PRC missiles impeding relations: MND
　

TARGET: A Ministry of Defense report said China has at least 1,300 missiles aimed at Taiwan and has continued to hold exercises for preparing its troops to invade Taiwan
　

By Jimmy Chuang
STAFF REPORTER, WITH AGENCIES
Wednesday, Oct 21, 2009, Page 1

The Ministry of National Defense (MND) said yesterday that any hope of implementing cross-strait military confidence-building measures were being hampered by China's refusal to withdraw or destroy missiles aimed at Taiwan.

“This issue is complicated,” Vice Admiral Lee Hsi-ming, director of the ministry's Military Strategy Planning Department, told a press conference in Taipei to mark the release of its biennial defense policy paper.

The removal of the missiles and confidence-building measures are key parts of President Ma Ying-jeou's (馬英九) cross-strait strategy for improving relations with a view to eventually signing a peace agreement.

Asked whether Taiwan has started talking with China on the establishment of such a mechanism, he said: “There is no timetable yet.”

However, the military has been conducting studies and surveys in this area to prepare for future talks, he said, including establishing a hot line between Taipei and Beijing and signing a pact to limit the deployment of military personnel and equipment against each other.

“We have not been able to make progress because China has not given up ... the notion of using force against Taiwan,” the ministry said, adding that China had continued to hold exercises aimed at preparing its troops to invade Taiwan.

“China has increased the frequency of its military exercises to pressure us since October 2008, when the US government announced the sale of an arms package to us,” the report said.

China has deployed at least 1,300 missiles at coastal military bases targeting Taiwan, “including short-range ballistic and cruise missiles ... by the Communist forces at their Nanjing and Guangzhou military bases,” it added.

Asked whether the ministry was up to date on the exact number of Chinese missiles, Intelligence Department Deputy Director Kao Chung-bang (高中邦) said it was classified information.

“The MND is fully aware of the latest situation, but we cannot make detailed information public,” Kao said.

Kao said Chinese missiles were also a major threat and concern for the US and Japan as the Chinese military continued to upgrade and develop new ones.

The Chinese air force also has more than 700 fighters based within 1,000km of Taiwan, the report said.

It said some of the fighters are equipped with airborne refueling facilities that can be used to extend their combat duration.

China's navy has been boosted by the introduction of nuclear-powered attack submarines and major combat vehicles armed with medium-range ballistic missiles capable of striking moving targets at sea.

“The purpose is to deter or delay foreign aircraft carriers coming to the rescue of Taiwan should war break out in the Strait,” it said.

While the report did not identify this “foreign force,” the only nation likely to send carriers to Taiwan in a war scenario is the US.

Meanwhile, the ministry denied a report by the military periodical Defense News that a submarine procurement team based in Washington could be disbanded as chances of Taiwan procuring submarines has diminished.

“I hereby clarify that the team remains functional and we have no intention of disbanding it anytime soon,” ministry spokesman Major General Yu Sy-tue (虞思祖) said.

Taiwan slides 23 places in global press freedom index
　

By Shih Hsiu-chuan
STAFF REPORTER
Wednesday, Oct 21, 2009, Page 1

Taiwan yesterday saw its press freedom ranking slip 23 spots in the latest report issued by Reporters Without Borders (RSF), dropping to 59th this year from 36th last year.

"The new ruling party in Taiwan tried to interfere in state and privately-owned media, while violence by certain activists further undermined press freedom," RSF said on its Web site.

Since the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) regained power in May last year, Taiwan has seen its ranking in RSF's塜 press freedom index dip for a second year.

It was also the second time this year that Taiwan suffered a downgrade in a survey by a global media watchdog.

In May, the US-based Freedom House ranked Taiwan 43rd in its global survey, falling 11 spots from last year, saying "media in Taiwan faced assault and growing government pressure."

In response to RSF's latest report, Executive Yuan Spokesman Su Jun-pin (蘇俊賓) said the international organizations might have ranked the nation's performance based on their impression.

"When an institution examines so many countries, the impression they get from each country strongly influences how they rank the indicators," he said.

"We welcome international friends who would like to come to Taiwan to observe the media environment. Maybe they would form different opinions," he said.

Saying that the government had not interfered in the media over the past year, Su said it would work to clarify the facts with international organizations.

"Although [RSF] alleged the government exerted pressure on state and privately owned media, it did not cite concrete examples," Su said.

"I haven't heard of complaints from media outlets about government interference," Su added.

Su said the government would take the initiative to contact international organizations, study their surveys and make necessary improvements to advance freedom of speech in the country.

