Cross-strait talks set for Dec. 22 to 24
　

FOURTH ROUND: The two sides will start talks on Dec. 22 and ink four agreements. However, the MAC was mum on whether the PRC delegation will meet KMT officials
　

By Ko Shu-ling
STAFF REPORTER
Friday, Dec 11, 2009, Page 1

Taipei and Beijing will hold a fourth round of cross-strait talks in Taichung from Dec. 22 to Dec. 24, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) announced yesterday.

MAC Deputy Minister Liu Te-shun (劉德勳) said China’s Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS) Chairman Chen Yunlin (陳雲林) would lead a delegation from Beijing and arrive in Taichung on Dec. 21 for a five-day visit. He will hold talks with Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) Chairman Chiang Pin-kung (江丙坤) on Dec. 22. The two sides will address four issues and sign four agreements on fishing industry cooperation, quality checks on agricultural products, cross-strait cooperation on standard inspection and certification, and preventing double taxation.

A panel discussion will be held on Dec. 23 to solicit Chinese investment. On Dec. 24, Chen and the delegation will visit Sun Moon Lake and other attractions in the area. The delegation will depart on Dec. 25 for Beijing.

ARATS Deputy Chairman Zheng Lizhong (鄭立中) will arrive next Friday to prepare for Chen’s visit, Liu added.

Liu said MAC Chairwoman Lai Shin-yuan (賴幸媛) would meet Chen on Dec. 22, but declined to reveal who else Chen would meet or when he would meet them, including Taichung Mayor Jason Hu (胡志強).

While Liu said there would not be any welcome banquet hosted by a political party or business group, he did not give a definite answer on whether Chen would meet any current or former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) member. No activities have been arranged for the evenings of Dec. 21, Dec. 23 and Dec. 24.

“We hope the arrangements will be comparatively simple this time around,” Liu said, alluding to protests that occurred during Chen’s visit last year.

Chen was stranded at the Grand Formosa Regent Hotel in Taipei for several hours when he attended a banquet hosted by then-KMT chairman Wu Poh-hsiung (吳伯雄) after protesters surrounded the hotel and blocked the exits.

Liu declined to disclose whether Chen would go sightseeing in any county governed by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), saying “travel arrangements are not made based on such considerations.”

Lai told lawmakers at the legislature’s International Administration Committee yesterday afternoon that Hu had made it clear that the city would not set up a protest zone and that her council would respect the security arrangements made by the Taichung City Government.

The morning session of the meeting ground to a halt because DPP legislators refused to question Lai over the upcoming cross-strait talks until the MAC announced the details of Chen’s visit to Taichung.

SEF Secretary-General Kao Koong-lian (高孔廉) left for Fuzhou, Fujian Province, on Wednesday for a preparatory meeting ahead of the upcoming Chiang-Chen talks to arrange the details, including the dates, location, schedule and agreements the two sides planned to sign during the meeting. Neither side announced the details until 11:30am yesterday.

Citing the example of the financial memorandum of understanding (MOU) recently signed with Beijing, DPP lawmakers said they did not want to be blindsided again by government officials.

Financial Supervisory Commission Chairman Sean Chen (陳冲) remained tight-lipped about details of the MOU at the legislature on Nov. 16. A few hours later, he announced unexpectedly that the commission had completed the signing of the MOU with its Chinese counterpart via a document exchange.

“Don’t treat legislators and the Taiwanese public like idiots,” DPP Legislator Chiu Yi-ying (邱議瑩) said.

KMT Legislator Huang Chao-shun (黃昭順) agreed and seconded the DPP’s proposal to postpone the meeting until the afternoon.

Huang also asked Lai to express to Chen Taipei’s strong desire to see Beijing remove missiles targeting the country if it wishes to continue negotiating on other issues.

Obama accepts Nobel Peace Prize, defends 'just wars'
　

MORAL INTEREST: Barack Obama said that violent conflict could not be eradicated and the US must be a standard bearer when force is necessary

REUTERS, OSLO
Friday, Dec 11, 2009, Page 1

The US must uphold moral standards when waging wars that are necessary and justified, US President Barack Obama said yesterday as he accepted the Nobel Prize for Peace.

In a speech at the award ceremony in Oslo, Obama said violent conflict would not be eradicated “in our lifetimes,” there would be times when nations would need to fight just wars and he would not stand idle in the face of threats to the American people.

“Where force is necessary, we have a moral and strategic interest in binding ourselves to certain rules of conduct. And even as we confront a vicious adversary that abides by no rules, I believe that the United States of America must remain a standard bearer in the conduct of war,” he said.

