Taiwan agrees to lift ban on US beef
　

DINING DILEMMA: Taiwan banned US beef in 2003, lifted the ban in April 2005 but then reimposed it two months later when a BSE case was discovered in the US

By Jenny W. Hsu
STAFF REPORTER, WITH CNA , WASHINGTON AND TAIPEI
Saturday, Oct 24, 2009, Page 1

Taiwan agreed to lift a ban on US bone-in beef from cattle younger than 30 months by signing a protocol on Taiwan’s market-opening measures in Washington on Thursday.

Under the terms of the new accord, US bone-in beef, ground beef, intestines, brains, spinal cords and processed beef from cattle younger than 30 months and that have not been contaminated with "specific risk materials" will be allowed in the initial phase.

Senior Media Affairs Liaison Nefeterius Akeli McPherson of the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) welcomed Taiwan’s decision to further open its market to US beef based on scientific evidence and policies that are in line with World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) standards.

McPherson said US beef exporters will follow a Department of Agriculture quality system assessment program to ensure that US beef entering Taiwan is from cattle less than 30 months of age and is certified through documentation, verification and traceability.

The OIE listed both the US and Taiwan in 2007 as countries in which bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or mad cow disease, were under control.

It has continued to list cattle parts such as brains, skulls, eyes, spinal nerve roots, tonsils and small intestines, as “particularly risky” and these items remain on lists of export or import bans.

USTR officials said the US will continue cooperating with Taiwan on pushing exports of beef and related products that are carried in the protocol.

In Taipei, Department of Health (DOH) Vice Minister Hsiao Mei-ling (蕭美玲) told a press conference yesterday that the scope of Taiwan’s opening to US beef imports is on par with South Korea’s.

Thirty other countries allow the importation of US beef from cattle older than 30 months, Hsiao said.

Only beef without Specified Risk Materials, which include skulls, backbones, brain matter and certain intestine parts and organs, will be allowed into Taiwan, she said.

Hsu Tien-lai (許天來), chief of the Council of Agriculture’s Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection said he “believes” that US beef is free from health risks and its importation is not likely to cause diseases in Taiwan’s livestock industry or squeeze local producers.

“The move is not expected to impact on the local beef industry, given that the market for local and foreign beef is well segmented in Taiwan,” Hsu said.

Over the past three years, Washington has pushed Taiwan to open its market to US beef.

Taiwan banned US beef in 2003 when a case of mad cow disease was diagnosed in Seattle. The ban was lifted in April 2005 to allow imports of US de-boned beef from cattle under 30 months but the government reimposed the ban two months later when a second BSE case was discovered in the US.

In 2006, the DOH agreed to allow beef imports once again, but only boneless beef from cattle younger than 30 months, produced by certified slaughterhouses and without any risky parts.

Lawmakers across party lines yesterday expressed reservations about the safety of boned beef from the US.

Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus secretary-general Lu Hsueh-chang (呂學樟) told a press conference that the caucus opposed the DOH’s decision to lift the beef ban because the caucus remained concerned about health risks.

Lu said the caucus would not agree with the relaxation unless the DOH imposes strict screening standards while requiring importers to present official documents proving the quality of the beef.

The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus yesterday also criticized the DOH for “toying with people’s lives” and threatened to lead a crowd of protesters to the harbor when the first US meat shipment arrives.

“Some government officials said the chance of catching BSE is slimmer than getting struck by lightning. But the problem is there are still people who die of lightning strikes,” said DPP Lawmaker Huang Sue-ying (黃淑英), blasting the health authority for putting the public at risk for political reasons.

Huang said William Stanton, the top US envoy to Taiwan, recently said Taiwan has a chance of being included in the visa-waiver program.

She said she suspected the decision and the timing of the lifting of the ban were based on political considerations.

DPP Legislator Tien Chiu-chin (田秋堇) said that if the government insisted on reopening the market to US beef, then the least it could do was follow Japan’s lead by inspecting each meat shipment instead of using random checks.