Kaohsiung amateur astronomer discovers asteroid
　

RECOGNITION: Tsai Yuan-sheng named the asteroid, which is about the size of Kaohsiung airport, after his ‘beloved hometown.’ Mayor Chen Chu was overjoyed

STAFF WRITER, WITH CNA
Wednesday, Oct 21, 2009, Page 2
　

“I was so happy to obtain international recognition of my latest discovery and decided to name it ‘Kaohsiung’ ... I also want to share my happiness in discovering the new body with all fellow Kaohsiung residents.”— Tsai Yuan-sheng, amateur astronomer

An amateur astronomer who discovered an asteroid earlier this year presented a model of his new discovery to Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊) on Monday to share with residents of the city.

Tsai Yuan-sheng (蔡元生) and his assistant, Lin Chi-sheng (林啟生), discovered the asteroid at the Lulin Observatory on Yushan on March 20 and tentatively named it “Kaohsiung,” after his hometown.

In August, the International Astronomical Union’s Committee on Small Body Nomenclature — an international organization responsible for the naming of asteroids and comets — formally approved the designation and gave Tsai’s discovery a permanent number, “215080.”

It was the first asteroid discovered by an amateur Taiwanese astronomy buff to win international recognition.

The asteroid, located between Mars and Jupiter, is similar in size to Kaohsiung International Airport.

At perihelion, the closest point to the sun in its orbit, the asteroid is 350 million kilometers from the sun; and at aphelion, its most distant point from the sun, it is about 450 million kilometers from the sun.

It takes about four years for the asteroid to complete its orbit around the sun.

Tsai and Lin spotted the asteroid with the aid of highly advanced digital equipment.

Tsai said he determined that the body rotated around its own axis while circling the Sun and that its position coordinates varied each day.

“I then took photos of the object consecutively for analytical comparison and finally came to the conclusion that it was an asteroid that had never been documented before,” Tsai said.

Tsai said most larger asteroids have been discovered and only small asteroids that cannot be easily detected are left to be spotted with highly sophisticated instruments.

Tsai, 40, developed an interest in observing stars while studying at a military preparatory school as a teenager.

At the time, he was required to stand guard at night, and the long hours with nothing to do led him to fall in love with stargazing.

He later dropped out of the naval academy to pursue his hobby. He now often takes his wife and children high into the mountains to observe the stars at night.

Tsai has documented 13 asteroids, but “Kaohsiung” is the only one to have been recognized by the astronomical committee.

“I was so happy to obtain international recognition of my latest discovery and decided to name it ‘Kaohsiung’ in honor of my beloved hometown,” Tsai said.

“I also want to share my happiness in discovering the new body with all fellow Kaohsiung residents,” Tsai said at the asteroid model presentation ceremony at the city’s Gangho Elementary School.

The mayor said the discovery of the asteroid and its designation were not only the “pride of Kaohsiung” but also the “pride of Taiwan.”

Chen said the city government would step up efforts to promote astronomical education and cultivate more talent in the field, adding that she had directed the city’s Bureau of Education to allocate NT$1 million (US$31,000) annually to help finance the operation of the Gangho Elementary School’s observatory.

She also proposed that an ­astronomy-themed science park be established after Kaohsiung City and County merge next year.

Tsai Ching-hua (蔡清華), director of the municipal education bureau, said the discovery of the asteroid had set a good model for the city’s astronomy education and pledged to study the feasibility of setting up an astronomy theme park in the new Kaohsiung municipality.

US expert urges weapons sales
　

F-16S WANTED: A former US diplomat who served in Taipei said Taiwan is requesting arms from Washington to maintain a credible deterrent position from which to negotiate

By William Lowther
STAFF REPORTER IN WASHINGTON
Wednesday, Oct 21, 2009, Page 3

David Brown, an expert on US-Taiwan relations, is urging US President Barack Obama to sell Taipei the military hardware it has requested to deter a possible attack by China.

“Officials in the Ma administration have privately expressed concern that Beijing is pressing Taipei to move beyond economics and to begin addressing political and security issues,” Brown wrote in a new analysis published by the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies.

At the same time, he said, there is evidence that the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has increased to more than 1,500 the number of short and medium range missiles it has placed across the strait from Taiwan.

Brown added that President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) has set the removal of these missiles as a precondition for reaching a peace agreement but that experts in Beijing have indicated that changes in Chinese weapons deployment and the implementation of other military confidence building measures would only come after the conclusion of a peace agreement.

