Massive display marks CCP’s 60-year rule
　

LOOK, BUT NOT CLOSELY: Nuclear-capable missiles and other weapons were on show, but ordinary citizens were kept kilometers away from Tiananmen Square

REUTERS, BEIJING, WITH STAFF WRITER
Friday, Oct 02, 2009, Page 1
　

China celebrated its wealth and rising might with a show of goose-stepping troops, gaudy floats and nuclear-capable missiles in Beijing yesterday, 60 years after Mao Zedong (毛澤東) proclaimed its embrace of communism.

Tiananmen Square became a high-tech stage to celebrate the birth of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) on Oct. 1, 1949, with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leadership and guests watching a meticulously disciplined show of national confidence.

Celebrations began in the morning with troops firing cannons and raising the red national flag while President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤), wearing a slate grey “Mao” suit, looked on from the Gate of Heavenly Peace.

Hu descended to Beijing’s main thoroughfare and inspected rows of troops, riding past them in a black limousine and bellowing repeatedly, “Hello comrades, hard-working comrades!”

“From here it was that Chairman Mao solemnly announced the founding of the People’s Republic of China, and from then the Chinese people stood up,” Hu told the guests and troops. “Today a socialist China embracing modernization, embracing the world and embracing the future stands lofty and firm.”
　

The two-hour parade of 8,000 soldiers, tanks and missiles, 60 elaborate floats and 100,000 well-drilled civilians was a proud moment for many Chinese, watching the spectacle across the country on TV. Tiananmen Square was lit up last night with a huge fireworks display.

The government also wanted the day of extraordinary spectacle and security to make the case that its formula of strict one-party control and rapid growth remains the right one for hauling the world’s third-biggest economy into prosperity.
　

The soldiers goose-stepping past at exactly 116 steps a minute carried the theme that the CCP knows how to run a show — and the country.

“The parade is reminiscent of the old Soviet-era May Day parades that bristled with the latest missiles and served as a warning to the US,” said Wendell Minnick, Asia bureau chief of Defense News.

“For many in the US who watch the Chinese military, this is a real intelligence bonanza. Many of the weapons, particularly missiles, have not been seen by the public before. US intelligence analysts will go nuts over the photos,” he said.

“Of particular concern for the US and Japan was the display of the new road-mobile Dong Feng-31 intercontinental ballistic missile [ICBM],” Minnick said.

“China is clearly signaling to the US it has a nuclear strike capability that can hit Washington. Prior silo-based ICBMs such as the aging DF-5 were unreliable and easy for the US to target. But the new road-mobile ICBMs China is producing will be very difficult to locate during a war,” he said.

Short-range Dong Feng 11 and 15 were also displayed, he said, noting that these kinds of missiles were used during the Taiwan missile crisis of 1996.

“The parade is a clear signal to Taiwan. The variety and quality of new arms on display has to be intimidating to Taiwan military officials. China is basically saying to Taiwan independence advocates, ‘forget it, you’re going to lose.’”

But even as the displays celebrated the PRC, security cordons prevented residents from seeing the parade, with central Beijing emptied of all passers-by.

“It’s not really for us ordinary people, is it?” said Wang Chenggong, a migrant worker from Henan Province trying to watch a TV near a crowded streetside stall.

Residents on the parade route were banned from peeking out their windows.

“Go home! Leave now! Go watch TV at home!” a policeman yelled through a bullhorn at a crowd gathering kilometers from the square.

After the military parade, floats lauding China’s history, achievements and regions passed by.

They included a farm produce float with two model cows, one showing China’s space program with a lunar orbiter and an Olympic Games display with a model of the Bird’s Nest stadium.

Advisers’ trips to Beijing criticized
　

By Ko Shu-ling
STAFF REPORTER
Friday, Oct 02, 2009, Page 1

The Presidential Office said yesterday it was inappropriate for presidential advisers to attend Beijing’s celebrations marking 60 years of Chinese Communist Party (CCP) rule in China, but stopped short of denouncing or threatening to punish them.

Presidential Office Spokesman Wang Yu-chi (王郁琦) said that he had been informed that the three presidential advisers in question were indeed in Beijing, but they “should not be there to attend the celebration events.”

“The timing of their visits may be debatable, but it is indeed inappropriate if they did attend the celebration activities,” Wang said

“Things will be cleared up when they return and we will seek to gain a better understanding of the matter, but until then, it is not an issue over which they should resign” he said.

