Greenpeace Occupy Action on Taiwan overfishing

Taiwan's fishing practices are a sore point with Pacific nations and with world environmental groups. Case in point: Greenpeace occupied K-town shipbuilding yard this week to bring attention to the problems of Taiwan's massive fishing fleet. Activists unfurled banners......

The Fisheries Agency yesterday denied accusations that Taiwan is complicit in overfishing in the western and central Pacific Ocean, saying the building of fishing vessels is strictly controlled by the government and that all newly built fishing vessels are replacements of old boats.

.......

Greenpeace said the agency agreed in 2008 to follow the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission’s (WCPFC) advice to limit the number of fishing days for its purse-seine tuna fleets in an effort to help Pacific tuna stocks recover from overfishing. However, it still allows the shipbuilding industry to build bigger ships with larger storage capacity, Greenpeace said.

It said the agency approved 22 new big purse seine ships between 2007 and this year, accumulating a total tonnage of 38,988 tonnes worth of new purse seines boats in five years — five times greater than the the tonnage of Japan, 14 times that of China and 38 times that of South Korea.

Banner in Kaohsiung (source). FTV video. Blog post of participant, with many pics.

Greenpeace's own press release stated:

Taiwan’s Fisheries Agency (FA) had agreed in 2008 to follow the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission’s advice to reduce fishing effort by limiting the number of fishing days for its purse-seine tuna fleets (1).

......

Instead, the FA has sidestepped the regulation and is allowing its industry to build bigger ships with larger storage capacity, directly undermining efforts to rescue tuna populations.

Taiwan's Fisheries Agency approved 22 new big purse seine ships between 2007 to 2012. And the total new purse seine tonnage is 38,988 tons (3).

Taiwan's distant water fishing fleet mainly operates in the Western and Central Pacific Ocean, home to more than 60 percent of the world's tuna. Taiwan has the most fishing vessels in the region – 72 purse seiners and 1,600 long liners (4). In addition, half of the US purse seiners are owned and operated by Taiwanese companies.

Greenpeace has been tracking this issue for some time. Last year there was some media coverage of its report on how Taiwan's nearby waters are fished out. Notably:

Greenpeace says that 75 percent of the nearly $388 million spent by the Taiwan Fisheries Agency to subsidize Taiwan's distant water fishing fleet from 2002 to 2010 was earmarked for "enhancing the fishing capacity."

The subsidies explain why Taiwan's fishing fleet is so enormous. Seafood is the one area in which Taiwan is "self-sufficient" but this self-sufficiency is an illusion possible only because Taiwan continues to gain access to distant waters to fish. In fact, the massive harvest goes largely to exports to Europe, Japan, and the US.

Taiwanese boats operate all over the world. For example, this year a report on Somali waters observed that the still-plentiful tuna catch there supported large Taiwanese vessels hiring gunman from Sri Lanka to protect their boats. They sold the tuna at a profit in Japan because Japanese domestic regulations forbade hiring protection.

However, as Pacific Island papers have long reported, a (perhaps large) portion of the "Somali" catch is actually taken illegally in the EEZs of Pacific Island nations and then transferred to other boats in international waters, and reported as caught in Somalia. A report from a few years ago described this:

Japan says "fish laundering" was occurring on a wide scale. The tuna pirates meet shadowy cargo vessels on the high seas and transfer their catch. It is then taken to Japan where, depending on the state of quotas and placement of legal ships, the cargo ship declares the fish came from the South Atlantic or the Indian Ocean. Mostly it has been illegally taken out of the South Pacific.

Tokyo gave the example of Lung Yuin, a Taiwanese company-owned freezer cargo ship flying a Panamanian flag, carrying frozen bigeye tuna to Japan.

When authorities inspected it, they found that the tuna had been caught by 25 Taiwanese vessels and three Vanuatu flagged fishing boats owned by Taiwanese companies. All 28 boats had given false information about where they had caught the fish, while Lung Yuin had two log books-one true, the other false.

The Somali "pirates" are in fact the ritual scapegoats for the real, serious, and destructive acts of piracy against small Pacific nations carried out by the major Asian fishing nations every day, piracy used as political theatre. Imagine if the US navy deployed its fleet to stop that smuggling, worth hundreds of millions, instead of piracy by Somali freelancers, worth hundreds of thousands.

REF:

• Taiwan Fisheries Agency report on Taiwan Tuna and Tuna-like fishing. Good maps and much data, but knowing that paragraph about log books and tuna smuggling, how believable can it be?
• AmCham piece on Taiwan's fishing fleet. It notes, interestingly, that despite Taiwan's diplomatic isolation, its large fleet enjoys enormous prestige at international meetings.
• This academic paper on Japan, Taiwan, and tuna overfishing. Taiwan agreed to limit tuna sales to Japan but naturally these limits are exceeded....
• 2005 UK report on illegal fishing and smuggling 

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Polynesians not from Taiwan?

