Su passes Hau in TVBS poll

The latest TVBS poll has the numbers for Taipei city, where the DPP's Su is now ahead of the beleaguered KMT mayor Hau Lung-bin 45-42 with two months to go to the election on Nov 27.

In August Hau was up 45-42 over Su.

Note that in the current poll Su wins 47-24 among independents. Hau is slightly more popular with women (say what?). TVBS even breaks it out ethnically -- among Hoklos, Su is up 53-35, among Hakkas, Hau leads 48-41, and among mainlanders, Hau leads 69-21.

Another key stat: among voters in the 2006 mayor election, Su wins 96% of the DPP votes AND 26% of the KMT vote. Recall that Hau's vote total in 2006 was only 4,000 more than the highest DPP vote total, in 1998 for Chen Shui-bian (against Ma). 63% of the KMT voters will vote again for Hau, while 10% of that KMT electorate remains undecided.

Asked who would make the better mayor, voters pick Su 47-30 with 23% undecided.
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Daily Links

• DPP candidate Su Chia-chuan meeting in Taichung and other Su videos.
  
• Time on doing business in China. Did you know the EU exports more to Switzerland than to China? Isn't it great that we have ECFA with a nation that practices state capitalism for the benefit of CCP princelings and their lackeys?
• Couples marry in mass wedding at 9:09 on 9/9/99.
  
• It's a good thing the US has decided to let China bankrupt itself with wasted spending on useless renewable energy technology, instead of smartly investing in a short, victorious war in Afghanistan like our wise American leaders.
• Not Taiwan: Pakistan: perhaps the worst floods in recorded history ignored by the media and by America, says Juan Cole. At DKOS an excellent post on the Pakistan floods with extensive satellite imagery of the now-massive Indus, which has cut a new course and created a gigantic lake.
  

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DPP leads in local governance

Kaohsiung under Chen Chu is hosting a conference on Sustainable Transportation. With peak oil coming faster than everyone thinks, such events are really important. Drew Kerslake posted the news to his blog:

Just wanted to let you know about a transport-sharing conference and citywide carfree activities that will be held in Kaohsiung later this month.

We're just trying to spread the word about these very important events which will discuss an under-addressed mode of sustainable transportation. With the theme "Sharing is Cool!," the conference will feature a panel of international experts and researchers discussing the many different modes and faces of shared transport.

Mass-transit promotional activities planned for the city run through now until September 19, culminating in a carfree day with various activities and prizes for city residents. See more information here: http://www.dscc.url.tw/2010freecar/main.html

Sessions are free to attend for Kaohsiung residents and for students (advanced registration is required).

Attached please find a press release about the event. For more information, please visit http://kaohsiung.sharetransport.org (English) or http://www.kaohsiung-sharetransport.com.tw/ (Chinese).

Anything you can do to help get the word out would be much appreciated.

I'd be interested to see what a car-free day in Kaohsiung means in practice! But it's a great idea; Taiwan needs to do more stuff like this.

The existence of this progressive conference hosted in Kaohsiung highlights another issue, which is the superior local governance of the DPP as highlighted in a recent poll by Commonwealth magazine. The Taipei Times reported:

The poll, released on Tuesday, showed that local DPP administrators enjoyed higher approval ratings than their Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) counterparts. All six municipalities that received the top marks in the survey were governed by DPP politicians.

In contrast, 16 of the lowest rated municipalities were controlled by KMT members, the most notable being Taichung under Mayor Jason Hu (胡志強) — which fell to 18th place this year from a top five place a year ago.

Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) was ranked in the bottom five with an approval rating of just over 50 percent.

......

The annual poll, which gave its lowest marks to KMT Taipei County Commissioner Chou Hsi-wei (周錫瑋) — who is not running for re-election — wrote that KMT politicians had a lower rating overall because of factors including a failure to keep up with public opinion and concerns about rapid changes in cross-strait relations.

Topping the survey were Kaohsiung Commissioner Yang Chiu-hsing (楊秋興) with an approval rating of 80 percent, Yilan County Commissioner Lin Tsong-shyan (林聰賢) with 75 percent and Kaohsiung City Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊) with 72 percent.

Rounding up the rest of the top six were Pingtung County, Tainan City and Chiayi County.

Of course, one factor is that the DPP administrators are mostly located in DPP areas, with the exception of Kaohsiung city, which is less pro-DPP than people think, and I-lan. Yet in overwhelmingly Blue Taipei, KMT mayor Hau can't get support, and the fall off in Taipei County from the DPP magistrates to the awful Chou Hsi-wei was palpable. The plummeting score of popular Taichung mayor Jason Hu is also very interesting and may signal a vulnerability in the coming election.

The poll also shows another thing -- that voters make that separation between party loyalty and perceptions of competent governance -- which means that at voting time, they might make that separation too -- competence might count for less than party loyalty.

UPDATE: Frozen Garlic on the Commonwealth Poll with a nifty table

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Fucken Be Careful

Many foreigners still can't quite grasp that using the f-word, even as a modifier, may result in lawsuits for "public insult" (and yes, you can be sued for public insult in Taiwan). Another case was noted in the Taipei Times this week:

The community director, surnamed Wu (吳), turned up with a locksmith, surnamed Lu (盧), to replace a broken lock on the lobby door. When an Australian resident asked them what they were up to Wu, whose English is limited, said: “Nothing.”

