Obama foes call Nobel win an ‘embarrassment’
　

'STAR POWER': Republican National Committee head Michael Steele accused Obama of having celebrity status but no ‘real achievements’ to merit the award

AFP, WASHINGTON
Sunday, Oct 11, 2009, Page 1

US President Barack Obama’s conservative foes pounced on his Nobel Prize win on Friday as an opportunity to lambast his record and alleged celebrity status overseas.

The prize may have placed Obama alongside Nelson Mandela, Mother Teresa and Martin Luther King, but it did little to stem a flood of acrimonious political debate that courses through Washington.

Meanwhile, a US official said Obama will give his US$1.4 million reward for the prize to charity.

No decision has been made yet on which organizations will benefit, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said.

Republicans and conservatives derided the Nobel committee’s decision to award its venerated peace prize to the 48-year-old president as “unfortunate” and an “embarrassment.”

Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele accused Obama of having celebrity status but no “real achievements” that merited the award.

“The real question Americans are asking is, ‘what has President Obama actually accomplished?’” Steele said in a statement.

“It is unfortunate that the president’s star power has outshined tireless advocates who have made real achievements working towards peace and human rights,” Steele said.

“One thing is certain — President Obama won’t be receiving any awards from Americans for job creation, fiscal responsibility, or backing up rhetoric with concrete action,” Steele said.

Republican Representative Gresham Barrett was also critical.

“I’m not sure what the international community loved best: his waffling on Afghanistan, pulling defense missiles out of Eastern Europe, turning his back on freedom fighters in Honduras, coddling Castro, siding with Palestinians against Israel, or almost getting tough on Iran,” he said.

“Hopefully, this surprise award will give the President cause to re-evaluate his current course,” he said.

The announcement, which came in the early hours of Friday in Washington, also dominated conservative media chatter.

Radio host Rush Limbaugh, who attracts millions with his trademark brand of right-wing invective, said the win “fully exposes the illusion that is Barack Obama.”

“They love a weakened, neutered US and this is their way of promoting that concept,” he said in an e-mail to Politico.com.

Fellow conservative commentator Glenn Beck, host of a popular show on Fox News, posted his response to Obama’s win on Twitter.

“Nobel Prize committee awards its 1st ‘participation’ trophy,” he tweeted.

Some moderate Republicans lauded the win.

Mike Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas and one-time candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, cautioned his conservative colleagues against “right-wing whining,” while taking a swing at Obama.

“There will be an outcry from those on the right who will say that Obama’s nomination, made two weeks into his presidency, is impossible to justify, but I think such an outcry will sound like right-wing whining,” he wrote in a blog post.

“The better response is simply to allow those on the left to explain what he did in his first two weeks as president that merited such recognition,” he wrote.

Chinese tourists stay away from southern Taiwan in thousands
　

STRONGHOLD: Chinese tour groups gave no reason for staying up north, but the south is known as a stronghold of the DPP’s independence sentiment

STAFF WRITER, WITH CNA
Sunday, Oct 11, 2009, Page 3
　

A Chinese company is planning to send 9,500 of its employees and their family members to Taiwan on a sightseeing tour later this month, but they will not visit southern Taiwan, Taiwanese officials said.

Officials from the National Immigration Agency (NIA) and the Tourism Bureau said yesterday that the tourists from Beijing’s Pro-Health company would be divided into seven groups, the first of which would arrive in Taiwan via Hong Kong on Oct. 30.

The groups will have a choice of two tours during their seven-day visit, the itinerary Pro-Health sent to the Tourism Bureau and NIA said.

One tour would take the visitors to central Taiwan immediately after arriving at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport. They would then travel to Taipei before heading home.

The second choice would allow the tourists to first visit Taipei, then drive to central Taiwan where they would visit Sun Moon Lake and other tourist attractions.

The travel plans do not include southern Taiwan, the officials said without giving a reason for the exclusion. In March, when more than 10,000 employees and sales representatives of the Chinese branch of the international marketing company Amway came to Taiwan on a cruise, they did not visit southern Taiwan either.

At the time, the company said the groups only had only three days to tour Taiwan, so it would be impractical to include Kaohsiung Harbor in the itinerary.

Southern Taiwan is known to be a stronghold of the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party.

Taiwanese celebrate Double-Ten
　

By Jenny W. hsu
STAFF REPORTER
Sunday, Oct 11, 2009, Page 3

Despite the absence of the usual formal festivities to celebrate the Republic of China’s (ROC) 98th national day this year, many overseas Taiwanese held their own celebrations to commemorate the day, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said yesterday.