Wang was responding to questions about a report published by the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) that three of President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) national policy advisers had gone to Beijing to attend the People’s Republic of China national day celebrations yesterday.

The newspaper named the three as Kinpo Group chairman Rock Hsu (??, Hsu Wen-bin (?l) and Tsai Hsueh-ni (蔡雪泥).

Wang said that the three, who offer their services free of charge, were not legally bound to inform the Presidential Office of their schedules in advance.

While one of them wrote to the Presidential Office to inform it of his visit to Beijing, Wang said they were not aware of the travel plans of the other two ahead of time.

After learning yesterday morning from the media that the three were in Beijing, Wang said officials telephoned the trio and asked them not to attend the celebrations, adding that the office did not know whether they were there to attend the celebrations to begin with.

When asked whether the advisers would be relieved of their positions if it turned out they had gone to Beijing for the festivities, Wang said he could not answer until it was clear what had happened.

He dismissed the idea of setting clear guidelines for similar situations, saying it would require further assessment.

A high-ranking official who spoke on condition of anonymity said four presidential advisers had been invited to attend yesterday’s celebrations, including Chinese National Federation of Industries (工業總會) chairman Preston Chen (陳武雄).

The official said Hsu Wen-bin had written to the Presidential Office to inform it of his trip to China.

While the office had received the letter, the official said Ma had not been informed of it, adding that the Presidential Office staff had handled the matter “a bit too slowly.”

Presidential Office Secretary-General Liao Liou-yi (廖了以) personally telephoned the four presidential advisers yesterday to talk them out of attending, to which the advisers promised to honor Liao’s request, the official said.

The four officials were among more than 150 “Taiwanese compatriots” who had flown to Beijing at the invitation of the Chinese government.

Meanwhile, Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Chairwoman Lai Shin-yuan (賴幸媛) told a legislative committee yesterday that Rock Hsu, who doubles as Straits Exchange Foundation vice chairman, was in Beijing but did not attend the celebrations.

Lai said that there was no law against someone like Rock Hsu attending the events, but he must take public perception into consideration.

Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) Secretary-General Kao Koong-lian (高孔廉) said at the legislature that Hsu had been invited in his capacity as the chairman of an electronics company and was not representing the foundation.

Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Wu Yu-sheng (吳育昇) urged the trio to resign if they attended the celebrations, saying it was “absurd” for presidential advisers to do so, a call that was echoed by KMT Legislator Chang Hsien-yao (張顯耀) of the Foreign and National Defense Committee.

“It is very inappropriate [for them to take part in the events] as presidential advisers of the Republic of China,” Chang said. “It is inappropriate for anyone serving as a government official or government representative.”

Chang said the events could muddle the national identity of the advisers.

Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Spokesman Chao Tien-lin (趙天麟) said Ma must shoulder the responsibility for the three advisers’ actions.

“Although there is no legal issue regarding their attendance, they are, after all, presidential advisers. But the fact that they are in Beijing, taking part in an event that features Chinese military strength while China still has more than 1,000 missiles pointed at Taiwan” is offensive, he said.

Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Tsai Huang-liang (蔡煌瑯) said: “Even though they are advisers to the president, the four cannot tell the difference between friend and foe.”

KMT caucus secretary-general Lu Hsueh-chang (呂學樟), however, said it was acceptable for advisers to participate in such events as individuals.

“Taiwan is a democracy. I think it is OK for people to join national day celebrations or festivals of other countries,” Lu said.
　

DPP condemns Beijing’s ‘intimidating’ display in Tiananmen Square parade
　

By Jenny W. Hsu and Loa Iok-sin
STAFF REPORTERS
Friday, Oct 02, 2009, Page 1

“The TYC, while reiterating its stand for the complete independence of Tibet, appeals to the world to not allow China’s economic or military might to trump human rights and international law.”— Tibetan Youth Congress statement

China’s ostentatious military parade yesterday in Beijing was “regrettable” and goes against the global trend, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said as it slammed China for trying to intimidate the world by showcasing its military prowess.

Taiwan and China are two separate, independent countries and the DPP fully respects China’s wish to hold a celebration to commemorate the 60th anniversary of Chinese Communist Party rule, DPP spokesman Chao Tien-lin (趙天麟) told a press conference.