A new study argues that Taiwan's genetic contributions to the settlement of Polynesian were not very large:

Lead researcher, Professor Martin Richards, explains: "Most previous studies looked at a small piece of mtDNA, but for this research we studied 157 complete mitochondrial genomes in addition to smaller samples from over 4,750 people from across Southeast Asia and Polynesia. We also reworked our dating techniques to significantly reduce the margin of error. This means we can be confident that the Polynesian population – at least on the female side – came from people who arrived in the Bismarck Archipelago of Papua New Guinea thousands of years before the supposed migration from Taiwan took place."

Nevertheless, most linguists maintain that the Polynesian languages are part of the Austronesian language family which originates in Taiwan. And most archaeologists see evidence for a Southeast Asian influence on the appearance of the Lapita culture in the Bismarck Archipelago around 3,500 years ago. Characterised by distinctive dentate stamped ceramics and obsidian tools, Lapita is also a marker for the earliest settlers of Polynesia.

Professor Richards and co-researcher Dr Pedro Soares (now at the University of Porto), argue that the linguistic and cultural connections are due to smaller migratory movements from Taiwan that did not leave any substantial genetic impact on the pre-existing population.

Complexification indeed!
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Solomons: Checkbook diplomacy still?

A stirring article from the Solomons from a Crusading Journalist on the Heinous Misuse of Taiwan Aid. Looks like checkbook diplomacy in action:

In the eyes of donors, the Republic of China [Taiwan] is the international pariah [social outcast] for handing out free money to Solomon Islands politicians.

In their view, Taiwan stands accused, falsely or correctly, of fueling corruption with its “no strings attached” aid grants to Solomon Islands, totaling some $50 million annually.

Much of this money is paid directly into the hands of politicians, who according to opponents use the money on “projects” that benefit themselves.

Public outcry got all the louder this past week after Taiwan’s Honiara-based, Ambassador George Chan, handed a cheque for $10 million to Prime Minister, Derek Sikua, on Friday 23rd April 2010. The payment was the second tranche of the RCDF grants. An equal amount was paid in February.

Coincidentally, 23rd April was the last official day in the life of the 8th Parliament, which was dissolved some 24 hours later. Paying the money on that day only added fuel to the growing criticisms.

But Ambassador Chan explained that while the timing was unfortunate, it was nothing new.

In an interview with him on that day, he said: “Taiwan had preprogrammed the payments to be spread over a 12-month period with the first payment being in February each year. Thereafter, payment is made every other month.”

His revelation in the Solomon Star newspaper that the government had asked the Embassy to release the full RCDF grants to MPs before Parliament was dissolved has put a different spin on matters

The writer, one Alfred Sasako, longtime journalist in the Solomons, goes on to give what he says is an aid acquittal for East Kwaio district. A million dollars disbursed, with $682K going into "general assistance." A clear case of Taiwan buying politicians if ever there was one, he more or less hints.

Yet -- perhaps you should check out my post on Taiwan, Australia, and the Solomons before you decide on what's going on. I'll repost a paragraph. Read it carefully...

Taiwan’s image problems were compounded when another candidate accused Taiwan of interference. Alfred Sasako complained that a rival candidate had told his electorate that they would receive no Taiwan funding as long as Sasako remained MP. He also alleged that Taiwan had provided the rival candidate with funding for two projects. Antonio Chen told the media that Taiwan had stopped funding projects for which Sasako applied because he had failed to account for a SI$315,000 (US$44,000) police post project which, unbeknown to Taiwan, had also been funded by Australia.

Oh, wait. Sasako is the former MP for East Kwaio. Aid to his district was stopped by the previous Taiwan ambassador, Antonio Chen because Sasako was getting two sets of aid for the same project, but didn't tell Taiwan. In other words, the choice of East Kwaio is actually a criticism of the guy who replaced him as MP from that district -- as well as a hack on Taiwan. Locals would know that, of course, but casual readers outside the Solomons would not.

Sasako was fined for misconduct by the island's Leadership Code Commission in 2006 but refused to pay (here). He was censured for taking work in Brussels while an MP in the Solomons.

So, are we looking at a genuine criticism of Taiwan funding corruption, or an accusation that exploits Taiwan for local political gain, and gets a bit of revenge for a halt in aid programs that made him look bad? You make the call.

Note that Sasako at the beginning of the article says that Taiwan's aid to the Solomons is under a cloud. What he doesn't say is that it was Sasako's own complaints, in the last election, that dovetailed with Australia's need for a scapegoat for its own sleazy dealings in the Solomons, which helped fuel the perception that Taiwan was behaving wrongly in the Solomons. The post I linked to above has more discussion of that.

Sure am glad I'm not the ROC Ambassador to the Solomons.

