A Yen for ECFA

The last couple of weeks have been crowded with stuff, but I couldn't let this gem of a story pass unnoticed. On Jan 5 local papers carried the tale that Yen Ching-piao, the longtime...er...politician from Taichung County, had been appointed the local spokesman for ECFA at the suggestion of KMT legislators. The China Post has the call:

Independent legislator Yen Ching-piao has agreed to help the government with its efforts to convince the public of the necessity of its planned signing of an economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) with China and outline the negative impact on Taiwan if the pact is not signed.

Yen agreed to take up the role as an ECFA spokesman following a meeting with Economic Affairs Minister Shih Yen-shiang, Bureau of Foreign Trade Director-General Huang Chih-peng and Industrial Development Bureau Director General Woody T.J. Duh yesterday.

Yen proclaimed that he accepted the job not for the sake of the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) “but for Taiwan's future generations.”

Yen will appear in TV commercials designed to sell the proposed economic deal with China to the mass population in a bid to defuse the negative campaign mounted by the opposition Democratic Progressive Party that accuses the government of President Ma Ying-jeou of attempting to sell out Taiwan via the ECFA.

Yen will use straightforward language that will enable citizens to understand why the deal is so important to Taiwan, Huang said.

The China Post leaves out Yen's illustrious career as a hardened criminal, revolving between public office and a private cell. Yen, who came up through the KMT following the gravel firm owner to county councilor to legislator career path, eventually had to leave and join the Non-Partisan Solidarity Union (NPSU), a sort of catch-all party for local faction politicians. He's independent of the KMT in the sense that the Byelorussian SSR was independent of the USSR. It boogles the imagination to understand what language Yen is expected to use that will suddenly swing everyone over to support of ECFA.

More important, though, is the role that the China Post briefly mentions at the end of the article:

But he also serves as chairman of the board of trustees of Chenlang-gong (Wave-Suppressing Palace) at Tajia, Taiwan's most popular temple dedicated to Matsu, the Goddess of the Seas.

It's Yen who presides over the annual Matsu pilgrimage, one of the largest religious processions in the world. The connections between local factions, religion, and cross-strait relations suddenly loom...readers may recall that Yen associate Cheng Ming-kun, head of the Taiwan Matsu Association, was in Beijing in July meeting Chen Yunlin, the PRC negotiator who then came to Taichung in December. Chen Yunlin returned the favor by visiting the Chenlan (Matsu) Temple in Dajia during his trip to Taiwan (my post). None of this interplay between the CCP and "local factions" made the international media (goes without saying!) but an obvious inference is that Yen's control of Matsu, a goddess venerated on both sides of the Strait, may well be used in promoting ECFA, and more generally, cross-strait closeness. Religion is deeply intertwined with politics in Taiwan....

...I'm sure the alert reader can work out who the likely beneficiaries of cross-strait closeness are, as far as organized crime is concerned. Sooner or later the dawning realization is going to sweep across Taiwan's local faction politicians that they are going to be muscled out of the shiny new China future by their big bad counterparts from across the Strait. Local KMT politicians are already publicly complaining that the new closeness to China isn't bringing their districts the money that was promised....KMT internal tensions can only grow over time.

The Taipei Times also identified another issue with Yen: the subtle class-based slam of Taiwanese as low class, betel-nut chewing goobers. To wit:

Yen, a convicted criminal with a large grassroots support base, is known for his affability, and there’s no doubt he would speak the language of the “ordinary person” while chewing betel nut and mingling with the public.

Underneath the praise heaped on him by government officials, however, is a disturbing message: If you support an ECFA, you will graduate from “local” to “high-class.”

It appears the government has continued with the illusion that people opposed to an ECFA are those with little education or low social status.

This disturbing attitude brings back the unpleasant memory of two comic strip characters that the ministry created last year that were both offensive and derogatory.

This government just never learns. Or could it be that it is so arrogant that it is unaware its actions fuel perceptions of social superiority?

Many will recall the furor over the comic strip introduced in July to promote an ECFA. The cartoon featured two stereotypical characters, Yi-ge (一哥), a middle-aged ethnic Taiwanese man who speaks “Taiwanese Mandarin” and opposes the ECFA, and Fa-sao (發嫂), a sharp-minded Hakka career woman with a dashing educational background who supports the deal.

As the Taipei Times notes in its editorial, the problem is not that the government hasn't communicated well with the public, but that no one knows what ECFA is. Without substance, communication is basically useless. Although I have to admit that the use of a convicted criminal as a spokesman for ECFA contains a deep, unintentional truth about the nature of the agreement....
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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!

Chen Yunlin Detritus

Chen Yunlin has come and gone...

United Daily News (UDN), the rabidly pro-KMT paper, published a poll after the talks. The note said: The public opinion poll was conducted on December 24 with 771 people over 20 years of age successfully surveyed and 289 people declining to be surveyed. The margin of error associated with this sample is plus or minus 3.5 % with a 95 % confidence interval. Now consider those 289 people, more than one-quarter contacted, when you look at the poll outcomes, especially the "no opinion."