“But its elaborate military parade was undoubtedly staged by the Chinese authoritarian regime to show off its military capability to intimidate others. The question is, who and what region are they trying to intimidate? To whom does China want to show off its force?” Chao said.

He said the gesture was no different than imperialistic practices of the 19th century.

The DPP called on Taiwanese media to “exercise self-discipline” while covering the event and said the press must send a clear message to the public on China’s military threat to this country.

Without naming names, Chao criticized coverage of the event by some Taiwanese media outlets that emphasized Beijing’s military might without providing commentaries on Beijing’s potential threat to regional stability.

Taiwan, he said, is an independent, sovereign country that is confronted by China’s ever-growing military menace. The media should transcend political bias to keep the public fully informed of reality, he said.

At a separate setting, when asked to comment on whether China’s parade could be seen as a threat to Taiwan, Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) said the government did not have a say on how China celebrated its national day, but both sides of the Taiwan Strait have developed a common understanding to pursue peaceful development in cross-strait relations.

The Chinese government should face the reality that the two sides of the Strait are under divided rule and that they each should share information in international organizations, Wu said.

While the government was dedicated to pursuing peaceful development of cross-strait relations, it will also seek to develop closer relations with other countries such as the US and Japan and maintain a sufficient self-defense capability, including the purchase of necessary weaponry, he said.

The Dharamsala-based Tibetan Youth Congress (TYC) yesterday condemned China for its celebration of 60 years of Chinese Communist Party rule, calling it a celebration of “60 years of violence, lies, oppression and occupation of Tibet.”

“Since the establishment of the People’s Republic of China ... the Chinese government has not only illegally occupied and colonized Tibet, East Turkistan and Southern [Inner] Mongolia, it has carried out many wrong and disastrous policies that have resulted in the death of more than 30 million Chinese people,” the TYC said in a statement.

The world should be alarmed by China’s display of advanced weaponry in yesterday’s parade, the statement said, calling it a contradiction of Beijing’s claim to the “peaceful rise of China.”

“The TYC, while reiterating its stand for the complete independence of Tibet, appeals to the world to not allow China’s economic or military might to trump human rights and international law,” the statement said.

In related news, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday that all embassies and overseas representative offices have been instructed to cancel the annual reception for Oct. 10 National Day this year in line with the Presidential Office’s decision to cancel the fanfare in Taipei this year because of Typhoon Morakot.

More than NT$60 million (US$1.9 million) would be saved by not holding the annual receptions and this money will be given to the Morakot relief fund, the ministry’s deputy spokesman James Chang (章計平) said.

New probes of co-defendants in Chen trial
　

REQUEST: When it handed down its judgment, the Taipei District Court asked prosecutors to investigate a number of co-defendants on other potential charges

By Shelley Huang
STAFF REPORTER
Friday, Oct 02, 2009, Page 3

The prosecutors in the cases against former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) yesterday said they would investigate several co-defendants and witnesses on suspicion of perjury or being accomplices in crimes linked to the former first family.

On Sept. 11, the Taipei District Court found Chen and his wife Wu Shu-jen (吳淑珍) guilty of corruption, forgery, embezzlement, money laundering and other crimes and sentenced them to life in prison and fines totaling NT$500 million (US$16 million).

INVESTIGATION

When it handed down its judgment, the district court also asked the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office and the Special Investigation Panel (SIP) of the Supreme Prosecutor’s Office to investigate several co-defendants and witnesses on suspicion of participation in additional crimes.

Among those listed, Chen’s son Chen Chih-chung (陳致中), his daughter Chen Hsing-yu (陳幸妤) and her husband Chao Chien-ming (趙建銘) were named as possible accomplices in embezzlement by the former first couple. Judges suspect them for giving Wu receipts for their personal expenses, allegedly to collect reimbursements from the presidential “state affairs fund.”

District judges also requested an investigation into whether former deputy secretary-general Ma Yung-cheng (馬永成) and former Presidential Office director Lin Teh-hsun (林德訓) committed perjury when questioned about the state affairs fund.

Lin is also suspected of asking the former first family’s bookkeeper Chen Chen-hui (陳鎮慧) to give false testimony when put on the stand.

Ma and Lin were found guilty by the district court of helping the former first family embezzle money from public funds and were sentenced to 20 years and 16 years respectively. Their civil rights were suspended for 10 and eight years respectively.