Although Kurt Campbell has been assistant secretary of state for East Asia and Pacific Affairs for several months, the Obama administration has not yet notified Congress of even routine arms sales to Taiwan.

“Most notably,” wrote Brown, “no action has been taken on the long-standing and less sensitive sale of Blackhawk helicopters.”

Brown concludes that this does not appear to reflect any basic shift in US policy but rather involves “decision and timing considerations.”

He quoted press reports that the administration is conducting a review of arms sales to Taiwan.

“Taipei has made it clear that its highest priority remains acquisition of F-16C/D aircraft and it continues to work discreetly with the US on that and other arms sales issues. For its part, Beijing has used opportunities such as the visit of US Army Chief of Staff George Casey to forcefully remind Washington of their opposition to arms sales, particularly F-16s,” he said.

It is highly unlikely that Obama will make any announcement on arms sales to Taiwan this year and he is expected to be heavily influenced by his trip to China next month.

Brown’s published analysis is the latest in a series of attempts by US politicians, academics and diplomats who are considered sympathetic to Taiwan to influence the White House and bring some balance to the arms sales decision. Brown, a US diplomat for 30 years who served in Taipei and now teaches in the China Studies Department of the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, believes that when cross-strait relations are moving constructively, the US government’s role is limited.

But he wrote that arms sales are “one important exception” that needs to be handled in a sophisticated way to support the long-term US interest in a peaceful resolution of cross-strait issues.

Brown said that it is in the US’ interest to support a government in Taiwan that is working constructively to consolidate a stable, peaceful cross-strait relationship.

Taipei is requesting arms, he said, to maintain a credible deterrent position from which to negotiate.

“Furthermore,” Brown said, “as the Ma administration is being criticized at home for not doing enough for Taiwan’s defense, the fact that there has been little concrete evidence of support for Taipei from the Obama administration is calling into question Ma’s ability to successfully manage the all important US-Taiwan relationship.”

Brown concluded: “With Beijing’s deployments growing, there is a sound case for the US to move ahead with the Blackhawk sale and to respond favorably to Taiwan’s request for the F-16C/D aircraft, which are increasingly seen as a litmus test of US support.”

US official invited to visit Taiwan
　

LONG WAIT: Former transportation secretary Rodney Slater was the last senior US official to visit Taiwan when he attended a business conference in 2000

REUTERS , TAIPEI
Wednesday, Oct 21, 2009, Page 3

US Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki has been invited to Taiwan in what would be the first high-level visit by a US official to the country since 2000, officials said yesterday.

High-level government exchanges between Taiwan and the US are prohibited as part of Washington’s agreement to establish diplomatic relations with China in 1979.

Representatives of Taiwan’s Veterans Affairs Commission recently met Shinseki in the US to extend the invitation, said Hans Song, the commission’s overseas liaison department director.

Taiwan’s commission, which was founded in 1954 has modeled itself on its US counterpart and has used US money to build hospitals.

“Because the Taiwan veterans system has studied the US system, we hope he can give us some suggestions,” Song said.

Taipei may have sought Beijing’s approval before inviting the official, analysts say.

“I wouldn’t rule it out, given the multiple channels that exist between the two sides,” said Lin Chong-pin (林中斌), strategic studies professor at Tamkang University in Taipei County.

Former transportation secretary Rodney Slater was the last senior US official to visit Taiwan. He came in 2000 to attend an annual Taiwan-US business conference.

In response to the reports, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it welcomes any high-level visits by US officials and remains optimistic about Shinseki’s scheduled visit next year.

The American Institute in Taiwan said it did not have any information on the reported visit, a spokesman said.

TSU chairman says no need to sign peace treaty
　

By Jenny W. hsu
STAFF REPORTER
Wednesday, Oct 21, 2009, Page 3

“Cross-strait policies must help stabilize cross-strait relations. [We] cannot be hasty or too slow.”— Wu Den-yih, premier

Taiwan has no need to sign a peace accord with Beijing because simply giving up the use of force against Taiwan would result in harmony in the Taiwan Strait, Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) Chairman Huang Kun-huei (黃昆輝) said yesterday.

Huang said he believed President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) would ink a peace pact with Beijing as early as 2011 as part of his campaign strategy to ensure a second term.

In a recent interview, Ma, who became the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairman on Saturday, said he did not rule out the possibility of meeting Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤).

The day before Ma assumed the chairmanship, Chao Chun-shan (趙春山), president of a pan-blue think tank, listed three conditions that must be satisfied before Taiwan would be willing to engage in political negotiations with Beijing — the signing of an economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) and a financial memorandum of understanding (MOU), domestic consensus and acceptance by the international community.

