Chen Chu praised for saying president
　

NO COMMENT: A DPP lawmaker said CCTV had censored Chen because it was the only way it could prevent her from publicly standing up for Taiwan’s sovereignty

By Flora Wang and Mo Yan-chih
STAFF REPORTERS
Saturday, May 23, 2009, Page 1

Politicians across party lines yesterday lauded Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊) for mentioning “President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九)” during a meeting with Beijing Mayor Guo Jinlong (郭金龍) in China, even though Chinese TV censors cut her remarks.

Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) praised Chen for “upholding the nation’s sovereignty.”

Wang said Taiwanese politicians should learn from Chen as many have not dared to mention the president, the central government or their official titles when visiting China.

Chen, who left for Beijing on Thursday to promote the upcoming World Games, mentioned “President Ma Ying-jeou of the central government” during an open meeting with Guo.

Chen’s visit to Beijing and Shanghai has been interpreted by the media as an “ice-breaking” trip, as she is the highest-ranking Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government official to have ever visited China.

Chen told reporters on Thursday that she would not object to such an interpretation, but said that she would not communicate with Chinese authorities on behalf of DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) during the trip.

In Taiwan, the Taiwan Southern Society, the Taiwan Society Hakka and a number of pro-independence groups, which had urged Chen to rethink her plan to visit China, said they would boycott Chen’s re-election bid next year.

But Chen maintained that her political stance had not changed.

“Our insistence on protecting the interests of Taiwan during exchanges [with China] remains unchanged. We are still opposed to [the KMT’s] over-reliance on China,” she told reporters in Beijing.

KMT caucus deputy secretary-general Lu Hsueh-chang (呂學樟) said Chen could serve as a model for other DPP politicians, while KMT Legislator Kuo Su-chun (郭素春) urged China and the DPP to enhance their mutual understanding.

DPP Legislator William Lai (賴清德) said China Central Television (CCTV) had no choice but to censor Chen because that was the only way they could prevent her from publicly standing up for Taiwan’s sovereignty.

“China is fully aware they could not silence Chen, so they had to resort to such tactics. They knew she could not be controlled like Lien Chan (連戰) and Chiang Pin-kung (江丙坤), who meekly submit to Beijing’s every demand,” Lai said, lauding the mayor for her courage.

Tsai Huang-liang (蔡煌瑯), another DPP lawmaker, said CCTV’s censorship clearly showed that Beijing has not and will never relent on the issue of Taiwan’s sovereignty. Any talk of cross-strait rapprochement or China’s goodwill toward Taiwan was merely the Ma administration’s “one-sided fantasy,” he said.

Meanwhile, KMT Chairman Wu Poh-hsiung (吳伯雄) said that it was natural for Chen to refer to Ma as “President Ma” when meeting Beijing’s mayor.

“I think it is natural to use such a title ... I hope members of all parties can pass on more opinions to the mainland and develop better understanding with the other side,” Wu said.

Wu, who is leaving for Nanjing on Monday, refused to say whether or not he would refer to Ma as “president” during his visit.

Wu is leading a delegation to attend the 80th anniversary of the burial of Sun Yat-sen (孫逸仙) at a mausoleum in Nanjing on June 1, following the removal of Sun’s body from its original resting place in Beijing.

Wu is also scheduled to meet Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) in Beijing during his trip. He will return to Taiwan on June 1 and plans to return to China in July to attend a KMT-Chinese Communist Party (CCP) forum.

Wu dismissed a report from the Chinese-language China Times Weekly report that said he would take over as premier and urged local press not to engage in groundless speculation.

Wu denied planning to take over as premier if Ma decided to double as KMT chairman next month. He said he and Ma would remain silent on the issue until the middle of next month.

Wu also recently denied rumors that he would take over as Straits Exchange Foundation chairman.

Suu Kyi visit was anti-government plot, junta says

AFP, YANGON AND HONG KONG
Saturday, May 23, 2009, Page 1
　

Myanmar’s junta went on the offensive over Aung San Suu Kyi’s trial yesterday, blaming “anti-government elements” for the visit of an American to her home.

The comments came after widespread condemnation of the decision to try the Nobel Peace Prize winner on charges of breaching the terms of her house arrest because of the intrusion.

The New Light of Myanmar reported Foreign Minister Nyan Win as saying that he believed the bizarre incident — in which a 53-year-old man used homemade flippers to swim across a lake to Aung San Suu Kyi’s house — had been set up by anti-junta forces.