In early August, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) announced the cancellation of all ­government-sponsored national day celebrations and receptions after Typhoon Morakot swept through southern Taiwan. The money that would have been spent by overseas representative offices and embassies for the national day, estimated at around NT$70 million (US$2.1 ­million) by MOFA, would be transferred to the flood relief fund, MOFA deputy spokesman James Chang (章計平) said.

However, even without the the celebrations, many Taiwanese nationals residing abroad managed to find ways to express their patriotism, director-general of the ministry’s Department in European Affairs Chiu Jong-jen (邱宗仁) said.

In Paris, several dozen musically talented Taiwanese held a concert to mark the day, he said, adding that in countries such as the UK and Germany, where there are large populations of Taiwanese, several fundraising parties were held in lieu of a reception to collect money for ­typhoon victims.

MOFA also reported that about 50 people attended a flag-raising ceremony in Dublin last Saturday.

Taiwan’s embassy in Nicaragua joined hands with Casa de los Tres Mundos — a cultural center in the city of Granada — to hold a photo exhibition featuring pictures of Taiwan’s natural landscape, cultures and customs as a way to celebrate the country’s vitality and beauty, said MOFA, adding that in San Paulo, Brazil, more than 100 Taiwanese celebrated the occasion by holding a singing competition last Saturday.

Close to 300 Taiwanese in Portland, Oregon, held a dinner on Tuesday to celebrate Double Ten Day as well as to raise money for a local Chinese school. The event was attended by Daniel Liao (廖東周), director-general of the Taiwan Economic and Cultural Office in Seattle, as well as many prominent Taiwanese leaders and officials from the Overseas Compatriot Affairs Commission, the office said.

On the same day in San Francisco about 200 people gathered in front of Oakland City Hall to hold a flag-raising ceremony for the ROC flag in front of a crowd that sang the Flag Song (國旗歌), followed by the ROC national anthem and the US national anthem.

About 1,000 people showed up at the Taiwan School in Ho Chi Min City, Vietnam, to pay tribute to the ROC flag last Sunday, MOFA said.
　

MOI denies sharing its marine survey with China
　

By Loa Iok-sin
STAFF REPORTER
Sunday, Oct 11, 2009, Page 3

The Ministry of the Interior (MOI) yesterday denied allegations from Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Wong Chin-chu (翁金珠) that the government shared the results of a marine survey with China.

“The continental shelf survey initiated by the MOI was to survey the undersea landscape and geological resources, which is aimed at protecting our country’s rights in our waters,” the MOI said in a press statement released yesterday. “The data gathered from the research and the results are deeply connected to our sovereignty and national interest — therefore it is not possible that we would share the data with other countries.”

“It is absolutely not possible that the results would be leaked in any way either,” the statement said.

The statement said China had claimed sovereignty of the East China Sea to the UN based on the fact that the underwater continental shelf is an extension of its coast line, “but China did not base its claim on data provided by Taiwan, and it has always claimed so.”

The ministry said the government would follow up on the development and make appropriate responses when necessary.

The MOI was referring to allegations that Wong made during a question-and-answer session on the legislative floor on Friday that researchers in a team organized by the National Science Council for a marine survey had shared their results with China’s State Council after being told to do so by Su Chi (蘇起), National Security Council secretary-general.

She said information about marine meteorology, the continental shelf, ocean temperatures and marine biology were given to China and that China had registered the information with the UN.

Wong voiced her concern that the move, if true, would cause serious damage to Taiwan’s sovereignty.

At the time, Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義), who was being questioned by Wong, said he was not aware of the issue and would look into it.

N Korea wants to ease standoff, China says

REUTERS, BEIJING
Sunday, Oct 11, 2009, Page 5

North Korea wants to ease a standoff with the US, Japan and South Korea, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao (溫家寶) told East Asian neighbors at a summit focused on Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons and on regional integration.

At the meeting yesterday, China, Japan and South Korea vowed to seek an early restart to six-party talks aimed at ending North Korea’s nuclear weapons ambitions, and to push an ambitious idea to eventually create an “East Asian community,” promoted by Japanese Prime Minister, Yukio Hatoyama.

Wen, who was in North Korea last Sunday to Tuesday, said Pyongyang wanted to ease strains, following sanctions and months of contention sparked by its second ever nuclear test in May.