Huang said signs indicate that the Ma administration was ready to start talking politics with Beijing to move toward eventual unification. The forging of an ECFA was just a preliminary step to make Taiwan economically dependent on China before political talks begin, he said.

Huang said that Ma would sign a peace accord with Beijing between March 2012 and the end of that year to coincide with either Ma’s re-election campaign or prior to Hu stepping down.

The signing might even come as early as 2011 if polls show Ma’s chances of a second term would be buttressed by the pact, he added.

RHETORIC

“The peace treaty is just a tactic. The final and only goal is unification. This is why Ma is so eager to sign the ECFA,” he said, lambasting the Ma administration for injecting such rhetoric into the public sphere now to prepare Taiwanese psychologically when Taiwan is firmly locked under the “one-China” framework.

Huang said Taiwan and China have no need for a peace accord because signing such document would signify that both sides are either in a state of war or in civil strife — neither of which accurately describe the current cross-strait situation.

He said since 1991 when former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) ended the Temporary Provisions Effective During the Communist Rebellion (動員戡亂時期條例), Taiwan in a way recognized China’s de jure claim over the mainland and that Taiwan had abdicated all ambition to take China’s territory. But China, he said, had not only refused to reciprocate but each year points more missiles at Taiwan.

Huang warned a Taiwan-China peace accord would lead to Taiwan’s ultimate doom, comparing it to the peace agreement signed between Beijing and Tibet in 1951.

Although the agreement stated the Chinese would respect Tibetan culture and traditions, the government right away forced Sinicization on the Tibetans and disregarded the pact, he said.

In related news, Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) said a meeting between Ma and Hu would have a positive effect. He did not elaborate.

TAIWAN’S INTERESTS

Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) declined to say whether he supported such a meeting when asked by lawmakers on the legislative floor, but Wu said he believed the president would prioritize Taiwan’s interests.

Wu said the government had not set a timetable for a meeting, adding that it would be impossible unless the public formed a consensus on a need for cross-strait political meetings, both sides of the Strait built enough mutual trust and China extended enough goodwill to Taiwan.

“Cross-strait policies must help stabilize cross-strait relations. [We] cannot be hasty or too slow,” Wu told KMT Legislator Huang Chih-hsiung (黃志雄).
　

Anti-corruption is no carte blanche
　

By Chen Chun-kai 陳君愷
Wednesday, Oct 21, 2009, Page 8

As many people expected, former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) received a heavy sentence — life in jail — after being found guilty in a graft case against him. After receiving the sentence, Chen’s appeal to be released from detention was, like many also expected, unsuccessful, and he remains in detention.

To no one’s surprise, pan-blue media commentators applauded the decisions and continued hurling attacks at the “corrupt family.” While anti-corruption efforts should be acknowledged and supported, it is very hard to understand how “anti-­corruption” has taken precedence over the principles of having competent judges, due process and basic human rights, such as a fair defense for the accused and the presumption of innocence.

How can our legal system deal with Chen’s NT$700 million (US$21.7 million) in assets while ignoring those of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), whose value is in the tens of billions of NT dollars?

Taiwan’s situation is very similar to that referred to by Carl Schurz in a speech titled “Liberty and Equal Rights” when he was running in a Massachusetts senatorial campaign in 1859: “Do not indulge in the delusion that in order to make a government fair and liberal, the only thing necessary is to make it elective,” Schurz said, because “the ruling party, which has devoted itself to the service of that despotic interest, shrinks from no violation of good faith, from no adulteration of the constitutional compact, from no encroachment upon natural right, from no treacherous abandonment of fundamental principles.

“When a political party in power, however liberal their principles may be, have once adopted the policy of knocking down their opponents instead of voting them down, there is an end of justice and equal rights,” he said.

This was how the US was back in the 19th century. The KMT and its followers, who have been influenced by some of the darker sides of traditional Chinese culture, seek to accomplish their goals by any means — through unscrupulousness, deceit and false allegations, weeding out those with different opinions while being dishonest. They are as vicious and calculating, if not worse than, the people Schurz referred to.

History has taught us that power needs to be kept in check. The same goes for the judiciary.

Therefore, if we no longer cherish the right to vote and use our votes to execute effective checks on those in power, in the near future Taiwan could very well become a country that is no longer based on democracy, the rule of law and human rights.

Since the Chen case began, we have seen that all kinds of actions that are non-democratic and against the rule of law and human rights can be justified under the guise of “fighting corruption.”

Chen Chun-kai is a professor of history at Fu Jen Catholic University.