REF: Solomons Islands 2006 election
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Out of Taiwan: It's more complex than thought

New article out of Australia challenges the current view that Polynesian agriculture and language arrived together from Taiwan. A cite from the news article:

A detailed look at the linguistics of the region also casts doubt on the explanatory power of the “out of Taiwan” model, according to Donohue and Denham. Languages change over time and as populations move around. If the Austronesian languages came to the region through a southward Taiwanese migration of peoples, one would expect that the languages spoken in the northern part of the region would be more similar to the original source language than the ones spoken in the southern part, which matches the dispersal of some archaeological markers. But that is not the linguistic pattern in Island Southeast Asia. According to Donohue and Denham, there is no linguistic evidence for an orderly north-to-south dispersal.

Irregular patterns in the vocabulary and grammar and other linguistic anomalies throughout the region call into question the idea that the language came to the region through mass migration. Rather, Donohue and Denham suggest that the profile of the Austronesian languages in Island Southeast Asia is “consistent with the mechanisms of language shift and abnormal transmission.”

Taken as a whole, the evidence from genetics, archaeology and linguistics calls into the question the idea that agriculture and language spread together, Donohue and Denham conclude.

“The demonstration that farming and language did not reach Island Southeast Asia together has implications for other places where that idea has been applied, including Europe and sub-Saharan Africa,” Denham said.

Here's a link to the journal article: http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/650991
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Taiwan - Australia - Solomons

Do not arouse the wrath of the great and powerful Oz!

With President Ma having visited the islands of the South Pacific that recognize the ROC, not the PRC, Taiwan-Australia ties have been in the news lately. First there was a minor flap over the comments of Greg Sheridan, foreign editor of The Australian, who charged that the government of PM Kevin Rudd was appeasing Beijing by blocking Ministerial visits from Australia to Taiwan. This was denied by the Rudd government.

Taiwan and Australia are involved in a long-running spat? conflict? debate? over foreign aid to the South Sea Islands. The Ma government has actually displayed some forward thinking on foreign aid, putting out a White Paper on it, and pushing for Australia's cooperation. The Australian reports that Taiwan is "Purging Pacific Island graft", focusing on the Solomons, the focus of Taiwan-Australia friction:

When Ma arrived in the Solomons, he was told bluntly what had to change. The Solomon Star editorialised to him on "the abuse of your taxpayers' money by MPs using Taiwanese aid money as a slush fund. We are begging you to put a stop to this".

Ma says President Frank Kabui twice raised such concerns during a state banquet, as did PM Sikua. "Ever since I got here," he said, he had been confronted about the corrupt use of Taiwanese aid.

I've posted on this before (2008), when Australian criticisms of Taiwan's checkbook diplomacy suddenly disappeared when Ma promised to end aid to the South Sea Islands and Oz promptly reversed its position: send the money! Although Taiwanese money had been blamed for inciting riots in the Solomons, a Commission sent to investigate that issue concluded that Taiwan was not responsible.

As researcher Joel Atkinson noted in a 2009 article in Pacific Affairs entitled Big Trouble in Little Chinatown: Australia, Taiwan and the April 2006 Post-Election Riot in Solomon Islands, the situation was more complex than the news reports made out. To wit, and read closely:

"...Taiwan’s effort to maintain and expand the list of countries with which it has formal diplomatic relations, in the face of hostility from China, has clashed with Australia’s governance reform agenda for the Pacific Islands. This conflict is particularly acute in Solomon Islands, which has longstanding ties with Taiwan and a close association with Australia. However, while this divergence of interests is real, Australia has fuelled this conflict through imputing Taiwan for Australia’s difficulties in an apparent attempt to avoid acknowledging the ambitious nature of Australia’s agenda relative to the political, economic and social conditions in Solomon Islands. This inclination to make Taiwan a scapegoat brought about sustained public Australian criticism of Taiwan following the April 2006 post-election riot in the Solomon Islands, based on little more than the unsubstantiated claims of a single Solomon Islands politician. This episode inflicted serious harm on Taiwan’s reputation in Australia. The incident also contributed to the Chen Shui-bian Taiwan government’s perception of Australia as being increasingly pro-China."

Australia's claim was that funds from Beijing and Taipei were interfering with Australia's attempts to improve aid governance. Atkinson points out, however, that "it is debatable to what extent China and Taiwan weaken Australia’s reform agenda simply through providing South Pacific governments with funds to misuse. Presumably, if Australia’s efforts were effective, the administration of aid from China and Taiwan would improve accordingly."

What actually happened, according to Atkinson, is that local politicians in the Solomons simply exaggerated Taiwan's money flows in order to attack other politicians and portray themselves as being able to deliver the goods. Even worse, a double dipping politician accused Taiwan of interference when it defunded him:

Taiwan’s image problems were compounded when another candidate accused Taiwan of interference. Alfred Sasako complained that a rival candidate had told his electorate that they would receive no Taiwan funding as long as Sasako remained MP. He also alleged that Taiwan had provided the rival candidate with funding for two projects. Antonio Chen told the media that Taiwan had stopped funding projects for which Sasako applied because he had failed to account for a SI$315,000 (US$44,000) police post project which, unbeknown to Taiwan, had also been funded by Australia. There was little in this episode to suggest that Taiwan was “funding candidates,” and Taiwan’s withholding of funds from a cheat was actually to its credit. However, that there were now all of two candidates who had made accusations created a robust characterization of Taiwan that would shape post-election perceptions, especially in the Australian media.

