The Algae Reefs of Taoyuan

Hang glider's photo showing waste water emerging from pipe, from Taipei Times.

It is clear that if you want the EPA to actually bestir itself, it's best that you report the industrial pollution on....Facebook....(TT)

Responding to photographs taken by civilians from the air near Taoyuan County’s Guanyin Beach (觀音海水浴場) on Saturday, showing polluted black water along the shore, the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) said it had examined the water on Monday and would continue to investigate the source of the pollution.

Photographs of the polluted water, about 200m north of the beach, were shot from a hang glider on Friday and posted on the Internet by the owner, and picked up by the media on Monday.

The EPA said it suspected that the waste had come from factories in a nearby industrial district. It added:

Bureau of Environmental Inspection Inspector General Chen Shyan-heng (陳咸亨) said that to protect the rare algal reefs along the shore from pollution by the numerous factories in Guanyin and Dayuan (大園) townships, the EPA and the local environmental protection agency had made a plan to strengthen inspections of water pollution along four rivers in the area.

The number of inspection officers at the bureau is limited, so the EPA encourages people to report cases of pollution or damage to the administration whenever they are discovered, Chen said.

Now read the FocusTaiwan piece:

The environmental authorities have been applauded by residents of the area for "taking the initiative" to investigate the reported case of pollution. However, a cultural association in Guanyin Towship said it had informed the the county's environmental bureau several times about the coastal pollution, but the bureau never took any responsive action.

"The government is simply numb," complained Pan Chung-cheng, president of the Dakuxi Cultural Association. He said he hopes that now the central government is paying attention to the matter, the relevant authorities will put forth a real solution to the problem.

Below are excerpts of reports by the United Daily News, a major Taiwanese newspaper, on the "black sea" incident:

......

After seeing the Facebook post, the EPA began scrambling the next day to investigate the matter.

Pan Cheng-chung, a local cultural association leader, said it was no secret that many factories inside the Guanyin Industrial Park have "hidden pipes" that transport waste water to the sea, where the precious algae reefs have been mostly destroyed.

Pan said when he saw the photo on May 13, he followed a map and walked inland from the coast for less than 200 meters where he found a dye factory that he believed was releasing waste water into the sea.

The Taoyuan County environmental bureau went to test the water but said that the factory had probably been alerted by the media reports and may not have released any waste water that day. Despite this, they charged the factory with violating the pollution prevention act, with a maximum fine of NT$600,000 (US$20,341).

Whoa. Huge fine, eh? I bet that will really change their behavior.

But this isn't the first time these have been in the news, so it is hard to understand why they have been neglected. Or rather, it isn't hard to understand, given the tight industry-EPA relationship in Taiwan. From 2009:

Pan Wen-yen, chairman of CPC, Taiwan, has instructed senior executives to look into a dispute arising from the company’s construction of an undersea liquefied natural gas pipeline near the Kuanyin township of Taoyuan County to connect a giant thermal power plant.

But the construction project sparked widespread concern because it threatens to destroy the rare algae reefs in the area.

In an attempt to put the negative publicity against his company to an end, Pan said CPC, Taiwan was not aware that there were algae reefs at the construction site when the planning for the LNG pipeline got under way years ago.

Algae reefs were not under the protection of the government’s conservation law, either, he said. He explained this is why the construction plan cleared the environmental impact evaluation in 2004.

Now that researchers and conservation organizations rate the algae reefs as an extremely valuable natural resource, CPC, Taiwan is willing to allocate funds to help preserve the algae reefs, he said.

Of course, construction of the pipeline, the article observed, had already commenced and a stretch of the reefs had already been destroyed. The article said that the Council of Agriculture had already announced a plan to coordinate with the Taoyuan County government and other organizations to set up a geological park there for ecotours blah blah blah. Naturally none of that came to fruition.

Turns out that this area of the north coast of Taiwan was once lined with roughly 27 kms of such reefs...

Pan said that in Taoyuan County, there were once algae reefs stretching from Chuwei to Yungan fishing ports. But since the establishment of the Dayuan and Guanyin industrial zones, factory waste from inside the zones has killed almost all of the algae reefs, leaving less than 5 km north of the Dakuxi River and south of Chuwei fishing port, he said.

