Evidence
shows China violating Darfur embargo
DPA AND AFP, NAIROBI AND KHARTOUM
Monday, Jul 14, 2008, Page 1
Evidence has been uncovered that China has violated a UN arms embargo on Darfur
by providing military help to the Sudanese government in the province, the BBC
reported yesterday.
The British broadcaster said on its Web site that it had found Chinese army
lorries in Darfur with anti-aircraft guns mounted on them.
One of the lorries was in the hands of the rebels, who had captured it from
Sudanese troops, the BBC said.
Markings placed the lorries as part of a batch of 212 army lorries the UN
suspected had been delivered in 2005 after the arms embargo was put in place.
The broadcaster also said it had been told that China was training pilots to fly
Chinese A5 Fantan fighter jets in Darfur.
The UN says up to 300,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million displaced by
five years of conflict. The Sudanese government has been accused of using the
Janjaweed militia to commit atrocities against Darfur’s population and suppress
rebels.
China’s official position is that it respects the embargo. It declined to
comment on the BBC’s accusations.
China says it supplies military goods to Sudan only on the condition that the
Sudanese government does not use the Chinese-made weapons and vehicles in Darfur.
China has invested heavily in Sudan’s oil industry and says Sudan should be
engaged and supported to encourage an end to the Darfur conflict.
Meanwhile, Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir was to chair an emergency
Cabinet meeting yesterday over the International Criminal Court’s plans to
prosecute Sudanese leaders on charges of war crimes
Fears have been voiced that naming Bashir could trigger a military response from
either Sudanese forces or their proxies against UN and African Union
peacekeepers and embolden Darfur rebels who attacked Khartoum in May.
Mediterranean countries meet to launch new union
AP, PARIS
Monday, Jul 14, 2008, Page 1
More than 40 nations home to 800 million people launched a Union for the
Mediterranean, a vast though vague body its boosters hope can nudge this
disparate and conflicted swath of the world toward peace and stability.
Israeli, Syrian and Palestinian leaders were among those attending an
unprecedented gathering on the River Seine in Paris.
Coping with age-old enmities involving their peoples and others along the
Mediterranean shores will be a central challenge to the new union.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy urged nations around the Mediterranean to
“learn to love one another rather than to continue to hate each other and wage
war.”
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said: “We are closer than ever to a possible
[peace] agreement today” with the Palestinians — and said he hoped for direct
contacts “soon” with Syria.
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner urged the countries to unite to deal
with global warming, growing migration and shrinking water and energy resources.
“To do nothing would be a risk. We are fragile. Our world is fragile. Latent
tensions and growing disparities are too dangerous for this unstable epoch. We
have everything to gain by reinforcing our ties,” Kouchner said to fellow
foreign ministers from across Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
The ministers were meeting in the grandiose Grand Palais abutting the Seine
River. Later yesterday, presidents or prime ministers of 43 countries were to
meet at a summit hosted by Sarkozy and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.
The Union for the Mediterranean is Sarkozy’s brainchild, originally devised as a
pillar of his presidency and of France’s leadership of the EU. France holds the
rotating EU post until the end of this year.
But Sarkozy’s ambitious plan overlapped with EU projects already in progress and
was melded into EU efforts and expanded to include 27 members of the EU, not
just those on the Mediterranean coast.
Yesterday’s meeting was seen as more significant for the bodies gathered — the
Israeli and Syrian leaders, for example, have never before sat at the same table
— than for any immediate progress it is expected to achieve.
A draft declaration obtained by The Associated Press shows that summit
participants will announce “objectives of achieving peace, stability and
security” in the region. But the few firm measures are things such as a
region-wide solar energy project, a cross-Mediterranean student exchange program
and a plan to clean up the polluted sea.
On Saturday, Sarkozy played super-envoy, securing a preliminary agreement
between the Syrian and Lebanese presidents that they would open embassies in
each others’ countries for the first time.
Tensions between Lebanon and Syria, which has dominated its smaller neighbor for
decades, are one of the thorns in Mediterranean unity.
Sarkozy made the unusual step of reaching out to Syria, a nation often accused
of sponsoring terrorism and undermining regional unity, in an effort to bring it
back into the international fold ahead of yesterday’s summit.
“How can we make peace if we don’t speak with” everyone, Sarkozy asked alongside
the Israeli and Palestinian leaders yesterday morning.