American John Yettaw was arrested after staying for two days earlier this month at the house, for which he now faces trial alongside the pro-democracy leader and two female aides who live with her.

The newspaper reported that the foreign minister told his Japanese counterpart Hirofumi Nakasone during a phone call on Monday that opposition groups were likely behind Yettaw’s visit.

“Minister U Nyan Win expressed his opinion that ... it was likely that this incident was timely trumped up, to intensify international pressure on Myanmar, by internal and external anti-government elements,” the New Light said.

But Yettaw has told the court he swam across the lake after having a premonition Aung San Suu Kyi would be assassinated.

The New Light said the minister believed the controversy had been timed to coincide with a review of policy toward Myanmar while the government was attempting to “build [an] improved relationship with countries all over the world,” the paper said.

A court report in the New Light contradicted the conspiracy theory and said Yettaw had “frightened” Aung San Suu Kyi with his arrival.

A Western diplomat in Yangon, who asked not be named, said the state media report “seems to reveal some kind of disarray and embarrassment” and that the government was reacting to events on a day-to-day basis with no clear strategy.

Security was increased yesterday at Insein Prison in Yangon where the trial is being held, after hundreds of National League for Democracy supporters turned out a day earlier. But few were present yesterday, witnesses said, amid heavy rainfall.

Meanwhile, Myanmar’s consul general in Hong Kong has posted a letter on the Internet suggesting that Yettaw was a “secret agent or her boyfriend.”

“Some of our friends inquired about an American, who swam into the Inya Lake, who secretly visited Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s house,” said the letter seen yesterday on the consulate’s Web site.

“Their question is why he swam to her and what they discussed within his stay at her house,” said the letter signed by “the Consulate General of the Union of Myanmar.”

“Frankly, we have no idea whether he is either secret agent or her boyfriend at this moment. We shall try to learn it and tell you later,” it said.

For emphasis, the words “either secret agent or her boyfriend” were in bold and underlined.

Groups call for ban on sales of animal gin traps

STAFF WRITER, WITH CNA
Saturday, May 23, 2009, Page 2
　

Each year many animals in the country are killed or injured by dangerous gin traps that can be easily bought at hardware stores, a legislator and animal rights groups said yesterday as they called on the government to ban the traps.

“Gin traps are the No. 1 killer of animals in Taiwan,” Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Ting Shou-chung (丁守中) said at a news conference held with representatives from several animal rights and protection groups.

They said vegetable farmers or livestock breeders use gin traps — a metal clip with sharp teeth — to prevent stray animals, mostly dogs and cats, from eating their harvests or flocks.

However, the devices can harm the animals badly or cause them to bleed to death after being left in the trap, said Lin Ya-che (林雅哲), a veterinarian who also serves as a volunteer for the Life Conservationist Association.

Although the use of the devices is banned, people can easily purchase them at hardware stores because the law does not ban their manufacture and sale, Ting said, citing a local academic who estimated that there are around 3 million of the traps around the country.

The traps, which cost between NT$35 and NT$50 each, can be found in national parks, putting endangered animals and people who stray from hiking trails at risk, he said.

Lin said that the National Police Agency should consider gin traps as weapons to restrict them from being manufactured or traded in the country.

“Gin traps are like landmines that can harm anyone who steps on them unexpectedly,” Lin said.

In response, Forestry Bureau Deputy Director General Lee Tao-sheng (李桃生) said that under the existing law, people who trap unprotected animals with gin traps face a fine of between NT$60,000 and NT$300,000. If they harm a protected animal such as a Formosan black bear, they will be punished with between six months and five years imprisonment, along with a fine of between NT$200,000 and NT$1 million (US$30,600), Lee said.

He said that more effort would be made to crack down on the use of the traps in forests, including reinforcing patrols in the woods, but he said that it is difficult to catch the people who set the traps.

Chen snubs court-appointed lawyer
　

PROTESTING ‘INJUSTICE’: The former president said the court proceedings were a show trial and he would refuse to call any more witnesses or confer with lawyers

By Shelley Huang
STAFF REPORTER
Saturday, May 23, 2009, Page 3
　

Former president Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) court-appointed lawyer tried to visit Chen at Taipei Detention Center yesterday, but Chen refused to see him, saying he did so to protest the conduct of his trial.