Less than 5 kms of the original 27 kms of reefs remain, a miracle given what an industrialized nightmare the area is. A 2008 article on the Taoyuan area reef system notes:

Researchers from Academia Sinicia have uncovered the largest algal reef in eastern Taiwan along the coast of Shanyuan Bay in Taitung County.

"It’s quite surprising to discover such a large patch of algal reefs that are relatively undisturbed by human activities," said Allen Chao-lun Chen, an associate researcher at Academia Sinica’s Research Center for Biodiversity Aug. 14.

According to Chen, algal reefs, formed by crystalline calcium carbonates left by dead calcareous algae, usually grow at the extremely slow rate of 0.1 centimeters to 0.2 centimeters in thickness per year. Coral communities can be found in waters 1 kilometer off the coastline at a depth of 8 meters to 10 meters.

In addition to the newly-discovered algal reef, Shanyuan Bay also boasts a dense and diverse cornularia coral community in which a wealth of fish, shrimp and shell species live–a phenomenon not seen in other areas in Taiwan, Chen noted.

The largest algal reef in Taiwan was located off Taoyuan County in northwestern Taiwan, which is 4 kilometers long and 500 meters wide. Most of Taiwan’s coral reefs are found off the island’s southern coastlines, as well as its outlying islands.

Here's hoping someone in authority will wake up and realize what a priceless resource these reefs are...

REF: More info in Chinese
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Fun with Google Maps

This should give you the original map. The northern station appears to be misnamed, it is actually Taitung Station.
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Shock Doctrine: Zounds!! OMG debt SELL THE LAND NOW

Last December, just before the election, I blogged on the new aboriginal draft law which gave the appearance, but not the reality, of aboriginal autonomy. I also argued that Ma would be shoveling state assets out the door even if he lost...

I pointed to some of problems resulting from the new act and in general, development on the east coast here. This should also be connected back to the long term "shock doctrine" use of the Morakot disaster as a way to lever mountain peoples off their lands so they can be "developed" without the inconvenience of Other People's Ownership. If you ride your bike around the lower altitudes of mountain areas of Taiwan, you will run across cookie cutter style homes, like this one in Majia Township in Pingtung at about 400m, into which local aborigines are being moved from the mountains.

That too is part of the historical drive of the various colonial governments of Taiwan to move the aborigines out of their mountain homes and take over those resources.

Aborigines are a key KMT constituency. Of course, so are the big businesses that support the KMT, so it is not difficult to see why this law is going through just prior to the election. Recall that even if Ma loses, there will be a four month interregnum before Tsai takes over. Although I don't subscribe to any of the wilder theories one hears floating around about what will happen, it is fairly obvious it will be giveaway time for government assets. With this new law just in time for that....

Predictably, more shock doctrine rapes of the public treasury from Christine Liu, Minister of Finance, today, with the proposal that state lands be sold off to help out with the horror Debt Monster that threatens to eat Taiwan....

“Balancing the budget is the priority for debt reduction,” Liu said. “However, it is not easy to create a budget surplus for the settlement of debts.”

Liu added that the ministry would continue to budget repayment of principal and reduce the deficit in the future.

A Ministry of Finance report shows that the government’s overall budget deficit currently stands at NT$200 billion [US$6.77 billion].

Liu said that activating and utilizing idle state-owned assets could be an important tool for managing national debt, an indication that relaxing the limitations on public land sales might be considered.

Notice what's not there -- increased taxation on the wealthy. Laudably, the Administration has made noises about rectifying Taiwan's lack of capital gains tax and also implementing a tax on stock transactions. But fundamentally, as in the US, Greece, and elsewhere troubled by debt, the wealthy pay too little tax.

As of the end of last year, the government’s long-term debt — representing outstanding debt with a maturity of more than one year — stood at NT$4.769 trillion, an amount equivalent to 35.88 percent of average GDP over the past three years, the ministry said in a report.

If local governments’ outstanding long-term debt is included, the nation’s overall long-term debt balloons to NT$5.478 trillion, or 41.22 percent of the average GDP over the same timeframe, ministry data showed.

......

Under a definition outlined by the IMF, the nation’s debt — including both long-term and short-term figures — totaled NT$6.725 trillion at the end of last year, -ministry statistics show.