The local political situation is complex and compounded by some very smarmy connections between individuals in the Australian government and local politicians in the Solomons. But riots "broke out" though on the balance it appears to have been planned, and the Chinese were blamed. The Australian government immediately began blaming Taiwan. While it is likely that Taiwanese private businessmen put money into the elections, there is no evidence to suggest the Chen Administration itself was involved. As Atkinson points out, there was no targeting of Taiwanese businesses even though there were plenty of potential targets. If Taiwan's money made everyone upset, why didn't Taiwanese businesses get torched?

A single paragraph will suffice to give the flavor of the complexity of events (and money flows!):

These events touched Taiwan when the Sydney Morning Herald accused Taiwan of funding Julian Moti’s escape from PNG (despite it being on a PNG military plane), and providing money to defeat a no-confidence vote against Sogavare. The newspaper argued, “While a lot of Australians see Taiwan as a brightening torch of democracy in Greater China, in our own neighbourhood it risks appearing more like a rogue nation.” These unsubstantiated claims and singling-out of Taiwan came despite an Australian government body, Airservices Australia, making payments totalling A$2.1 million (US$1.8 million) to “third parties” at the direction of Solomons officials “outside the terms” of contracts, and China directly funding at least one Solomon Islands political party. It seems unlikely that Australian media organizations would have made such attacks on Taiwan if not for the lead and encouragement provided by Canberra.

Australian was deeply involved in the Solomons through the Regional Assistance Mission to the Solomon Islands (RAMSI), which it had organized with other area nations to provide a fig leaf for its own intervention in the Solomons in 2003. Although RAMSI was effective in restarting some services, it became resented, like any foreign intervener, and failed (inevitably) to solve the ethnic problems that underpinned the political conflicts in the Solomons. Thus Taiwan's large involvement in the Solomons, as well as its lax aid supervision, became a sensitive issue for Australia -- and also made Taiwan aid a useful diversion to deflect criticism of Australia's own failures in intervening in the Solomons.

So to return to the criticisms in the newspaper report above....

Ma says President Frank Kabui twice raised such concerns during a state banquet, as did PM Sikua. "Ever since I got here," he said, he had been confronted about the corrupt use of Taiwanese aid.

How does Atkinson describe PM Sikua? Lessee.....

Australia’s problems with Sogavare continued until December 2007, when Derek Sikua, a leader supportive of Australia’s agenda and RAMSI, finally replaced him.

That context is probably necessary to understanding why Ma got criticized. Why did Ma accept that criticism? Because it reflects on the previous government, not him. In this case, criticism of Taiwan served the agendas of everyone involved...

Aussie radio on Ma's trip

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Businessman connected to Chen in Scandal with Rudd of Oz

The Age reports on a Taiwan businessman close to Chen who paid for Rudd to fly to London and donated megabucks to the Australian Labor Party.

Kung Chin Yuan, a long-standing friend of former Taiwanese president Chen Shui-bian, flew Mr Rudd to London for two weeks in June and July of 2005 when Mr Rudd was Labor's shadow foreign minister.

The sponsorship of Mr Rudd came at a time when Taiwan was making efforts to boost its influence with Australia and other countries in the region.

Mr Kung, who is based in Brisbane, has been linked to a secret fund that helped bankroll unofficial Taiwanese diplomatic operations in Australia and the South Pacific.

At the time of Mr Rudd's trip, there was concern in Taiwan about contacts between senior Labor figures and mainland Chinese business interests. There was also concern about "pro-Beijing" comments made by Mr Rudd in mid-2004.

The Prime Minister's office has declined to answer questions about how long Mr Rudd has known Mr Kung, why he accepted the sponsored trip, who he met in London and whether Mr Kung had contributed to his fund-raising efforts. "Mr Rudd's interactions with Mr Kung have been entirely appropriate," a spokesman said.

Australian Electoral Commission records also show Mr Kung donated $120,000 to the Queensland ALP branch between 1998 and 2006.

In 2007-08, when Mr Rudd led Labor to power, Mr Kung contributed a further $100,000 to the federal ALP using the name Lawrence Kung.

The secret fund to which Mr Kung has been linked was, according to former president Chen, used to support Taiwan's efforts to secure diplomatic recognition in the South Pacific and gain influence in Australia.