6. Are you satisfied with the protest rally mobilized by the DPP during the fourth Chiang-Chen Meeting?

Yes 22%
No 56%
No opinion 22%

7. Do you support signing a cross-Strait Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) with the Mainland?

Yes 44%
No 26%
No opinion 30%

Note that even polls from pro-KMT sources can't find majority support for ECFA. My favorite is this question:

Do you support Mainland Affairs Council chairperson Lai Hsin-yuan’s proposal that the Mainland should remove their missiles targeting Taiwan?

Yes 49%
No 18%
No opinion 33%

Yes, that's right, a majority of those polled have either no opinion or selected "no" when asked whether missiles pointed at them should be removed! How reliable can this poll be?

ESWN translated a TVBS poll taken just before the visit -- a poll of a Hong Kong Chinese-owned pro-KMT station -- which noted:

Q7. Are you confident that the government will protect the interests of Taiwan in the meeting with Chen Yunlin?
9%: Very confident
26%: Somewhat confident
25%: Somewhat not confident
27%: Very not confident
13%: No opinion

Q8. Some people think that the cross-strait policies of Ma's government lean towards China too much. Do you agree?
52%: Agree
33%: Disagree
15%: No opinion

Q11. What is your preference for the status of Taiwan?
20%: Pro-independence
4%: Pro-unification
64%: Maintain the status quo

Q12. If a choice exists between either Taiwan become an independent country or unified with China, which would you choose?
68%: Taiwan independence
13%: Taiwan unified with China
19%: No opinion

Think about that -- 68% in a TVBS poll chose "independence" in an up-or-down question.

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

Been thinking a bit about the social construction of the news lately, governed as it is by powerful ideological frameworks, and maddog points out, in a rip of Reuters, how the media goes about constructing this particular piece of news. maddog notes:

Getting back to the Reuters piece, Jennings feeds the readers generalities:

Also on Wednesday, protesters tried to stop Chen from visiting a temple, taunting police that have guarded every step of his December 21-25 visit, local media reported.

Jennings fails to answer some essential questions for the readers: Who were the protesters? (Were they members of the violent China Unification Promotion Party (CUPP, 中華統一促進黨), members of the peaceful Falun Gong movement, common hooligans, or simply citizens of Taiwan who don't want an authoritarian regime to take over their lives?); Why were the protesters there? (Chen Yunlin has previously threatened Taiwan, and he and his comrades are currently trying to annex Taiwan.); How did they try to stop Chen Yunlin? (Did they use weapons [sticks, stones, knives, guns, Molotov cocktails]? [No.], or did they just stand at the scene, hold up signs, and shout? [Yes.]); Which temple was this, and does it have any special significance? (Could it be Chenlan Temple, a temple which is run by a convicted criminal? [Yes!]); Which local media? (I dunno. Jennings doesn't/won't specify.)

Of course, Reuters places a strict word limit on this type of reporting from Taiwan which handicaps reporting severely. But here the "if it bleeds it leads" creates a narrative whose construction, as maddog notes, places the onus for the "violence" (one shove!) squarely on the protesters, who also "taunt" police (a necessary detail because...?). Police violence disappears in this narrative, and the truly chilling, implicitly violent event goes unmentioned as well...

The really interesting thing here is not the protesters peacefully pushing back against Chen Yunlin, whose Peacefully Rising government on many occasions has threatened wholesale murder of Taiwanese, but the 700 temple association members (?) who showed up, apparently in concert with the police, at the Matsu Temple in Dajia (1. video 4:05) (2. video: China Times looks at the 700 bravos). Note that in the first video, about 2:40 the reporter questions the police about the bravos who showed up and they simply walk away from him.

Think the threat of 700 toughs doesn't have a chilling effect on the protests?

The temple itself is an interesting choice for Chen Yunlin to visit, and shows the interconnections between China, the KMT, organized crime, and local religion (pictures of the temple), and local police and security forces. The Matsu Temple is controlled by Yen Ching-piao, who is basically Dajia town's analogue to Michael Corleone. Yen has been in and out of local jails over his many years as gravel digger and politician. He oversees the annual Matsu pilgrimmage, now one of the largest religious processions in the world. Another connection: the Deputy Chair of the Temple, Cheng Ming-kun, head of the Taiwan Matsu Association, a goddess with hundreds of thousands of adherents, who is very close to Yen, was in Beijing in July visiting Chen Yunlin (go here for my commentary, it's a classic example of AFP a work). Of course, who can forget the wedding of Yen's 16 year old son, which I wrote about several years ago, an event attended by KMT heavyweights:

The Gentle Rant commented on an odd angle of an appalling affair: a wedding given by a local politician that featured 20,000 guests.

What I'm wondering is how many sharks were 'finned' to whip up 20,000 bowls of shark fin soup? I found an interesting article called, Shark Fin Soup: An Eco-Catastrophe?

The eco-catastrophe aspect was one that hadn't occurred to me -- there were just so many things about the event that defied belief, that one slipped under my radar. The wedding featured two teenagers as pregnant bride and nervous groom, and was given by a prominent "colorful" politician with a long record of legal trouble -- someone who, in another country, might be referred to as a "don." Prominent Blue politicians were among those in attendance:

The wedding party was more a show of Yen Chin-piao's political muscle than a celebration of the new couple's friends, bringing together political figures of various parties, including the opposition Kuomintang's former chairman, Lien Chan (連戰), incumbent Chairman Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) and People First Party Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜).

