Stronger military needed: report
　

BE PREPARED: The Taiwan Policy Working Group report says Taiwan’s military must be strong enough to make it unlikely that Beijing would try to use force against it
　

By William Lowther
STAFF REPORTER , WASHINGTON
Wednesday, Aug 05, 2009, Page 1

“You help Taiwan with its defense because you want to create an environment and a confidence to engage in meaningful cross-strait diplomacy. No one wants to negotiate with a gun to their head.”— Randall Schriver, president of the Project 2049 Institute

A major new report from the US recommends that Taiwan develop its defense industry and be prepared to fight alone if China launches an all-out attack.

Released this week in Washington by the Taiwan Policy Working Group, Deter, Defend, Repel and Partner: A Defense Strategy for Taiwan says that Taipei should be ready to respond to an “array of threats and military contingencies” including intimidating live-fire exercises, a blockade, seizure of an outlying island or a full-scale invasion.

The report stresses that even though cross-strait tensions have been significantly reduced under the administration of President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), the Republic of China (ROC) needs to build a military strong enough to make the use of force against it unlikely.

“Taiwan should be able to mount an effective defense and should be able to continue to fight on its own in a drawn-out conflict,” the report said.

“There is much speculation about how the US would react to a Chinese provocation in the Taiwan Strait,” the report said.

“The ROC military certainly hopes that the US would offer assistance, if not intervene more directly. Taipei cannot, however, count on this development. The defense establishment should, then, prepare to fight the PLA [People’s Liberation Army], from the opening shots through the conflict’s resolution, as if it were to defend itself entirely on its own,” the report said.

“Should the PRC attempt to physically occupy Taiwan, the ROC military should be prepared to repel an amphibious invasion; sustain an organized ground defense under central authority further inland; and in a worst-case scenario, be prepared for decentralized resistance,” it said.

The report was written by Dan Blumenthal, an official in former US president George W. Bush’s administration who is now a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI); Michael Mazza, a research assistant in Asian studies at AEI; Gary Schmitt, a resident scholar at AEI and former official in the Reagan administration; Randall Schriver, president of the Project 2049 Institute and former deputy assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs in the Bush administration and Mark Stokes, executive director of the Project 2049 Institute.

Quoting former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger, the report says that Taiwan, like a guerrilla force, must learn to “win by not losing.”

While the report does not mention specific weapons systems, it argues that a diminished commitment to Taiwan’s defense will reduce Taipei’s leverage in dealing with Bejing and “could make the peaceful resolution of differences less likely in the future.”

“It is our view that a strong ROC defense is essential if future cross-strait discussions are to be carried out with confidence, with mutual respect, and free of intimidation,” it said.

At a press conference to launch the report, Schriver said: “The military buildup opposite Taiwan continues apace. It hasn’t slowed, it hasn’t remained static, it has increased. It compels us to take proactive actions to address that.”

“You help Taiwan with its defense because you want to create an environment and a confidence to engage in meaningful cross-strait diplomacy. No one wants to negotiate with a gun to their head,” he said.

The report was discussed extensively with the Ma administration as it was being prepared.

While the report does say it, the authors made it clear in their presentation that they were in favor of the US selling more F-16s to Taiwan and supporting Taiwan’s quest for a submarine force.

Blumenthal said that if countries like North Korea and Colombia could build their own submarines, then a technologically advanced society like Taiwan could certainly do so.

“We tried to put ourselves in Taiwan’s shoes. The key would be to defend four key domains, the information domain, the air domain, the maritime domain and your own ground,” he said.

“Of course Taiwan needs the upgraded F-16. If you say Taiwan should not have the upgraded F-16 you are saying that Taiwan should not have an air force. People make arguments that fixed wing aircraft and their bases are very vulnerable. But you can disperse and harden your facilities and low and behold your aircraft become more survivable,” Blumenthal said.

“Technology could be leveraged to increase the ROC’s military power. Taiwan is home to a number of industries [in areas such as information technology, nanotechnology and aerospace] in which it excels and that have considerable defense applications,” the report said.

“With focused government investment, Taiwan has the potential to field innovative defense systems. Working with counterparts in the US and elsewhere, Taiwan has opportunities to leverage technological strengths in, for example, microelectronics and materials science and to design, develop and manufacture creative solutions to many of its most vexing military problems,” it said.

