Japan
decides against sending planes to PRC
AP AND AFP, TOKYO AND BEIJING
Saturday, May 31, 2008, Page 1
Japan has decided not to use military planes to deliver relief goods to
quake-hit China, government officials said yesterday, after Beijing voiced
uneasiness over the mission.
The Japanese government later announced additional aid of up to ¥500 million
(US$4.76 million) in earthquake relief, in addition to the same amount that
Tokyo had promised earlier this month.
Beijing and Tokyo had discussed using Japanese military planes to deliver aid,
which could have become the first significant military dispatch between the two
nations since World War II.
Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura said Tokyo would not insist
on using the military.
“There was caution voiced in China, and following talks between China and Japan,
we have decided not to send Self-Defense Force planes,” he told reporters. “This
is not an issue that we should risk causing friction.”
Japan invaded China and conquered large parts of it in the 1930s before being
defeated by the Allies in 1945, and many Chinese still strongly resent Japan for
its military aggression.
Japan’s Asahi Shimbun said the Chinese government was concerned about domestic
public opinion after many Chinese posted comments opposing the mission on Web
sites.
Instead of sending military planes, Japan is arranging private charter planes to
deliver relief goods to China early next week, Machimura said later yesterday.
Since World War II, Japan has sent only a small group of defense experts to
China to dispose of chemical weapons abandoned by Japanese troops.
Meanwhile, the Red Cross of China promised yesterday that donations made to
quake-hit areas would all be used for recovery work.
“I have already promised many times to society that all donations made to the
earthquake will be used for relief work,” Jiang Yiman (江亦曼), vice president of
the Red Cross of China, told reporters.
Jiang was speaking at a press conference called to try to ease fears that
creeping corruption would stop some of the money and materials donated reaching
those most in need.
Generous donations made at home and abroad have drawn much praise, but already
reports have emerged of diverted aid supplies and scams being launched to grab a
piece of the largesse.
DPP slams
cross-strait talks plan
By Shih Hsiu-Chuan
STAFF REPORTER
Saturday, May 31, 2008, Page 3
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) attacked the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT)
administration’s handling of cross-strait talks, claiming that its rush to
deliver President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) campaign pledge on weekend passenger
charter flights and Chinese tourism has ignored a more important need — regular
cargo charter flights for Taiwan’s high-tech industry.
Lin Chen-wei (林成蔚), director of the DPP’s International Affairs Department, made
the comments came one day after Mainland Affairs Council Chairwoman Lai Shin-yuan
(賴幸媛) said that when Taiwan and China resume cross-strait talks on June 12, the
aim will be to complete consultations on the two issues by July.
Launching cross-strait cargo and passenger charter flights and opening up Taiwan
to Chinese tourists were treated as a package by the former DPP government when
it began talks with Beijing through civil groups in July 2005.
But the KMT government has delinked cargo charter flights from the passenger
flights and Chinese tourism, which Ma had said would commence on July 4.
In a letter from China’s Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait to
the Strait Exchange Foundation (SEF) on Thursday, Beijing said it accepted
Taiwan’s invitation to hold cross-strait negotiation on weekend passenger
charter flights and opening Taiwan to Chinese tourists. It invited SEF
representatives to visit Beijing from June 11 to June 14.
Lin said the KMT government had given up its right to set the agenda for
resuming talks, which had led to the cargo charter flight issue being excluded
from the talks.
“President Ma should clearly explain why the cargo charter flights service was
not included in the upcoming negotiations,” Lin said.
“The KMT let Beijing completely dominate the resumption of the official
cross-strait talks just so that Ma’s promise could come true on July 4,” he
said.
Lin, who served as a member of the National Security Council’s Advisory
Committee under the DPP government, said the DPP administration had linked cargo
charter flights with passenger charters and Chinese tourism because Beijing had
been refusing to give ground on cargo charters.
China does not want to launch cross-strait cargo charter flights services now
because Taiwan excels in air cargo while China is still building its air cargo
fleet and equipment capacity, so it does not want to see Taiwanese firms gain a
monopoly in the sector, Lin said.
The cargo charter flight service is what China-based Taiwanese businesspeople
and foreign businesspeople in Taiwan, especially those in the high-tech
industries, “desperately need” because such service would reduce transportation
costs and facilitate logistics, Lin said.