“North Korea does not only hope to improve relations with the United States, it also hopes to do so with South Korea and Japan,” Wen told a news conference after the meeting in Beijing with Hatoyama and South Korean President Lee Myung-bak.

Wen said the chance to revive six-party nuclear disarmament talks including Pyongyang would not last.

“If we miss this opportunity, then we may have to make even more efforts further down the road,” he said.

The three East Asian leaders also vowed to work together for closer regional economic integration, aiming eventually for a bloc something like the EU.

“The three countries remain committed to the development of an East Asian community based on the principles of openness, transparency and inclusiveness as a long term goal,” said a joint statement the leaders issued at the meeting’s end.

Their vows to cooperate on North Korea and economic growth are unlikely to make any immediate difference. But they underscored the growing pull for the three Asian powers to set aside some of their friction and rivalry as they struggle to surmount the global economic slump.

The joint show of unity may also increase pressure on North Korea to restart nuclear negotiations.

Wen said the three nations would “join hands to address the international financial crisis, climate change and other global challenges.”

The combined GDP of Japan, China and South Korea accounts for 16 percent of the world’s total output, with Japan and China respectively the world’s second and third-biggest economies.

In April, a month before its second nuclear test, North Korea said the six-party talks between the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the US were defunct.

It walked away from the talks last December.

This week, North Korean leader Kim Jong-il offered Wen a heavily hedged statement that his government could return to multilateral negotiations, possibly the six-party talks, provided it first saw satisfactory progress in any two-way talks with the US.

“We support the United States and North Korea holding conscientious and constructive dialogue,” Wen said on Saturday. “We also support enhanced contacts between North Korea and both Japan and South Korea.”

Washington has said it is open to talks with Pyongyang as long as that leads to a resumption of the six-party negotiations.

A senior North Korean nuclear envoy, Ri Gun, plans to visit the US later this month, opening the way to possible two-way talks, a South Korean broadcaster reported on Friday.

After Wen spoke, Lee and Hatoyama also said they were open to engaging North Korea.

However, both sounded a cautious note and stressed that any two-way talks had to be just a warm-up for the six-party negotiations.

The three also highlighted hopes for deeper regional economic cooperation. They also said they would oppose trade protectionism and seek progress in the Doha round of trade talks.

Lee proposed a permanent office to examine better cooperation among the three, an idea Hatoyama endorsed.

China is now Japan’s biggest trading partner, and the second largest export destination after the US.

South Korea, meanwhile, was Japan’s third-biggest export market last year.

Hatoyama took office on Sept. 16 after his Democratic Party trounced the long-dominant Liberal Democratic Party.

He has said he wants better relations with Beijing.

Ties between Japan and China have long been strained by distrust over history, sea boundary disputes and worries over China’s growing military and political clout.

Ma’s wavering stance on defense
　

By Liu Shih-chung 劉世忠
Sunday, Oct 11, 2009, Page 8

‘Apart from causing the armed forces to lower their guard toward China, [President Ma Ying-jeou’s] actions have led the international community to question how serious Taiwan is about increasing its defense capabilities.’

US President Barack Obama has broken with a tradition of almost 20 years by overturning a decision by national security officials to let the US president “meet by chance” with the spiritual leader of Tibet, the Dalai Lama, who is currently visiting Washington. There are reasons for this decision, which may affect US-Taiwan relations.

In late July, the Obama administration met leaders from Beijing at the first ever US-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue in Washington, where a preliminary consensus was reached on issues such as the global financial crisis, climate change, North Korea and anti-terrorism.

This was followed by Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) meeting twice last month — at the UN and at the G20 summit in Pittsburgh. Hu visited North Korea early this month and tried to persuade North Korean leader Kim Jong-il to make concessions, while Obama is set to make his first visit to China in the middle of next month. These arrangements are aimed at strengthening US-China ties and substantial collaborative achievements at the second US-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue next summer.

Democrats and Republicans agree that engaging China is necessary. Republicans believe caution and engagement should be given equal weight, while the Obama administration has gone to great lengths to promote dialogue and interaction at the senior level. Although Obama almost set off a trade war between the US and China after demanding tariffs be imposed on tires imported from China — a debate the White House then tried to soothe via senior channels — at the UN General Assembly last month, he sent clear messages about multilateralism, encouraging US allies to engage China and encouraging Beijing to become a responsible stakeholder.