At a separate setting, Consumers’ Foundation official Gaston Wu (吳家誠) also criticized the government’s decision as irresponsible and recklessly endangering the lives of consumers.

“From a consumer’s standpoint, this decision is unacceptable, totally unacceptable,” Wu said.

BSE, unlike H1N1, is still an incurable disease, he said, adding that the lack of facilities equipped to analyze the disease coupled with lax regulatory standards for beef from the US make the disease especially dangerous.

“Unless the government can show it can ensure the safety and health of everyday consumers in a transparent and responsible manner ... [the restrictions] should not be rescinded.” Wu said.

According to Wu, this is also a clear case of the government caving in to US pressure.

“Our government, for political considerations, is willing to sacrifice the interests and health of its citizens,” Wu said. “As soon as the [US] started exerting pressure, our government crumbled.”

The American Institute in Taiwan (AIT), on the other hand, welcomed the lifting of the ban.

“We welcome announcement of the new bilateral protocol on US beef imports into Taiwan and Taiwan’s publication of its amended import requirements for US beef and products, which are science-based and consistent with OIE guidelines,” AIT spokesman Thomas Hodges said yesterday.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that diplomatic maneuvering had played no part in the decision to lift the ban on US beef, but it welcomed any news that benefited the livelihoods of Taiwanese and improved Taiwan-US relations.

PRC using cyber expertise to gather US intelligence

AP , WASHINGTON
Saturday, Oct 24, 2009, Page 1

China is building its cyberwarfare capabilities and appears to be using the growing technical abilities to collect US intelligence through a computer attack campaign, according to an independent report.

Released on Thursday by a congressional advisory panel, the study found cases suggesting that China’s elite hacker community had ties to the Beijing government, although there was little hard evidence.

The commission report detailed a cyberattack against a US company several years ago that appeared to either originate in or come through China and was similar to other incidents also believed to be connected to the country.

The analysis said the company noticed that over several days, data from its network was being sent to multiple computers in the US and overseas. While the report did not identify the company, it contended that the attackers targeted specific data, suggesting a very coordinated and sophisticated operation by high-tech information experts. An Internet protocol (IP) address located in China was used at times during the episode.

Barring proof, the study by the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission warned that the sort of expansive and sophisticated computer resources that have been seen in cyberattacks on the US and other countries “is difficult at best without some type of state sponsorship.”

The study contended that China had made computer warfare a priority. Beijing was said to view cyberprowess as critical for victory in future conflicts — similar to the priority on offensive cyber abilities stressed by some US officials.

Potential Chinese targets in the US, according to the report, would likely include Pentagon networks and databases to disrupt command and control communications and possibly corrupt encrypted data. The report noted, however, that penetrating such classified systems would be difficult.

In large part, the report expanded on the Pentagon’s annual China military power review. The Defense Department study said earlier this year that the People’s Liberation Army has set up information warfare units to develop viruses to attack enemy computer systems and networks as well as to protect friendly systems.

Taiwan High Court begins hearing on Chen's graft ruling

AFP, TAIPEI
Saturday, Oct 24, 2009, Page 3
　

The Taiwan High Court yesterday began to hear the appeal by former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), who insisted his life term for graft was “illegal” and argued the evidence used to convict him was insufficient.

Chen was sentenced to life in prison by a district court last month for embezzling state funds, laundering money, accepting bribes and forgery. His wife, Wu Shu-jen (吳淑珍), also received life imprisonment on graft convictions.

Chen's defense team yesterday challenged the legitimacy of the ruling, saying the district court violated litigation laws by convicting him despite insufficient evidence.

“The ruling is based on presumption rather than concrete evidence. It is unbalanced, illogical and biased,” his lawyer Cheng Wen-lung (鄭文龍) told a panel of High Court judges.

Cheng argued that district court judges overlooked testimonies favorable to the former president as they pointed to his wife being the mastermind of collecting political donations and wiring the family's money abroad.

Chen, whose term as president ended in May last year, has dismissed his conviction as a political vendetta by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government for his support for Taiwanese independence.