“A strong domestic defense industry could create yet another path for Taiwan’s economic growth. With the ROC’s highly innovative workforce and access to worldwide markets, Taiwan’s own defense industry could flourish. The industry would have a ready-made market in Taiwan, precisely because the ROC military is limited in its ability to purchase weapons systems abroad. It would also further diversify options for Taiwan’s own exports,” it said.

“Innovative, high-tech enterprises in Taiwan could become qualified suppliers of components and subassemblies for the US Department of Defense and defense industry. The resulting job creation in Taiwan could shore up support within Taiwan for defense spending,” it said.

William Murray, a China expert at the Naval War College, also present at the launch, questioned Taiwan’s need for more F-16s.

“On the modern battlefield, if you can hide you can survive. But if you are a fixed target you probably face destruction. So, I wonder how aircraft runways can survive in Taiwan. The question is, ‘how do you get them to survive the initial bombardment?’ If you can’t protect the runways, I am not sure what the F-16s do. I agree that the F-16 itself can be survivable but without a runway it is not flyable. I don’t know that it’s the best thing for Taiwan,” Murray said.

The report said Taiwan’s military should have four key missions: Deter coercion; defend against a spectrum of coercive scenarios; repel an invasion and fight a land war; and partner with civilian responders and with foreign militaries.

“Taiwan needs to be able to deter an air campaign by showing it can shoot down PLA Air Force fighters and bombers; severely complicate efforts to establish a maritime blockade; degrade substantially an amphibious attack; and, if necessary, demonstrate it can endure a protracted ground campaign on the island itself,” the report said.

“Taiwan faces the most significant military challenge in the world,” Stokes said.

Bill Clinton visits N Korea seeking reporters’ release
　

SURPRISE VISIT: A senior US official said the White House would not comment on the effort to free Laura Ling and Euna Lee until Clinton’s mission was over

AP AND REUTERS, SEOUL AND WASHINGTON
Wednesday, Aug 05, 2009, Page 1
　

North Korea welcomed former US president Bill Clinton to Pyongyang with flowers and hearty handshakes yesterday as he arrived on a surprise mission to bring home two jailed US journalists.

Clinton landed in an unmarked jet. On arrival he shook hands with North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye-kwan and the deputy speaker of parliament.

Footage from TV news agency APTN showed Clinton bowing and smiling as a young girl presented him with flowers.

The unusually warm exchange between North Korean officials and the former leader of a wartime foe comes amid heightened tensions between the US and Pyongyang over the North’s nuclear program.

Clinton was making his first trip to North Korea in hopes of securing the release of Laura Ling (凌志美) and Euna Lee, reporters for former US vice president Al Gore’s California-based Current TV media venture who were arrested along the North Korean-Chinese border in March.

The visit could reap rewards beyond the women’s release, with Clinton and North Korean officials broaching the nuclear impasse, diplomatic relations and other long-standing issues, analysts said.

Kim also serves as North Korea’s chief nuclear negotiator.

“This is a very potentially rewarding trip. Not only is it likely to resolve the case of the two American journalists detained in North Korea for many months, but it could be a very significant opening and breaking this downward cycle of tension and recrimination between the US and North Korea,” Mike Chinoy, author of Meltdown: The Inside Story of the North Korean Nuclear Crisis, said in Beijing.

North Korea accused Ling, 32, and Lee, 36, of sneaking into the country illegally in March and engaging in “hostile acts,” and the nation’s top court sentenced them in June to 12 years of hard labor.

The US and North Korea do not have diplomatic relations, but officials were believed to be working behind the scenes to negotiate their release.

Clinton, Gore and New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, who in the 1990s traveled twice to North Korea to secure the freedom of detained Americans, had all been named as possible envoys to bring back Lee and Ling. The decision to send Clinton was kept quiet.

A senior US official confirmed to reporters traveling to Africa with US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton that the former president was in Pyongyang to secure the journalists’ release, but said the White House would not comment until the mission was complete.

“While this solely private mission to secure the release of two Americans is on the ground, we will have no comment,” White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said in a statement. “We do not want to jeopardize the success of former president Clinton’s mission.”

North Korea’s official state media said leader Kim Jong-il met Clinton yesterday.

The Korean Central News Agency and other outlets reported the two men met in Pyongyang and that Clinton had “courteously” conveyed a verbal message from US President Barack Obama.