AIT DIRECTOR

In related news, a number of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators yesterday criticized American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) Director William Stanton after Stanton allegedly expressed concerns about the trial of former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁).

KMT Legislator Lo Shu-lei (羅淑蕾) claimed Stanton was trying to save the former president because Stanton had a “secret agreement” with Chen Shui-bian. Lo did not elaborate or present evidence to back her claim.

“Who are you, Stanton? Are you Taiwan’s leader or commander-in-chief? How can you interfere in Taiwan’s internal affairs?” Lo told reporters, adding that Chen Shui-bian’s trial was not Stanton’s concern.

KMT Legislator Chiu Yi (邱毅) questioned the appropriateness of Stanton allegedly commenting on the case.

The legislators’ remarks came after Minister of Justice Wang Ching-feng (王清峰) told reporters after Stanton’s visit on Wednesday that Stanton had said that “people overseas had some different thoughts” on Chen Shui-bian’s trial.

Wang said she told Stanton that the judiciary had been transparent, fair and just in handling Chen Shui-bian’s case. The judiciary is willing to talk to any US academics who have concerns, she said.

During the meeting, Wang also called on the US government to assist Taiwan with the return of 75 Taiwanese fugitives in the US.

UPSET

KMT Legislator Chang Hsien-yao (張顯耀) of the legislature’s Foreign and National Defense Committee accused Stanton of seeking to meddle in the judiciary.

“We need to have the Ministry of Foreign Affairs look into this and express our stance on the issue to the US,” Chang said.

At a separate setting yesterday, Wang said Stanton had not “interfered with” Chen Shui-bian’s trial.

“Stanton was saying that some foreign press and experts had different views [of the case],” Wang said when approached by reporters at the KMT headquarters.

“Stanton was only giving us a reminder and stating the truth. There is no interference,” she said.

Ex-official calls for probe of Premier Wu
　

By Shelley Huang
STAFF REPORTER
Friday, Oct 02, 2009, Page 3

A former Yilan County official yesterday requested that prosecutors probe Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) and his assistants on suspicion of corruption and forgery after Wu’s trip to Hong Kong last month.

Lin Chin-kun (林錦坤), a former Yuanshan Village (員山) representative, yesterday morning mailed a written request to the Supreme Prosecutor’s Office Special Investigation Panel (SIP) requesting an investigation into whether Wu and his assistants used diplomatic affairs funds to pay for the trip to Hong Kong, the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) reported.

Since assuming office, Wu has been bombarded with questions regarding the short trip he made early last month after President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) asked him to take the job but before his appointment was announced on Sept. 6.

Inconsistent explanations were offered by government officials concerning the purpose of Wu’s trip.

It was also revealed that he originally concealed a meeting with Peter Kwok (郭炎), a member of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference. Wu also met the man many see as Beijing’s preferred candidate for the territory’s next chief executive, Leung Chun-ying (梁振英).

Wu said last month that he visited Hong Kong to consult a fortune teller. However, he was then confronted by a Democratic progressive Party (DPP) legislator who produced proof that he was reimbursed with NT$160,000 in diplomatic affairs funds for the trip. Wu said he had not signed any expense forms and would give the money back.

Lin said he suspected Wu and his assistants of corruption and forgery because if the trip was not for official business, Wu should not have used public funds.

Lin also expressed suspicion over how the expenses were approved and the money transferred into Wu’s personal bank account if Wu did not sign the necessary paperwork to apply for a reimbursement.

The SIP declined to comment yesterday, saying they had yet to receive Lin’s written request.

In response, Wu yesterday said that he did not use public funds for his trip and denied that he had lied.

Wu said his legislative assistants had sought the reimbursement on Sept. 7 without his knowledge and that signatures were not required for such reimbursements.

“I returned the money to the legislature on Sept. 14,” he said.
　

Wu explains Kadeer 'ban'
　

REPRESSIVE REGIME: The president's mentor called the decision to refuse Rebiya Kadeer a visa 'ridiculous,' while activists screened her biopic nationwide yesterday
　

By Shih Hsiu-chuan and Loa Iok-sin
STAFF REPORTERS
Friday, Oct 02, 2009, Page 4
　

Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) said yesterday that exiled Uighur rights activist Rebiya Kadeer was welcome to visit Taiwan under the condition that Dolkun Isa steps down as World Uyghur Congress (WUC) secretary-general, or if Kadeer resigns as the organization’s president.

