the best way to move forward,” he said.

The statements from Negroponte echoed and augmented those by US President George W. Bush, who, in his message of congratulations to Ma on his victory, called on both sides to engage in dialogue.

Bush gave the same message to Hu five days after the election, when he telephoned Hu and stressed the need for cross-strait talks.

This new emphasis on dialogue by the Bush administration seems to reflect a sense of relief in the administration at the defeat of the Democratic Progressive Party candidate Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) and the impending end of the presidency of Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), who has alienated the Bush administration over the years.

　

Hu says Tibetan unrest threatens PRC sovereignty

AP, BOAO, CHINA
Sunday, Apr 13, 2008, Page 1

Chinese President Hu Jintao took a hard line yesterday on recent unrest in Tibet, saying problems in the region are a purely internal affair that directly threatens Chinese sovereignty.

Hu’s comments to visiting Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd marked his first public utterances on anti-government protests that broke out in Tibet last month.

“Our conflict with the Dalai clique is not an ethnic problem, not a religious problem, nor a human rights problem,” the official Xinhua news agency quoted Hu as saying, referring to supporters of Tibet’s exiled Buddhist leader, the Dalai Lama, whom Beijing blames for fomenting the unrest.

“It is a problem either to safeguard national unification or to split the motherland,” Hu told Rudd at a meeting on the sidelines of a regional economic forum in Hainan.

As Tibet’s former Communist Party boss, Hu enforced a harsh crackdown against the last major anti-government protests there in 1989 and has tightened Chinese rule over the Himalayan region since taking over as president in 2003. Under Hu, the party has increased controls over Tibetan Buddhism and increasingly opened the region to travel and migration from other parts of China.

In a later speech Hu stressed China’s belief in “peaceful development” and not intervening in other nations’ affairs.

“China does not interfere in other countries’ internal affairs, nor does it try to impose its own will on others. China is committed to peaceful settlement of international disputes,” he said.

Hu’s remarks come a day after China ratcheted up its attacks on overseas critics, blasting a US congressional resolution on Tibet as “crude interference” and labeling a leading Tibetan exile group a terrorist organization.

The accusations follow massive demonstrations by pro-Tibet activists and other groups surrounding the Olympic torch’s passage through San Francisco, London and Paris. The protests have stirred anger from both the government in Beijing and among Chinese citizens.

The latest round of protests began peacefully among Buddhist monks in Lhasa on March 10, the anniversary of a failed 1959 uprising during which the Dalai Lama fled to India. Four days later the protests turned violent, with hundreds of shops torched and Chinese civilians attacked.

China says 22 people were killed in the riots, many in arson attacks, and more than 1,000 were detained. The Dalai Lama’s India-based government-in-exile says more than 140 people were killed.

Chinese state media lashed out at the Tibetan Youth Congress, accusing it of orchestrating recent protests in a bid to overthrow Chinese rule and sabotage the Beijing Olympics in August.

Such acts “exposed the terrorist nature” of the group, Xinhua said in an article on Friday..

　

Make dream reality

Sunday, Apr 13, 2008, Page 8

Sushil Seth is right on the mark by saying that China lives in a “make-believe” world (“Tibet: China’s make-believe world,” page 8, April 8).

Two key words to come to mind: engineering and brainwashing. Looking through the communist party’s lens, one cannot fail to see why the year 2001 was a fabulous year for the Chinese government, seeing as they look at things in such a devious way.

It was in 2001 that China gained access to the WTO, thus gaining world recognition and a big nod from world leaders. And it came as no surprise that it was also in 2001 that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) gave Beijing the Olympic Games — the ultimate handshake.

That very same year, allegations spread that Falun Gong practitioners were being butchered for their organs, with some citing as many as 40,000 unexplained organ transplants from practitioners kept as livestock and killed on demand, their organs sold to the elite.

Although there is a new set of regulations to gloss things over, it is suspected that this macabre practice is continuing unabated.

Beijing has repeatedly ordered police to crush the Falun Gong spiritual group and last but not least, in February an order was issued to evict 43 categories of “undesirables” before the Games.

Sadly enough, very little has been said in media reports about China’s disappeared, along with the persecution of Falun Gong which is one of the worst atrocities happening inside China today.