The report says Kim Jong-il expressed his thanks, and that the two shared a “wide-ranging exchange of views” at a dinner for Clinton at the state guest house.

In Washington, however, the White House was quick to say that Clinton had not carried a message from Obama for Kim Jong-il.

“That’s not true,” spokesman Gibbs told reporters.

GIO angered by removal of film
　

By Shih Hsiu-chuan and J. Michael cole
STAFF REPORTERS
Wednesday, Aug 05, 2009, Page 3

The Government Information office (GIO) yesterday expressed its displeasure at Fortissimo Films, the Amsterdam-based distributor of the movie Miao Miao (渺渺), following the controversial withdrawal of the film from the Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF).

“We feel deep regret that Fortissimo pulled the movie without informing Taiwan in advance,” said Frank Chen (陳志寬), director of the GIO’s Department of Motion Pictures.

Chen said the withdrawal had “hurt the image of Taiwan.”

The office was unclear about the name under which the movie was registered at the festival.

Chen said the GIO would seek reimbursement of a NT$4 million (US$123,000) subsidy it gave to Taiwan Jet Tone (台灣澤東公司) if the movie was not registered at the festival under the country’s name, as stipulated in the contract granting the funds in 2005.

Taiwan Jet Tone obtained the subsidy to co-produce the film, directed by Taiwanese director Cheng Hsiao-tse (程孝澤) and with mostly Taiwanese actors, with Hong Kong-based Jet Tone Film Ltd (香港澤東公司).

In protest at the festival’s refusal of a request from the Chinese Consulate in Australia not to air the documentary 10 Conditions of Love about exiled Uighur leader Rebiya Kadeer at the film festival, China withdrew its four films from the event late last month.

Miao Miao was also pulled, with the GIO and Taiwan Jet Tone offering different accounts of who made the decision and why.

The withdrawal has met with mounting criticism as it suggested not only that Miao Miao, a Taiwanese film, was categorized as a Chinese film in an international film festival, but also that Taiwan was siding with Beijing in the repression of Uighurs.

Chen Bau-shu (陳寶旭), the person in charge of Hong Kong Jet Tone Film’s business in Taiwan, denied yesterday that the withdrawal was inappropriate.

“I don’t think pulling the film was in violation of the funding contract [signed between the GIO and the company], which would lead to the [revocation of the funds],” Chen Bau-shu said before meeting GIO officials.

Chen Bau-shu said the film production and the distributor jointly decided to pull the film from the festival as “there was a weird ambiance going around the film festival.”

Repeatedly asked by reporters to specify what she meant by “weird ambiance,” Chen declined to elaborate, saying the festival was “politicized” and had lost the spirit a film festival should have.

“[We made the decision because of] the complexity of the festival’s atmosphere. There were many political issues involved … Initially we thought the film festival may be an opportunity to promote the film, but now we’d rather not get involved,” she said.

Chen Bau-shu said that it was only a “coincidence” that Miao Miao was pulled at the same time as the Chinese movies.

“I don’t agree with the criticism that we withdrew the movie to cater to China. The withdrawal of the movie has nothing to do with our plan to broadcast the movie in China,” she said, adding she did not know if China was suppressing Uighurs.

“It’s not my business,” she said.

Asked about the impact of the withdrawal on Taiwan’s image, Chen Bau-shu said: “I can only say I am very sorry for the damage the withdrawal did to Taiwan’s image.”

In an e-mail to the Taipei Times later yesterday, a representative from Jet Tone in Hong Kong wrote: “Regarding … the issue of [the] GIO subsidy [to the movie festival], our production Miao Miao has entered all the international film festivals so far as an entry of Taiwan/Hong Kong. Jet Tone Films is listed on all documents as the production company and this is in no conflict with any existing regulations. We have already explained this point to the Government Information Office Film Dept.”

“The withdrawal from the Melbourne Film Festival [was] made by the film owner who believes the current edition of the festival has become a hotbed of political ideas and jeopardize[d] any dialogue and exchange amongst creative people,” the firm wrote. “Thus we [took] the decision to withdraw from the festival. This is [not in] conflict with existing regulation and there is no external factor influencing our decisions. We hope you will all respect our decisions.”

“About the withdraw[al] from the Melbourne Film Festival, we regret that we did not have sufficient time to notify the Government Information Office. But we believe film art is above politics,” it said.