The Australian reportedly shouted back: “Don’t fucken lie to me. I’ll get the police.”

Wu felt the Australian had slandered him by using an expletive.

When questioned, the Australian admitted to saying “fucken,” explaining that he had been suspicious of the pair and had used the word as a linguistic device to make his point more forcibly.

He said he was suspicious when Wu said they were doing “nothing,” because they were clearly doing something to the lock on the door. However, the Australian denied the word was meant as an insult.

When prosecutors checked an English-Chinese dictionary for “fucken,” they discovered that there was no Chinese translation.

While the word sounded like “fuck,” the Australian only admitted to saying “fucken.” Although it could be considered foul language, prosecutors felt there was insufficient reason to consider its use slander or defamation, so the charges were dropped.

It's nice to have a laugh at the mental image of the police diligently searching a dictionary, especially when you realize that Google will return the correct meaning right away:

Alternative form of fucking; Alternative spelling of fucking. Most common in Australian slang

...with bonus reference to the Aussie usage. Luckily for our hero from Oz, the Court didn't have an English adviser. Most likely the prosecutor was looking for a reason to drop the incredibly stupid case.

The moral of the story is, as always, don't use the F word. It's a public insult and in a class full of students, is considered a form of sexual harassment. So don't go there. People can and will sue.

The other lesson is: be less paranoid. 99% of the time, your local neighbors aren't up to something nefarious; usually they lack either the English or the patience to discuss it with you.
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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!

Richard Bush: Taiwan Faces Growing Threat

"Chamberlain honestly believed that world peace could be guaranteed by economic prosperity, by ending existing economic difficulties; and he believed that these troubles could be solved by reducing military expenditures and by balancing national budgets. Germany, he believed, would become more peacefully inclined if southeastern Europe were opened to German economic exploitation, thereby ridding the country of the need for a massive army and providing the German economy with a market." -- Keith Eubank, "Appeasement and Appeasers"

The Washington Times published a piece from longtime Taiwan expert Richard Bush on the growing threat facing Taiwan. After noting that the military threat to Taiwan is becoming more serious, he writes:

But these trends are still puzzling. Cross-strait relations have improved significantly since 2008. President Ma Ying-jeou has sought to reassure China and expand cooperation with it. The long-term chances that any Taiwanese leader would push for full independence or that the public would support such a measure is probably low. These trends do not mean unification will happen anytime soon, but they do mean Beijing can act on the basis of its hopes rather than its fears.

Yet the military buildup continues. Why it does is something of a mystery. The PLA likely believes it does not yet have the capacity to deal with the worst-case scenario, which it has made the basis of its planning.

There is one area in which China may be showing restraint: the deployment of short-range ballistic missiles. The Defense Department report estimate for this year is the same as the one for last year: between 1,050 and 1,150 missiles. Yet this pause - if that is what it is - is less significant than it seems.

First, the number of PLA cruise missiles is growing - perhaps by 100 in the past year. (The Defense Department's estimate of existing missiles is between 200 and 500.) Second, China's ability to frustrate U.S. intervention to defend Taiwan increases apace. Third, the ballistic missiles themselves are becoming more accurate and have more effective munitions. Even if the number of missiles has remained constant, the damage they can do to Taiwan's command and control, airfields, ports and other infrastructure is increasing. The scale of the potential damage is what is important to Taiwan's security, not the precise number of missiles.

Bush recommends that Taiwan continue to beef up its defense and that the US should continue to sell arms to Taiwan. He also says that China isn't going to win any hearts and minds in Taiwan by continuing to threaten its people.

All good enough.

This summer headlines were made when China announced that the South China Sea was a "core interest" like Tibet and Taiwan (a couple of my posts here and here; long one at DKOS) on top of other events, like producing a map showing Beijing owned pretty much whole area.

Back in 2002 Beijing had pledged, along with other nations with claims to the area, to show self-restraint in dealing with these issues. Vietnam had been pushing to make that gentlemen's agreement a binding one, but clearly Beijing has torn up that non-binding agreement and adopted a harder line. That has led to an arms race in the area, among other things, and some armed clashes which have gone pretty much unreported in the media.

The interesting thing is that in Dec of 2009 Beijing passed a new "island protection law" that "legally" announced its claims to thousands of disputed islands and over 3 million square miles of territory. That's December.

On Jan 1 -- barely a month later -- the ASEAN-China free trade agreement came into effect.

Sure looks a lot like what we're seeing here in Taiwan -- on one hand economic engagement, on the other, a seemingly diametrically opposed military move.

Virtually alone among commentators on Taiwan, Bush has been publicly wondering why China hasn't reduced its military forces aimed at Taiwan now that it has Ma Ying-jeou in office. Kudos to him; the rest of the chattering classes, after assuring Taiwan that Beijing would come around, have maintained a studied silence. No doubt they will revive if Beijing actually does give Ma a break ahead of the 2012 elections.

One part of the answer to Bush's mystery is that China's leaders have correctly read the tides of history and realize, as Chamberlain did not with Germany, that the combination of appeasement and Beijing's incorporation into the world economic order can only end with China raised to a position of strength and power. They currently have zero incentive to reign in military spending, since no one has punished them for engaging in it. Indeed, the more money they spend on weapons, the more deference the world shows them.