President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) as well as Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) were said to have been on the reception's guest list, but neither appeared at the ceremony.

And the Chinese papers also dropped a few broad clues about the nature of the host:

昨天南北二路不少「兄弟」以「集團企業」名義參加，有的一來就十幾桌，黑衣黑褲，令人側目；鎮瀾宮副董事長鄭銘坤綁架案中，外傳居中協調的「憨面」也是貴賓。

A rough translation: "Yesterday from north and south came no small amount of "brothers" using the names of companies to attend, taking up more than a dozen tables, wearing black clothing and black pants. Everybody looked at them."

There's far more to this than Envoy Visits Local Temple to Protests. In fact, elucidating (some of) the dizzying array of connections shows how cross-strait politics and local politics, organized crime, the KMT, and local religion, are incestuously intertwined.
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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!

Chen Yunlin Security State

Forgive another picture heavy post.... fate took me down to the Windsor Hotel today where I snapped some pictures of the heavy security around the Chen Yunlin visit. Here's the view from Taichunggang Rd as you cross under the HSR.

The Falunggong has set up outside the building.

Directly in front of the hotel.

Lines of police keep cars away.

Protesters cluster directly across from the hotel. Had my camera accidentally set to ISO 800, so they are sort of overexposed and grainy.

The media is also there.

Up and down the street there are policemen on every corner. Here's a hint: stop threatening Taiwan, and it won't threaten you, Mr. Chen.
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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!

Credit Card Wizard Takes Police to Court over Chen Yun-lin Violence

It's been overshadowed by the news of the arrival of the pair of RUS from China this week, but Yang Hui-ju, the Credit Card goddess, is suing the police for beating her during the closing of the music store for playing Taiwan songs during the visit of Chen Yunlin. Clearly this woman fears nothing. Here is the announcement.

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

Credit Card Wizard Takes on Police Chief for Police Violence During Chinese Representative November Visit

23 December 2008 0900: Press conference in front of the Taipei District Court
Bo Ai Rd. No 131 Taipei

Hi,
My name is Yang Hui-Ju楊蕙如. To all of you that receive this hope that you can do me a favor.

When China’s representative Chen Yun-Lin visited Taiwan many people experienced outrageous treatment by Taiwanese police when they were protesting. One of the most well-known cases was that Beitou District Police Bureau Precinct Director, Lee Han-Ching (李漢卿) forced the closure of the Sunrise Records store igniting strong resentment among the crowd. I was one of the victims as well. I was sent to the hospital due to Han-Chin Lee himself and those riot control police that he directed attacked and trampled me while I was holding our national flag and standing peacefully

Later I found out afterwards that perhaps due to fear, due to a lack of back up or other resources, or probably for reasons of not wanting to waste a bunch of time on legal proceedings, I could find no one filing the lawsuit against Lee Han-Ching . He was even being promoted and rewarded for his recent “performances”. His arrogance is demonstrated by his “dare you to sue me” to the victims.

I have never sued anyone in Taiwan, but now, for the rights of all the victims and the dignity of Taiwan, I decided to file a lawsuit against Lee Han-Ching.

The court session will be held at 9 am on 23rd of December 2008. He is compelled to appear in court. This is the first appearance in court, I hope you can come to express your support for us. We are going to gather together at 8:40 am and sing a song – 戀戀北迴線, the song they forced the record store to turn off. We will lift the signs and protest peacefully. Taiwanese have their right and freedom to express their opinions – this is the only matter I care and fight for.

Whether the Taiwan police over-reacted when Chen Yun-lin visited Taiwan has yet to have a full and fair discussion among the public. Perhaps, the forum of the courts is the place to clarify the facts and the issues.

If you are not able attend because you have to work or study, and you do not agree with how the police treated those peaceful citizens or if you disagree with the reasons the police shut down Shang-Yang Record Store and you believe that Taiwanese have their rights and own sovereignty, please forward this mail to your friends, to those you think they deserve to know.

I have to admit, in this court action, I need more people to give me the strength to face more challenges in the future. I am by myself, I am young, I am not as brave as others. I hope you can give me some support, some courage to help me keep going. Thank you.

Sincerely Yours,

Hui-Ju Yang
楊蕙如 12/21/08

[Taiwan]

Talking points sprouting up all over

Taiwan Journal editorial commentary shows just how nervous the government is getting, and also how the GIO journals are being warped over to the party line. The commentary says:

According to the picture painted by some critics, during the early November visit of Chen Yunlin, chairman of mainland China's Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait, police tasked with ensuring his safety used excessive force against peaceful protesters and violated their rights of freedom of speech and freedom of assembly.

From images captured by television crews, however, it appears clear that clashes between protesters and police ensued when a number of individuals pushed over barricades and attempted to break through security cordons. Some threw rocks and even petrol bombs. This resulted in injuries to more than 170 policemen and fewer than 40 civilians.