Sarkozy asked Syrian President Bashar Assad for help in easing the international
standoff with Iran over its nuclear program. Assad asked France to contribute
efforts toward a peace deal between Syria and Israel.
Guangzhou
to send rare tigers as gift to Kaohsiung City
STAFF WRITER, WITH CNA
Monday, Jul 14, 2008, Page 2
“The two white tigers from the Guangzhou Xiangjiang Wildlife Park will be
sent to Kaohsiung City immediately after China’s donation of two giant pandas
are sent to Taiwan.”
— Zhu Xiaodan, secretary of the Guangzhou Province Communist Party
Kaohsiung City has been promised a pair of rare white tigers by China’s
Guangzhou Province as a token of friendship between the two, the Kaohsiung City
Council said in a statement yesterday.
Guangzhou Province Communist Party Secretary Zhu Xiaodan (朱小丹) made the promise
during a banquet hosted in honor of a 50-member Kaohsiung delegation led by City
Council Speaker Chuang Chi-wang (莊啟旺) that arrived the previous day on a
five-day tour to promote tourism.
“The two white tigers from the Guangzhou Xiangjiang Wildlife Park will be sent
to Kaohsiung City immediately after China’s donation of two giant pandas are
sent to Taiwan,” Zhu was quoted as saying, adding that he would do his utmost to
promote bilateral exchanges.
Guangzhou Mayor Zhang Guangning (張廣寧), who was also present at the banquet,
pledged to help the Kaohsiung City Government achieve its goal of making the
city a point of entry and departure for Chinese tourists to boost local tourism
revenues, the press release said.
It quoted Chuang as telling the banquet that the city looked forward to stepping
up trade, cultural and tourism exchanges with China.
He said that Kaohsiung residents had high expectations that Chinese tourists
would use the city as their point of entry and departure after Taiwan opens its
doors wider to Chinese tourists.
Chuang also took advantage of the occasion to promote the 2009 World Games
scheduled for next July in Kaohsiung City, inviting Guangzhou residents to visit
the international sports event.
Taipei to
shift gear for UN membership bids, official says
STAFF WRITER, WITH CNA
Monday, Jul 14, 2008, Page 3
The government will be more pragmatic and flexible than its predecessor in
pushing forward the nation’s bid to join the UN, a senior diplomatic official
said yesterday.
Government agencies such as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the National
Security Council and the Mainland Affairs Council will meet later this month to
discuss the issue, said the official, who wished to remain anonymous.
The official, who has been involved in matters relating to international
organizations for more than 10 years, was responding to President Ma Ying-jeou’s
(馬英九) recent remarks that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was studying a new
approach to promoting the nation’s UN bid in line with the changing situation.
Ma said the two referendums on the country’s entry into the world body under the
name “Taiwan” and “Republic of China” held alongside the March 22 presidential
election had failed because neither attracted enough votes to make the outcomes
binding. His administration would therefore adopt a new strategy to promote the
country’s UN bid.
The official said the cross-strait situation changed after the inauguration of
the Ma administration and that in the face of a “completely different
atmosphere” it was necessary for the country to adjust the manner in which it
promotes its accession to various international organizations such as the UN and
the WHO.
Asked whether the nation would apply for UN membership under the name “Republic
of China,” “Chinese Taipei” or other, more flexible names, the official said the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs was soliciting the opinion of experts and academics
and exchanging views with other government agencies on the matter.
After an internal consensus on a new approach is reached, the government would
consult with diplomatic allies as well as the US, Japan and the EU on its
feasibility, the official said.
The official said, however, that it was unlikely the new administration would
file an application for UN membership under the name “Taiwan” this year.
Because of Beijing’s obstruction, the nation has failed every year in its more
than a decade-long bid to regain memb
Ma needs to
pull back from edge
Monday, Jul 14, 2008, Page 8
‘The Ma administration has been in power for less than two months but its
desperate behavior has caused several policy failures and drawn much criticism.’
In the face of Taiwan’s ailing economy, complaints can be heard everywhere.
President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), who says he is “taking a back seat” and calls
himself a zhainan (home boy), finally made some confidence building remarks when
receiving Chinese National Federation of Industries chairman Preston Chen (陳武雄)
and the federation’s board of directors on Wednesday.
Ma said the government should take responsibility for the public discontent
triggered by rising prices and falling incomes, but that despite this situation,
the government should stay calm and not intervene excessively.