Oh yeah, and let's not forget, those missiles aren't just pointed at Taipei. They're pointing at US analysts too. One thing is clear: they seem to have been more persuasive in Washington, than in Taiwan.....
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Daily Links

• ECFA booster CSIS report on ECFA.
• A giant has left us: Lin Tsung-yi dead at 89.
• India and Japan together eye China
  
• The Diplomat on China's blockbuster propaganda: the movie monopoly
• ECFA will make us more competitive, which is why now that it is signed, Taiwan has dropped a spot in the World Competitiveness rankings. Wait a second....
  
• Parody: National Burn a Koran Day.

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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!

Daniel Pearl Day of Music Oct 2

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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!

Might makes Rite: lecture

Insightful and interesting Paul Katz of China Beat is giving a talk on religion and justice in Taiwan.

++++++++++++

司法院還是城隍廟?
—解讀台灣的另一種「司法」

證明自己清白，候選人要到神明前「斬雞頭」；受了冤屈，小市民要到地藏庵前「告陰狀」；甚至法庭的判決書，要拿到廟裡燒掉，才是正義的終極落實；警察、檢察官辦理懸案，往往毫不避諱地當眾訴諸鬼神…。

在陽光下進行的是現代司法體系，在看不見的地方同步進行的是一個完整的「地獄司法體系」。

二十一世紀，台灣社會仍然倚賴陰、陽兩路司法系統維繫秩序，人判之外加神判，意味著什麼？神明判案的傳統究竟是擴大了現代的「公共領域」呢？還是凸顯了現代司法的不足以信任？


講者　康 豹 中央研究院近代史研究所研究員
主持 柳立言 中央研究院歷史語言研究所研究員

2010年10月16日(六) 14:00~16:00
月涵堂會議廳(台北市金華街110號)

Rite Makes Right—
Judicial Rituals in Postwar Taiwan

The term “legal system” was transmitted from the West to China in the nineteenth century. Its “rational” nature is different from the Chinese ideology of justice, which extends to the ways in which gods control all human affairs. Such “underworld” judicial system is extremely unusual when accused of vote-buying, Taiwan’s politicians, ranging from city councilors to presidential candidates, do not hesitate to make oaths of innocence, and until recently beheaded live chickens to stress their rightness. Ordinary citizens embroiled in various financial disputes file underworld indictments against their enemies. Even policemen and prosecutors regularly make offerings at temples in order to crack tough cases.

Why does modern Taiwan still practice such judicial rituals in the context of economic growth and with legal reform? Is it due to an expansion of traditional religion in the public sphere or a representation of flaws that still existed in the legal system today?

Speaker Paul Katz Research Fellow, Institute of Modern History, Academia Sinica
Moderato Nap Yin Lau Research Fellow, Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica

Date and time：16 October Saturday, 2010 14:00 – 16:00
Venue：Yue-han Hall （110 Jin Hua Street Taipei）

全程英語 不備翻譯 ENGLISH ONLY

報名Registration Tel 02-33224907 Fax 02-33224918 www.civictaipei.org

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Daily Links

• China Matters with an awesome post on the Maine and the Cheonan. This is what blogging is all about.
• Taiwan's yummy snacks. Another contest.
  
• Nathan Novak: did China conquer fascism, or vice versa?
• If only Americans could be as grown up as the Dutch about sex. Instead we have right-wing evangelical loons like this.
• Biking in Taiwan goes to Wufenshan with lovely pics.
  
• Way cool: I made the mistake of finding Parrot sketch not included: Twenty years of Monty Python, hosted by Steve Martin. Complete on Google video. So much for work.
  

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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!

National Museum of Marine Biology and Aquarium, Pingtung

Monday we ran down to Pingtung to visit the National Museum of Marine Biology and Aquarium near Hengchun, probably the best museum-type attraction on the island outside of the National Palace Museum. We hadn't been there in a decade, and I was looking forward to seeing what was new.

The coral reef exhibit always has some beautiful fish.

Like this one.

And other organisms as well.

The walk-through section of the reef exhibit is way cool.

Up close and personal with a manta.

A close up of a deadly fish.

A sea urchin.

For me the highlight of the visit is this awesome tank with a whale shark.

The whale shark.

On a whale shark, there's a sucker borne every minute.

Outside you can enjoy views of the coast, though Monday was ugly.

A newer building houses an exhibit on the ancient seas with 3-D animations and an exhibition of living fossils.

Like this nautilus.

And this gar.

Everything must be photo'd.

Also enjoyable were the seals, though their enclosure is far too small.

The kelp tank.

The penguin tank is a crowd favorite.

I admit they are seriously cute.

A very positive experience for the whole family. I highly recommend this place. $450 for adults, $250 for teenagers. Takes 2-3 hours to really look it over and enjoy it. Come early to avoid the busloads of school kids who arrive after lunch.
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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!

Republican Senators Object to Huawei

Technology is making gestures precise and brutal, and with them men. Theodor Adorno

The tight links between Chinese state organs and the manufacturing sector were on display in yet another controversy involving Huawei, the Chinese tech firm that remains closely associated with the CCP security state. Wendell Minnick, ace military correspondent for Defense News in Asia, turns in a doozy of a piece from the print edition (behind paywall, no link). He writes:

If China’s Huawei Technologies is allowed to provide gear to U.S. telecom giant Sprint Nextel, it could threaten the United States, eight Republican senators say.