....170 policemen hurt, versus only 40 civilians. Right. Have we heard this before? Sure -- almost thirty years ago. Several years ago Linda Arrigo gave a talk on the KMT response to the Kaohsiung incident, about which I noted:

James Soong, then head of the GIO, wrote Newsweek to complain of its coverage, saying that Arrigo was not a reliable source, and no protesters had been hurt, whereas 180 police were wounded. That unbelievable story was nevertheless the story the KMT used when it hired an American PR firm to distribute anti-democracy propaganda, referring to Arrigo by name. The PR firm spread the story around the US, using a stilted translation that was obviously propaganda, and which Arrigo said backfired completely. Score: Arrigo: 1, Soong: 0.

When the government spokesmen, and the Blue media are all pushing this line only a baby could believe, they must be nervous indeed. If you're wondering how far the historical parallels go, in the Kaohsiung incident gangsters were unloaded to attack the police, create violence, and discredit the protesters... was history repeating itself?

Further down the Journal commentary notes:

Critics also paint a picture of public prosecutors serving as tools in a political vendetta, by arresting and detaining former and present opposition party officials and holding them incommunicado without charges. Even the attorneys of those arrested, however, have not made such claims. In all cases, the arrested have been informed of the charges for which they were under investigation and of their right to remain silent. They have also been able to exercise their right to consult with attorneys. In all cases, extended detention was possible only because within 24 hours of arrest, a panel of three judges approved it.

If it isn't obvious why the attorneys of the accused haven't said a word, you don't understand Taiwan. KNN had this to say about the Strawberries, evicted yesterday in the wee hours:

According to press reports, the so-called Wild Strawberry "student movement" had actually been orchestrated by several pan-Green university faculty members. The protest had set its pike and aimed at the government. The protestors accused the police of using excessive force to control the crowd of people expressing their anger and dissatisfaction over Chen Yunlin’s visit to Taiwan. Chen Yunlin is the chairman of the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS). However, members of the "Wild Strawberry Movement" never criticized the protesters for violently attacking the police officers assigned to protect Chen. 149 police officers were injured in ensuing riot. Press reports concluded that the Wild Strawberry protestors had no objective views, so only the pro-Taiwan-independence media had given the “Wild Strawberry Movement” any coverage. Other media outlets largely ignored the month-long sit-in, it added.

Note the talking points: (1) the Strawberries are Green tools (they went out of their way not to associate with the Greens who attempted to insinuate themselves into the protest (2) nobody paid any attention to them (must have sucked when Amnesty came out with a statement (3) again the line about the police injuries. Along with the admission that the KMT papers deliberately ignored the Strawberries. And of course, the hypocrisy of accusing the Strawberries of not being objective for only criticizing the police, while reversing things and only criticizing the protesters. Sure.

In a way it is scary, the insistence on unreality, but in another, it is reassuring -- as long as the Blues put out low-grade propaganda like this, no one with a functioning brain will take them seriously in the sphere of public discourse.

Antidote? Try Freddy Lim of Chthonic, interviewed here.

[Taiwan]

"Painful to live in fear, isn't it?"

Now Fear has come again
To live with us
In poisoned intimacy like pus...

I struggled all week on how to write on the Chen Yunlin visit. I struggled not because I did not know what to say, but because I did not want to speak. And so I will let others summarize the events of this week: the detentions, the arrival of Chen Yunlin, the agreements, and the meaning of the protests, and above all, the creeping fear that so many of us now feel as we watch what is happening.

JOHN MANTHORPE, VANCOUVER SUN: At least seven senior members of the Democratic Progressive Party administration of former president Chen Shui-bian are being held under draconian "investigative detention" laws that allow prosecutors to hold suspects for up to four months without charge.

Prosecutors claim they believe the detained officials have been involved in corruption and might destroy evidence if not imprisoned.

But DPP leaders and other observers accuse the new Kuomintang administration of using the judicial system to purge the political stage of its opponents, smearing the reputations of the detained DPP officials by leaking unsupported allegations to the media, and using the detentions to try to extract confessions.

Those detained include a former senior official in Chen's office, the former interior minister Yu Cheng-hsien, former deputy prime minister Chiou I-jen, the former deputy environment minister Dr. James Lee, two DPP municipal officials and a county magistrate.

TING-YI TSAI, ASIAN WSJ: "Chen Yunlin will act like Santa Claus," said Wu Yu-shan, director of Academia Sinica's Institute of Political Science in Taipei. "But the problem is whether the gifts could create obvious benefit to the economy under the current difficult economic environment."

Mr. Ma took office five months ago, promising a new era of peace and economic normalization with China, after years of contentious relations under his predecessor Chen Shui-bian. But his approval ratings have plummeted since, and he has faced growing challenges within Taiwan to his accommodating stance toward Beijing. According to a poll conducted by the Global Views survey center, Mr. Ma's support rate has slipped to 23.6% from 60.5% in April.

JON ADAMS, CSMONITOR: Tuesday's agreements scrap cross-strait barriers erected in 1949 by rival Chinese regimes that refused to recognize each other's existence. The deals extend cross-strait passenger flights and shorten travel times. Before, all flights had to go through Hong Kong airspace.