The KMT government should clearly explain whether the rights of Taiwanese
companies would be sacrificed in its rush to fulfill Ma’s campaign pledges, he
said.
 |
| PLEA FOR PEACE
|
Identity
crisis blues — and greens
By Johnny Neihu 強尼內湖
Saturday, May 31, 2008, Page 8
There comes a time in every man’s life when he has an identity crisis. This
usually takes the form of: Who am I? Am I successful enough? Why am I not dating
someone my daughter’s age?
When I was 40, I was too busy subverting the state and evading the last of the
White Terror hitmen to wallow in self-indulgent, panicky pseudo-introspection
(which, as it happens, will be the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP)
occupation for at least the next four years).
It may be too late for me, but it would seem my country is in the throes of its
own identity crisis.
All the signs are there. It’s developed a major economic inferiority complex —
despite perfectly respectable growth figures — and is swapping its values for
new, more materialistic ones.
Thus, “cross-strait win-win situation” is replacing “Taiwanese consciousness” as
the buzzword — or buzzmouthful (just when I was getting the hang of calling
state companies, the international airport and the Memorialissimo by their new
names).
Soon my beloved island nation will be going through a hedonistic cycle of
one-night stands with hundreds of Chinese tourists per day. But, I ask, will it
find the economic security it seeks?
As with any such crisis, some fear that there is a risk Taiwan will get in over
its head and lose control (the equivalent of taking out a second mortgage on
your home to buy your dream Ferrari, getting in a life-threatening wreck and
losing both the car and the home to pay the medical bills).
Why worry? With the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), we’re in capable hands.
First, there’s the Cabinet. Packed with time-tested experts and technocrats,
they say.
Take Minister of National Defense Chen Chao-min (陳肇敏), who looks set to spend
much of his time defending himself instead of the country.
Chen told legislators that the March 19, 2004, shooting of former president Chen
Shui-bian (陳水扁) and not-so-trusty sidekick Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) never took place.
Then, in the face of criticism (and a lawsuit), the defense minister did what
any fearless former KMT military leader would do — “Retreat!!” — and offered
what I’ve dubbed an “apolitology” to the effect of “Sorry for any trouble my
entirely truthful comments made.”
Then, in a brilliant second act, he made what the French might call a gaffe
extraordinaire. The one-time Air Force commander-in-chief nonplussed the
legislature’s Diplomacy and National Defense Committee by insisting that there
is no military airport in Taoyuan County. The snag: there is, actually.
Yes, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) is leading us into a brave, new world — a
world in which ministers aren’t troubled by the requirements of their jobs.
Very postmodern.
Minister of Justice Wang Ching-feng (王清峰) simply followed suit last week when
she said she would consider abolishing capital punishment — but also that she
had no idea how.
On the China front, meanwhile, the KMT is making leaps and bounds. Party
Chairman Wu Poh-hsiung (吳伯雄) headed to Nanjing this week for the first direct
meeting between the Chicoms and KMT heads since the Chinese Civil War.
Good thing they sent Wu. If the Chicoms kidnap him and demand Taiwan’s
capitulation, at least he’s dispensable — unlike this country’s most famous
hostage, Chiang “Whose tomb is it anyway” Kai-shek(蔣介石).
The Nanjing meeting marks a big change for the KMT. With Ma in office, the KMT’s
closed-door talks with the Chicoms no longer constitute treason. Kinda takes all
the conniving fun out of it, huh?
So maybe it was sheer boredom that prompted Wu to make a remark I can only
interpret as facetious: the fact that Beijing would meet the KMT despite the
aftermath of the Sichuan earthquake shows just how seriously China takes
cross-strait relations.
Funny, I thought the 1,000-odd missiles pointed our way were a pretty clear
sign.
But now’s not the time for talk of brutish threats. The word “goodwill” has
flown back and forth across the Strait so many times in the past few weeks we
could start booking tourist groups on it.
In fact, that might not be a bad idea, because after months of hearing Ma’s
3,000-Chinese-tourists-a-day mantra, last week Beijing proposed only 18
cross-strait flights per week. That’s a grand total of 1,000, not 21,000,
tourists per week.