[letter]

In an Aug. 18 letter to various U.S. government agencies, the senators demanded closer inspection of the Chinese firm’s ties to Iran, theTaliban and the People’s Liberation Army (PLA).

China’s largest networking and telecommunications equipment provider, Huawei is looking to bid for subcontracts offered by Sprint Nextel, a supplier to the Pentagon and U.S. law enforcement agencies. The Chinese firm’s effort is being spearheaded by Amerilink Telecom, a Kansas-based company whose chairman is retired U.S. Navy Adm. William Owens. The former vice chief of the Joint Chiefs of Staff warned in his 2000 book about a rising military threat from Beijing, but more recently has developed business ties with Chinese firms.



Huawei has supplied equipment to Iraq and Iran, the latter part of China's brilliant strategy of constantly yanking on our policymakers' obsession with the Middle East. More importantly, however, are the accusations that it is involved in cyberwarfare, an allegation that Defense News says intelligence services from several countries have made. It also has close ties to the PLA and the both the '08 and'09 Pentagon China reports say it performs R&D in conjunction with the PLA. In May China Reform Monitor noted:

British intelligence agencies have warned that Beijing could cripple IT-dependent telecom infrastructure and critical services through embedded malware installed by Chinese telecom firms Huawei. In response India’s communication ministry issued warnings to test all Chinese-installed equipment for “trapdoors, black box, and malwares.” London warned that through covert modifications Huawei could compromise systems in ways difficult to detect allowing Beijing to disrupt communications. Huawei is responsible for sweeping and debugging China’s embassies, giving their experts knowledge of telecommunication systems and their weaknesses.

David Pilling writing at FT on Huawei points out that the China fear appears to echo the fear of Japan in the 1980s:

As the article suggested, Huawei, though an extreme example, illustrates a much wider point. Just as in the 1980s, when Japanese companies were routinely accused of carrying out some dastardly, state-orchestrated plot, Chinese companies are now widely viewed as pursuing a China Inc agenda.

I am reminded of a friend's comment to in a private email:

Another example: In October 2007, Kaspersky Labs inked a deal with the Huawei-3Com joint venture, H3C, as an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) for H3C servers. Kaspersky is, presumably, working closely with H3C, wholly owned by the "U.S. fir"m 3Com (corporate headquarters actually in Shenzhen) to “further enhance the performance of H3C’s security products to quickly respond to malicious software threats and therefore to protect customer’s network to be safe and sound” according the Chief Technology Officer at H3C.

However, as late as December 2006, every one of H3C’s Chinese employees remained on the personnel rolls at the Chinese telecom giant, Huawei, even though Huawei no longer owned any H3C shares. One Chinese news report noted that “They retain Huawei personnel employment numbers, Huawei stock ownership, and their internal corporate contacts, job descriptions (zhiwei) and ranks.” Therefore, Huawei likely continues to maintain all security dossiers and to control “work certificates” (gongzuo zheng) for all of H3C’s Chinese citizen employees. Where do you think their loyalties lie?

Just like Japan, eh? And Japan sported a huge, growing military aimed at the west and territorial ambitions in the 1980s, right? You bet.

Huawei's founder has old PLA connections. And many other connections... Motorola accusation of espionage:

But in the latest 16 July filing, Motorola contends that one of the defendants, Shaowei Pan, had direct contact with Ren Zhengfei, the founder of Huawei.

"Defendant Shaowei Pan was a trusted senior engineer and director of architecture working full time at Motorola on the development of new products and new technologies for Motorola," according to the amended complaint.

"However, as set forth below, Defendant Shaowei Pan and the other defendants secretly were engaged in new product development for Huawei."

In the lawsuit, Motorola said that the technology transferred included information related to its SC300 base station transceiver, a component used for IP (Internet protocol) soft switching technology for cellular systems.

Another connection is Admiral Bill Owens. You might recall that Owens is the former US Admiral, now a businessman with a big China business and founder/member of the Sanya Initiative. Minnick writes:

Owens, who retired from the Navy in 1996, has served as CEO or a board member for several telecommunications and high-tech companies, including Nortel Networks, SAIC and satellite builder Teledesic.

In his 2000 book, “Lifting the Fog of War,” the retired admiral warned of a rising Chinese military threat.



But Owens has in recent years become better known for criticizing U.S. arms sales to Taiwan and promoting U.S.-Chinese military ties. He argued in a 2009 Financial Times opinion piece that the United States should stop supporting the self-governing island, and has called for revising the 2000 National Defense Authorization Act that restricts military cooperation with China.



A former naval colleague said Owens changed after arriving in Hong Kong in 2006 to work as managing director of AEA Holdings Asia, a private U.S.-based equity investment firm. The next year, Owens gave a speech on leadership at Huawei University, the internal educational institute of the telecom firm. Soon after, Huawei’s website praised him and his “love of his work and for his fellow man.” That same year, Owens directed AEA to bid to buy Huawei’s mobile devices unit, according to Reuters. The bid was unsuccessful.

Owens is the founder of the Sanya Initiative, writes Defense News:

In 2008, Owens helped found the Sanya Initiative to improve ties between the Chinese and U.S. militaries. The group held its first conference that year on China’s Hainan Island; its second took place last year in Honolulu.



Critics call the organization “Red Sanya;” one of the leaders of its Chinese delegation is retired PLA Lt. Gen. Xiong Guangkai, a former director of the PLA’s General Staff who spent most of his career as an intelligence officer.