This is not a really serious debt situation. Does it really call for a sell-off of state assets -- a permanent transfer for a temporary gain? Of course not. And then there is the fairness issue -- the wealthy go untaxed, and much of this public debt was run-up to fund infrastructure projects that were essentially pay-offs to local patronage networks by the ruling party. Finally, if these public assets are sold off, we all know who they will be sold to.

One issue that occurs repeatedly throughout the last couple of decades is the government's poor management of its assets. Consider this 2002 piece:

According to Ministry of Finance estimates, the government currently owns securities with a market value of more than US$25.71 billion and US$57.14 billion worth of real estate. If other movable assets and equipment are tallied in, the total value amounts to more than US$171.43 billion. This figure would be even higher if assets at state-run enterprises were included. Despite the value of these assets, only US$1.04 billion in revenue was generated for the national coffers in 2001.

It is worth noting that the article states sales of state lands to cover losses were already policy at state-run businesses until the first Chen Administration when that was stopped. People who claim that Chen Shui-bian did nothing themselves know nothing.

Moreover, the government's poor return on its assets hides other issues. Like wastage -- when Agency A owns no land it pays rent, while at Agency B there is plenty of unused office space.

Would selling off assets pay "the debt"? Sure, until some future government ramped the debt back up. What's the value of all that land?  MoFA has the numbers on its website.... from what I can tell, the total value of public land is NT$4,832,701,000,000, or roughly US$161 billion (USD=NT30). Yeah, that might pay the debt... but a modest 5% return on land assets alone would be $8 billion annually. Clearly selling off  is the least effective policy in the long run, a transfer of assets that would merely make wealthy private asset holders even wealthier.

Sure hope to see the DPP was out there complaining about this and pimping the comprehensive land use policy and land law revisions it had wanted to carry out during the Chen Administration, instead of wasting everyone's time calling for impeachment of the President. This is exactly the sort of issue the Party should be out there leading the public.
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Daily Links:

• Brookings on Taiwan's Maturing Democracy (video)
• Kuokuang may be revived in Malaysia. Good riddance.
• Tracking Taiwan's national treasures, its butterflies.
• China, Japan, and South Korea to form free trade bloc. Taiwan feels the threat....

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[Taiwan] Don't miss the comments below! And check out my blog and its sidebars for events, links to previous posts and picture posts, and scores of links to other Taiwan blogs and forums! Delenda est, baby.

Daily Links, May 14, 2012

What's being hauled around the blogs today?

BLOGS:

• Falungong Demonstration in Jhubei.
• China accelerating naval expansion: when will the light dawn in Washington?
• Battle of Formosa: the Pescadores
• East Ridge of Huangdidian and the Bat Cave: Hiking
• The 30 year nuclear nightmare of the indigenous Tao people from Global Voices
• The Melissa Chan affair: Tit for Tat is a language Beijing understands
• Visiting Guqifeng
• Traveling in Taiwan -- for Muslims

MEDIA:

• Taiwan deploying more carrier killers anti-ship missiles
• Buddhist "mercy releases" of animals into the wild, which kill millions of animals each year, to be banned in Taiwan. Finally. "Lui oversaw the release of up to 14,000 bighead carp and grass carp spawn into a local creek as part of efforts to maintain river ecosystems and diversify the fishery business." Insane.
• Fuel prices to come down.
• Haha. Government to study ways to cut debt.

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[Taiwan] Don't miss the comments below! And check out my blog and its sidebars for events, links to previous posts and picture posts, and scores of links to other Taiwan blogs and forums! Delenda est, baby.

Will Someone Take Out DPP Brains and Thoroughly Scrub Them?

Here's the DPP doing good things. Rumors of a proposed new nuke dump in Hualien county, in Sioulin Township north of Hualien town, were making the rounds. As the Taipei Times reported last month, Taipower was busted drilling in Sioulin north of Hualien...

Having learned about the well only after Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) exposed the project, Hsu said that neither the township office nor the county government were informed of what Taipower was doing in Sioulin.