With China’s human rights abuses, suppression of Tibet and marginalization of Taiwan, it is not surprising that Obama has decided not to meet the Dalai Lama. Under President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration, cross-strait relations are relatively stable, which means the government is not causing any worries for Obama, who is currently focused on US domestic healthcare and economic issues. Although the Ma administration has expressed — through the legislature and the Ministry of National Defense’s (MND) participation in the US-Taiwan Defense Industry Conference — its strong wish to procure F-16C/D fighter jets, the Obama administration remains quiet on the issue.

US policymakers are also worried about causing uncertainty in US-China relations. They are worried that any new decisions about arms sales to Taiwan could hurt cross-strait relations in the same way they are worried about the effects a meeting with the Dalai Lama could have. The guarantees the Ma administration has given the US have not eased these doubts. After all is said and done, the biggest point of contention between Washington and Beijing is the sale of US arms to Taiwan.

The Obama administration has also been confused by Ma’s statements on Taiwan’s national defense strategies. At a press conference after Typhoon Morakot struck, Ma said Taiwan’s biggest threat is Mother Nature, not China, and that the government would only buy 45 of the 60 Black Hawk helicopters Taiwan had agreed to purchase from the US. Ma said the remainder of the budget would be used to purchase disaster relief helicopters and that the armed forces would have to adjust their strategy, staff number and budget accordingly.

This was an absurd decision that was not appropriately assessed beforehand. The MND immediately came out to clarify that the budget for the US arms purchase remained unchanged and that it would apply for a new budget to procure choppers used for disaster relief. Former minister of national defense Chen Chao-min (陳肇敏) also said that disaster relief was only one of the responsibilities of the armed forces and not their most important task. These comments were intended as a slap in the face for Ma and to show that his wavering stance on Taiwan’s defense capabilities has sent mixed messages to Washington.

Ma has come under pressure from the military and has had no choice but to change his plans to cut national defense. His status as commander-in-chief and the relationship between the government and the military are fragile. Apart from causing the armed forces to lower their guard toward China, Ma’s actions have led the international community to question how serious Taiwan is about increasing its defense capabilities.

For these reasons, it is unlikely that the Obama administration will announce the sale of F-16C/D fighter planes to Taiwan next summer. The US is more likely to offer less sensitive military items to pacify the Ma administration.

Liu Shih-chung is a visiting fellow at the Center for Northeast Asian Policy Studies at the Brookings Institution in Washington.

Medicine trade driving rhino poaching surge
　

Rhino poaching is increasing at an alarming rate in Africa, due in part to strengthening trade links with Asian countries such as China and Vietnam

By David Smith
THE GUARDIAN, JOHANNESBURG
Sunday, Oct 11, 2009, Page 13

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South Africa is witnessing a massive surge in rhino poaching, an activity blamed on criminal syndicates striving to meet an “insatiable appetite” for rhinoceros horn in East Asia.

Eighty-four rhinos have been killed by poachers in the country so far this year, a jump from the 13 deaths in 2007.

Kruger Park, a worldwide tourist attraction, has been hardest hit, suffering the loss of 33 rhinos since January. Nineteen have been killed in KwaZulu-Natal province, and some privately owned reserves have lost seven animals.

Conservationists say it is the biggest spike in poaching for 15 years and blame the smuggling trade connected to countries, such as China and Vietnam, where rhino horn can fetch thousands of US dollars for its perceived medicinal value.

They say that Asian countries’ strengthening trade links with Africa have shortened the illegal supply chain. They also say more sophisticated poaching methods are being used, with organized criminal gangs flying in to game reserves by helicopter to kill rhinos, hack off their horns and make a quick getaway.

South Africa has about 1,490 black rhinos, more than a third of the world population of this critically endangered species. There are about 16,275 southern white rhinos, 93 percent of the global total.

Yolan Friedmann, chief executive of the Endangered Wildlife Trust, said the number of rhinos lost to poaching had altered from an average of 10 a year to 100. “There has been a rampant increase in South Africa,” she said. “Poaching figures for this year have already surpassed the whole of last year. It’s probably the worst it’s been for 15 years. There’s a lot more money going into poaching and it’s becoming more hi-tech. It’s no longer just a man with a bow and arrow wading through the bush. These guys are using helicopters and AK-47 rifles.”

She warned that initiatives used previously could not meet the new threat. “Despite the once successful Save the Rhino project, rhinos are under siege. South Africa is facing a crisis. We’ve done extremely well in rhino conservation, but something has changed in the past 18 months, there’s an insatiable appetite for rhino horn in the Far East.”