The kindest thing that you can say is that Owens is being used as a catspaw by the Chinese security state to further its goals of stealing and replicating the advanced world's technology. As an official quoted in Minnick's piece said: “It’s also hard to avoid drawing a linkage between the business interests of his company, AEA Investors, and his enthusiasm for engaging the PLA.”

Speaking of catspaws and front men, another piece of news this week involved the Lafayette frigate mess. That was the one where it was alleged that the KMT got paid $400 million and another $100 million went to Beijing, for the purchase of frigates from France. Nobody likes to get close to that case, it left a trail of bodies spanning the world. Seems Jersey Island has seized a kickback...

Jersey Island’s Royal Court has put in custody an unlawful US$6.87-million commission allegedly obtained by a Taiwanese arms merchant involved in ROC arms purchases from France, said Taiwan’s Supreme Prosecutors Office Sept. 3.

......

Chen Hung-ta, head of the Special Investigation Division, said, “The Royal Court will maintain saisie judiciare over the money until a final ruling is reached in Taiwan. We will ask Jersey to remit the unlawful gains to the ROC as soon as the Wangs are pronounced guilty.”

Suspected of receiving huge unauthorized commissions from French sales of Mirage jet fighters and Lafayette frigates to Taiwan, Wang, his wife and four children have been charged with corruption and murder. The six fugitives are believed to be residing abroad, according to sources.

In addition to over US$700 million frozen in an account in Switzerland, the arms dealer has been found to have accounts for his arms sales kickbacks in the Cayman Islands, Luxembourg and Saudi Arabia, prosecutors said. (THN)

Only one thing missing -- the media focus has always been on fugitives Wang and family. Notice how nobody in the media is asking who all that money was for.....
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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!

Culture Wars: China vs Taiwan

Taiwan presents multiple challenges to China -- a democracy where China claims Chinese societies are not ready for that form of government -- and a culture that acknowledges Chinese roots but calls itself Taiwanese -- and, at least from the DPP side, a vision of multilingual, multicultural society where citizenship is rooted in a lawful relation to the national polity, not a racial classification. Not to mention its economic prowess, brand monikers, and its culture industries, which reinforce Taiwan's independent identity. And which sell big in China, too.

Naturally, all this annoying independence of thought and behavior brings out the inner Borg of the thugs across the Strait. It. must. be. assimilated.

This week Locutus of Borg the Culture Minister from China was visiting Taiwan to propose Borgness with Chinese characteristics. To wit:

Cai Wu, the highest-ranking mainland official to visit the island in 12 years, said on Sunday details of the plan have not been finalised but suggested building on a sweeping trade pact the two sides forged earlier this year.

"For instance, I'm wondering if it is possible to sign an agreement patterning after the ECFA (Economic Co-operation Framework Agreement)... it is still under discussion," Cai said during a press conference while touring Taipei's National Palace Museum.

Cai will attend a seminar in Taipei on Monday, according to its organisers, the Shen Chun-chih Culture Foundation, a non-profit Taipei-based body focused on cultural exchanges with the mainland.

To go with economic integration and financial integration, China is essentially proposing cultural integration -- assimilation. Taiwan News put it well today:

In the wake of the signing of a controversial "Cross-Strait Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement," the authoritarian People's Republic of China has launched drives to push President Ma Ying-jeou's rightist Chinese Nationalist Party (Kuomintang) government to accept political negotiations and help promote "cultural unification" under a "Chinese national identity."

While Ma appears committed to delay political talks until after the crucial Nov. 27 municipal mayoral elections, the KMT government seems to have fewer qualms about cooperating with the Chinese Communist Party - ruled PRC's intention to subordinate Taiwan culture under the reactionary umbrella of "Chinese national culture."

This agenda was showcased yesterday in the second KMT-CCP "Cross-Strait Cultural Forum" held yesterday in Taipei under the theme of "seizing the opening and creating a new situation."

National Cultural Association Secretary-General and former premier Liu Chao-hsuan set the tone by reaffirming that "Chinese culture is the common denominator between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait," followed by Council for Cultural Affairs Minister Emile Sheng's parroting of Ma's denigrating definition of Taiwan culture as "Chinese culture with unique Taiwanese characteristics."

Platitudes aside, the main course of the conference was PRC Culture Minister Cai Wu's upfront demand for the rapid signing of a "cross-strait culture cooperation agreement" under the ECFA umbrella in order to establish an "institutional mechanism" to promote "comprehensive cooperation" in fields including resource integration, financing, talent cultivation, content creation and global marketing and even participation in the "re-examination of culture policies and regulations."

Statements by Cai and other PRC delegates showed that Beijing's short-term objective is to appropriate the fruits of Taiwan's higher development in cultural creative industries, including artistic creation, techniques, commercialization and marketing, and turn our cultural assets into "local content" for the PRC to market globally as "Chinese culture."

Besides predicting that "cross-cultural industry will become a new economic growth point and provide a pillar industry for the national economy," a term which surely did not refer to Taiwan, Cai settled any doubts about the ultimate purpose of "cross-strait cultural cooperation" with a resounding call to "commonly plan for the great revival of the Chinese race nation!"