Nine days after ordering 30,000 more US troops to Afghanistan to break the momentum of the Taliban, Obama acknowledged the criticism of those who have said it was wrong and premature to award the Nobel accolade to a president still in his first year in office and escalating a major war.

He said the US' adherence to moral standards, even in war, was what made it different from its enemies.

“That is a source of our strength. That is why I prohibited torture. That is why I ordered the prison at Guantanamo Bay closed. And that is why I have reaffirmed America's commitment to abide by the Geneva Conventions,” he said.

By pledging to close the Guantanamo camp for foreign terrorist suspects on Cuba and moving to bring inmates to trial on US soil, Obama has attempted to recover the moral high ground that critics of the US accused his predecessor George W. Bush of surrendering by waging a no-holds-barred “war on terror.”

“We lose ourselves when we compromise the very ideals that we fight to defend. And we honor those ideals by upholding them not just when it is easy, but when it is hard,” Obama said.

Acknowledging “a reflexive suspicion of America, the world's sole military superpower,” he said his country could not act alone in confronting global challenges in Afghanistan, Somalia or other troubled regions.

In seeking alternatives to force, it was necessary to be tough.

“Those regimes that break the rules must be held accountable. Sanctions must enact a real price,” Obama said in a passage that addressed North Korea's nuclear arsenal and US suspicions that Iran also seeks to acquire the bomb.

Acknowledging the controversy surrounding his prize, he said: “I have no doubt that there are others that may be more deserving. My task here is to continue on the path that I believe is not only important for America but important for lasting peace in the world.”

He said that meant pursuing a world free of nuclear weapons and countering proliferation; addressing climate change; stabilizing countries like Afghanistan; “mobilizing an international effort to deal with terrorism that is consistent with our values and ideals”; and addressing development issues.

“It is ... incumbent upon all of us to insist that nations like Iran and North Korea do not game the system,” Obama said. “Those who seek peace cannot stand idly by as nations arm themselves for nuclear war.”

Acknowledging the controversy surrounding his prize, he said: “I have no doubt that there are others that may be more deserving. My task here is to continue on the path that I believe is not only important for America but important for lasting peace in the world.”

He said that meant pursuing a world free of nuclear weapons and countering proliferation; addressing climate change; stabilizing countries like Afghanistan; “mobilizing an international effort to deal with terrorism that is consistent with our values and ideals”; and addressing development issues.

Some of these initiatives were beginning to bear fruit, Obama said.

“If I am successful in those tasks, then hopefully some of the criticism will subside, but that is not really my concern. If I am not successful, than all the praise and awards in the world will not disguise that,”he said.

Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg told journalists the prize was well deserved and “can contribute in itself to strengthening the efforts of the president to work for peace."

Chi Mei pleads guilty to price-fixing, fined US$220m
　

By Lisa Wang
STAFF REPORTER
Friday, Dec 11, 2009, Page 1

Chi Mei Optoelectronics Corp (奇美電子), the nation's second-largest liquid-crystal-display (LCD) panel maker, yesterday said it had agreed to plead guilty and pay a US$220 million fine for fixing prices for flat panels. Shares in the company tumbled 3.26 percent yesterday.

The Tainan-based company entered into a plea agreement with the US Department of Justice to resolve allegations of anticompetitive activities between September 2001 and December 2006, it said in a company statement issued before the Taiwan Stock Exchange opened yesterday.

Chi Mei shares fell NT$0.70 to close at NT$20.80, the lowest level since Nov. 30. The fine could push the panel maker into another quarterly loss this quarter after making its first three-month profit in more than a year last quarter.

“This is a rare case. We originally expected Chi Mei to break-even this quarter on falling prices. Those hopes are now dashed,” said Roger Yu (游智超), a flat-panel industry analyst with Polaris Securities Co (寶來證券).

The fine could bring the panel maker's losses to about NT$29 billion (US$898 million) for the full year, compared with NT$6 billion in losses last year. Chi Mei accumulated losses of NT$27.41 billion in the first nine months of this year.

“Besides, we fear there could be a knock-on effect,” Yu said.

Chi Mei said it planned to fully book the fine as a non-operating expense in the fourth quarter of this year.

“The disclosure aims to end recent speculation [about the price-fixing allegations] and to remove uncertainty [of a massive fine],”company spokesman Eddie Chen (陳彥松) said by telephone yesterday. “Chi Mei is not the first company to be fined. Six of the eight panel makers under investigation have pleaded [guilty to price fixing].”

Chi Mei said it would cooperate with the US Department of Justice's ongoing investigation.

So far, six Asian companies have pleaded guilty or have agreed to plead guilty in connection with the price-fixing probe, with fines totaling more than US$860 million.