“The purpose of Taiwan’s Jet Tone Films is to groom the talents from Taiwan and support Taiwanese cinema,” it said. “Miao Miao was shot entirely in Taiwan using talents both in front and behind the camera.”

Jet Tone was founded by Hong Kong moviemaker Wang Kar-wai (王家衛), one of the three producers of Miao Miao.

It has offices in Hong Kong, Taipei and Shanghai.

Chen’s son, Huang plead guilty
　

LITIGATION AS USUAL: The former president’s son and daughter-in-law could not enter plea-negotiations because prosecutors had not requested them, the judge said
　

By Shelley Huang
STAFF REPORTER
Wednesday, Aug 05, 2009, Page 4

Former president Chen Shui-bian’s son Chen Chih-chung (陳致中) and daughter-in-law Huang Jui-ching (黃睿靚) yesterday pleaded guilty to the charges against them, but prosecutors did not request that the two enter plea-negotiations.

Prosecutors said that because Chen Chih-chung and his wife have been charged with serious crimes, and are still suspected on other counts of money laundering that the Special Investigation Panel (SIP) is still investigating, the prosecution does not request that the court ­consider plea-negotiations. Prosecutors requested that the court proceed with litigation as usual.

In response, Yeh Ta-hui (葉大慧), a lawyer for the couple, said that he understood the prosecution’s concern that if they allow Chen Chih-chung and Huang to enter into plea-negotiations, it could conflict with legal proceedings on the other counts of money laundering still under investigation. However, he said the different counts of money laundering could be treated as one case because the funds were all wired under the direction of Chen Chih-chung’s mother Wu Shu-jen (吳淑珍) at around the same time. It could be argued that the transfers were all done with the same intent to commit a crime, Yeh said.

Yeh also asked that the court allow the two to enter into plea-negotiations because it would be a good chance to “educate the public” about the softer side of legal proceedings — that negotiations are permitted and the court encourages admitting to the crimes.

Taipei District Court Judge Tsai Shou-hsun (蔡守訓) said that since the prosecution did not request plea-negotiations, the court was in no position to make such a ruling.

Outside the courtroom, Yeh told reporters: “Chen Chih-chung and his wife have exhausted all means to wire the overseas funds back to Taiwan,” but as the funds have been frozen by Swiss authorities because of judicial mutual assistance, it is out of Chen Chih-chung’s and his wife’s hands.

The two had promised to wire about NT$1.2 billion (US$36.6 million) from Swiss accounts and paper companies back to Taiwan as part of conditions to enter plea-bargaining.

None of the money has been remitted. Taiwanese prosecutors are in the process of requesting that the money be unfrozen and wired back.

In related news, four other co-defendants in the case related to the former president have pleaded guilty to the charges against them, but none could enter into plea-negotiations.

Wu’s friend Tsai Ming-chieh (蔡銘杰) and contractor Kuo Chuan-­ching (郭銓慶) pleaded guilty to helping Wu obtain US$2.73 million in bribes in connection with a land deal in Longtan (龍潭), Taoyuan County.

Prosecutors requested the court sentence Tsai Ming-chieh to two years in prison, five years probation and a fine of NT$10 million, because he confessed to his crimes.

Wu’s brother Wu Ching-mao (吳景茂) and his wife Chen Chun-ying (陳俊英) also pleaded guilty to helping the former first lady launder money through overseas accounts.

They and Chen Chih-chung and his wife are due again in court next Thursday for closing arguments.

Chen’s son, Huang plead guilty
　

LITIGATION AS USUAL: The former president’s son and daughter-in-law could not enter plea-negotiations because prosecutors had not requested them, the judge said
　

By Shelley Huang
STAFF REPORTER
Wednesday, Aug 05, 2009, Page 4

Former president Chen Shui-bian’s son Chen Chih-chung (陳致中) and daughter-in-law Huang Jui-ching (黃睿靚) yesterday pleaded guilty to the charges against them, but prosecutors did not request that the two enter plea-negotiations.

Prosecutors said that because Chen Chih-chung and his wife have been charged with serious crimes, and are still suspected on other counts of money laundering that the Special Investigation Panel (SIP) is still investigating, the prosecution does not request that the court ­consider plea-negotiations. Prosecutors requested that the court proceed with litigation as usual.