"Chinese race nation" is Han chauvinist code that Ma uses as well -- see his inaugural speech. The common ground that enables the KMT and CCP to overcome whatever minor inclinations they may have not to cooperate is this race-based vision of the Chinese nation. It is in direct opposition to the formal DPP goal of a national citizenship independent of ethnic considerations in a constitutionally defined independent and democratic republic.

Taiwan News argues that Taiwan's distinctive historical, political, and cultural experience is a wellspring of its creative power. In PRC hands this distinctiveness would be -- as Ma himself puts it -- "Chinese culture with unique Taiwanese characteristics" -- assimilated. The latter half of Ma's formulation would be instantly lost under a PRC rubric, since distinctiveness must be carefully mediated by Chineseness in the PRC cultural lexicon, to fence in the unruly habit of other ethnicities to develop their own identities.

The PRC program is clearly aimed, as Taiwan News observes, at subsuming Taiwan's cultural industries under the rubric of China and eliminating a potentially important source of Taiwanese "difference." Not to mention -- as always -- the practical goal of eliminating Taiwanese industries where they compete with Chinese firms. Elimination of "Taiwan" as a "brand" is also a key goal; media reports suggest that things with the "Taiwan" label on them are popular in China and that what Taiwan sells is its distinctive culture -- accessible, yet different.

How that must annoy the CCP in Beijing.
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Daily Links

• Fake chips from China threaten all sorts of devices
• The Formosa Foundation ad on Youtube
• Can we stop with this rhetoric? "The Chinese" are not a subspecies, whatever you may think of how they treat animals. Or anything else.
• China Times editorial on Taiwan's structural problems and Ma not doing anything for the poor.
  
• First phase of wetland purchase in Changhua done.
  
• Way cool: scientists have argued for years that the Amazon jungle was inhabited by millions prior to European contact and is the result of human creation and construction. Now the evidence is overwhelming. See also Charles Mann's 1491 which will completely change the way you think about the history of the Americas.
  

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English QC Aarrgh

My friend Danny Bloom found this bus stop to nowhere. Note that the English, while missing the n in unknown, is a faithful translation of the Chinese. Chinglish isn't a language issue; it's a quality control issue.

Man-tits outgrowing your shirt? Have we got a solution for you!
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Nathan Novak Rides Again: ECFA's economic dangers

The last few months I've been noticing a series of excellent pieces by one Nathan Novak in the Taipei Times. This week's offering reiterated what many of us have been saying about ECFA....

Taiwan’s manufacturing and services industries are showing signs of slowing down the Taiwan Economic News reported on Tuesday. The Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (TIER) said that manufacturing edged up a mere 0.24 percent in July, while services fell 2.61 percentage points during the same period. Indicators in the construction industry were less than favorable and a construction slowdown is predicted.

TIER has predicted that overall growth will slow down in the second-half of the year. Moreover, the percentage of manufacturers surveyed who foresee a better climate over the next six months fell 4.7 percent from the previous month.

Novak then goes on to make several points:

The numbers simply do not add up. Before the ECFA was even signed, Taiwan’s economy was already showing signs of recovery; trade, with year-on-year growth of over 46 percent, was thriving. The ECFA was imposed as a necessary measure to save Taiwan’s “failing” economy, which was being threatened with marginalization (even though the numbers were already indicating a strong recovery).

The ECFA was then signed after economic recovery appeared certain and trade numbers were growing rapidly. Now, after the ECFA has been signed, second-half growth is expected to slow. What gives?

Reality is finally beginning to rear its ugly head. The ECFA, instead of being purely economic, is almost entirely political. Not only has it served CCP-KMT interests by bringing Taiwan and China closer economically (although it would appear with few actual economic benefits) and politically, it has also served as a tool the KMT can use to continue to force its agenda through the legislature and into Taiwanese homes. The continuous advertisements on television and radio promoting the ECFA even after the agreement has been signed only serve to underscore its political, not economic, consequences.

Second half growth slowing was probably inevitable. In the first two quarters of the year Taiwan grew at over 12%. The DGBAS just raised its forecast from 6.1% to 8.2% growth for the whole year. Note that all that massive growth occurred with the current pre-ECFA level of connection to China -- basically all of it in place under the DPP.

Second half growth is slowing in China, now Taiwan's number 1 market, with the ongoing malaise in the industrialized countries (especially the US where the nation's leaders from both parties appear bent on destroying the economy) and China's own steps to rein in speculation and credit growth. Taiwan will perforce follow.

On many occasions commentators have noted that increasing Taiwan's dependence on China simply makes Taiwan even more marginalized. Meanwhile this year India will grow over 8% and Brazil is booming. It's a big world, but we've tied our economic fate to Beijing.

An Economic Daily News editorial was translated for Focus Taiwan this week:

In a status report released this week, the Ministry of Economic Affairs noted that Taiwan's latest economic recovery was mainly driven by the electronics and information industries, which shows that the country's industrial structure is not sufficiently diversified.

This situation, combined with the increasing percentage of Taiwanese businesses moving their production lines overseas, is likely to lead to high unemployment and widen the wealth gap, according to the report.

The report echoes what we have been emphasizing repeatedly -- the focus of Taiwan's economic policy should be shifted from "pursuing growth" to "adjusting structures."