Bi-khim was told by a friend that Taipower was drilling Sioulin. Her friend wanted to be sure they were not secretly locating nuclear waste disposal sites. Sure enough, Bi-khim did the research and found that Taipei was looking to looking to "geological disposal" as the solution to the high-level waste (fuel rod disposal) problem (Taiwan's current storage is all "temporary" haha). Bi-Khim then directly asked Taipower for the location of the research and discovered that the location matched the drilling activities her friend warned her about. Naturally Taipower had not informed the local government of such activities, so she held a press conference to demand transparency and to express opposition to the selection of Sioulin as an ultimate disposal site for nuclear waste. Taipower has since apologized to the local indigenous people and sealed the hole. But you can be sure this won't be the last time they behave this way.

That's what DPP legislators and politicians should be doing. Effective service to constituents on important national issues. Good work, Bi-khim!

UPDATE: Translation error: the push is for RECALL, not impeachment. Still a silly waste of time, but at least its not a criminal accusation.

Instead, this morning brings news that the DPP is considering attempting to impeach (RECALL) Ma Ying-jeou.

The DPP caucus on Friday discussed whether to target Ma and call for his impeachment, but the meeting saw both opposition to and support for the idea, Ker said.

Supporters of impeachment said that despite the legal difficulties involved in the motion, the party should give voice to public -discontent, Ker said, adding that impeachment, whose supporters mostly draw from factions identifying who follow Hsieh and former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), would “leave a mark.”

DPP Legislator Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋), who supports the move, said elections and impeachment were opposite sides of a coin, adding that since the public elected Ma as president, they also have the right to impeach him.

It's simple: attempting to impeach (recall) the President without just cause is a blatant subversion of the democratic order. Short of violations of the law, mere impatience or discontent is hardly grounds for impeachment. Further, given the perennial KMT control of the legislature, the DPP should be wary of setting precedents that might call for tit-for-tat action by the pro-China side when a DPP politician becomes President. The public protests scheduled soon are the correct way to indicate displeasure.


This is just a bad idea in every way. The energy spent on it should be spent on other, more possible, and more urgent issues.
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[Taiwan] Don't miss the comments below! And check out my blog and its sidebars for events, links to previous posts and picture posts, and scores of links to other Taiwan blogs and forums! Delenda est, baby.

Rep Bill Owens and Taiwan Lobbying Violations?

Ruh-roh (source):

Congressman Bill Owens says he will repay more than $20,000 dollars for a junket that he took last December to Taiwan. The trip was paid for by a university in Taiwan. And it was planned and organized by a New York lobbying firm, which is no longer allowed under House ethics rules.

As Brian Mann reports, Owens says his office never reported that the firm Park Strategies organized the trip because "there was no place on the form to disclose it."

Politico has a nifty piece on the mess with tons of information. Park is very close to the Ma Administration and lobbies for the Taiwan government in the US.

This kind of thing is actually kind of normal for Taiwan and happens periodically. Remember this Bush-era mess? And the now-legendary Lafayette mess. Wait a couple of years. There will be another one....
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Daily Links:

• Perry Link with an excellent piece in the Washington Post on the US gov't's outdated view of China. Don't miss it.
• Chinese blogger Han Han on how wonderful the Taiwanese are. Don't miss it.
• With the South China Sea standoff continuing, China has raised the stakes by suspending tourism to Philippines. China is also halting Philippines bananas in customs for longer inspections and starting an official media campaign domestically to shore up its claims at home. Right-winger Bill Gertz in the Washington Free Beacon criticizes the US position and says the US Navy has been ordered not to help Manila. How soon will China use such tactics against Taiwan? James Holmes in The Diplomat meanwhile argues that frank talk with China would work wonders.

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[Taiwan] Don't miss the comments below! And check out my blog and its sidebars for events, links to previous posts and picture posts, and scores of links to other Taiwan blogs and forums! Delenda est, baby.

Poll Revival shows Ma unpopular

Some good news on the polling front. The Taipei Times reports...

The three most chosen descriptions of Ma’s brand were all negative, with 60.6 percent of participants saying Ma was “over-packaged,” 53.3 percent saying his abilities were “exaggerated” and 38.5 percent seeing him as “an expired, deteriorating product” in the survey conducted by research firm Taiwan Indicators Survey Research.

The newly established company, headed by former Global Views Survey Research Center director Tai Li-an (戴立安), released its first Taiwan Mood Barometer Survey, which Tai said would be conducted twice a month and cover various economic and political issues.