In response, Yeh Ta-hui (葉大慧), a lawyer for the couple, said that he understood the prosecution’s concern that if they allow Chen Chih-chung and Huang to enter into plea-negotiations, it could conflict with legal proceedings on the other counts of money laundering still under investigation. However, he said the different counts of money laundering could be treated as one case because the funds were all wired under the direction of Chen Chih-chung’s mother Wu Shu-jen (吳淑珍) at around the same time. It could be argued that the transfers were all done with the same intent to commit a crime, Yeh said.

Yeh also asked that the court allow the two to enter into plea-negotiations because it would be a good chance to “educate the public” about the softer side of legal proceedings — that negotiations are permitted and the court encourages admitting to the crimes.

Taipei District Court Judge Tsai Shou-hsun (蔡守訓) said that since the prosecution did not request plea-negotiations, the court was in no position to make such a ruling.

Outside the courtroom, Yeh told reporters: “Chen Chih-chung and his wife have exhausted all means to wire the overseas funds back to Taiwan,” but as the funds have been frozen by Swiss authorities because of judicial mutual assistance, it is out of Chen Chih-chung’s and his wife’s hands.

The two had promised to wire about NT$1.2 billion (US$36.6 million) from Swiss accounts and paper companies back to Taiwan as part of conditions to enter plea-bargaining.

None of the money has been remitted. Taiwanese prosecutors are in the process of requesting that the money be unfrozen and wired back.

In related news, four other co-defendants in the case related to the former president have pleaded guilty to the charges against them, but none could enter into plea-negotiations.

Wu’s friend Tsai Ming-chieh (蔡銘杰) and contractor Kuo Chuan-­ching (郭銓慶) pleaded guilty to helping Wu obtain US$2.73 million in bribes in connection with a land deal in Longtan (龍潭), Taoyuan County.

Prosecutors requested the court sentence Tsai Ming-chieh to two years in prison, five years probation and a fine of NT$10 million, because he confessed to his crimes.

Wu’s brother Wu Ching-mao (吳景茂) and his wife Chen Chun-ying (陳俊英) also pleaded guilty to helping the former first lady launder money through overseas accounts.

They and Chen Chih-chung and his wife are due again in court next Thursday for closing arguments.

Rights group demands Uzbekistan free reporter

AP AND AFP, TASHKENT AND ALMATY, KAZAKHSTAN
Wednesday, Aug 05, 2009, Page 5

A prominent international rights group has demanded Uzbekistan free a journalist sentenced to 12 years in prison on what his supporters say were politically motivated charges. Dilmurod Saidov’s trial on extortion and forgery charges was severely undermined by procedural violations, making a fair verdict impossible, New York-based Human Rights Watch said in a statement released late on Monday.

Western governments and international rights groups have criticized Uzbekistan over its chronic record of human rights abuses. But Uzbekistan’s ties with the West have warmed in recent months as the ex-Soviet Central Asian nation has helped support US-led military operations in neighboring Afghanistan.

Saidov was arrested in February and sentenced last week to more than 12 years in prison at the end of a closed-door trial, Human Rights Watch said. The group said he was targeted because of his efforts to expose corruption by local officials in the Samarkand region.

“Saidov is well known for his courageous work to expose rampant corruption in Uzbekistan, and this conviction is clearly an attempt to stop him,” Holly Cartner, Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said in the statement. “The trial was a travesty of justice and Saidov should be freed immediately.”

The group said Saidov suffered from acute tuberculosis. It called on prison authorities to provide him with immediate medical attention.

Uzbek President Islam Karimov has ruled resource-rich Uzbekistan with an iron hand since before the 1991 Soviet collapse. He fell out of favor with the US and other Western countries after the government’s violent suppression of an uprising in the city of Andijan in 2005.

Karimov has recently sought to mend ties with the West, in part by allowing the US to send nonmilitary supplies to Afghanistan overland through Uzbekistan. Worsening security on the Afghan border with Pakistan has forced NATO allies to seek safer transit routes.

Uzbekistan has also made some tentative commitments to address human rights issues.

But Human Rights Watch says the Uzbek government is currently holding at least thirteen rights activists in jail for reasons related exclusively to their work.

Several other opposition activists and independent reporters have also been jailed over the past few years, including prominent political dissident Yusuf Yumayev.