Some legal academics have expressed concern over the handling of Chen's case, particularly criticizing the length of his detention, which started last December.

Chen suffered a fresh setback last week when the Council of Grand Justices rejected a petition to halt his trial and order his immediate release from detention.

Russian diplomat awarded ROC Friendship Medal

STAFF WRITER, WITH CNA
Saturday, Oct 24, 2009, Page 4

Sergey Gubarev, Russia’s envoy to Taiwan, was conferred a diplomatic medal yesterday in recognition of his contributions to promoting relations between Taiwan and Russia.

Gubarev, the representative of the Moscow-Taipei Coordination Commission on Economic and Cultural Cooperation in Taipei, is scheduled to leave Taiwan on Nov. 7 after serving four years as the de facto Russian ambassador to Taiwan in the absence of formal diplomatic relations.

“During his four-year tenure, Representative Gubarev has done an excellent job of expanding ­Russia-Taiwan exchanges in such areas as the economy and trade, technology, arts and culture,” Minister of Foreign Affairs Timothy Yang (楊進添) said at the ceremony to confer Gubarev the Friendship Medal of Diplomacy. “His dedication to this task has won him many friends from all walks of society in Taiwan, and especially from the ministry.”

Describing Gubarev as an outstanding diplomat with a wealth of experience, Yang said he promoted various projects beneficial to bilateral relations.

They included arranging a visit to Taiwan last year by a delegation led by Anatoly Chubais, Russia’s former first prime minister and chief executive of the state-run nanotechnology company Rusnano, and a trip to Russia by Taiwan’s vice minister of economic affairs to attend the first International Forum on ­Nanotechnologies, also last year.

“The best side of [my] Taiwanese life was the Taiwanese people, who are very friendly, cooperative and open,” Gubarev said.

He said he found the diplomatic medal precious because he received it from people he loves.

“Thanks to the attitude of the Taiwanese people, the four years that I spent here in Taiwan [were] like one day for me,” he said.

As to promoting direct flights ­between Taipei and Moscow, Gubarev said the main obstacles lie with the airlines rather than the governments.

The Moscow office said Vasily Dobrovolsky, the new Russian representative to Taiwan, is scheduled to arrive on Nov. 16.

Dobrovolsky was a senior officer at the APEC and has previously served in Japan.

Dalai Lama plans visit to Indian state, China fumes

AP , DHARAMSALA, INDIA
Saturday, Oct 24, 2009, Page 5

The Dalai Lama is going ahead with a scheduled visit to India’s remote northeastern state of Arunachal Pradesh next month, ignoring protests by China, which claims the region as its territory, a spokesman said on Thursday.

The Tibetan spiritual leader will visit the Tawang Buddhist monastery in the state bordering China on Nov. 8, said Phuptel Samphel, a spokesman of the Tibetan government-in-exile.

Beijing on Tuesday protested the upcoming trip.

“We are resolutely against Dalai’s visit,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu (馬朝旭) told reporters. “We think that has further exposed the anti-China and separatist nature of the Dalai clique.”

India’s Foreign Ministry said the Dalai Lama was free to travel anywhere in India, where he has lived along with a government-in-exile since fleeing Tibet following a failed 1959 uprising against Chinese rule.

China has never recognized a British colonial-era border known as the McMahon Line that designated the northeastern Arunachal Pradesh region as part of India. China also occupies a chunk of territory in Kashmir that India regards as its own.

China last week also protested a visit to Arunachal Pradesh by Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

India and China fought a brief border war in the region in 1962.

Former Uruguay dictator given 25-year sentence
　

MISSING: Gregorio Alvarez was found responsible for 37 ‘aggravated homicides.’ A former navy captain was also sentenced to 20 years for 29 cases of homicide

AFP , MONTEVIDEO
Saturday, Oct 24, 2009, Page 7

Uruguay’s last military dictator, Gregorio Alvarez, was given a 25-year prison sentence on Thursday for murder and rights violations during his 1981-1985 rule, which was marked by oppression and disappearances.

