PRC Supreme Court approves execution of ‘spy’ for Taiwan

AP, BEIJING
Thursday, Nov 27, 2008, Page 1

The daughter of a Chinese medical researcher condemned to death on charges that he spied for Taiwan said yesterday that her father had not received a fair trial and should not be executed.

Ran Chen said her family was told on Nov. 18 that the Supreme People’s Court had approved the execution of Wo Weihan (伍維漢), who was convicted last year of spying.

Chen said family members were told to arrange to see him as soon as possible, usually a sign of pending execution.

She said she feared the execution could take place as early as today, when the family has arranged to see Wo at Beijing’s Intermediate People’s Court.

“We don’t know what will happen,” Chen said.

The court said yesterday it did not have any information on Wo’s case.

Chen, an Austrian citizen pursuing graduate studies in Berkley, California, said Wo was convicted mainly on the basis of a confession that he later recanted. She said the scant evidence brought by prosecutors never proved the spying charges.

A copy of Wo’s conviction said his alleged crimes included revealing the health status of an unnamed high-ranking Chinese official. China considers information about the health of leaders to be a state secret.

Wo was also convicted of passing on data about missile control systems, information Chen said had been published in a magazine and was only later classified as secret.

Wo was accused of passing the information through a middle man to a group linked to the Taiwanese intelligence agencies.

Amnesty International called on authorities to block the execution.

“Available information suggests that Wo Weihan did not receive a fair trial according to international standards,” said Sam Zarifi, Amnesty International’s Asia Pacific director.

Trained as a medical researcher, Wo ran a medical equipment supply company on the outskirts of Beijing and frequently traveled abroad. He was detained in January 2005, but not permitted to see a lawyer until a year later.

Wo has been held in a prison hospital since March 2005, shortly after suffering a brain hemorrhage.

He was sentenced to death by the Beijing court in May last year after a closed trial.

His appeal was denied on Feb. 29 this year and his sentence automatically forwarded to the Supreme Court for approval.

Although courts have been ordered to apply the death penalty for only the most egregious crimes, China remains the world’s leading executioner of prisoners, including many convicted for nonviolent crimes.

Let Taiwan’s voice be heard: Danish writer
　

By Ko Shu-ling
STAFF REPORTER
Thursday, Nov 27, 2008, Page 3
　

He is not a big household name here, but he has great passion for Taiwan. He lives half a world away, but he is fascinated with Taiwanese politics and supports Taiwanese independence.

Michael Danielsen, chairman of the Denmark-based Taiwan Corner, said he co-founded the association to provide the international community with “correct” information on Taiwan.

In an interview with the Taipei Times on Tuesday last week, the 40-year-old Danish columnist said Taiwan's real danger did not lie so much in military intimidation from Beijing, but in how Taiwan portrayed itself in the international community.

Since President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) took office in May, Ma and his administration have been sending out very confusing signals to the world and depicting Taiwan as part of China, Danielsen said.

“People got really confused when Ma was talking about, for instance, the Republic of China [ROC] instead of Taiwan,” he said. “This is confusing for most people, because people think about Taiwan as Taiwan and not the Republic of China.”

The Ma administration's definition of cross-strait ties as a special relationship between the Taiwan region and the mainland region was also confusing, Danielsen said.

Such an argument may make sense based on the ROC Constitution or from a legal point of view, but it was perplexing to the international community, he said.

Another impression the Ma administration gave was that Taiwanese could not carry national flags during the visit of Chinese envoy Chen Yunlin (陳雲林) earlier this month, Danielsen said.

While Ma considers himself as a pragmatist, Danielsen said the president might be “going too far” to be practical and that he was getting “too pragmatic.”

Danielsen said the former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) administration made efforts to normalize relations with Beijing that were similar to what the Ma government is doing.

“The question is how many concessions [you are willing to make] and how practical you want to be,” he said. “Where is the boundary?”

“So the major difference between the KMT [Chinese Nationalist Party] and the DPP is not so much about normalizing cross-strait relations, but more about where the boundary is,” he said.

Danielsen said Ma made too many concessions during his meeting with Chen, who did not address Ma by his official title but instead referred to Ma as “you.”

As improving cross-strait relations is high on Ma's agenda, Danielsen said he was curious how much the president was willing to concede and whether he cared that cross-strait negotiations were not conducted on equal terms.

While Ma said there had been a diplomatic breakthrough because of his “diplomatic truce” with Beijing, Danielsen said it would not go far because Beijing would not stop suppressing Taiwan until it becomes part of its territory.