Direct cargo flights will make it easier for Taiwan businesses to ship equipment and components to the mainland. Direct shipping links will remove the previously needed stop at Hong Kong or another intermediate port. "It's going to save a lot of transportation costs for Taiwan businesses," says Wu Chung-shu, dean of the college of management at Taiwan's National Dong Hwa University. "They're happy to see the government have a more open attitude."

Still, cross-strait links may not much blunt the global downturn's impact on Taiwan's export-dependent economy. "Improving cross-strait links will not totally insulate Taiwan from the current downside risks of a US recession," wrote Standard Chartered's Taiwan economist Tony Phoo in a report earlier this year. "Taiwan remains one of the most exposed in the region to a US-led global slowdown."

Realtime protest broadcasts
Tainan:
http://live.yahoo.com/tainandirect
It started already. (1 pm, Nov, 8th, 2008, Saturday)

Taichung:
http://1106.ezyou.cc/Home/tai-zhong-chang-ci
This one will start 2 pm, Nov, 9th, 2008, Sunday

TAIWAN NEWS: However, Tsai, who was MAC chairman from 2000-2004, stated that what the Ma government had gained in the SEF-ARATS agreements "were what we almost gained but they did not gain any more and at the cost of accepting political conditions including agreeing to Beijing's 'one China principle' and defining Taiwan as a 'region' and not a state."

Tsai stated that the four agreements would tie Taiwan closer to the PRC economy and expose Taiwan to the "increasing risks and uncertainties of the China market" and predicted that only a relatively small portion of Taiwan society will benefit from the new pacts.

The DPP chairwoman warned that if the Ma government does not effectively adopt complementary measures, Taiwan's domestic-market oriented industries, small businesses, middle and lower classes and farmers "will be harmed, incomes and wages will become stagnant and only unemployment will rise."

"This is the reason why the DPP was cautious in handling China policy as we supported liberalization but also believed we had to adopt complementary measures to reduce the negative impact on ordinary citizens and to accelerate industrial restructuring," Tsai said.

Former DPP MAC chairman Chen Ming-tong (陳明通) said the Ma government had failed to gain access to cross-strait shipping for foreign flag carriers or ships flying "flags of convenience" in the cross-strait marine transportation agreement, which he described as "vague" and operationally defined cross-strait shipping as Chinese "domestic" routes.

Chen Ming-tong also noted the air passenger agreement damaged Taiwan's national security by re-routing "northern line" flights from Taiwan to Shanghai and other locations to avoid monitoring by the Japan air defense identification zone (ADIZ) and by excessively shortening air warning times and by effectively defining cross-strait routes as "domestic" by allowing PRC airlines to fly directly to domestic Taiwan airports instead of landing first at the international airports of Taoyuan and Kaohsiung.

FAPA STATEMENT ON CHEN YUNLIN VISIT: The Ma administration knows that the majority of the Taiwanese people do not support a rapid pro-China policy. Yet his administration decided to go ahead with hosting the meeting between Chen and Taiwan’s SEF chief Chiang Pin-kung. This decision is to deliberately provoke the Taiwanese people, divide the Taiwanese society and attack Taiwan’s fragile and hard-fought democracy. We strongly condemn the KMT government’s China policies and protest the government for denying Taiwan’s sovereignty and ignoring Taiwan’s human rights, freedom and democracy.

TAIWAN NEWS: Although Ma and other KMT leaders denounced the "violence" of these unarmed citizens, it is in fact the KMT's monopolization of secret cross-strait negotiations without legislative, media or citizen oversight and its obstruction of the peaceful expression of dissent that forced the people to the streets to protest the KMT's use of state violence.

JOHNNY NEIHU: Now, alas, my buddies in uniform are being sent to clean up a political mess. But it can’t be cleaned up this way for too long, or we will have a police state.

As if in preparation, senior DPP identities are being arrested and locked up in a Singapore-style purge-by-judiciary. Not just the Chen Shui-bian gang, but also sitting elected representatives. Like Singapore, there is just enough legal process to satisfy ignorant foreign media, but way too much for local newspapers and TV stations to be bothered with.

After I turned off the TV, I had a sense of foreboding because I now know how it’s going to play out. Every step of what parachute-packing foreign correspondents call “cross-strait detente” or “rapprochement” or “easing of tensions” will, by necessity, include encroachment on domestic civil liberties — and therefore political liberties — at the reluctant hands of Taiwan’s finest. I also know that there are a lot of people who will fight to stop this from happening.

We’re on our way, dear reader. Will you join me on this journey?

[Taiwan]

Daily Links, Nov 8, 2008

Keeping a sharp eye out for what's on the blogs today....

D. Corey asks: are the Taiwanese fed up yet?

Temples honoring Japanese officers in Taiwan.

The Bushman checks out recumbent bicycles

Carrefour to launch mobile phone service in Taiwan?

Ken's wife tries to pass the driver's exam in Texas.

Pinyin News on Penghu Street signs.

Limits on Chinese tour groups relaxed.

People moving to China cause new car sales to drop. It has nothing to do with the high price of gas, the convenience of scooters, the rise in bicycle use, or the excellent public transportation.

Fili does the east coast.