Alvarez, 83, was handed the sentence by a judge who found him responsible for 37 “aggravated homicides,” said Oscar Lopez Goldaracena, a lawyer for the prosecution.

The former ruler was not present in court to hear the sentence because he was ill, suffering diarrhea, the lawyer said, adding that Alvarez might be informed in the prison where he was being held.

Alvarez played a key role in the country’s 1973 coup before going on to be commander-in-chief of the army and ultimately the final president of Uruguay’s civilian-military dictatorship.

The troubled era saw the disappearance of hundreds of political opponents and Alvarez’s sentencing came a year after the first dictator of that period, Juan Maria Bordaberry, was also detained on charges of crimes against humanity.

Alvarez has been in detention since December 2007 when he was found guilty of kidnapping exiled leftist activists living in Argentina who were sent to Uruguay and executed in 1978.

Sentenced on Thursday along with Alvarez was a former navy captain, Juan Carlos Larcebau, who was handed a 20-year term for 29 cases of aggravated homicide, Lopez Goldaracena said.

The homicide charges arose from a decision by the appeals court to convert charges of disappearances to murder, bringing with it the risk of a heavier sentence.

The conviction of Alvarez and Larcebau highlighted a change of position of Uruguay on addressing the crimes of the dictatorship that has already led to judgments against eight former soldiers and police officers in March.

Bordaberry, in power from 1973 to 1976, is awaiting his own verdict.

Many Uruguayans want the reckoning to go further, with a referendum on the issue being held alongside presidential elections tomorrow.

If the referendum’s proposal is passed, a law that currently obliges judges to consult with the government before bringing soldiers and police to court on rights charges will be scrapped.

A survey published on Monday in the daily Ultimas Noticias showed that 47 percent of the public were in favor of the proposal, 40 percent were against and 13 percent had no opinion.

The favorite in the race for the presidency is a former guerrilla, Jose Mujica, who spent the years of the dictatorship in prison.

The developments in Uruguay are seen as bringing it closer to policies in Argentina, which got rid of an amnesty for crimes committed under its own 1976-1983 dictatorship, and Chile, which is prosecuting about 500 soldiers for crimes against humanity carried out during General Augusto Pinochet’s 1973-1990 rule.

The KMT prepares to eat itself

Saturday, Oct 24, 2009, Page 8

Before too long, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) may look upon criticism from the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) as a quaint reminder of when politics was mostly about keeping other parties at bay.

Only days after taking up the chairmanship of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), Ma is facing a dramatic challenge to his authority — and to party unity in general.

More than 20 KMT Central Standing Committee (CSC) members, both in the legislature and outside, will resign or are threatening to resign over the handling of recent CSC elections in which bribery loomed large and for which disciplinary action appears to have been selectively applied.

The irony is most palpable, given that Ma’s determination to resume the chairmanship was generated by dissatisfaction with errant legislators and his inability to coordinate on key policies. Now, he has more openly errant legislators to contend with, and not all are legislators-at-large and thus more accountable to party headquarters.

Ma has nascent enemies everywhere he looks. KMT hardliners never trusted him; KMT moderates are beginning to taste Ma’s lack of courage under fire (more pronounced now after Ma’s upbraiding of KMT Legislator Lo Shu-lei (羅淑蕾) for daring to speak her mind); the pro-China press in Taiwan has written aggressive commentaries on his administration and Ma personally; the pro-independence press is ramping up its attacks on Ma for deferring to China at every other opportunity; he remains at a dangerously low ebb in opinion polls; and even his supporters in the foreign think tank community are beginning to wonder if they backed the wrong horse.

Then there’s the DPP, of course, whose scattershot attacks on the president appear civilized by comparison, and the Chinese Communist Party, which has already fired warning shots at Ma in a number of publications for straying from its required course of cross-strait detente.

