Robert
Gates urges deeper military ties with China
AFP , WASHINGTON
Thursday, Oct 29, 2009, Page 1
US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates called for deeper military ties with
Beijing, telling a top Chinese general on Tuesday that it was time to end a
pattern of “on-again, off-again” relations.
In a meeting with General Xu Caihou (徐才厚), China’s second-ranking officer, Gates
stressed the need to preserve a lasting dialogue between the US and Chinese
militaries regardless of disputes or policy differences, Pentagon press
secretary Geoff Morrell said.
“There is a need to break the on-again, off-again cycle of our
military-to-military relationship,” said Morrell, briefing reporters on the
meeting.
The talks marked the highest-level visit by the Chinese military since 2006.
Xu’s weeklong visit is the latest in a long effort to improve US-Chinese
military ties. It also comes ahead of US President Barack Obama’s first official
trip to China from Nov. 15 to Nov. 18.
Xu was open to more military cooperation but cited obstacles, such as US
military support for Taiwan and the presence of US surveillance ships in waters
that Beijing considers its economic exclusion zone, said a US defense official,
who asked not to be named.
Gates portrayed the military dialogue as a crucial way of airing differences
over maritime law or other issues, the official said.
“We ought to be able to talk about those policy disagreements in an appropriate
setting, but the important thing is we shouldn’t let those policy disagreements
lead us to take actions that might precipitate a crisis or undermine the entire
bilateral relationship,” the official said.
Xu supported more military contacts, Morrell said, inviting Gates to visit China
next year, along with the top US military officer, Admiral Mike Mullen, and the
new head of US Pacific Command, Admiral Robert Willard.
The pair agreed “to improve military maritime operational and tactical safety”
when the two armed forces operate near each other, the Pentagon said in a
statement.
The talks on maritime operations were set for December. Such discussions
appeared aimed at avoiding a repeat of standoffs earlier this year that saw
Chinese vessels confront US surveillance ships.
Chinese
spouses demand right to work in Taiwan
DPA, TAIPEI
Thursday, Oct 29, 2009, Page 2
Wang Xiulian, a Chinese woman who married a man from Taiwan and has been living
here for eight years, hates going to the market to buy vegetables.
Some vegetable sellers, knowing she is from China, often ask her: “Do you want
to buy "dalumei"?”
Dalumei means “mainland sister,” a pejorative term for Chinese brides, but also
a moniker for a kind of lettuce.
“They do that on purpose. So I turn around and walk to another vegetable stand,”
Wang said.
Taiwanese began to refer to the lettuce as "dalumei" more than a decade ago,
when Chinese brides began arriving in Taiwan.
Marriages between Taiwanese men and Chinese or Southeast Asian women have
increased in the past few years. A majority of the men are middle-aged or older
— mostly farmers and workers who could not find wives in Taiwan. Dating agencies
take these men to China to pair them with young Chinese women who dream of
better lives in Taiwan.
This has given rise to exploitation and crime, with some agencies arranging fake
marriages to lure Chinese women to Taiwan and exploit them as prostitutes or
illegal factory workers.
Many of the Chinese brides experienced disillusionment when they arrived in
Taiwan.
“My husband's family looks down on me, neighbors look down on me, everyone looks
down on me. I envy the women in my village who went to work in Singapore or
Britain. They make more money and send back money to build large houses,” Wang
said.
Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) figures show that there are about 170,000 Chinese
brides in Taiwan, while an unofficial estimate puts the figure at 270,000.
Most of them got married with the help of agencies who arranged for Taiwanese to
visit China for speed dating.
In Wang's hometown in Fujian Province, some agencies charge local women 30,000
yuan (US$4,400) to arrange the marriage, while others ask Taiwanese men to pay a
dowry of 10,000 for a Chinese bride.
If both parties like each other, they go to a photographer for a wedding photo
and apply for a marriage certificate. Then the man returns home to apply for an
entry permit for his wife so that she can live in Taiwan.