Ground up and added to liquids, rhino horn has been used for millennia in traditional Asian medicine to treat fevers and other ailments.

Rumors have recently been circulating on the Internet that a Vietnamese government official claimed rhino horn cured his cancer, potentially fueling demand.

Last year a Vietnamese diplomat was caught on camera taking delivery of contraband rhino horn outside the Vietnamese embassy in Pretoria.

There is also a lucrative market in Yemen and Oman for daggers with rhino-horn handles frequently given to boys during rites of passage.

Poaching gangs, often from nearby countries, are believed to earn about US$200 a horn but once the material has been transported, ground and mixed with other substances it can sell for thousands of US dollars on the black market. Poachers’ sentences and fines are usually negligible.

Friedmann said apparently legitimate hunting parties also exploited loopholes. “Their hunting permits say they are only allowed to mount the rhino horns on the wall but we’re finding they use the byproducts to sell illegally. Price is not an issue. A hunt was sold last year to Vietnamese hunters for more than a million rand [US$136,000]. That’s a record price for white rhino.”

Luxury private game reserves seem to have been caught out by the upsurge; many employ guards but the men tend to lack training in wildlife protection.

In July, a meeting in Geneva of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species warned that rhino poaching around the world was set to reach a 15-year high, and there was growing evidence of Vietnamese, Chinese and Thai nationals’ involvement in the illegal procurement and transport of horn out of Africa.

The South African government has been criticized for disbanding the police’s endangered species protection unit in 2003. But Buyelwa Sonjica, the environmental affairs minister, recently announced the formation of a special investigations team to tackle poaching.

South African National Parks has said it will spend two million rand (US$272,000) to provide an additional 57 game rangers in Kruger Park and equip them with motorbikes. Patrols along the park’s 450km South Africa and Mozambique border, where all 33 poached rhinos were killed, are also set to resume after being suspended three years ago.

At least 14 poachers, all Mozambican, have been arrested and several illegal firearms seized in Kruger this year. Nationwide, 22 poachers were caught. In January, an international rhino-smuggling ring was smashed and 11 people were arrested.

Rhino numbers have been increasing worldwide thanks to various governments and NGOs. But Cathy Dean, director of the UK-based Save the Rhino International, warned: “The gains of the last decade are in real jeopardy. The underlying concern is that this upsurge in rhino poaching — a major issue in Zimbabwe as well as South Africa — is no longer opportunistic poaching by individuals but carried out by ... highly sophisticated criminal gangs.”

Taking the rhino by the horns
　

A combination of ancient Chinese beliefs and modern financial speculation help to explain why rhinoceros populations are coming under renewed pressure from poachers

By Jonathan Watts
THE GUARDIAN, LONDON
Sunday, Oct 11, 2009, Page 13

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In traditional Chinese medicine, rhino horn is prized as a key ingredient in An Gong Niu Huang Wan (安宮牛黃丸), considered one of the three main restorative tonics. Shaved or ground into a powder, the horn is dissolved in boiling water and used to treat fevers, rheumatism and gout.

The Chinese government banned the trade in rhino horn in 1993 at the same time as it imposed a similar prohibition on the sale of tiger body parts. Since the ban, the horn of water buffalo has been used as a substitute, but it is not considered as effective.

On the Internet, sales continue of rhino-based An Gong Niu Huang Wan with claims that the product is made with horn stockpiled before the ban.

Chinese and Vietnamese buyers prefer horn from Asian rhinos, which is three to six times more expensive than that of African animals. But poaching and habitat loss mean there are few rhinos left in Asia, which is what could have prompted the dealers to look for supplies in Africa.

Last May, an official of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species visited Southeast Asia to appeal to enforcement authorities to pay extra vigilance to rhino horn smuggling.

“The Vietnamese are moving rhino horn from Africa. That’s something we haven’t seen before,” noted an Asia-based conservationist, who asked to remain anonymous. “There is stockpiling. Collectors appear to be holding on to the horn like gold and waiting for the value to increase.”

Assessment of the extent of the problem is complicated by the tendency of smugglers to mix rhino horn with elephant tusks. A big shipment of ivory seized in Bangkok last month is believed to have included rhino horn.

While the majority of rhino products are made in China and Vietnam, the animal’s horn also fetches a good price in the Middle East, where it is carved to produce dagger handles.