The secret fund is what the prosecutors are accusing Chen of stealing. If Chen stole it, where did this money come from? Another charge against Chen is that they falsified receipts. Do you think that the Australian Labor Party gave receipts for the secret fund for the two donations? And do you think Kevin Rudd gave a proper receipt for his business class trip to London? In any case, as I have noted numerous times, the whole receipt thing was an obvious set up, since the rules were changed in '02 and no previous president had to give receipts for expenditures from the secret fund. Only Chen Shui-bian had to give receipts.

Last year I observed that it is rumored that one of the reasons the KMT is so interested in peering into Chen's funding flows is that Beijing wants to know where Taiwan's money is going. Take that, Beijing.

Onward....

In 2006, a senior politician from the then Taiwanese opposition KMT party told a parliamentary committee that the Queensland-based Mr Kung had received $US625,000 ($A764,000) from Chen's special fund.

The KMT politician alleged the money sent to Mr Kung was used on Mr Chen's behalf to invest in Chinese real estate, not to carry out secret diplomatic work. But Mr Chen rejected the claim, insisting the fund was used to pay for secret diplomatic missions.

His denials were not enough to deter government prosecutors who have since 2006 pursued Mr Chen, his wife and aides over the alleged embezzlement of funds from the secret diplomatic account.

In his initial interviews with prosecutors, Mr Kung refused to disclose the identities of the "secret agents" receiving money from the fund for fear their lives would be at risk.

Taiwanese newspapers say Mr Chen later told prosecutors Mr Kung had received money to undertake secret diplomatic work at his request.

Mr Kung, who owns an exclusive property on Brisbane's riverfront and is a member of the Queensland branch of the Taiwan Australia Business Council, could not be contacted for comment. He has previously denied receiving money from Mr Chen's fund.

Mr Kung has reportedly refused six summonses from prosecutors to return to Taiwan to testify in Mr Chen's case. Instead, he has faxed a statement in which he said he had never received money from the fund for secret diplomatic work.

Taiwan prosecutors have obtained invoices that allegedly bore Mr Kung's name and were used by Mr Chen's family to claim money from the presidential fund.

Let's see... a KMT legislator claims that Chen gave the money to Kung to invest in Chinese real estate. That legislator was Lee Ching-hua, brother of Diane Lee, the legislator with the US citizenship. The Taipei Times reported on this in 2006...

Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lee Ching-hua (李慶華) told the legislature's Organic Laws and Statutes Committee yesterday morning that a reliable source told him that the president had wired NT$20 million (US$625,000) to China-based businessman Kung Chin-yuan (龔金源).

The legislator claimed that the money came from President Chen's special allowance fund and was actually used to invest in real estate in China.

Lee Ching-hua said he'd resign if he was wrong. Yeah, right. Needless to say, Lee's anonymously sourced claim has been shown to be fiction. The money was spent where Kung said it was spent.

The donations to Labor came at a time when Australia was following the shortsighted policy of opposing the dollar diplomacy between Taiwan and China in the South Pacific. Now that Taiwan has essentially halted its diplomatic programs, China is consolidating its position in the South Pacific island states. And everyone knows that Chinese money is not corrupting, and China always supports clean, democratic politics in the states in moves close to.

The reality is that Taipei was suppressing Chinese influence in the Pacific at no cost to Australia itself. Stupid.
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Language Study: Polynesian Islanders Originated on Taiwan

When people say "cradle of civilization" they usually mean the Levant, or the great river valleys of China. But Taiwan was the cradle of a very great civilization, that of the Polynesian explorers, who settled the Pacific in one of the great feats of navigation and migration in human history....Science Daily has the story:

"Our results use cutting-edge computational methods derived from evolutionary biology on a large database of language data," says Dr Alexei Drummond of the Department of Computer Science. "By combining biological methods and linguistic data we are able to investigate big-picture questions about human origins".

The results, published in the latest issue of the journal Science, show how the settlement of the Pacific proceeded in a series of expansion pulses and settlement pauses. The Austronesians arose in Taiwan around 5,200 years ago. Before entering the Philippines, they paused for around a thousand years, and then spread rapidly across the 7,000km from the Philippines to Polynesia in less than one thousand years. After settling Fiji, Samoa and Tonga, the Austronesians paused again for another thousand years, before finally spreading further into Polynesia eventually reaching as far as New Zealand, Hawaii and Easter Island.

The Science Daily site also provides links to several other articles in a similar vein.

[Taiwan]

Is Dual Recognition Possible?

Bruce Jacobs had a nice commentary in the Taipei Times today arguing that Taipei really ought to pursue some kind of "dual recognition" format:

Second, Taiwan needs to broadcast much more clearly that it is willing to have joint recognition with China. At least from the outside, it appears that Taiwan still breaks relations with countries that recognize China. Foreign Ministry people explain this is for Taiwan's "national pride," but in essence the explanations sound similar to those used by Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) all those years ago.

Dual recognition has already occurred once before. In 2003, when Kiribati switched from the PRC to Taiwan, China continued to keep its people there since it maintained a listening post and satellite monitoring facilities there, established in 1997. It stayed for three weeks, from November 7, when ties were cut, to November 29.