Landing at Taiwan's airports, Chinese brides have to attend an interview to
prove they are not taking part in a fraudulent wedding. Some Chinese wives have
been reduced to tears because the questions were humiliating, reports said.
Even after receiving a Taiwanese identity card, which takes six years, and
obtaining citizenship, the women have difficulty finding work because Taiwan
does not recognize Chinese college degrees or job licenses.
In recent years, Chinese brides have held several rallies in Taipei to demand
the right to live and work in Taiwan.
Their top demands are reducing the wait for a Taiwanese ID to four years — the
same as spouses from other countries — and recognition of Chinese degrees and
work licenses.
But the MAC has dismissed allegations of discrimination.
“When a foreign spouse applies for a Taiwan ID card, the spouse must renounce
his or her citizenship, pass the naturalization exam and stay in Taiwan for a
number of days each year while waiting for the ID card. We have no such
requirement for mainland spouses,” Hu Hsin-ju of the MAC's legal affairs section
said.
As for degrees and licenses, Chang Li-ching of the culture and education section
said the MAC was seeking to amend the law to recognize Chinese college degrees.
At present, Taiwan recognizes only China's primary, middle and high school
degrees.
“Once Chinese college degrees are recognized, the spouses can join licensure
exams in various fields, the same way Taiwanese do,” she said.
Chen Wu of the Taiwan New Inhabitants Association believes that Taiwanese
looking down on Chinese brides arises from Taiwanese propaganda that China is
poor and backward.
“But I must admit that many mainland brides have not had a good education and
cannot even write a proper resume,” he said. “I tell them that in order to be
respected, they have to raise their own level first.”
Culture
minister tenders resignation again and again
By Flora Wang
STAFF REPORTER
Thursday, Oct 29, 2009, Page 3
Cabinet Spokesman Su Jun-pin (蘇俊賓) yesterday confirmed that Minister of Cultural
Affairs Huang Pi-twan (黃碧端) had tendered her resignation.
Su told reporters that Huang had tendered her resignation several times, but
Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) had yet to approve it.
“The premier said Minister Huang had performed very well and had been very
competent in terms of protecting cultural assets, promoting of the arts and
planning cultural events and major cultural venues,” Su said.
Huang sent a letter to members of the council saying she had decided not to stay
after former premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄) led members of his Cabinet in
resigning en masse on Sept 7.
Huang became minister on May 20 last year and remained after the Cabinet
reshuffle, but said she only promised to stay on temporarily so that the premier
would have time to find a successor.
Huang said she had handed her resignation to the premier on a number of
occasions over the past month because she believed she had completed her mission
for the time being and that she wanted the council to be led by a younger and
more energetic minister.
Vice Minister of Cultural Affairs Chang Yui-tan (張譽騰) told reporters the
minister had been very concerned about the review by legislators and the media,
adding that legislators’ criticism on Monday might have renewed her
determination to quit.
During a meeting of the legislature’s Education and Culture Committee on Monday,
legislators criticized Huang for sending two text messages to her friends
complaining about being unable to win support from legislators.
Huang was scheduled to attend the committee’s meeting yesterday, but requested a
leave of absence.
Huang’s absence prompted Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators to
threaten to boycott the council’s budget request for next year.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱), a member of the
committee, said Huang shouldn’t tender her resignation until the committee
completes the budget review.
Meanwhile, Su dismissed media speculation that Department of Health Minister
Yaung Chih-liang (楊志良) also tendered his resignation over the US beef import
controversy. Su said the premier and the president both gave credits to Yaung
for his performance.
Chinese
firm to send 10,000 employees to visit Taiwan
By Shelley Shan
STAFF REPORTER
Thursday, Oct 29, 2009, Page 4
Starting Saturday, direct marketing firm Pro Health (China) Co (寶健中國) is
scheduled to send about 10,000 employees on an incentive tour to Taiwan.
The employees will arrive in seven separate groups between Oct. 30 and Nov. 24.