President Ma has been claiming that the wealth gap will fall because of the rising economy. There might be some marginal improvements but fundamentally the wealth gap in Taiwan is the consequence of the tax regime and the offshoring of manufacturing, as well as government budgetary policies aimed at the local areas. It is not an issue that can be resolved by growing the economy -- during the last four years of the Chen Administration we had solid economic growth, but saw stagnant incomes and a worsening wealth gap. Comprehensive changes in economic structures will not occur until the public votes in politicians ready to pass legislation. And as long as A. Q. Public votes for politicians because they send flowers to funerals and show up at auto accidents, that will not happen.....
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Daily Links

• Made in Taiwan: TECRO documentary home page
• President Ma expresses disappointment that PRC ignores history of WWII. Hey Prez, got one word for ya: dams.
  
• Reuters on Political Risk.
  
• Tom Plate with another fawning piece on Ma. Read with barf bag at hand.
  
• CFR on the South China Sea as a test of US-China relations. Yet it is also a test of China-ASEAN relations.....
• Chinese grads can't find jobs either.
  

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Links for Saturday

[Brando voice]: Stella!

Waaaay too busy today. So enjoy a few links.

• EU report on China-EU econ relations: "In 2008 less than 3% of EU outbound foreign direct investment (FDI) went to China."
• Jens Kastner with an excellent piece on the stupidity and inflexibility of the WTO on rice wine.
• Taipei Times with article on awesome English devotee who hocks his monster dictionary on the street. Bonus: title contains minor English error (probably to save space), as a reader pointed out.
• Taiwan Photographers: Sunset over a city
  
• Philippines considering FTA with Taiwan.
• CSIS is exasperated with China's labeling of international waters as its own
• China now has more warships than the US
  
• Echo Taiwan: MOFA data leak jeopardizes national security
• Taiwan to deploy its own cruise missiles.
  
• The other victims of Hiroshima

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Games Nationalists Play

Caught this giant grasshopper making off with a pearl of water from our yard.

The struggle over language in Taiwan continues. The KMT news org reported on it from a Chinese nationalist perspective:

The term “Guo Yu (National Language),” which is used in “language skill indicators” in elementary and junior high school textbooks, will be replaced by the term “Hua Yu Wen (ethnic Chinese language)” starting next year, causing a public controversy. Some scholars accused the government of following the former DPP government’s “de-sinicization” policy. 【Translator’s Note: Up to 2000, under the KMT administration, the terms Mandarin Chinese and National Language were used synonymously. However, the DPP administration (2000-2008) changed the definition of National Language to include Mandarin, Hoklo, Hakka, and 11 aboriginal dialects.】

The Office of the President yesterday expressed its position on the issue, saying, “The language used by nationals should be addressed as “Guo Yu (National Language)” and the term used in ‘language skill indicators’ in the textbooks should follow this principle for consistency. In response, the Ministry of Education (MOE) said that it would study the issue following the guidance of the Office of the President.

What struck me was the editor's note:

[Editor’s Note: Mandarin Chinese is National Language, which means the language of this nation. However, Mandarin Chinese is used by other nations, such as Singapore. Therefore, in those countries, Mandarin Chinese is not called National Language, but ethnic Chinese language, meaning language used by ethnic Chinese. The DPP government (2000-2008) downgraded Mandarin Chinese to just one of the 14 national languages of this country and tried to get everyone to call it “Hua Yu” (ethnic Chinese language), the language used by “ethnic Chinese” in this country. “Hua Yu” is a term commonly employed in other countries for the language used by ethnic Chinese residing in these countries; therefore, the term is not appropriate to be used in this country. In fact, Hoklo (Min-nan) and Hakka are different pronunciations of the same Chinese language, using the same characters (Kanji), not different languages.]

Hakka and Hoklo are not different languages from "ethnic Chinese language"? The KMT's Han chauvinism and assimilationist rhetoric really stand out. Note that this issue is so important that the President's office stepped in publicly to ensure that it was settled in the "right" way. Language is a key aspect of the creation of a KMT Nationalist Chinese identity for Taiwan.

ADDED: Had the DPP won in 2008, English would probably have been one of the official languages of Taiwan. ADDED: See comments below for good insights.

Meanwhile, down in Taichung -- political games as usual? A "bribery" probe of the DPP's Su Chia-chuan, the party's candidate for Taichung, stinks of political motivation, says the DPP:

“This issue doesn’t look like it has anything to do with bribery — yet they are [wasting] the resources of police and prosecutors,” DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said yesterday, referring to the event in which Su, while meeting with the coach and players from Shi Yuan Senior High School hours before they left for the World Junior Baseball Championships in the US last month, gave the group a NT$20,000 donation and promised them a dinner when they came back.

As the article notes (1) there is an exception in the strict vote buying laws for politicians giving money to temples or other cultural events and entities and (2) oh yeah -- Su is not officially registered as a candidate yet, so he can give money to whomever he likes. Jason Hu, Su's KMT opponent for the mayor's job in Taichung, feted the team before in his role as mayor.

When Ma came to power there was a spate of "corruption" cases in which DPP officials appeared to be targeted. After international complaints the situation quieted down. Hopefully this thing against Su is an isolated case cause by a purely local complaint.