Beijing is keen to see the KMT stay in power, so it is likely to continue offering small favors to the Ma administration, including WHO accession, Danielsen said.

When asked whether the US or Japan should play a more active role in the Taiwan Strait, Danielsen said bigger players as Japan, the US or the EU could act as a moderator in resolving cross-strait disputes.

He said that while both sides could work out economic issues on their own, when it comes to more politically sensitive issues such as signing a peace agreement or increasing Taiwan's international space, he did not see it happening soon.

“It will require a big change in China, maybe a change in government system,” he said.

Ma has proposed signing a peace agreement with China on condition that Beijing first removes missiles targeting Taiwan.

Danielsen said he did not think that the removal of missiles mattered that much because they could be easily restored.

What Beijing could do, he said, is to abolish the “Anti-Secession” Law, but “that will only be a dream.”

“No country in the world has such a law that allows one country to attack another,” he said. “It is a ridiculous law. It's totally ridiculous.”

Commenting on the political confrontation in Taiwan, Danielsen said he hoped the KMT and the DPP could sit down and talk about what they really want for Taiwan in the next 50 or 100 years.

“Taiwan needs politicians who are united,” he said. “If they continue to be divided like they are today, then Taiwan will become weaker. This is more dangerous than any military threat from China.”

Although Taiwan is smaller than China, Danielsen said Taiwan has all the sympathy of the EU people.

“That is why it's very important for Taiwan to have its voice heard in the media,” he said. “When I talk to people in Denmark, they know Taiwan is different from China and they know Taiwan is a democracy and China is not. You must not forget that.”

China’s richest man under investigation
　

PROBE: Chinese media said Huang Guangyu, chairman of GOME, was suspected of share price manipulation, illegal loans, misuse of company funds and bribery

AGENCIES, BEIJING, HONG KONG AND SHANGHAI
Thursday, Nov 27, 2008, Page 5

Chinese police said the country’s richest man and chairman of China’s top electronics retailer, GOME, was under investigation after local media reported he had been detained as part of a probe into share price manipulation.

“Relevant departments” were investigating Huang Guangyu (黃光裕), the chairman of GOME Electrical Appliances Holdings Ltd, an anonymous spokeswoman for the Xicheng district branch of the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau told reporters yesterday.

“At this time it’s not convenient for me to tell you the details, but he is under investigation,” she said.

The Chinese financial magazine Caijing said on the weekend that 39-year-old Huang was detained last Wednesday in relation to an investigation into stock movements of SD Jintai, a drugs and medical equipment firm controlled by Huang’s brother, Huang Junqin (黃俊欽).

SD Jintai’s stock surged more than eight-fold last year.

Chinese media reports yesterday said Huang Guangyu was also being investigated for other suspected offenses, including illegal loans, misuse of company funds and bribery.

Huang, worth US$6.3 billion, moved to Beijing in his late teens with his brother and set up a home appliances distribution firm with 30,000 yuan (US$4,392).

Two years ago, Chinese authorities probed Huang in connection with a loan deal involving his investment company, Eagle Property Group. Huang was later cleared of any wrongdoing.

Meanwhile, the former boss of one of the country’s biggest textile factories was arrested while attempting to flee the country, a local official said yesterday, as the bankrupt company’s Singapore-listed unit was put under court protection, Tao Shoulong (陶壽龍), former head of Zhejiang Jianglong Textile Printing & Dyeing Co, and his wife were arrested in Guangdong Province, Qi Xiaoning, a spokesman for the government in the eastern Chinese city of Shaoxing, confirmed.

Shaoxing-based Zhejiang Jianglong, which derived about three-quarters of its revenues from overseas sales, shut down suddenly last month, saying it was unable to honor 2 billion yuan in debts. About the same time, Tao and his wife, Yan Qi (嚴琪), disappeared after allegedly burning the company’s accounting records, reports by the official Xinhua News Agency and other state-run media said.

“Frankly, I feel a bit sympathetic toward Tao. He borrowed such a huge amount of money just to try to get the company through hard times, but in fact he couldn’t repay it,” Yan said.

Ma follows Chiangs’ example

At the 41st annual meeting of the Chinese-Language Press Institute last Tuesday, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) made a comment that to a large degree illustrates why his administration seems to have irritated, if not angered, a large section of the population, including many of those who voted for him.