Wu made the remarks at a press conference when asked by reporters if the government’s decision to bar Kadeer visiting Taiwan was to avoid irritating Beijing.

Wu said the government made the decision because of Kadeer’s “close working relationship” at the WUC with Isa, whom Wu said was closely related to two terrorist groups by Interpol.

When told that New York University law professor Jerome Cohen — President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) professor at Harvard University — had described the government’s decision not to allow Kadeer to visit as “ridiculous,” Wu said he respected different opinions, but added: “The interests of the country and the public are not understood by people who take no responsibility for the country and who do not live in the country.”

Meanwhile, several civic and human rights groups held screenings of a documentary on Kadeer around the country yesterday on the same day the People’s Republic of China celebrated the 60th anniversary of its founding.

“We picked Oct. 1 because we wanted to remind the world that the Chinese regime is still repressing the peoples of East Turkestan and Tibet,” said Chow Mei-li (周美里), chairwoman of the Taiwan Friends of Tibet, which co-hosted the screening at the Da-an District Administration Center in Taipei.

Besides showing the documentary on Kadeer, The 10 Conditions of Love, another documentary, Leaving Fear Behind, was also shown in which Tibetans inside Tibet speak out against Chinese rule.

The footage in Leaving Fear Behind was smuggled out of Tibet and director Dhondup Wangchen has been jailed since March last year for making the film.

By showing the films, Chow said she wanted to remind the world that Kadeer’s four children in Xinjiang were in prison because of their mother’s activism and that Dhondup was also still in custody.

“We call on the world to pressure China for their release,” she said.

Besides the screening at the Da-an District Administration Center, screenings were held at Taipei City Council, in Taichung, Tainan, Kaohsiung and Pingtung yesterday.

In related news, Taiwanese actor Aaron Chen (陳昭榮) came under fire over a blog entry that called the screening of The 10 Conditions of Love a provocative act intended to harm cross-strait relations and urged “all Chinese to stand united” for the prosperity of China.

“After so many years [of separation], the two sides [of the Taiwan Strait] have finally entered a honeymoon period and I hope no one will try to damage hard-earned cross-strait harmony for their own personal interests,” Chen said in a blog entry posted last week. “Showing the documentary on Kadeer is an attempt by some people to destroy the peaceful development of cross-strait relations ... As a Chinese, would anyone support the separatist acts of Kadeer?”

Chen compared those who pushed the screening to members of the Boxer Rebellion, an anti-imperialist uprising in China at the turn of the 20th century.

“We should all work together to make the Chinese a proud people,” Chen said.

Despite the comments, he said at the end of the blog entry that he didn’t understand politics and that “artists should not get involved in politics.”

Although the entry was posted last week, many Internet users only found out about it yesterday and started to distribute it via e-mail and on social networking sites, saying they were disappointed and calling Chen’s remarks “shameful.”

Aaron Chen did not respond to the criticism, but he did remove the blog entry.

KMT facing crisis of confidence

Friday, Oct 02, 2009, Page 8

How quickly things can change in politics. From landslide victories in the legislative and presidential elections just 18 months ago, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) now finds itself in a crisis of confidence following a spate of defeats and infighting ahead of December’s local elections.

The run started back in March when the KMT lost a legislative by-election in the pan-blue stronghold of Miaoli. Many dismissed it as a blip, but when the party’s preferred candidate for Hualien County commissioner — former minister of health Yeh Ching-chuan (葉金川) — quit his job in August to take part in the race and then promptly lost the party primary despite substantial gerrymandering to give him the best possible chance of victory, people suddenly began to take notice.

Fast forward to the KMT’s crushing defeat in the Yunlin legislative by-election on Saturday — a vote the party would have lost by a considerable margin even without a pan-blue split.

Now, with the party’s candidate for Yunlin County commissioner dropping out and the Hualien deputy commissioner leaving the party to run as an independent and challenge the KMT candidate, party figures must be beginning to worry.

A KMT defeat in the upcoming Nantou legislative by-election could turn into a full-blown crisis for the party, with the year-end elections just weeks away.

Outgoing KMT Chairman Wu Poh-hsiung (吳伯雄) this week brushed aside concerns of a crisis, saying the infighting was just part of local politics and the party would continue its reform efforts and choose candidates who possess “integrity and a clean image.” That certainly wasn’t the case in Miaoli, however, and the party was punished for choosing the wife of the candidate convicted of vote-buying.