Some of you may recall that Global Views Survey Research Center shut down its political polling in October of 2011 in a move that was widely seen as kowtowing to the ruling party because its polls were showing that Tsai was ahead of Ma. The poll, though stiffly pro-Blue, was widely respected. Now that team is back in business with a new business.

As for the actual numbers, Ma is likely to be unpopular for a while until his satisfaction numbers creep back up into the 30s, more or less the norm. If Ma's unpopularity persists, it might lead to losses in local elections, as happened in the run-up to the presidential election, but it wouldn't mean anything as far as his getting elected again, assuming he could run, but he can't....
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Blue think tank poll on Taiwanese Youth & Military says opposite of Pollster's spin

UPDATE: The TT has revised the kicker. The headline is still wrong, but at least a corrective gale blew through the office. I've substantially revised the post.


Youth will not fight for Taiwan: poll

A survey released yesterday showed that 45.8 percent of young people born after 1984 agreed that Taiwan is an independent nation separate from China, while almost 60 percent of the respondents said that people have the right to refuse military conscription in the event of war against China.

The 21st Century Foundation, a local think tank, released the survey to explore the “sense of efficacy” of the generation toward cross-strait peace, attempting to find what they think are the ways to achieve peace and whether it is possible to reconcile cross-strait peace with preservation national sovereignty.

The survey said.....

"The survey found that 57 percent of the respondents agreed that people have the right to refuse to be conscripted into the military if a war breaks out because of Taiwan’s declaration of independence, while 43 percent disagreed.

An analysis of these two questions showed that 31.6 percent of the respondents do not want to be mobilized for military duty and would rather surrender in case of military conflict between Taiwan and China, Chang said."

Read it yourself -- nearly 60% said that others should not be forced to fight, and only 31% said that they do not want to be mobilized for duty. The number of people who said that they would go if mobilized is almost 70%, exactly opposite of what the headline says .

The TT then goes on to accept the spin that the lead researcher puts on the article without any corrective save provision of the numbers...

The survey reflected the “pragmatic attitudes” of young people in Taiwan toward cross-strait issues, he added.

“They do not want to sacrifice their lives for sovereignty,” Chang said of the findings.

The numbers are right there: not only do nearly 70% appear to be willing to be mobilized for duty but according to the survey, 51.7% agreed that Chinese invaders have to be resisted even if the government itself throws in the towel!

Asked whether they think people in Taiwan have to fight against China until the end, even if the government has stopped resisting when China forces Taiwan into unification, 48.3 percent of the respondents disagreed, and 51.7 percent agreed.

Apparently just over half the "strawberries" are bloody-minded bastards who will fight to the bitter end!

The other thing about this amazing presentation that bothered me was the reference to the 21st Century Foundation as "a local think tank." A two second search on Google turned up this collection of slides. Here are the top three people:

You only have to look at the positions and institutional commitments of these three individuals to know that this "thinktank" is a pro-Blue foundation. This probably should have been made clear by the Taipei Times. If you keep reading the slides, the thinktank's agricultural programs appear to be part of a program to transfer Taiwan's ag tech to China.

Finally, how about this research project:

Chang called the research a “pioneering study” because it combined qualitative and quantitative methods of conducting focus group interviews with senior high school and college students. A total of 719 copies of questionnaires were completed either online or through face-to-face interviews, and the respondents had connections to the research team rather than being randomly selected.

The paper's presentation is confusing. The use of "face-to-face" implies one on one interviews but focus groups were used, in which students were interviewed in groups (reflect for a moment on how Taiwanese talk about politics in groups). The idea that combining qualitative and quantitative work is somehow pioneering is laughable; there are a gazillion such studies (I am part of a team that has published one such study myself). I am sure the author knows that, and believe the author wanted to emphasize the pioneering nature of the study stems from its sample size and population, not combo of qual/quan triangulation. If you read the paragraph on how the students define China and Taiwan, it appears that a Blue-skewed population was selected.

However, if you read the paper's description, it says that participants were non-randomly selected. Yes, that's right, the sample population consists of non-random internet users and students familiar to the research team. Representativeness is thus a serious issue. Since the pro-China political commitments of the Foundation are painfully obvious, what we are really looking at is a study from a pro-KMT source that nevertheless says that Taiwanese students are majority bitter enders.