The Taiwan News quotes Ma as saying that “Taiwan’s politics is an experiment in democracy for Chinese people and would be maintained in ways suitable for Chinese culture.”

This strongly suggests that China, not Taiwan, and Chinese, not Taiwanese, culture lie at the heart of the president’s self image and how he perceives the country and citizens that he leads. The president’s reinstatement of a bust of Sun Yat-sen (孫逸仙) in the Presidential Office building also sends a clear signal that this administration will take pride in and actively promote “Chinese” culture in an attempt to undo rising identification with brand Taiwan over the last 12 years.

Ma’s goal is to permanently reify the Republic of China (ROC) in the minds of citizens by continuing the process of Sino-enculturation started under the Chiang dictatorships. One suspects, though, that this process is not for securing the future of the ROC, but rather to ease cultural conflicts that might come as the government gradually integrates Taiwan into China, economically then politically.

Consider this: If the president had chosen to replace the word “Chinese” in his speech with “Taiwanese,” he could have gained plaudits across the political spectrum for reaching out to the majority at home who believe Taiwan to be a de facto independent country with it’s own, Taiwanese culture.

Even if it were said disingenuously, he would still have gained some political capital and room to maneuver. Instead, the president chose to continue using language that is ultimately antagonistic to most Taiwanese, yet pleasing to wistful Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT)/ROC expats and China’s leaders.

Finally, when Ma said that democracy would be maintained in ways suitable for Chinese culture, one can only conclude that in having Yunlin County Commissioner Su Chih-fen (蘇治芬) and others detained without charge, Ma’s politicized judiciary must have been reading the People’s Republic of China manual on containing dissent, as opposed to the ROC Constitution, which places the burden of proof on prosecutors, rather than requiring defendants to prove their innocence.

Perhaps the popularity and success of the Wild Strawberries protest stem from the protesters’ recognition of what is happening to justice and democracy in their country.

The words of a song they sing reflect their take on the situation rather well: “I was not wrapped in cotton wool; So please save the insincere compassion; I could not understand your hypocrisy; And will always remain true to myself. We have dreams and ideals; We have a few things to say; After you have betrayed yourselves; Please do not also sell us out; As you broke all your promises; We chose to rise and join this sit-in; Silence does not represent acquiescence; Nor does peace indicate acceptance; Your arrogance has once again burned us; And this time we will no longer remain silent.”

BEN GOREN
Taichung

Protesters in revolt mode

To all those declaring that Taiwan is becoming a police state with regressing protection of human rights: You all really need to look at the facts.

Laws governing the masses have not changed, and are no different now than when the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) was in power. There were the same barricades and police at protests when the KMT was an opposition party.

The only change is in the attitudes of the protesters. The KMT supporters in opposition protest were in reform mode and careful not to provoke. On the other hand, the DPP’s opposition protesters are in revolt mode and did all they could to provoke.

Face it, the DPP is a paradox. Here is a party that was built upon a mandate to prosecute and jail corrupt officials in government no matter who they are, including former presidents. They even went as far as proposing putting descendants of White Terror criminals on trial. Yet when one of their own gets caught red-handed, they protest in his defense and cry political persecution.

The DPP is the party that enforced an “in-your-face punishment” policy of human rights abuses for over seven years toward mainland wives of Taiwanese men. More than 200,000 wives and children were horribly denied equal rights and dignity, yet when a couple of their protesters are hurt, manhandled or arrested for throwing rocks, bombs and feces at policemen they cry human rights abuse! Taiwan reverting to a police state? Try throwing a rock at US riot police — you would be Tasered and jailed!

Rational thought tells the true story. Former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) broke the law by sending a massive amount of money overseas. Some evidence (which first surfaced in 2006, when the DPP was in power) shows Chen and his family cared only about lining their own pockets in a complex scheme to grab every coin he could from the 23 million folks of Taiwan.

This makes him a criminal punishable by the very laws and judiciary his party governed for eight years. The man that has destroyed his children’s lives by forcing them to help in his crimes is now trying to destroy Taiwan with a “political persecution” call for help from his faithful supporters. Face it: Chen cares about only one thing: Chen Shui-bian!

The DPP as an opposition party must stop running through the streets yelling the sky is falling, because in a time when the sky does not fall their words will forever after fall on deaf ears. The DPP owes its loyal supporters a much better deal than finger-pointing. Otherwise DPP supporters will become nothing more than the same pity actors in their swansong as Chen’s supporters are playing in his.

TRACE GOMEZ
Taipei