Human Rights Watch said in a report last month that Yumayev has recently been subjected to severe physical ill-treatment and denied food and water.

The Uzbek Foreign Ministry’s press office could not be reached for comment.

Meanwhile, Uzbekistan has slammed Russian plans to station additional troops in its neighbor Kyrgyzstan, in the latest sign of a rift between Moscow and ex-Soviet Central Asia’s most populous state.

The Uzbek interior ministry’s house news agency Jahon said in a statement late on Monday that the deployment of the force in Kyrgyzstan could force a destabilizing military build-up in the region.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed a deal last week with his Kyrgyz counterpart Kurmanbek Bakiyev to station more Russian troops in the Central Asian state within marching distance from Uzbekistan’s borders.

Is democracy dying?

Wednesday, Aug 05, 2009, Page 8



Taiwan appears to be losing its democratic brand, and believers in democratic values and human rights should look on with grave concern at recent developments. We may be witnessing a fundamental change in Taiwan as democratically elected politicians restrict democratic participation.

The latest matter for concern is the Act Governing the Administrative Impartiality of Public Officials (公務人員行政中立法), which denies research fellows at public academic institutions and public servants the basic democratic right to participate in normal political debate.

From June 10, public employees were not allowed to openly support political parties, political organizations or candidates. In addition, they are denied the right to hold meetings, initiate rallies or lead petitions.

The legislature, which is three-quarters dominated by the pan-blue camp, has passed a resolution to apply the restrictions to all faculty at public universities by next month.

If these initiatives are implemented, Taiwan’s young democracy will be in danger and the nation will lose international support.

Taiwan has been praised for its democratic achievements and the world continues to support Taiwan largely for that reason.

It would be a tragic mistake if pride in out-of-date and mistaken concepts were to undermine the importance of sharing a democratic future and in the process allow authoritarian ideas to resurface.

It is a delicate question: At what point would Taiwan cease to be a democracy? Democracy is not only about holding regular elections; it requires open and free conversations and free political debate among all citizens.

The Act Governing the Administrative Impartiality of Public Officials and the attendant legislative resolution are dangerous developments. They will not help Taiwanese and risk diminishing support for Taiwan in the community of democratic nations.

MICHAEL DANIELSEN
Chairman, Taiwan Corner,
Copenhagen, Denmark

The need to defend one’s own
　

Wednesday, Aug 05, 2009, Page 8

Reports on Saturday that two Taiwanese citizens were detained by Chinese police were a stark reminder of the unbridgeable divide between democracy and authoritarianism.

Shao Yuhua (邵玉華), a Falun Gong practitioner who immigrated from China 11 years ago, was taken away, along with her Taiwan-born daughter, while visiting her family in Henan Province, the Taiwan Falun Dafa Association said.

Her sister, a follower of the same spiritual movement, was also detained. Given their faith, it is almost certain that the three were targeted not because of any crime they had committed, but because their religion has been labeled an “evil cult” by Beijing, which flouts its constitutional obligation to honor freedom of religion.

Their detention highlights a problem other governments have encountered: Beijing does not recognize dual or renounced citizenship for Chinese nationals. Even governments like Canada, which China recognizes, have trouble convincing Beijing to respect their right to protect their citizens.

It should therefore come as no surprise that Chinese authorities have no qualms about detaining Taiwanese citizens of Chinese origin.

Nevertheless, action by the Taiwanese government in taking up Shao and her child’s case could be crucial to the fate of the two.

In 2006, Huseyincan Celil — a Uighur activist who fled China, received UN refugee status and was later granted citizenship by the Canadian government — was arrested by Chinese authorities. Celil had been visiting family in Uzbekistan when he was detained and handed over to Xinjiang police at their request.

In the case of Celil, Canada’s swift and persistent diplomatic efforts may have prevented him from being executed. Ottawa sent diplomats to China to lobby for his release and secured a promise from Beijing that he would not be executed. Later, some reports said that Celil was sentenced to death, but that at the last minute the penalty was commuted to life imprisonment.

Celil remains in prison and it seems unlikely that China will yield to Ottawa’s demands for his release. Nevertheless, the decision not to execute him in a country that is almost unsparing with the death penalty was significant.

In the case of Shao and her daughter, Taiwan’s actions could help determine whether the pair will ever be freed.