It can be done, if both governments are willing to be sensible.

Resource: Excellent background article on the Great Pacific War for recognition between Taiwan and China.

[Taiwan]

Papua New Guinea -- what was at stake? --UPDATE: PNG Officials DID meet with Taiwan scammers

UPDATE: The Australian reports that PNG officials did meet with the middlemen....

PNG's Post Courier newspaper said yesterday Mr Tiensten, who was trade and industry minister in 2006, had met the middlemen from Taiwan at a series of meetings in Port Moresby, while he was also acting foreign minister. Mr Tiensten said a PNG lawyer, Florian Gubon, "was helping (the Taiwanese) mission" to Port Moresby - where the Taiwan Government has a trade office. Dr Gubon accompanied Mr Bonga, then chairman of the Port Moresby City-owned water company Eda Ranu, to Taipei, also in 2006. Mr Bonga said he went there "to see how we could improve city sewerage, and about water bottling".

PNG's National newspaper yesterday ran a photo showing Mr Bonga, Dr Gubon, Mr Chiou and Mr Wu at a meeting together in Taipei in 2006.

More to come, I'm sure....

The Taiwan News editorializes on the PNG affair that has caused heads to roll....

The flap has already led to the resignations of ex- vice premier and perennial DPP strategist Chiou I-jen, former foreign minister James Huang and ex-deputy defense minister Ko Cheng-heng and the detention of Taiwan-Singaporean businessman and alleged con-man Wu Ssu-tsai and flight of Taiwan businessman Chin Chi-jiu and the disappearance of nearly US$30 million in confidential diplomatic funds.

...and rightly so. I think, like Taiwan News, that the Ministry will be cleared of criminal wrongdoing, but what the editorial really focuses on is the lost diplomatic opportunity:

The significance of this diplomatic failure is best understood not by obsession with alleged "scandals" or a focus on the PNG alone but with reference to the wider context of Taiwan's efforts to consolidate a cluster of comprehensive partnerships in the Pacific and expand the scope of this community in order to gain strategic influence and direct participation in the 14-nation Pacific Island Forum.

Indeed, just as Chiou and Huang were making their secret approach for ties with Port Moresby in the late summer of 2006, Taiwan had initiated a new approach in its management of relations with its six Pacific island allies which surfaced in the "First Taiwan - Pacific Island Allies Summit" held in Palau in September 2006 in which President Chen Shui-bian participated.

The Palau summit, followed by a Majuro Summit in August 2007, marked Taiwan's shift from a focus on defensive bilateral ties to a more proactive and comprehensive multilateral approach aimed at improving governance, grassroots health and education and economic development in the context of building a "democratic community" in implicit cooperation with the PIF's long-term "Pacific Plan."

The strength of this approach has been shown in the resiliency of Taiwan's ties with the Marshall Islands, Nauru and the Solomon Islands, all of which have had changes in government in the last year.

Through this example, Taiwan has also improved ties with Australia and New Zealand, especially in contrast with the PRC, which is playing the neighborhood "bad boy" by acting as the main prop for the military regime in Fuji and the repressive monarchy in Tonga, which has been under martial law for over 18 months.

Although Taiwan has full diplomatic ties with six PIF 14 members, Taipei remains excluded from all formal PIF activities and can only hold "informal" dialogue with the PIF members at their annual meetings and is excluded from the most important deliberations and planning processes of this organization, which is gradually evolving into a regional trade and security organization of strategic importance.

However, Taiwan only needs one or at most two more diplomatic allies to gain sufficient support within the PIF to upgrade its status into at least a full "dialogue partner" on an equal footing with the United States, Canada and the PRC itself or even direct membership.

Official affiliation with the PIF would have marked a huge strategic advance for Taiwan's international status and a major step in counteracting the PRC's global "full court press."

Too bad incompetence blew up this opportunity to move forward in an international forum.

Also on tap today: Taiwan's Minister of Health in the Vancouver Sun on WHO entry.

[Taiwan]

Islands in a Steam

Taiwan's dollar diplomacy in the South Seas is really part of a much larger pattern of cowboy activity that annoys lots of places that might otherwise be its friend. For example, there's cowboy fishing, which has been provoking Greenpeace lately,

GREENPEACE activists clashed with a Taiwanese long-line fishing boat in the Pacific Ocean today, painting the word "pirates'' on the side of the vessel and raiding its lines.

Greenpeace accused the vessel of hunting down precious marine species - including an endangered turtle - in international waters north-east of the Solomon Islands, which the green group wants declared as reserves.

According to Greenpeace, activists confronted the long-line vessel, called the Ho Tsai Fa 18, and began to free the fish, sharks and endangered turtle caught on its hooks.

They then took one of the vessel's radio beacons and a fishing line.

Activists claimed they won the battle, with the vessel agreeing to release the marine life and leave the area.