The truth about Obama and Taiwan

Protests: Everyone is still struggling to put these in perspective. Don't miss HaiTien's account of the executive yuan protest. And J Michael Cole's. Taiwan regressing? David Reid's eyewitness account. David also worries about the chilling effect of the government's recent moves. The Student Protest, also from David. Now that Chen's gone... from Lao Ren Cha. Agu has tons of stuff to ponder. It's Martial Law 2.0 says maddog. Clashes between journalists and police.

MEDIA: Is it too little too late for Taiwan's air cargo firms?

"Taiwan, compared to Korea - especially for cargo from northern China - is not very viable," remarked James Gagne, chief executive officer for Greater China.

Being confined to the sidelines of the China boom was doubly frustrating for the Taiwanese carriers, as their own customer base was steadily expanding in the forbidden market. Taiwanese manufacturers have kept shifting production to China, effectively putting their output out of reach of EVA and China Airlines while eroding flows from Taiwan.

Surfing in Taiwan (with great photos). My university makes a small step in fusion research. Fusion research is like middle age: it is always 10 years ahead of where you are now. Economic growth will remain at around 4.1% this year and next year since inflation is going to go down while government spending will go up, says the China Post. Want Want group buys the pro-KMT China Times. The move is an apparent response to Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai's attempt to buy the paper. Lai is anti-CCP, Want Want CEO is pro-Beijing and pro-KMT. Or so the story goes. Beijing military skeptical of Ma's commitment to sell out Taiwan, continue to push military build up. Sheesh, Ma can't make anybody happy. Economic crisis leads to rise in dumped dogs.

CHEN YUNLIN VISIT: WaPo reports that the meeting "follow landmark negotiations in Beijing in June that ended nine years of non-contact between the two sides" as if the DPP and the CCP hadn't engaged in negotiations on numerous issues during this time, and there had never been extensive cooperation and contacts between the KMT and Beijing (that didn't go back to the 1990s). Someday the backchannel negotiations between the Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese Nationalist Party will make the regular media and I'll have a heart attack. Chen says the agreements were the high point of his life. NYTimes' Ed Wong with good reporting on the historic meeting and on the agreements. Foreign Chambers of Commerce laud deals, which they have pushed Taipei to make for years. Security people drag off CNA cameraman during Chen visit. Bonnie Glaser and Brad Glosserman weigh in for the US Establishment on the Chen Yunlin talks. I wish I had more time to examine the many problems with this article. Taiwan News deconstructs the "apolitical" aspect of the visit. The Cross-Strait pacts will be submitted to the legislature. Which is controlled by the KMT, but hasn't been very cooperative. Still, there is no reason for the legislature to reject them.

There's been plenty written on the Chen Yunlin visit and the protests. I'll round that up tomorrow, and comment on it. It's too much, and like so many people who watched Taiwan take another backward lurch today, I'm having some trouble wrapping my head around it all.

EVENTS: New Taiwanese Foundation has a seminar on the talks on Saturday.

『江陳會之後的兩岸關係座談會』
主辦單位：新台灣人基金會
協辦單位：台灣法學雜誌
時間：11月9日(星期日) 下午1：00-5：10
地點：福華國際文教會館14樓貴賓廳 (台北市新生南路三段30號)

大陸海協會會長陳雲林來台訪問五天，期間簽署四項協議：空運、海運、郵政、食品，
但也引發出不少的爭議與抗爭活動，終於在今天(11/7)上午陳會長離台後暫時告一段落，
但陳先生的來訪究竟為台灣人民帶來哪些影響呢？此次座談會討論主題：江陳會過程的省
思、江陳會對兩岸關係的實質影響。

本會邀請多位知名的兩岸學者、專家，共同來探討。
歡迎各位蒞臨參加！

主題：江陳會對兩岸關係的實質影響
主持人：蘇永欽 (國家通訊傳播委員會 主任委員) 邀請中
與談人： 李文忠 (前立法委員) 邀請中
黃光國 (台灣大學 心理系 教授 ) 邀請中
林濁水 (前立法委員)
張五岳 (淡江大學 中國大陸研究所 所長)
劉憶如 (台灣大學 財務金融系 教授) 邀請中


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新台灣人文教基金會 執行秘書 吳璟妤
Tel: 02-8789-4812
Fax:02-8789-4815
Phone: 0937-408-063
http://www.newtaiwanese.org.tw
台北市信義路五段150巷2號16樓1600室

[Taiwan]

Taiwan Says Hello To Chen Yunlin

PRC negotiator Chen Yunlin arrived in Taipei and inked a pact on direct shipping links and direct flights, as well as panda diplomacy (take two, Taiwan).

Wednesday protesters mobbed the hotel, as reported by Reuters, preventing Chen from leaving for hours. According to AFP he was able to escape back to that symbol of KMT power, the Grand Hotel, in the wee hours of the morning after police threw back over 2,000 protesters. AP said that protesters threw eggs and banged on cars at the Formosa Regent, though BBC said it was only cars with tinted windows. VOA reported that DPP Chair Tsai Ing-wen was in the crowd, urging them to come to a rally the following day. Fox News reported on the protests but also discussed the issue of Chen's use of Ma's title "Regional Administrator President" at the meeting which supposedly was taking place today. The issue was avoided, as Max Hirsch at Kyodo News noted:

Hundreds, if not thousands, of protesters spilled out into streets surrounding the five-start hotel, with a handful of them managing to get inside the lobby.