As Wu said, the problems may all be the result of local factionalism, but the party cannot and should not rule out the effect the shoddy performance of the central government is having on the populace.

The recent record-low approval ratings of President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and his Cabinet reflect a general unhappiness with the state of the nation and this cannot have helped the party’s image at the local level. A couple of years ago, local election candidates were queuing up to have their campaign poster photos taken with Ma; this year, such posters are conspicuous by their absence.

The president’s reputation may have taken a battering because of the failures exposed by Typhoon Morakot, but there was also a growing sense of disappointment in Ma’s presidency and lack of leadership even before August’s troubles.

Ma’s first 18 months in power have disappointed many. He has failed to live up to his promises of Taiwan-centric governance and economic success, often appearing weak and indecisive, while his policy of putting the nation’s economy and future prosperity in hock to China has only weakened his position.

The decision to take on the chairmanship of the unruly beast that is the KMT is only likely to further undermine his image.

Like it or not, Ma was instrumental in the party’s resurgence after years of electoral disappointment, but even the most popular politicians only have a shelf life of a handful of years. Displays of poor leadership, as Ma has done, can rapidly reduce that shelf life and drag the party down with it.

That is the price you pay when you rule in a democracy.

Voters made the right choice
　

Friday, Oct 02, 2009, Page 8

Voters made the right choices in electing the Democratic Progressive Party’s candidate for Yunlin’s County’s legislative by-election and in voting against a plan to allow casinos in the Penghu referendum (“A double loss for Ma and his party,” Sept 28, page 8).

These are two major blows to the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) after the government’s poor response to Typhoon Morakot, which left hundreds dead and homeless. President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) has said that he “treats” Aborigines like people. Unfortunately, his words are not matched by action. He did not mobilize the military to rescue victims in time and initially declined foreign assistance. National defense and foreign affairs are two of the three major responsibilities of the president of Taiwan.

The other presidential responsibility concerns relations with China. Ma’s policy is too much inclined toward China. His official title of president (總統) has been replaced by Mr (先生). He considers Taiwan part of China and has given up application for UN membership. He wants to put Taiwan under China’s economic control by signing an economic cooperation framework agreement. He hides the Republic of China (ROC) flags during meetings and events with Beijing. He tried to convert the ROC into the Republic of Casino, but Penghu residents rejected that idea.

Ma has also confused Taiwanese and the rest of the world. If Taiwan is a democracy, why does Ma worship dictators? If he worships dictators, why doesn’t he follow their anti-communist attitude? If Ma loved Taiwan during the presidential election, why does he love China now? If Tibet is a part of the ROC, why does the Dalai Lama, an exiled Tibetan, have to apply for a visa to go there? If former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) is sentenced to life, why was Ma acquitted after pocketing part of the mayoral funds during his term as Taipei mayor? If Ma thought the KMT stolen assets should be nullified, why doesn’t he do something about it?

CHARLES HONG
Columbus, Ohio

Love affair with Beijing

There’s an old saying. If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck and looks like a duck, it must be a duck.

Ma and his band of merry communist sympathizers have finally dropped all pretense, and he has led our government into the shadow of China’s tyranny. It is a sad day for democracy and freedom when the government of Taiwan joins a totalitarian dictatorship in calling Rebiya Kadeer, a supporter of human rights, a “terrorist.”

In fact, some in President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) party compared Rebiya Kadeer to Hitler and Osama Bin Laden. Has the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) sunk so low as to have become entangled not only in Beijing’s economic claws, but to have become ensnared in its ideological evils as well? Indeed it has.

Finally, the mask is off, and Ma and his cronies have taken their true forms, that of true supporters of the dictatorship in Beijing and enemies of freedom. Given the record of the Ma government, we have seen the decline of freedom and human rights in Taiwan, and a helter-skelter rush toward a deep and abiding respect and admiration for the totalitarian regime in Beijing, beginning apparently with a wholesale adoption of Beijing’s list of enemies.

Ma and the KMT have come to believe that “the friend of my friend is my friend, and the enemy of my friend is my enemy,” only they got the concepts mixed up. The Ma government has not only made startling negative statements about the Dalai Lama and Rebiya Kadeer, but have actually parroted Beijing’s vitriol.