Ma must be crestfallen. Is Beijing out to embarrass him or what? He’s offered so
many olive branches in the past two weeks alone that the hills of Spain have
been stripped bare.
Ma’s administration removed the Chinese word for “Taiwan” from the Web site of
the Presidential Office at lightning speed and is about to do the same to our
stamps. Pretty Boy’s representatives to China even refer to him as “Mr Ma”
instead of “Mr President” to avoid offending Beijing.
Yet China can’t even spare a lousy 3,000 tourists a day? So much for
reciprocity.
Ma must be wondering if his efforts are worth the concern that he lied when he
promised to stand up for Taiwanese sovereignty.
But, hey, the best of governments do occasionally lie.
Even the Taipei City Government is a full-on propaganda machine, as you’ll see
from its Web site:
“Taipei’s public toilets are neither dirty nor smelly, and the flowers and
greenery that adorn them make going to the toilet enjoyable.”
I kind of like all the lying. Picking the truth from the untruth is like playing
a Taiwanese version of Where’s Waldo.
And what about this week’s statistics from the Directorate-General of Budget,
Accounting and Statistics, which bumped up our GDP forecast for the year?
The problem is that the GDP is calculated to include generous spending by those
mythical 21,000 Chinese tourists per week — even though the government has
retracted that figure in other statements.
Surprised? It’s all spin — even among nominally unbiased agencies. No harm in
impressing the new boss with padded numbers, right?
These are no doubt the same people who were spinning in Chen’s favor — or,
perhaps, for Chen’s favors — just weeks ago, but remember: Necessity is the
mother of political affiliation. Besides, pan-blue, pan-green … what’s the
difference? That overly simplistic divide doesn’t really address the complex
identities of our civil servants, politicians and electorate. We need a few
nuances to reflect political realities.
So I will leave you today with some humble suggestions on how to identify
underlying political forces.
The “Blue in Green” camp: Like a Miles Davis song, this growing bloc knows how
to swing. Non-issues like national sovereignty just take the focus off the real
matter at hand: who is willing to pay the most for your vote. They contend that
anti-vote-buying campaigns are just a KMT-DPP conspiracy to get out of
subsidizing your vote. Not gonna work, say the bluegreens: Money makes the world
go round, not politics.
The Soylent Greens: Their dystopian vision of the nation’s future fuels a
terror-induced passion that renders them dysfunctional at election time, capable
only of wandering in the streets, foaming at the mouth and hoping disgraced
former KMT Legislator Alex Fai (費鴻泰) will ride by in a police car so they can
fling themselves on top of it.
Lean, green fighting machines: These guys are so green that they hate the DPP
and everyone in it. Of course, they’re still members.
Besserwisser blues: They may not know anything about market mechanisms, but they
know what’s best for Taiwan: the KMT. The rationale is simple. The average level
of education in Taipei, where people vote blue, is higher than the south, where
people vote green. Ergo, only ignorant country bumpkins vote green.
Big business blues (aka The Big Sleaze): If time isn’t money, politics sure is.
They’ve been waiting for this day, and with Ma finally in the cockpit, they can
see the Promised Land opening across the Strait. Ma may be president, but
there’s still room for a corporate puppetmaster.
The (Cry)baby blue camp: These chaps vote for the KMT with whole-hearted
devotion time and again, then whine each time they get screwed in return. Sound
strange? Just ask 90 percent of the nation’s Aborigines.
The royal blues: The heyday of the KMT has passed and it’s all democracy’s
fault. The solution? Install Ma as emperor and his Cabinet as eunuchs and
advisers to the Court. Because it fulfills this cabal’s dynastic dreams,
millions of Falun Gong across China will be incited to rise up and crush the
Chicoms, before being swept aside to allow Ma to occupy the throne of the New
Tang Dynasty.
Throw in Lien Chan (連戰) and heir apparent Sean Lien (連勝文) as court jesters and
that’s a national vision even I would support.
Got something to tell Johnny? Go on,
get it off your chest. Write to dearjohnny@taipeitimes.com, but be sure to put
“Dear Johnny” in the subject line or he’ll mark your bouquets and brickbats as
spam.