Greenpeace, politicians, and community leaders want to create marine reserves in those areas. One blogger in the Marianas commented:

Rescind your resolution against the proposed national marine park. I am dumbfounded at how our leaders could so quickly and recklessly come up with a resolution that slams the idea of a national marine monument for the CNMI. What I want to know is if it is really true that the resolution was written by a WESPAC lobbyist. Do you truly understand the ramifications of your resolution? Have you exhausted all efforts in understanding the pros and cons of the marine monument? Since when was conservation a bad thing? Why do you buy into propaganda and sensationalism? As far as our local fishermen are concerned, how many of our local fishermen travel three hundred-plus miles to go fishing? It is not economically feasible, especially given the high cost of fuel! (Maybe the legislators figure the fishermen will swim up and back.) Do you know who is fishing those waters right now? Illegal commercial fishing companies from Korea and Taiwan! And as we speak, the CNMI cannot do anything about it right now! Stop listening to lies and start listening to the voice of reason. I ask that you revisit your resolution and rescind it. There is nothing wrong with changing your mind if it means you are changing your mind for the right reasons.

In a region where Taiwan might be quietly building relationships as a counterweight to China, instead, the island is peeving its neighbors, with cowboy visits as Vietnam protests a planned ROC government official visit to the Spratlys:

Vietnam's government has asked Taiwan to call off a planned inspection tour of the disputed Spratly Islands, one of two archipelagos in the South China sea claimed by several countries in the region, local press reported Tuesday. "Vietnam resolutely objects to all activities violating its sovereignty over the two archipelagos," government spokesman Le Dung said.

Taiwanese Defence Minister Tsai Ming-hsien was scheduled to visit the Spratlys on Monday before postponing the trip due to bad weather.

Vietnam, Taiwan, China, the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei each claim all or part of the Spratlys and the nearby Paracels, and all but Brunei have a military presence on one or more of the atolls. Taiwan has built an airstrip on the largest of the islands, while Vietnam has stationed sailors on another.

The waters around the islands are believed to contain substantial petroleum reserves.

Conflict over the islands began heating up in November, when China established a new government district, called Sansha, to administer them. Vietnam officially protested the Chinese move, and Vietnamese students staged rare spontaneous protests in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City asserting Vietnamese sovereignty.

Apparently there were complaints from Philippine politicians as well, though nothing formal. And speaking of islands, how about Papua New Guinea? Our $30 million diplomatic scandal is news down there too as PNG claims They Never Knew:

PNG’s foreign affairs secretary Gabriel Pepson said yesterday that the Government was not aware of a secret offer, adding “we are all surprised at the media reports”.

He reiterated that PNG pursues the One-China policy, which recognises the sovereignty of mainland China over Taiwan.

Mr Pepson said PNG knew nothing about the secret offer, either at the official or political level.

The offer was revealed after Taiwan launched court proceedings in Singapore to recover the money given to two men to offer to their contacts in PNG.

The offer was abandoned after it was discovered that the PNG contacts did not represent the government. This happened in December 2006. But the two men did not return the money to Taiwan.

and of course, the 'request' by PNG officials to deposit the $$ in the Singapore account as a mark of sincerity was a scam:

The Straits Times newspaper in Singapore said at the weekend that unnamed representatives from PNG had in October 2006 asked for that amount – “intended as technical assistance” – to be transferred to an account in Singapore, as the condition for a switch of diplomatic recognition.

It later emerged that the PNG representatives were not officials but agents who had obtained letters from government officials.

However, in a Strait where the status of the islands isn't an issue, Taiwan and China can somehow bridge all that horrible tension generated by the crazed and provocative Chen Shui-bian, and begin oil exploration together in the waters off Taiwan:

Taiwan's state-run oil firm CPC Corp and China's CNOOC Ltd are set to resume joint exploration in the Taiwan Strait, after putting a venture on hold for more than a year now, the Economic Daily News reported, citing CPC Chairman Pan Wen-yen.

Perhaps that will enable to Taiwan to get in on the joint oil exploration in the Spratlys currently underway between China, Philippines, Vietnam, and a US oil firm....

[Taiwan]

Not Being Careful What You Wish For

The Pacific islands' relationship with Taiwan is back in the news. Last January I discussed several articles on Taiwan's diplomatic initiatives in the South Seas. I cited one piece which said:

Following destructive riots in the Solomons capital Honiara in April, the Australian and New Zealand governments criticised the Taiwanese government for engaging in chequebook diplomacy in the Pacific to win diplomatic recognition from small island nations.

Other articles often gave the same impression -- this long blog post, for example, Mary-Anne Toy's piece on Taiwan....

Taiwan and China's influence-buying in the region can undermine governance and encourage corruption and instability. Australia and New Zealand have told the rivals to stop the chequebook diplomacy to buy the allegiance of countries. Rioting in the Solomon Islands last year, which sparked Australia's billion-dollar RAMSI intervention, was blamed on Taiwan and China backing rival political factions in a tussle over whether the tiny nation continued to recognise Taiwan or to switch allegiance to China.