How long before Taiwan can count North Korea, Myanmar, Vietnam and Iran among its best friends, and Tibet, Japan and the US among its new worst enemies? China. In their rush to appease China and make money, many in the international community have unwittingly helped Ma and the KMT in their efforts to extinguish the torch of freedom here.

We can only hope it is not too late to rescue our precious freedom from Ma’s love affair with Beijing.

LEE LONG-HWA,
New York

China trades on communist heritage for anniversary
　

Four years ago, Beijing launched a drive to promote ‘red tourism’ in hopes of reinvigorating the ‘national ethos’ of visitors and the economies of mostly poor, landlocked areas

By Tania Branigan
THE GUARDIAN, YAN’AN, CHINA
Friday, Oct 02, 2009, Page 9

“Every time I’m depressed in work and daily life, or I feel under pressure, I come here to look for [Mao Zedong’s] spirit.”
— Geng Jianchan, Chinese citizen

The bullet tore through Mao Guangrong’s back and came out through his groin. It took five men to hold him down as they stuffed the wound with cloth to staunch the bleeding — the only treatment the troops could muster as they struggled to defend the communist base at Yan’an.

But nine months later, he was back in battle against the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) troops.

It was simple: If the People’s Liberation Army won the civil war, “we could have shelter and land. And we wouldn’t suffer starvation. And we wouldn’t be oppressed,” he said.

Mao, now 90, would have given his life for the cause. But for youthful compatriots, reliving his experience comes somewhat cheaper — a 68 yuan (US$9.95) ticket to the Defense of Yan’an re-enactment, held on a site northwest of his care home at 11am each day.

Tourists clamp their hands to their ears as explosions rend the air. The ground shakes and smoke billows from craters as soldiers dash across the field, red flags fluttering prettily in the breeze. For an extra 10 yuan, spectators can even dress up and participate.

As China celebrated the 60th anniversary of party rule yesterday, its communist heritage was good business — and nowhere more so than in Yan’an, the “holy land of the revolution.”

Four years ago, Beijing launched a drive to promote “red tourism,” believing it would reinvigorate the “national ethos” of visitors and the economies of mostly poor, landlocked areas such as this city in Shaanxi Province; Shaoshan, Chinese leader Mao Zedong’s (毛澤東) Hunan Province hometown; and Xibaipo in Hebei Province, another communist base. As elsewhere in modern China, capitalism marches in step with the political status quo.

According to official — perhaps generous — statistics, visits to individual sites reached 272 million last year, an increase of more than 18 percent year-on-year; while income from red tourism rose to 124 billion yuan, up 35 percent.

Authorities expect a further boost in the coming week-long national holiday, thanks to the anniversary.

The battle re-enactment usually attracts a few hundred spectators; on a bad day, the cast outnumbers the audience. But the owners are expanding seating to cope with up to 2,000 visitors daily.

Yan’an is now a sprawling, dusty and charmless city, with two KFC outlets, Western sportswear shops and scores of high-rise construction sites.

But for a decade, from 1937, this provincial town was a beacon for leftwingers around the world. Works such as Edgar Snow’s Red Star Over China depicted it as an egalitarian utopia.

Mao Guangrong joined the Red Army as a destitute 15-year-old orphan reared in a brutal, hierarchical society where men could kill their wives with impunity and ruthless landlords could seize grain and leave farmers to starve.

Now he was rubbing shoulders with the future rulers of China.

“Chairman Mao was a very simple person — he didn’t wear smart clothes. He used old clothes we made ourselves and they had patches. After he finished his meals, he would walk out and talk to ordinary people ... It wasn’t like now, when it’s so difficult to meet leaders,” he said.

It is hard to imagine what its former denizens would make of Yan’an today. At Mao Zedong’s former home at Zaoyuan, you can buy postcards, tobacco tins and keyrings depicting the Great Helmsman.

Vendors sell Pepsi and Seven-Up and benches are sponsored by China Mobile: about 700 million people in China have mobiles today. Visitors pull up in gleaming cars; vehicle ownership is surging and Credit Suisse predicts it will rise fivefold in the next decade.

For 15 yuan, you can be photographed as a dutiful cadre in a blue jacket and trousers far smarter than the late chairman’s.