The companies are Taiwan's Chunghwa Picture Tubes Ltd (中華映管), South Korea’s LG Display Co, Japan’s Sharp Corp, Hitachi Displays Ltd and Epson Imaging Devices Corp.

Taiwanese see real world at refugee camp
　

By Wu Hsieh-chang
CNA
Friday, Dec 11, 2009, Page 2
　

The quietly flowing Moei River, which forms part of the border between Thailand and Myanmar, can be seen as a metaphor for the silent anguish of the Karen refugees in Thailand who fled human rights abuses, violence and desperate economic conditions in Myanmar.

For more than 60 years the Karen, Myanmar’s largest ethnic group, have sought greater autonomy in their homeland, a quest that has fueled one of the longest running internal conflicts in the world.

Karen refugees began crossing into Thailand in 1984 and the Thai military started setting up refugee camps along the border about 20 years ago.

In most of their accounts to the UN, the refugees speak of direct attacks by the Myanmar army, forced labor, enslavement, and destruction of their homes and crops.

There are now around 140,000 Myanmar refugees in Thailand, living in nine fenced camps along the border between the two countries.

The largest camp is Mae La, which sits on a hill about 60km north of the border town of Mae Sot. Sam Lai (賴樹盛) 36, often sits on this hill pondering the future of the camp’s 43,000 refugees, especially the children.
　

Lai is a volunteer with the non-governmental Taipei Overseas Peace Service (TOPS) and the only worker with the organization who is stationed in Mae Sot, where he has worked for seven years in collaboration with local and international organizations.

“It is deplorable that the Karen refugees are now stateless, have lost their freedom and have no legal identity or protection within Thailand,” Lai said. “It is hard for people outside to imagine what life is like within the highly restricted refugee camps.”

Since 1996, TOPS has been administering humanitarian and educational programs at Karen refugee camps and in Myanmar migrant communities in remote Thai villages.

“What we do is to help the refugees improve their lives and in particular, we seek to help the children avoid the harrowing experiences of their parents,” Lai said.

The children’s education is an issue of great concern, according to Lai. At Mae La alone, TOPS runs more than 20 day-care centers as 38 percent of the Karen children are of kindergarten age.

“Most children who are growing up in refugee camps do not have the slightest idea of what constitutes a normal life,” Lai said.

Every week, Lai visits each of the camps in Mae Sot, driving seven to eight hours along the rugged mountain roads. He often spends the night at one of the camps to better assess the needs of the refugees.

“Sometimes I do get tired and frustrated, but I have discovered that my discomforts are nothing compared with the suffering of the displaced Karen refugees whose dreams of going home might never be realized,” he said.

A major part of TOPS’ mission in Thailand is to help run schools for migrant Karen children in remote Thai villages. The schools built on the hillsides are open-sided thatched huts made of bamboo, but Lai says they are five-star havens to the Karen children who long to learn.

These crude structures collapse easily during the rainy season from May to November. This year, some of them have not been rebuilt because of tighter financing since the global economic crisis broke, Lai said.

Despite the challenges, Lai and others like him do their best to bring 21st century education to the refugee children.

Taiwanese Chang Lee-an (張利安) has been engaged in this effort since 2005 when he and Lai first met in Thailand. Chang, then a student in the Department of Information and Computer Engineering at Chung Yuan Christian University in Taiwan, began to collect computer equipment after he returned to Taiwan that year from his summer break.

He went back to Thailand in the summer of 2006 with the equipment to teach Karen children at Mae Sot camps how to use computers. Taking his efforts one step further, Chang established Youth E-Service, Taiwan in January 2007 to foster youth voluntarism.

“It is good that Taiwan’s college students are willing to do volunteer work during the summer and winter breaks,” Lai said. “It allows them to gain useful hands-on experience and gives them an opportunity to better understand the rest of the world.”

The program is also aimed at fostering interaction among youth through the development of digital learning, he said.

Lai said it takes many years of devoted work to make any significant difference.

“Humanitarian assistance is a long-term commitment and it requires professional knowledge, patience and a deep understanding of the problems, but Taiwanese tend to be more keen on short-term work,” he said.

One of exceptions is Lin Liang-shu (林良恕) who has been volunteering at Karen refugee camps along the Thai-Myanmar border for many years. Lin first became involved in the work 20 years ago, when she was 25.

She has now made Mae Sot her home and, along with friends in the area, has set up the Tak Border Child Association Foundation to help refugee children.

For volunteers like Lin and Lai, it is not only about helping others, but also about self-discovery and development.

Lai said that through his interaction with the Karen refugees, he has learned to shed prejudices, to share his thoughts and emotions openly, and to find strength even in the most desperate situations.