The former president’s new lawyer, Tseng Te-rong (曾德榮), received a note stating that Chen refused to see him when he requested to see Chen at the detention center yesterday afternoon.

Tseng said that in the note, Chen thanked him for coming to the center, but refused to see him because he had dismissed all lawyers to demonstrate dissatisfaction with an unfair judicial system, not because he did not have the money to hire lawyers.

“[Chen] told me not to waste my time trying to visit him again,” Tseng said.

Tseng said whether or not he would again try to visit the detained former president depended on how the case plays out.

He said he felt “very stressed” about the case because the whole country was paying attention, but added that it was his job to do his best to defend Chen.

When asked about the boxes of case documents he needs to read, he said: “I will have to put in lots of overtime.”

Even if Chen refuses to discuss the case with Tseng, the lawyer said he would still gather evidence that could be used to build a solid case to defend the former president.

Although Chen has said he will not call any more witnesses, Tseng said he would request that the court call witnesses to help Chen’s case.

On Thursday, the former president declared in court that he would dismiss his attorneys and call no more witnesses because he wanted to protest the “illegal indictment, illegal detention and illegal trials.”

APPOINTED

Presiding Judge Tsai Shou-hsun (蔡守訓) appointed Tseng, the public defender assigned to Tsai’s court, to represent the former president.

Chen was indicted on Dec. 13 on charges of embezzling government funds, money laundering and forgery, along with 13 co-defendants, including his wife. He has been detained at Taipei Detention Center since Dec. 30. He denies the allegations and calls the trials a form of political persecution, however, he has conceded that money was sent overseas, which he said was leftover campaign contributions.

CHEN CHIH-CHUNG

Meanwhile, prosecutors yesterday questioned Chen’s son, Chen Chih-chung (陳致中), and wife Huang Jui-ching (黃睿靚) about the couple’s overseas bank accounts.

The couple came out of the Special Investigation Panel’s (SIP) office at about 11:30am.

TV footage showed Chen Chih-chung starting to tell reporters about the questioning, but his wife quickly silenced him by patting his hand.

The couple had promised to wire NT$570 million (US$16.8 million) from Swiss bank accounts back to Taiwan so they could enter plea bargaining with prosecutors.

However, despite letters that Chen Chih-chung sent to the Swiss banks requesting the money be wired back to Taiwan, the transfer has not been completed.

Chen Chih-chung and his wife were indicted in December for money laundering in connection with allegations against the former president.

Exiled activist calls for local support of Chinese democracy
　

By Jenny W. Hsu
STAFF REPORTER
Saturday, May 23, 2009, Page 3
　

“Despite its growing economy, it [China] still has never apologized for what happened at Tiananmen Square.”— Tsai Ing-wen, Democratic Progressive Party chairperson

Taiwan must show strong bipartisan support for the democratic movement in China, which is gaining prevalence in Chinese civil society, exiled Chinese democracy activist Wang Dan (王丹) said in Taipei yesterday.

Wang, one of the student leaders in the 1989 Tiananmen Square demonstration, made the remarks at a forum held by New Society for Taiwan to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party government’s bloody crackdown on student protesters.

“Regardless [of whether it is the] ruling or the opposition party, Taiwan must not be silent or absent from urging China to apologize and compensate [the victims] for what the government did in Tiananmen Square,” Wang said, adding that he was “disappointed” with apparent Taiwanese apathy to the event.

While the world focuses on the changes China has made in the last two decades, the international community should take heed of what remains the same, he said, such as rampant corruption, social injustice and strict totalitarianism.

However, he said not all was lost because he believed Chinese civil society was becoming more concerned with democracy and freedom. He said a recent forum by more than 20 of China’s leading intellectuals openly discussed the violence and injustice that occurred during the June 4, 1989, demonstration in Beijing.

Democratic Progressive Party Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) called on Ma to publicly acknowledge and condemn the Chinese Communist Party for what happened at Tiananmen Square, which he used to do every year since 1989, only stopping when he became president last year.

“It is a fact that China is becoming a world superpower. But despite its growing economy, it still has never apologized for what happened at Tiananmen Square,” she told the forum.

DPP standing committee member Tuan Yi-kang (段宜康), another panelist at the forum, pointed to the “drastic difference” between Ma’s annual statements on each anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre and his tone after he became president.