Now that's news the paper should have promoted.
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Blogger on Recovery

Biked 160 kms of Changhua, Taichung, and Yunlin today. Very groggy from too much sun right now. I'll be back on the blog tomorrow. In the meantime enjoy a few pictures.

Along one of the bike paths, the men's room has a bike stand

A garlic seller near the huge temple on 19.

Egrets atop pig sheds near the Dz Chiang Bridge on 19.

Heaven on earth: watermelon fields.

The big red bridge on 145 going into Siluo. Really great on a bike.

The big red bridge from the inside, always a fascinating view.
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[Taiwan] Don't miss the comments below! And check out my blog and its sidebars for events, links to previous posts and picture posts, and scores of links to other Taiwan blogs and forums! Delenda est, baby.

What do stock market taxes and F-16s have in common?

I have the terrible feeling that, because I am wearing a white beard and am sitting in the back of the theatre, you expect me to tell you the truth about something. These are the cheap seats, not Mount Sinai. -- Orson Welles

No need to go to The Avengers when we've gotten a steady flow of theater right here in our domestic politics. First the KMT staged a play as pious as any medieval Mystery Play on the proposed new taxes on income derived from securities transactions....

The Executive Yuan yesterday suffered a setback to a major policy for a second consecutive day when Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators refused to place on the legislative agenda an amendment imposing taxes on income earned from securities.

One of the KMT legislators, Wu Yu-sheng, proposed delaying a review of the amendments, blaming it on being overwhelmed with the beef mess. But who is Wu?

Wu, who has been labeled a loyal soldier of President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), yesterday said the “KMT caucus will not do whatever the executive branch wants the caucus to do from now on.”

“The caucus will act at our discretion if the executive branch fails to communicate with lawmakers before a major policy is made,” Wu said.

So... question to my readers: when the "loyal soldier" of President Ma opposes President Ma's policies, is it because he has switched sides, or is it because Ma wants him to? This way the Administration can say it pushed the law but oh so sorry our recalcitrant legislature decided to thumb its nose at us and isn't it a shame that no one can control those unruly lawmakers? [cue crocodile tears]. And lo and behold....

With one month left before the legislative session enters the summer recess, it appears unlikely that the amendments to the Income Tax Act (所得稅法) and the Income Basic Tax Act (所得基本稅額條例) will clear the legislative floor this session.

Alas, the revisions are delayed until the next legislative session. What a pity, eh?

Another bit of theater displayed this week was the F-16s. Remember them? Sometime back in the Qing Dynasty the Taiwan government decided it needed F-16s and sent a letter to the US government asking for 66 F-16s. Well, here we are years later and still no F-16s. No sooner did Obama announce that the US might sell Taiwan a few F-16s the KMT broke out in a cold sweat. Diversion! The prospect of F-35s is raised! No hope of that, but the idea makes a nifty dislocation. Further news came out: the budget might not be there for the new aircraft!

Oscars for everyone! As a longtime observer noted, whenever the US moves forward on the F-16s, the KMT has a sudden bout of budget indigestion, and whenever Taiwan presses on the F-16s, the US refuses to sell. The only problem is determining whether the cooperation is planned in advance or whether both sides are simply acting out roles they both know so well there is no need to notify the other guy in advance.

Yes, Taiwan, what a delightful place to live, so many plays staged for our benefit.
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The Peace Riser Peacefully Enhances Its Forces at Scarborough Shoal

Philippines media is reporting that Philippines navy ships have counted more than 30 Chinese vessels operating in the Scarborough Shoals area, denying access to the fishing grounds there...

Chinese maritime ships are denying Filipino fishermen access to their traditional fishing grounds in the lagoon of Panatag Shoal, a chain of reefs and rocks off Zambales province whose ownership is being disputed by China and the Philippines even as Chinese vessels were seen continuing to mass in Panatag, also known as Bajo de Masinloc and its international name, Scarborough Shoal—which China claims to own even if the shoal is 472 nautical miles from the nearest Chinese coast.

According to the local government of Masinloc, which is only 124 nautical miles from Panatag, the town’s fishermen have reported that Chinese government vessels had blocked their entry to the lagoon.

The military reported that the number of Chinese vessels in the Panatag Shoal has increased to 33, from 14 last week.

The Philippines has only two vessels in the area. These are the BRP Edsa II, a Coast Guard search-and-rescue vessel (SARV 002) and the MCS 3001, a vessel belonging to the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources.