“This work has also helped me to know myself better and to find ways of serving my own homeland,” he said. “I’ve discovered my own weak points, most of which are derived from the easy life I had when I was growing up.”

Nonetheless, after seven years of service in the camps, Lai has decided to quit his work with TOPS at the end of this year.

“I would like to slow down and reexamine my life, but humanitarian concerns — particularly the future of Karen refugee children — will remain a lifelong passion of mine,” he said.

China rights violators should be tried: DPP
　

WANTED: Activists and DPP lawmakers said that visits by Chinese officials accused of human rights violations would be an opportunity for Taiwan to prosecute them
　

By Loa Iok-sin
STAFF REPORTER
Friday, Dec 11, 2009, Page 3

DPP lawmakers and human rights activists yesterday urged prosecution of Chinese officials who have been charged for crimes against humanity in other countries if they visit Taiwan.

Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Tien Chiu-chin (田秋堇) and the activists made the call at a press conference as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) — both ratified by the Legislative Yuan in March — were written into law yesterday.

“It’s easy to sign the covenants, but what’s more important is to implement the contents,” Tien said, adding that one way for Taiwan to join the international hunt for violators of human rights was to bring Chinese officials who have been charged with crimes against humanity in other countries to justice if they visit Taiwan.

“The Chinese Communist Party’s [CCP] Chongqing committee chief Bo Xilai [薄熙來], for example, may visit Taiwan next year on the invitation of Taiwan External Trade Development Council chairman Wang Chih-kang [王志剛],” Tien said. “He has been accused of torturing thousands of Falun Gong practitioners and engaging in live organ harvesting when he served as China’s Liaoning Province chief [from 2000 to 2003].”

Tien said lawsuits had been filed against Bo in a dozen countries, including the US, the UK, Poland, Russia, Chile, Peru, Spain, South Korea, Australia, Finland and Canada.

While visiting the US on an official trip in 2004, Bo received a notice at his hotel to appear in court. In the same year, Bo and 44 Chinese officials suspected of engaging in repression of Falun Gong practitioners were put on a watchlist in Canada. In November 2007, an Australian court convicted Bo of torturing Falun Gong practitioners, Tien said.

US-based human rights lawyer Theresa Chu (朱婉琪) told the press conference that apart from codifying the two covenants, Taiwan should pass laws against hate crime, torture and other human rights violations, as many other countries that have ratified the ICCPR and the ICESCR have done.

Deng Liberty Foundation chairman Kenneth Chiu (邱晃泉) agreed.

“President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) declared that Taiwan should become an exporter of human rights and fulfill its duty of protecting human rights worldwide,” Chiu said. “We cannot just pretend that we don’t see it when Chinese officials accused of human rights violations come to this country and treat them like VIPs.”

Meanwhile, at a separate setting yesterday, Taiwan Friends of Tibet chairwoman Chow Mei-li (周美里) called on the government to promote human rights in Tibet during cross-strait negotiations, “such as the talks between [China’s] Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait chairman Chen Yunlin (陳雲林) and [Taiwan’s] Strait Exchange Foundation chairman Chiang Pin-kung (江丙坤), which will take place later this month in Taichung.”

Regional Tibetan Youth ­Congress-Taiwan chairman Tashi Tsering said he was disappointed in Ma.

“[During the presidential campaign] last year, Ma voiced strong support for human rights issues in Tibet, but what has he done since he was elected?” Tashi asked. “With more and more cross-strait exchanges, the government should not forget about the suffering of both the Tibetans and the Chinese under the CCP’s rule.”

Beijing, the serial deal breaker

Friday, Dec 11, 2009, Page 8

When Taiwanese officials signed up to take part in next year’s Shanghai World Expo, there was always the probability that the Chinese would use Taipei’s participation to promote Taiwan as Chinese territory.

After all, this is the distorted view of reality that the Chinese government has relentlessly tried to impose on people in every corner of the globe over the last few decades.

So when officials discovered this week that, contrary to the contract signed by the two sides, Expo organizers had included Taiwan in the China Pavilion on their Web site, it shouldn’t have come as a surprise.

Nevertheless, protests were made, and although the organizers made hasty alterations to the Chinese Web pages (the English Web page still has Taiwan in the Chinese Pavilion), it is hard to believe this will be the last attempt to promote Taiwan as part of China during the event.

Although this would seem like a trivial matter to most people outside Taiwan, it is just the latest example of China’s long history of paying lip service to agreements it has signed.

Another recent example would be the Chinese government’s reneging on its commitment to provide uncensored Internet access to journalists during the Beijing Olympics.