He also said that as long as Taiwan’s economic fundamentals are sound, there was
still a chance that the nation’s economy would return to prosperity.
He also said that Taiwan had experienced several big challenges in recent
decades, including the global oil crisis, and the Asian financial crisis, but
that it had managed to overcome all these obstacles.
“We have our own advantages, so we must have confidence in ourselves,” Ma said.
Since the transfer of power on May 20, the international prices of oil, raw
materials and agricultural products have surged, planting the seeds of imported
inflation.
As the government insists on oil and electricity hikes and respects the market
mechanism, it is gradually losing its ability to control and stabilize consumer
prices.
The Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics said the consumer
price index rose 4.97 percent year-on-year last month, the second highest
increase since September 1996.
The core price index rose 3.7 percent, the biggest jump in 12 years, and the
wholesale price index for imported commodities valued in US dollars soared by
25.89 percent last month, its highest increase since June 1980.
Meanwhile, the public’s nominal wealth has fallen sharply.
This double pressure is causing public suffering and dissatisfaction, which in
its turn is causing Ma’s approval ratings to drop, which is what forced him to
make his confidence-building remarks.
Will Ma’s pep talk be effective? Frankly speaking, there is not too much cause
for optimism. The reason for this is public doubt about the negative economic
consequences of his China policy, rather than lack of confidence in Taiwan.
China-leaning measures like raising the maximum level for China-bound
investments, the crowding-out effect resulting from the opening up of Taiwan to
Chinese tourism and the domestic consumption outflow due to the opening of
direct links will only further damage Taiwan’s faltering economy.
Most people believe in Taiwan’s excellent democratic system and economic
fundamentals. But even those who voted for Ma no longer dare put any hope in the
government after examining its performance over the past two months.
In other words, Taiwan’s economic fundamentals are on a sound enough footing to
overcome many challenges. But people are disappointed with the government’s
uncertain, desperate, contradictory moves and helplessness.
The public has seen through the government and is fed up. Confidence is
crumbling. This situation can hardly be reversed by empty confidence building
pep talks.
The desperate behavior of the Ma administration has caused several policy
failures and drawn much criticism.
The performance of so-called financial and economic experts and experienced
officials is mediocre and this incompetence cannot be swept under the carpet by
attempts at flirting with a personality cult by playing up these experts.
The government’s biggest embarrassment is its handling of the falling stock
market. Before coming to power, Ma bragged about how the stock market would
boom, followed up by various other irresponsible statements.
For instance, Vice President Vincent Siew (蕭萬長) said the TAIEX would at least
exceed 10,000 points while Ma took aim at 20,000 points, as did Minister of
Economic Affairs Yiin Chii-ming (尹啟銘).
High-ranking officials behaved as if they were trying to outbid each other at an
auction and were very pleased with themselves.
Now that the index has dropped more than 2,000 points, officials are either
ignoring the situation or shirking responsibility by saying that there is “no
remedy” to the situation and that 20,000 points was a joke.
Ma has even come out to call on the public to “work together to overcome the
hard times,” but even if investors who believe in the government are willing to
do so, they will not see any improvements but will instead lose their hard
earned capital.
The plunging stock market is not the only mess Ma’s government has created.
First, implementing oil and electricity hikes without appropriate complementary
measures only pushed up consumer prices.
Second, to spend the budget and attract voters, the government has launched a
domestic demand expansion plan to the tune of NT$110 billion (US$3.6 billion),
all but disregarding worsening inflation.
Third, in terms of domestic politics, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) may
enjoy a legislative majority of almost three-quarters, but the legislature still
rejected Ma’s nominee for Control Yuan vice president, thus putting his
leadership in doubt.
This is why Ma stopped avoiding the sensitive stock market issue and called for
public confidence in person.
He did not do so in order to save the stock market; he did so to save his and
his administration’s approval ratings.
However, trying to solve the political and economic difficulties through a call
for confidence without any substantive measures is destined to be ineffectual.
To overcome the difficulties, the Ma administration must “pull back the horse
from the cliff’s edge,” as the Chinese saying goes, and stop leaning toward
China.
Ma should strengthen communication and coordination, as well as government
efficiency and he should come up with concrete plans to stimulate the nation’s
economy. This is the only way to inspire public confidence and ride out the
crisis.