They will embark on a six-day tour and check out tourist attractions in Taipei
City, Taichung City, as well as Taipei, Changhua and Nantou counties, but will
skip Kaohsiung.
Company president Jason Li (李道) denied that there were political considerations
in the way it arranged the tour. He said they made the reservations a while ago.
Li estimated the incentive tour could bring more than NT$600 million (US$20
million) to Taiwan.
The travel agency that helped arrange the tour for Pro Health said that many of
the Pro Health employees who will come this time have never visited Taiwan
before.
Though the employees cannot visit Alishan this time, Li said they could still
see Taipei 101, which in his words was the “New Alishan.”
In related news, a Chinese tourism delegation headed by National Tourism
Administration Vice Chairman Wang Zhifa (王志發) arrived in Taiwan yesterday for a
cross-strait travel fair that is scheduled to open tomorrow in Taipei.
Wang said that the delegation would be the biggest from China ever to attend a
travel fair in Taiwan.
The Chinese group is comprised of 486 representatives from 308 different tourism
offices in provinces, administrative regions and cities, and travel agencies
throughout China, Wang said.
The travel fair — jointly organized by the Taiwan Visitors Association and the
Beijing-based Cross-Strait Tourism Exchange Association — will be held in
conjunction with the 2009 Taipei International Travel Fair at the Taipei World
Trade Center from tomorrow to Monday.
Flailing UN
campaign is down to the Ma team
By Chen Lung-chu
陳隆志
Thursday, Oct 29, 2009, Page 8
‘Since Ma Ying-jeou became president last year, there has been a drastic change
in the government’s strategy for joining the UN.’
Oct. 24 marked Taiwan’s third United Nations Day.
The initiation of the campaign to join the UN under the name “Taiwan” was a
significant milestone on the road toward normalizing Taiwan’s national status.
In 2007, then-president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) filed an application with the UN
Secretariat for Taiwanese UN membership under the name “Taiwan,” an approach
that was completely different from that used in the previous 14 years.
It was an historic step forward in that it declared to the international
community that Taiwan is a peace-loving country determined to join the world
body.
The move also highlighted the fact that by not including Taiwan as a member, the
UN had deprived Taiwanese of basic human rights and that this was not good for
Taiwan or the UN.
Since Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) became president last year, there has been a drastic
change in the government’s strategy for joining the UN.
In order to ingratiate itself with the People’s Republic of China (PRC), the Ma
administration has declared a “diplomatic truce” with Beijing, promoted a modus
vivendi foreign policy and striven for “meaningful participation” in the UN’s
specialized agencies instead.
This year, the government even gave up efforts to have Taiwan’s diplomatic
allies make a joint proposal for Taiwanese UN membership at the UN General
Assembly. Ma instead implored China to allow Taiwan to participate in
specialized agencies — reflecting a status inferior to that of independent
states.
Not only does the Ma government do all it can to avoid suggesting that Taiwan is
a sovereign, independent state and that China has no jurisdiction over Taiwan,
it is also failing to defend Taiwan’s national interests.
Ma’s attempts to undermine the nation’s sovereignty and its Taiwanese identity
by placing Taiwan’s future in the hands of the Chinese are indicative of his
ignorance of public opinion and their wish for UN membership.
They also highlight how the government disregards Taiwanese sovereignty and bows
to its Chinese counterpart in an attempt to make Taiwan a Chinese satellite
state.
In 2007, Taiwan’s proposal for UN membership aroused heated discussion among
members of the world body and in the international community, leading to massive
media coverage.
This year, however, the Ma administration abandoned efforts to gain UN
membership and has significantly reduced exposure for Taiwan’s attempts to gain
participation in the UN in the international media, thus weakening Taiwan’s
voice in that arena.
We must insist on doing what is right. The Taiwanese people are not willing to
be ruled by a foreign power and we are not pessimistic about the collective
right of Taiwan’s 23 million people to join the UN.
Nor will we give up.
Chen Lung-chu is president of the Taiwan New
Century Foundation.