Outside China, many glitches are surfacing — there is Beijing’s past and recent attack on Tibet, its support of the murderous regimes in Sudan and Myanmar, along with constant threats of war against Taiwan and its “colonization” of Africa.

But now that things have reached a boiling point over the crackdown on Tibet, one would think that politicos — and especially the IOC — could no longer ignore that there is something really wrong with China. Or can they?

As Beijing shows its true face through its propaganda, there is still cause for alarm: We are running out of time.

I’m afraid that if the free world doesn’t take action now, we will take a step backward for humanity and one forward for Beijing’s dictatorship. Can we let this happen? It’s not too late for people of conscience to do the right thing before August and give the people of China more than just a dream of human rights — let’s give them the real thing.

Marie Beaulieu
Victoria, Canada

　

China’s behavior disappoints

Sunday, Apr 13, 2008, Page 8
　

China’s arrogance regarding its behavior in Tibet has brought shame upon all its citizens.

The Olympic Torch demonstrations have made a mockery of China’s attempts to influence citizens outside of its borders.

These are sad days for the Olympic movement and a deserved rebuff to the insular government of China.

I am so disappointed.

Martin Polach
Cochrane, Canada

　

Sovereignty and ‘one China’ not compatible

By Ruan Ming 阮銘
Sunday, Apr 13, 2008, Page 8

The CORE OF president-elect Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) foreign policy strategy is his so-called “flexible diplomacy.” He first used the concept in a speech at Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore in 2006, where he said the nation’s new path meant a return to the so-called “1992 consensus,” the signing of a 30 to 50-year peace treaty with China and the development of a flexible approach to facilitate participation at international bodies.

But Ma’s “new” strategy is not at all new. The communique signed by former Chinese Nationalist Party chairman Lien Chan (連戰) and Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) in the wake of Beijing passing its “Anti-Secession” Law in 2005 and Hu’s report to the 17th Chinese Communist Party National Congress include similar suggestions. Ma just slapped a new label on it.

And following Ma’s election victory, Beijing gave its opinion. In a phone conversation with US President George W. Bush last month, Hu reportedly said, “it is China’s consistent stand that the Chinese Mainland and Taiwan should restore consultation and talks on the basis of the 1992 consensus.”

In its English news release, China’s Xinhua news agency explained the “consensus” as meaning that “both sides recognize there is only one China, but agree to differ on its definition.”

Quite a few people are overjoyed about this. But can Ma really hope to find the foundation for favorable and flexible diplomatic relations based on a single telephone conversation? This is closely linked to how the nation’s status is perceived by the international community: Is the nation one of the new democracies that emerged from the third wave of democratization, or a province of China?

It is incontestable that Taiwan is a modern constitutional state that completed its transformation to democracy in the 1990s. Since the first presidential election in 1996, the New York-based Freedom House has ranked it as a free nation alongside such countries as the US, the UK and France in its annual freedom survey.

In his address to the APEC summit last year, Bush mentioned that “the expansion of freedom and democracy in the Asia-Pacific region is one of the great stories of our time” and highlighted the democratic transitions in Taiwan and South Korea.

The US Foreign Relations Authorization Act also clearly designates Taiwan a “major non-NATO ally.”

This is how Taiwan is perceived by the world. The most dangerous move for Ma would be to disregard the fact that the nation has emerged as a liberal, democratic and independent state and instead recognize the fictitious “1992 consensus.”

Whether it be “one China, with each side having its own interpretation” or “one China without any express interpretation,” there is no flexibility, but only a dead end.

Ma has said that “China” can refer to the “Republic of China” (ROC) as long as neither side denies this. The problem is that after UN Resolution 2758; then US president Jimmy Carter’s termination of diplomatic relations with Taiwan; and the canceling of the 1954 mutual defense treaty and withdrawal of US troops from Taiwan, the ROC has been replaced by the People’s Republic of China in the eyes of the world.

Where does that leave the ROC? Taiwan’s foreign policy strategies belong firmly on the side of liberal democracy. The nation should interact with China based on a foundation of independence, self determination, equality and mutual benefit, while remaining vigilant at all times to not be led down the “one-China” dead end.

Ruan Ming is a consultant at the Taiwan Research Institute.