The arrests illustrate the severity of China’s crackdown on Falun Gong, in which even children are not spared. It is unclear how many people have been sentenced to prison or thrown into the extrajudicial laogai system, in which prisoners have no recourse to courts, their families may not be informed of their whereabouts or sentence, and sentences are subject to arbitrary extension.

If Taipei keeps quiet on Shao’s detention, it will be failing its obligation to protect its citizens. It must push decisively and sincerely for the release of Shao and her daughter.

Unfortunately, given its silence on the oppression of Tibetans and Uighurs, it is unlikely that the administration of President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) will risk angering Chinese authorities by touching on one of the most taboo subjects in China — Falun Gong.

This, however, would only amplify doubts about the priorities of Ma’s cross-strait policies. In all dealings with China, the welfare of Taiwanese citizens must take priority.

A tall tale of two ideological camps
　

By Lin Cheng-Yi 林正義
Wednesday, Aug 05, 2009, Page 8

‘The government used to provoke China’s leaders, but now it does all it can to comply with Beijing’s wishes. In the past, Taiwan maintained contact with figures from China’s democracy movement and people like the Dalai Lama and exiled Uighur leader Rebiya Kadeer, but now we avoid them like the plague.’

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times …” This is the opening line of Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities, describing the turmoil of the French Revolution. The same words could describe the views of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) on the state and direction of relations across the Taiwan Strait.

“A tale of two cities” is an apt description of the gulf between Taiwan’s two ideological camps. The debate over national security has entered a state of upheaval and disintegration.

Is China an enemy or a friend — or a combination of the two?

In the past, the government promoted anti-communism, but no longer. The government used to provoke China’s leaders, but now it does all it can to comply with Beijing’s wishes. In the past, Taiwan maintained contact with figures from China’s democracy movement and people like the Dalai Lama and exiled Uighur leader Rebiya Kadeer, but now we avoid them like the plague.

Now that Taiwan and China are relaxing cross-strait regulations on diplomacy and overseas compatriot affairs, should there be a relaxation in defense matters as well, or should Taiwan maintain sufficient military strength to mount a hedgehog defense?

China has not reduced the number of missiles it has deployed against Taiwan, and it has not renounced the option of using military force against Taiwan.

But 21 retired senior army officers did not let that stop them from visiting China’s Xiamen to chat over a game of golf with 16 retired commanders of the People’s Liberation Army in May.

Another issue the military faces is how to deal with Taiwan-born World Bank senior vice president Justin Lin (林毅夫) should he follow through on his hope to visit Taiwan.

Control Yuan officials have overruled the Ministry of Defense on the affair, but that does not change the fact that Lin defected to China when he was an as army captain on the front line at Kinmen in 1979.

Cross-strait relations are moving ahead quickly, with nine agreements signed between the two sides in just 10 months.

The proud officials responsible for these developments say cross-strait relations are the best they have been since the Nationalist government retreated to Taiwan in 1949.

Although opinion polls show that 90 percent of Taiwanese favor maintaining the “status quo” in cross-strait affairs, relations between Taiwan and China have already changed substantially since the KMT took office in May last year.

The sovereignty aspect of cross-strait relations is not sufficiently transparent.

While government bureaucrats fail to thoroughly assess the implications of these policy changes, the KMT-dominated legislature does not provide effective oversight, and the opposition DPP is busy coping with its own problems.

Ordinary people are bewildered by the changes, and even those who claim to be experts find it hard to keep up.

The short-term improvements in cross-strait relations are not so much because of efforts on the Taiwan side as to shifts in its policies and standpoints.

In the process, Taiwan has lost many of its key bargaining chips, with little in the way of open and objective discussion.

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is growing fonder of the KMT and is taking the opportunity to push cross-strait relations ahead to the extent that any future government will not be able to reverse the process.

While offering the KMT favors in limited and individual cases, Beijing is setting traps for the DPP and taking preventive measures to prepare for its possible return to power. Examples are China’s acceptance of Taiwan’s appointment of a former vice president, Lien Chan (連戰), as its emissary to the APEC forum, allowing Taiwan to attend the World Health Assembly as an observer and its apparent compliance with Taiwan’s diplomatic truce initiative.

If Taiwan does not end the situation where one party — the KMT — has a monopoly on cross-strait relations, the nation will find itself completely adrift when the KMT is no longer in power.