Hundreds of police were mobilized in response, often clashing with demonstrators, who managed to block all exits until 2 a.m., when Chen was quietly escorted out a side door and into a waiting van that took him to his own hotel, Taipei's landmark Grand Hotel.

Surrounded by barbed-wire barricades, that hilltop hotel has stood its ground against a steady onslaught of protesters since Monday, when Chen arrived from Beijing leading a delegation of some 60 senior Chinese officials. Chen has been dogged by hecklers on virtually every leg of his tour.

Though a milestone in relations across the Taiwan Strait, Thursday's meeting was unusually brief. Chen stood silently except to introduce to Ma a scroll painting of a horse, a gift alluding to Ma's surname, which means ''horse'' in Chinese. Ma gave Chen a Chinese vase and the two shook hands amid salvos of camera flashes.

KMT legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng even asked Chen to have China dismantle the 1400 missiles that are now pointed at Taiwan. Outside on Thursday DPP Chairman Tsai led a massive rally against the government and the China envoy:

A sea of protesters with yellow ribbons are now on the streets, and police officers are using video cameras to help track down any possible offenders. According to the Taipei police department, "heavy-handed" police force of 3,000 has been dispatched and the controlled area is seven to eight times larger than the actual protest area.

Razor wires have been spreaded out in place to deter pro-Taiwan independence protesters from getting close to Chen and crossing the line for violence. Some people slammed the government for overreacting. In the strange political atmosphere, some people could not help but to question: Has the martial law era, which was lifted in 1987, come back to Taiwan again?

More ominous than the trade agreements, which contained items long advocated by the DPP, were the numerous reportsof police taking action to silence protests and to harass, intimidate, and disperse peaceful protesters. The Taiwan Association for Human Rights has put together an online petition and lists some of the cases. Other people reported that police stopped people with video cameras, were videoing protesters, broke into shops playing music they didn't like, and so on. Police prevented people from waving the ROC flag, and from displaying the Tibetan flag as well. None of this was necessary; Chen Yunlin would not have been harmed by seeing any of it, and all the energy spent corralling the pro-independence side was totally misspent. Taiwan News reported on a coalition of civic groups under the umbrella of the Taiwan Association for Human Rights protesting about the apparent suppression of freedom of speech:

A coalition of human rights, judicial reform and social movement organizations criticized the Kuomintang government of President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) for "pulling Taiwan's human rights standards down to the level of the People's Republic of China," citing widespread suppression of the freedom of speech of pro-Taiwan protestors during the visit of Chinese envoy Chen Yunlin.

Taiwan Association for Human Rights Chairman Lin Chia-fan told reporters that over 60 civic reform groups and 100 activists had signed a common statement within 12 hours, including numerous legal and human rights organizations and "July 15 scholars" who had been sharply critical of the previous Democratic Progressive Party administration of ex-president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁).

"Chen Yunlin stated that he had heard the protests, but what we have heard and seen is how the Ma government has trampled human rights and how citizens holding peaceful demonstrations have been pushed and struck by police and how our national flag has been confiscated from the hands of citizens while the Chinese five-star flag has been allowed to freely fly," said Lin.

Lin said that the human rights and legal reform groups demanded that Ma "apologize to all our people for selling out the human rights and legal achievements of the Taiwan people in order to meet the demands of a dictatorship."

Taiwan Sovereignty Watch also made a list of police actions:

1. The policy confiscated and damaged personal belongings of flags and balloons held by people at protest venues.

2. In the evening of November 2, four Taichung City Councilors, Chen Shu-hua (陳淑華), Chiu Su-chen (邱素貞), Chi Li-yu (紀麗玉) and Lai Chia-wei (賴佳微), checked in the Grand Hotel where Chen Yulin would stay during his visit. The next morning, they displayed protest banners from the balcony of their room. Within one minute, special agents broke in the balcony and entered their room, without their consent, to remove banners and restrain their actions.

3. Three bloggers with national flags of Taiwan and Tibet in hand were forcefully taken away by the police when walking southbound along Chung Shan North Rd and passing by the Taiwan Cement Building, where Chen Yunlin visited Cecilia Koo Yen, widow of the former chairman of the Straits Exchange Foundation. The arrest caused the dislocation of fingers of one of the bloggers, but police refused to send her for medical treatment until she provided personal information.

4. Chen Yu-ching (陳育青), a photographer who visited friends near the Grand Hotel, was arrested and sent to the police station for interrogation for shooting the video of the banned area with hand-held camera.

5. Hung Chien-yi (洪建益), a Taipei councilman, entered the Ambassador Hotel, where Chen Yunlin's dinner reception was held, in the afternoon. When leaving by himself in the evening, he was dragged away on the ground for tens of yards by several police officers at the front gate of the hotel. He did not shout derogatory slogans or carry any dangerous items but only wore a T-shirt with the mark of "No Conspiracy with China" on it.

6. On November 4th, while Chen Yunlin was at the dinner reception hosted by KMT leaders at the Ambassador Hotel, a nearby record store was playing some Taiwanese song out loud. The police thought the song would stir up the feelings of the protesters on the scene, so they, in uniform or plainclothes, led by Beitou Police District Chief Lee Han Ching, broke into that record store, asked the store owner to stop the music, and shut the door.