“It gives me a patriotic feeling,” said Ma Xiaoyu, a teenage shop assistant from a nearby city, pulling off the uniform and smoothing her fashionable haircut. “We came because we really wanted a look at how Chairman Mao and those leaders lived in those times. They built up the new China, so we need to remember them.”

Her friend Xu Ru — teetering on shiny leopard-print stilettos and clutching a souvenir Mao Zedong medallion — nodded appreciatively.

This is precisely the kind of sentiment officials like to hear. They launched the red tourism drive with a promise to inspire young people and “consolidate their faith in pursuing the road of socialism with Chinese characteristics.”

A reported 2,000 visitors a day inspect historical artifacts at Yan’an’s new revolutionary memorial hall and pose for snapshots beneath its huge Mao statue.

But many work for the government or state-owned firms and are shipped in by their work units.

Civil servant Xue Zhongmei was on an outing with 150 colleagues.

“Yes, it was interesting. And after we go back, we will write essays studying it from the scientific development point of view,” she said brightly.

Russell Leigh Moses, a Beijing-based analyst, said that “it says something about red tourism that the party has to be so full square behind it. Twenty years ago, people would go to these sites by themselves.”

Now it was “a loyalty test,” he said.

With signs for features such as the “irrigation canal of happiness,” this might seem unsurprising.

But others find the sites stirring. Geng Jianchan was celebrating his fourth visit to the town by buying not one but three gold busts of Mao Zedong from a vendor outside the chairman’s cave-house.

“Every time I’m depressed in work and daily life, or I feel under pressure, I come here to look for his spirit,” said the 40-year-old, who lives a five-hour drive away.

Despite his praise for Mao Zedong’s “social fairness,” Geng seemed baffled by the notion of any disjuncture with today’s rampant capitalism and soaring inequality.

The leader’s ideals were just as relevant to contemporary businessmen like him, he said.

“It’s his spirit of never being defeated and fighting hard when in difficulties. He experienced ups and downs. That always encourages me,” he said.

This depoliticized version of class struggle can embrace everyone.

“We came here to study the experience of our ancestors,” Dou Jingzhe said as he waited for the battle re-enactment to begin.

But the 33-year-old Beijing businessman shook with laughter when asked if his grandparents were red soldiers.

“Our family were the landlords,” he said.

Their factories and homes were confiscated, he said, adding cautiously: “I feel it was a little unfair.”

In a ruthless age, many suffered worse fates.

“After one village had turned red, we would start the propaganda work about what should be done next; what kind of people should be killed — despotic gentry, [harsh] landlords and local tyrants,” Mao Guangrong recalled. “Also, beggars needed to be killed, because they didn’t live on their own labor.”

“It was very easy to kill somebody. If you said anything reactionary they would kill you and if you didn’t follow their leadership they killed you,” he said.

But to him, the party’s achievements are almost innumerable: advanced military technology, women’s rights, education. Unable to recognize a single character, he is proud that his grand and great grandchildren can read, “so their minds are more open than mine.”

Above all, there is food now, and plenty of it. He wolfed down his dinner of noodles with relish.

“Life is so good now, couldn’t be better,” he said. “When I was little, people ate the husks [of rice] and wild greens.”

There was mass starvation in the 1940s as corrupt KMT officials siphoned off foreign aid. But tens of millions would starve in the new China, too. Mao’s Great Leap Forward, intended to send industrial and farming output soaring, led to the Great Famine.

On one estimate, 36 million were persecuted in the Cultural Revolution and hundreds of thousands killed. They included people who had devoted their lives to the party.

“How many hard-working farmers died of starvation during the last 60 years? How many mistakes were made? How many good and honest people have died?” Bao Tong (鮑彤), once a senior official and now a dissident, wrote last week.

“The long-term, nationally pervasive mistakes of the last 60 years were all led by and planned by the Communist Party,” said Bao, the most senior figure jailed over the 1989 protests in Tiananmen Square in Beijing.

Though the party has admitted errors — Mao Zedong’s policies were only “70 percent correct” — no one expects the reassessment Bao demands, least of all in this anniversary year.

The founding of the new China is celebrated and so too are the achievements of the last 30 years, since Deng Xiaoping (鄧小平) launched “reform and opening,” transforming the country’s economy.

But between them lies a large black hole, which will not be filled by the history promoted along the red tourism trail.

“There’s no political pay off behind reinvestigation,” Moses said. “This is not a party seeking catharsis. They want congratulation.”