From party-to-party talks between the KMT and the CCP to cross-strait economic and cultural forums and visits by mayors and county commissioners that have been going on for years, the mechanism for dialog in each case is directed by the KMT and the CCP.

Rather than sticking to this formula and just inviting a handful of DPP figures to attend talks with China for the sake of appearance, it would be better to open up lines of communication and debate about China policy within Taiwan, so that the two main parties can figure out how to march separately but strike together.

Although the DPP may decline to participate in KMT-CCP forums, it must improve its research on Chinese affairs to offer an informed analysis of the situation.

Clinging to hard-line standpoints that lack substance is not a persuasive strategy.

While cross-strait relations are improving, the gulf between the two camps in Taiwan is wider than ever.

Politicians can try to rationalize their policies by taking US policy as proof that there is no need to worry that cross-strait relations are developing too quickly, or by using opinion polls to show that most Taiwanese are in favor of maintaining the “status quo,” but none of this can bridge the confidence gap that exists in Taiwan today.

Compared with KMT-CCP detente, a rapprochement between the KMT and the DPP is not only easier, it is far more urgent. Without it, peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait will be as fragile as a house built on sand.

Lin Cheng-yi is director of the Institute of European and American Studies at Academia Sinica.

Prejudice hurts more than choice of wording
　

By Hsu Yu-fang 許又方
Wednesday, Aug 05, 2009, Page 8

Some academics recently demanded that when describing Hoklo, the term minnanyu (閩南語) should be avoided in favor of “Taiwanese” (台語). The reason was that min means “snake” and nan — Chinese for south — implies “barbarian.”

Both implications are obviously derogatory. The demand makes an interesting contrast to the comic strip used by the Ministry of Economic Affairs to explain the economic cooperation framework agreement with China, in which one of the characters is from Tainan and “speaks with a Taiwanese accent.” Will replacing the word minnan with the word “Taiwanese” really eliminate discrimination? And is language discrimination inherent in language itself, or is it created by deliberate manipulation?

Min does mean “snake,” but the question is if “snake” really is discriminatory. In some religions, snakes are seen as a sacred animal and are often worshipped as a totem, as can be seen in the beliefs of Taiwan’s Paiwan and Rukai Aborigines. Snakes are also highly praised in ancient Chinese mythology, in which they were deemed immortal. Some academics even think the dragon, so highly revered in China, was originally a snake. For example, Nuwa (女媧) and Fuxi (伏羲), the brother and sister that are the mythological creators of the Chinese people, are often portrayed as snakes.

I therefore don’t think that the character min is derogatory just because it contains the character chong (虫), an old Chinese word for a kind of poisonous snake. Many people believe that Chinese in the past named peoples in outlying areas after animals as a means of looking down on them, but I would be cautious of this interpretation. An increasing amount of research shows that the formation of these names may have had more to do with the totems and beliefs of these tribes rather than with a wish to liken them to animals.

As for the word nan, the traditional Chinese view sees the north as the political center, so “the south” implies a certain discriminatory attitude. We must not forget, however, that more often it is simply a direction or a location, in the same way Nanjing is named in relation to Beijing.

Both the Ming Dynasty and the government of Republican China used Nanjing as its capital, and they certainly would not have done so had nan been a derogatory term. In addition, The Book of Odes (詩經) contains the chapters The Odes of Zhou and the South (周南) and The Odes of Shao and the South (召南), but academics now think the word here referred to a musical instrument called the nan.

There are also examples in the Analects (論語) of a beautiful concubine named Nanzi (南子), and in the work of the ancient Chinese poet Tao Yuanming (陶淵明) the term “southern mountains,” implying a “retreat” and “leisurely.” I really can’t see how the word nan could be derogatory.

The question of whether the two components of the word minnan are derogatory thus depends on the intent of the user and the interpretation of the recipient. As a Taiwanese born and bred, I have always felt that the word minnan is a geographical name, and that discrimination is not inherent in the two words but a matter of ethnic prejudice created by a certain political ideology.

If we do not eradicate that kind of prejudice, it doesn’t matter what name we use. To clarify whether or not replacing the word minnan with the word “Taiwanese” in and of itself will eradicate this kind of prejudice, just take another look at the Ministry of Economic Affairs’ comic strip and you will have your answer.

Hsu Yu-fang is an associate professor and chairman of the Chinese Department at National Dong Hwa University.