Take it as a backhanded compliment -- Su is becoming a quietly effective candidate. With the DPP currently doing well in 4 of the 5 municipalities up for election this November, the KMT is feeling the heat. Within the party there is quite a bit of disaffection with Ma's leadership, with the rightist President criticized for being weak, ineffective, and too close to/not close enough to China. Moreoever, his appointment King Pu-tsun as his hatchetman within the party has been unpopular. If the DPP wins big in November, it will be interesting to see how the KMT treats Ma.
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Daily Links:

• Frozen Garlic on the Flora Expo: it was a decision of Ma.
• Ben goes over Premier Wu's truly dumb comment about unpaid leave.
• Drew on Taiwan's cycling culture.
• Pingpu denied recognition as aboriginal people
• Nanshan deal not dead yet; Chinese finance firm acquires stake in Morgan Stanley which has stake in Chinatrust which was talking about buying Nanshan. My head hurts.
  
• US evangelical abstinence loons now active in China -- clearly the government there wants a population boost
  

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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!

In case you were wondering what the post-annexation future would look like....

China Reform Monitor says:

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"Scouts" from China’s central government and members of the pro-Beijing Democratic Party are meeting about whether or not to push forward Article 23 of the Basic Law. The article states “The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region shall enact laws on its own to prohibit any act of treason, secession, sedition, subversion against the Central People's Government, or theft of state secrets.” Before the end of the year Beijing would like to use the measure to crackdown on dissidents from the mainland that now enjoy freedom of speech and association in Hong Kong. Some Democratic Party members of the legislative council, like Chang Wen-kuang, are hesitant, however. In comments carried by the Ming Pao he gave four reasons his party should oppose the law: (1) there is no imminent need to increase state security; (2) it will weaken the Hong Kong peoples’ confidence in the legislature; (3) Hong Kong’s special administrative region's chief executive Donald Tsang does not have enough support from lawmakers; (4) if forced forward, the measure might cause a public backlash making Taiwan more resistant to unification.

Editor’s Note: Article 23 has long been a political hot potato in Hong Kong. In 2003, Beijing first tried to push it forward and as a result, Tung Chee-hwa, then Hong Kong’s chief executive, faced 500,000 street protesters. About a year later, after being branded a Beijing stoolie, Tung agreed to a series of compromises to weaken the measure before he "stepped down owing to foot pain."

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Comments like this show how important Taiwan is in enabling Hong Kong to retain some its democratic rights. They also show what Beijing's ultimate plans for Taiwan are.

Another thing that is shown here is how Hong Kong was not returned to "China" but given to the PRC in all its authoritarian glory. An important function of the constant use of "China" rather than "PRC" in this discourse is that it blurs over what is actually going to occur -- Taiwan is not going to become part of some mystical, transcendent "China" but instead Taiwan will be annexed to the very concrete PRC and will suffer whatever fate PRC officials determine for it.
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Dancing Bureaucrats Promote Floral Expo

I wasn't planning on blogging today but this story is just too hilarious to pass up. To promote the Flower Expo, which commences in November, for the next three months, certain Taipei City government employees must do a 30 second dance each morning.

After the Taipei City Government “encouraged” staffers to promote the Taipei International Flora Expo, civil servants at 12 district offices and household registration offices yesterday started the day by joining the “flora expo dance,” confusing residents who visited their offices.

Civil servants have been practicing the 30-second dance, aimed at promoting the expo, in their offices during lunch hours or after work since last month, with the city’s Department of Civil Affairs asking all district offices to start dancing this month when offices opened and to invite the residents to join in the “fun.”

I think I must go now to medicate with alcohol....
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Election Confection: August Photos

The Kaoshiung KMT mayor candidate. She probably won't beat Chen Chu, but note that both parties have nominated females in the second biggest city in Taiwan. When was the last time the second biggest city in the US had two female mayoral candidates?

The NCCU election futures prediction market as of 9/1, from the NCCU election center blog:

Taipei
KMT: 47.4 DPP 52.4

N Taipei
KMT 48.5 DPP 52.3

Taichung
KMT 64.8 DPP 34.7

Tainan
KMT 18.4 DPP 77.0

Kaohsiung
KMT 15.4 DPP 69.5 Yang 19.8

Yes, your eyes are not deceiving you. In the futures market, people are taking the position that the DPP will win in Taipei and The City Formerly Known As Taipei County. Also, in Kaohsiung, turncoat Yang has plummeted 7 points since the previous week. Yay! Disclaimer: election is three months away. Anything can happen.

A sound truck supports the DPP's Su in Taichung.

A candidate views Pinglin.

More bikes in Taichung. Note that both signs (same candidate) have bike imagery.

Proposing himself for Fengyuan.

The popular mayor of Taichung, Jason Hu (left) with a local candidate in Tanzi, soon to be incorporated into Taichung City.

One of a number of female candidates in Kaohsiung. I like her hand out to the public.

Another Kaohsiung politico.

Chen Chu (right), the popular DPP mayor of Kaohsiung, with a local DPP candidate. The smaller sign to the right also advertises a DPP candidate.

Spot the political ad?

In Kaohsiung I was impressed with the amount and size of the political ads. They seemed much bigger than anywhere else.

In Fengshan, soon to be incorporated into Kaohsiung.

Unusually, this ad not only mentions ECFA but supports it. She is followed by a whole row of giant signs filling the block.

"An old friend/A new future" proclaims this sign.

More female candidates.

More gigantic signs.

Looking dapper, a candidate hangs a sign by the construction project.

A strangely placed ad in Changhua.

In Kaohsiung near the train station.

An ad for Chen Chu looks out over the approach to Fengshan.
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