As long as the KMT chairmanship was in the hands of his predecessor, Wu Poh-hsiung (吳伯雄), Ma could search for a balance between limited control over the party’s machinations and limited blame for the party’s internal feuds, excesses and errors.

Now, everything is in his lap, and judging from the speed with which groups of legislators and CSC members have mobilized in response to the fallout from the CSC election, Ma will be hard pressed to stifle their voices, let alone block the political damage they are causing behind closed doors. One of those voices, most notably, belongs to Sean Lien (連勝文), son of former KMT chairman Lien Chan (連戰), whose shadow remains cast over proceedings.

The point must be made again: Ma’s difficulties stem partly from his weak leadership, and partly from the fact that the KMT has failed to transform itself from a strongman’s party to a democratic one in which interests extend beyond individual ambition and heady promises of largess.

Former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) was a consummate politician who led the party with a mixture of strongman conviction and democratic sensibilities.

Ma, who has neither quality, faces a political conundrum that is only beginning to be manifested in his day-to-day efforts: How do you control an individual, let alone a large political party, when you cannot inspire fear, you cannot sate greed and you cannot command respect?

Application of this question to relations with China should trigger even more concern, but for the moment, this will be the last thing on Ma’s mind as KMT members gird themselves for battle in a weakened party structure.

The ECFA is based on unrealistic hypotheses
　

By Wang To-far 王塗發
Saturday, Oct 24, 2009, Page 8

Since taking office, Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) has claimed to stand for grassroots economics. We want to ask Wu this: If an economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) with China were to cause more harm to the grassroots economy, would he still advocate signing one?

At a press conference naming the new Cabinet last month, Wu said the signing of any cross-strait agreement should observe the principles of national need, public support and legislative oversight.

Now that the government has refused to hold a referendum on an ECFA, how can it claim to have obtained public support or to have reached a broad public consensus on the matter?

Rushing to sign an economic pact with China, the administration of President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) has aggressively promoted the necessity of an ECFA with Beijing and cited an assessment report by the semi-official Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research that endorses the view that an ECFA would be favorable to the Taiwanese macro economy.

The Ministry of Economic Affairs made “expert adjustments” in line with the report to minimize or eliminate any negative impact on certain industries before coming to the conclusion that signing an ECFA with China would have substantial and positive economic results.

In fact, several of the hypotheses in the Global Trade Analysis Project (GTAP) model on which the report is based defy reality.

First, the assumption of full employment excludes the possibility of unemployment.

Second, it is assumed that after signing an ECFA, tariffs on most Taiwanese industrial exports to China would be removed.

As a result, Taiwanese petrochemical products would replace petrochemical products from South Korea and Japan, which accounted for 38 percent — US$38 billion — of the Chinese market in 2007, while Taiwanese mechanical products would replace corresponding products from South Korea and ASEAN countries, which accounted for 23 percent — US$27 billion — of the Chinese market.

These assumptions are entirely unrealistic. Tariffs are not the only factor affecting product competitiveness, and petrochemical and mechanical products are not identical from country to country. Thus, it is out of the question that Taiwanese products would replace other products.

In addition, production capacity of the Taiwanese petrochemical and mechanical industries is not sufficient to replace products manufactured by Japan, South Korea and the ASEAN countries.

Worse, the GTAP model uses market overlap to estimate replacement levels, but it only considers the possibility that Chinese products may replace products from Japan, South Korea and ASEAN countries in the Taiwanese market, failing to mention the possibility that they may also replace Taiwanese products. This is the most significant problem, and the one that will most affect Taiwan’s market.

Since labor costs and rent in China are far lower than in Taiwan, cheap and inferior Chinese products and agricultural produce will likely enter the nation on a large scale under zero-tariff preferential treatment. The influx of Chinese products will cause domestic agriculture and industry to collapse — especially small and medium-sized enterprises manufacturing towels, ready-made garments, shoes, bedding and ceramics — and raise unemployment levels even higher.

The result of increasing unemployment in Taiwan will be depressed wages and increased income inequality.

Wang To-far is a part-time professor of economics at National Taipei University.