7. On November 3rd, the Association of Taiwan Journalist issued that Cheng Chieh-wen (鄭傑文), a photojournalist from the Central News Agency, was dragged by the security police for 10 meters while he was doing his job at the Grand Hotel, and that an inappropriate press coverage area plan had caused quarrels between the press and the officials. ATJ declared that press freedom was under severe attack in Taiwan. Meanwhile, the government imposed such strict control over press coverage for this event that several reporters from Hong Kong said they failed to get press passes and had limited rights for coverage.

UPDATE: David below observes:

Another incident that should be added to the list is the Freddy incident. Freddy Lim was accosted by police while simply walking down the street. I am sure there are some others that should be noted as well.

These totally unnecessary heavy-handed police state tactics have besmirched the island's reputation. They may also provide the new generation of Taiwanese a taste of what their grandparents went through -- and we all know what the result of that was -- while showing their elders how the Ma government wastes their taxpayer dollars, fiddling while the economy burns.

Another point: lots of us, including me, thought the DPP should have let the Olympic Torch in and then let people protest the heck out of it -- but then this sort of police state action may well have taken place on the DPP watch, since it would not have been able to exercise close control over the police all along the route of the Torch.

FORMULAIC RESULTS: RTT's article on the protests that walled in Chen Yunlin for hours may well have the strangest construction of The Formula ever. Enjoy it in all its glorious weirdness:

The relations between the two neighbors across the Taiwan Strait soured after the Chinese civil war of 1949, in which Mao Zedong's Communists emerged victorious. However, it has improved recently after the Kuomintang (KMT) party under President Ma Ying-jeou came to power in Taiwan ousting the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party government in the last elections.

In fact the article twice says "the Chinese Civil War of 1949." No, I kid you not, though I suspect that it is a translation issue. VOA has the merely historically inaccurate "split in 1949" formulation.

[Taiwan]

ARATS visit round up

The Financial Times says it all: Top China official to visit Taiwan.

The Taipei Times has a huge collection of stuff each day in a special feature. An article on taxi drivers parking to protest the Chen-Ma meeting. DPP Chair Tsai pens open letter. Taipei Times' review of world media outlets on the visit. Taiwanese bankers in China call for quick deal on cross-strait financial issues. The Taipei Times also editorializes on the heavy security surrounding ARATS Chairman Chen's visit, and the fact that in Taipei, ROC flags and other objects that might "offend" the colonialists from across the strait, like Tibetan flags, have been banned. In fact Taiwan News reports that police dispersed protesters for unfurling the national flag. On Monday a DPP legislator wrote a commentary on safeguarding Taiwan's national interests. The China Post has a complete rundown of the itinerary. AP reports on the protests over the visit, as does the Guardian and Reuters India. Good work, guys. TSMC calls for China, Taiwan cooperation on semiconductors. The DPP launched a three-day sit in to protest the visit. Taiwan News points out that Ma holds completely different positions on direct links than he did when he was head of the MAC.

MEDIA MOMENTS: Kudos to Ed Wong of the NYTimes for a very balanced article on the visit, and a miraculous rendition of the Formula:

The Chinese Communist Party sees Taiwan as a rebel province that split from China in 1949, when the KMT sought refuge on the island after losing the Chinese civil war, and must be brought back into the fold. Many Taiwanese prefer to maintain the current status quo of de facto independence, and some, especially members of the DPP, advocate formal independence.

Now that takes the same two sentences that all the others do, yet manages to get out both sides of the issue. Great work, Ed! Why can't all the media outlets do that?

Contrast the very fair NYT article, which manages to note that Ma is deeply unpopular and that many fear a sell-out, with former WaPo Beijing correspondent John Pomfret's bizarre WaPo blog posts on the Chen visit to Taiwan. It's OK right up to the moment it starts talking about the DPP, and then veers into a set of CCP talking points that have only the vaguest connection to reality, ignoring the widespread opposition to the feared sell-out, and Ma's deeply unpopularity for his "moderate" policies on China.

AFP reports Ma not to "budge an inch" on sovereignty. -- yet despite Ma's concrete downgrading's of Taiwan's sovereighty, for example, saying Taiwan is a "region", not a state, AFP does not report that. Instead we get a paean to Ma's greatness:

Relations with Beijing have improved dramatically since Ma came to power earlier this year and he has worked to boost business and tourism links with China following eight years of strained relations under a DPP government.

This paragaph is completely asinine -- it constructs a world where the DPP did not "work to boost business and tourism links" but instead "relations were strained" -- true enough, but nothing like the whole truth. In fact, with $100-$200 billion of investment in Taiwan, the DPP government was by far the most open to China in the island's history, and all the current negotiations simply follow paths blazed by the DPP. But nowhere does AFP acknowledge any of that reality. Nor does it recognize why relations "improved" -- because Beijing refused to talk to the pro-democracy side, and likes Ma the pro-China ideologue.

US Election: Reuters summarizes the respective positions of the two US candidates on Taiwan.

[Taiwan]