China currently has three big ships in the area. These are the Chinese Fisheries Law Enforcement Command (FLEC) 310 which is said to be its most powerful maritime ship, and the Chinese Maritime Surveillance (CMS) ships 75 and 81.

According to the military’s Northern Luzon Command (Nolcom), seven other Chinese fishing vessels and 23 utility boats have been seen inside the lagoon.

RJ Bautista, secretary to Masinloc Mayor Desiree Edora, said the Chinese maritime ships were preventing Filipino fishermen from fishing in the lagoon.

Manila is about to get taught a lesson. The Chinese are using their vastly superior power in a completely passive way, forcing Philippines into unpalatable choices. Where is the US? What's Washington's opinion of this mess? Washington's absurd position on Taiwan -- when Chen Shui-bian was admonished for 'provoking' China by holding referendums, but the State Department makes no similar move against Manila, instead offering to mediate. Hahaha.

Note the beginnings of this incident:

The Panatag Shoal incident started last April 8 when the Philippine Navy on a routine sovereignty patrol spotted eight Chinese fishing vessels moored inside the shoal. Navy personnel boarded the vessels and discovered on board illegally obtained endangered turtles, baby sharks, giant clams and a large amount of corals.

The Navy dispatched its only warship, the BRP Gregorio del Pilar, to the area on April 10 but before the ship could tow the poachers to the nearest police station, two Chinese maritime ships arrived and blocked their arrest.

What does this tell you about the Peaceful Riser^™?

The US and Manila have a mutual defense treaty.

What is augured here? A couple of years ago China passed an 'island protection law' that "protected" 16,000 islands in the South China Sea as Chinese. Multiply Scarborough by 16,000..... this is a test, it is only a test. Had it been a real conflict....

UPDATE: Manila DFA says the US will honor its promise to defend the Philippines under the 1951 Treaty.
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Econ Slump in the Offing?

The last few months projections for GDP growth at most of the major think tanks and financial firms have been falling. Now the DGBAS is warning that inflation will be higher than expected.

The DGBAS’ warning came after the agency announced yesterday that year-on-year growth in the consumer price index (CPI) was 1.44 percent last month, compared with a revised 1.25 percent increase in March.

Not only are rising fuel costs pushing up prices but the recent heavy rains have reduced supplies of fresh vegetables, also driving up costs. The government also predicts that exports will fall for the first half of the year:

Exports to China and Hong Kong contracted 11.6 percent year-on-year to US$9.86 billion following slower economic activity, with exports of machines, metals, plastics and chemicals declining for a second consecutive month, the report said.

Meanwhile, exports to the US fell 16.3 percent from the previous year to US$27.06 billion as a result of lower exports of information and communication technology, products, while outbound shipments to Japan were down 10.6 percent at US$1.46 billion, ministry data showed.

However, exports to Europe and the six main ASEAN members both rebounded last month, with annual growth standing at 3.5 percent and 4.4 percent respectively.

Nine of the nation’s 10 major export sectors posted year-on-year declines last month, while exports of transportation equipment rose 17.9 percent to US$1.01 billion from a year ago, its highest ever level, data showed.

Donna Kwok (郭浩庄), an economist for Greater China at HSBC Asia, said in a note yesterday that she expected demand from the West, especially Europe, to constrain export growth for a while longer.

Meanwhile, the steady economic slowdown from the gradual impact of global energy price increases in the first quarter of this year could encourage the central bank to keep interest rates unchanged at least until the fourth quarter, Kwok said.

Remember when ECFA was going to save us from this? Yeah, right. As I noted a couple of weeks ago, trade with China -- with which we have the "free trade agreement" ECFA -- is falling, while trade with ASEAN -- with which we have no FTAs -- is rising.
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Daily Links:

• Japan Times: Yes, I can use chopsticks. This will resonate with expats here in Taiwan
• Paul Lin argues more or less that stock market tax announcements are made to facilitate insider trading. If one knows about the announcement in advance...
• Chinese radio stations flood southern Taiwan with propaganda

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[Taiwan] Don't miss the comments below! And check out my blog and its sidebars for events, links to previous posts and picture posts, and scores of links to other Taiwan blogs and forums! Delenda est, baby.