Ever since its proclamation in 1949, the People’s Republic of China has made a habit of ignoring the terms of pacts and agreements it has forged.

The Seventeen Point agreement for the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet guaranteeing religious freedom and autonomy for Tibetans signed in 1951 is one of the earliest instances of this behavior.

In 1998, China signed the UN International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Yet just this week Chinese police charged dissident Liu Xiaobo (劉曉波) with subverting state power. His crime? Publishing a document calling for democratic reform, a goal fully in line with the articles contained in the covenant.

More recently, Taiwan and China have signed a number of cross-strait agreements on food safety and fighting crime, for example, yet Taiwan has seen little or no action from Beijing on repatriation of wanted white-collar criminals or compensation for last year’s exports of poisoned milk powder.

Time and again China has demonstrated that it cannot be trusted, yet the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government ignores this and plows ahead, signing ever more agreements.

That China cannot be counted on to implement such agreements in full, or may even renege on them completely, bodes ill for Taiwan’s future as the present government becomes more entwined with Beijing.

Still, there are those in the government that want to go even further, talking of military confidence-building measures, political talks and even a peace agreement.

These people are stretching the boundaries of credibility if they believe Beijing can be trusted to stick to the terms of important agreements, especially on a subject as sensitive as Taiwan.

The probability is even higher that, as in the case of the Shanghai Expo, the inclusion of Taiwan under China will have serious implications for this nation.

The beef dilemma

Friday, Dec 11, 2009, Page 8

The importation of US beef has put the administration of President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) in a dilemma. On the one hand, the government is responsible for safeguarding public health. On the other, Taiwan needs to maintain good relations with the US by importing its beef.

In terms of Taiwan and the US, beef is more than just a piece of meat. It is related to arms purchases, trade and even diplomatic relations. This is particularly salient following US President Barack Obama’s recent trip to China. As a result, the Ma administration is eager to make friendly overtures toward Washington. The only reason Ma’s administration has eased restrictions on US beef is that it has no choice.

The crucial issue, however, is whether the beef really is safe. Public shows of dissatisfaction and criticism from the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) demonstrate the level of concern. If beef imported from the US were demonstrably safe, there would be no problem.

On Nov. 14 a campaign to boycott US beef was launched, with many showing their antipathy toward Ma in the process. Former DPP chairman Frank Hsieh delivered a public speech that left no doubt that US beef could deal the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) a severe blow if the Ma administration does not take appropriate action.

US beef has divided two countries, political parties, the public and the government. The results of the recent election are powerful evidence of this. Ma needs to deal with the beef dilemma to keep everything on the right track.

JESSICA SU
Taipei

Conference unites Taiwan, PRC
　

By Michael Danielsen
Friday, Dec 11, 2009, Page 8

The climate conference in Copenhagen has become a battlefield for the old controversy between Taiwan and China. Almost like a ritual, Taiwan is not invited to the climate conference despite the fact that its economy, technology and political will are fully capable of contributing to the resolution on climate change, and far better equipped than most of the participating countries.

Quite surprisingly however, Taiwan is not eager to participate despite announcements from the government that “meaningful participation in the UNFCCC is a priority for President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration.”

Taiwan has not applied for observer status at the conference, “missing” the deadline on Aug. 7. In addition, the government supported Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) was listed under China after a symbolic protest from Taiwan.

The climate conference in Copenhagen is therefore a victory for the “one China” policy. The “one China” policy of Denmark and Europe has put longstanding and massive pressure on Taiwan to make it understand that it is a part of China. Therefore, Taiwan did not receive an invitation to the climate conference. This should come as no surprise because the “one China” policy is supported by the Taiwanese government.

No one has asked Taiwanese people whether they accept the “one China” policy despite the fact that several indicators reveal that the UN climate conference and Taiwan’s government are failing to live up to the expectations of Taiwanese. Last Saturday’s local elections and several polls have revealed a loss of support for Ma and the current government’s China policy. In addition, more than 80 percent of Taiwanese refuse to be a part of China, regardless of the model offered. This should arouse thoughts among policy makers in Europe and in Taiwan.

The Taiwanese have good reason to complain about their exclusion from the climate conference, but the Taiwanese government’s complaint is hollow in light of the missing application for observer status and in light of its own moves toward closer political links with China. The government is clearly moving away from self-determination for Taiwan. Surprisingly to many Europeans, Taiwan’s government supports the “one China” policy just as Denmark and Europe does. Therefore, Taiwan’s government just got what it asked for. This is satisfactory to all parties — except the Taiwanese who want to determine their own future.

Michael Danielsen is the chairman of Taiwan Corner.