...and so, the complainers got their wish this week when President-Elect Ma promised to end chequebook diplomacy in the Pacific -- and immediately there were dark warnings (Oh yeah, it means cash for the region....):

Associate Professor Bill Hodge, a Pacific specialist at the University of Auckland, on Thursday said a pledge by Taiwan's president-elect Ma Ying-jeou to immediately end chequebook diplomacy could harm fragile Pacific countries that rely on the money.

"It is an ominous sign for the economies and on government spending in these countries. In some, 80 to 90 per cent of the GDP is some sort of government spending," he said.

However, Australia's official position has not changed. Former Aussie FM Downer said that all that bribery is undermining efforts to stamp out corruption in the region. I guess it was kinda like the way that paying kickbacks to Saddam Hussein in the oil-for-food/Iraq scandal at the Australian Wheat Board undermined anti-corruption efforts in the Middle East. The article noted:

Foreign Affairs Minister Stephen Smith this week said chequebook diplomacy was not a sensible way to proceed, and Australia's position had been made clear to a number of governments.

A US Congressional report last year said Taiwan gave about $US10 million ($A10.9 million) in aid to the Marshall Islands annually, and since 1999 had given about $US100 million ($A108.7 million) in aid to Palau.

In 2006, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao pledged $US375 million ($A407.7 million) in development assistance and low interest loans to Pacific countries.

This week, it was alleged that Fiji offered support to China's crackdown in Tibet because it recently secured a $F170 million ($A125 million) loan from the Chinese government to develop roads.

The Marianas paper offers another view, including a promotion of our President-Elect to PhD status:

Former Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer says the election of a new president in Taiwan could benefit the Australia-led assistance mission in Solomon Islands.

Downer is in Taipei as part of an international parliamentary delegation to observe the island nation’s presidential election.

Taiwan maintains direct diplomatic ties with Solomon Islands but its aid and grant programs have come under strong criticism from Canberra.

Radio Australia quotes Downer as saying that president elect Dr. Ma Ying-Jeou has told him he wants to deal with Taipei’s “checkbook” diplomacy.

Downer said under the Chen Shui-bian administration, there had been a lot of Taiwanese checkbook diplomacy in the Solomon Islands.

A Solomons paper was far more blunt:

Former Foreign Minister of Australia Alexander Downer’s comments that Taiwan deals with Solomon Islands on the basis of cheque book diplomacy are very unfortunate, says Prime Minister Dr Derek Sikua.

Dr Sikua said Mr Downer’s comments demonstrated his continued lack of respect for the sovereign affairs of island conuntries in the region including Solomon Islands.

“The bilateral relations between the Republic of China on Taiwan and Solomon Islands are based on mutual respect, understanding and genuine partnership and not cheque book diplomacy,” he said.

He said Taiwan’s funding assistance to Solomon Islands is geared towards the development aspirations of the government and people of Solomon Islands.

Of course, the reason The Beautiful Island has to engage in such noxious diplomatic practices is because we don't get the public support we need from the democracies like Australia.

[Taiwan]

More on the Polynesians and Taiwan

Yet another study on the relationships between Taiwan and Polynesians....

In the research, scientists examined more than 800 genetic markers known to be useful in distinguishing the ancestry of people. These involved mitochondrial DNA, passed down through females, and the Y chromosomes in males. Previous investigations along these lines had been conducted on a much smaller scale, Dr. Friedlaender said.

The new test results were repeatedly analyzed with a software program recently developed to classify genetic similarities and variations among different populations.

Primary support for the study was provided by the National Science Foundation, the Wenner-Gren Foundation of Anthropological Research, the National Geographic Society and the National Institutes of Health.

Further research to confirm the history of the Pacific diaspora, Dr. Friedlaender said, would require an expansion of genetic tests among people in the Philippines and Indonesia, regions that the migrants presumably passed through after leaving Taiwan more than 3,500 years ago, ultimately reaching as far as Hawaii and Easter Island. The Melanesians, on the other hand, probably arrived on their islands about 35,000 years ago, sometime later than the Aborigines reached Australia.

Fascinating stuff.

[Taiwan]

Stray Media on Taiwan's Int'l Relations

The always insightful Ting-i Tsai has a commentary in the Asia Times on the recent decision by the US to take a step back on the referendum. He argues that the US has reluctantly decided to live with it:

Burghardt's approach, which deviated from that of other US officials in recent months, may have signaled that Washington has reluctantly decided to change course after concluding that its efforts to compel Taiwan's ruling party, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), to drop the referendum were futile.

Washington now appears willing to "tolerate" the referendum but is hoping to encourage its failure so that it will not be over-interpreted with expansive and elaborate statements on what the referendum means.

Some US-based analysts believe that Burghardt's comments reflected a shift in attitude, prompted by Washington's realization that it could not have high expectations that Chen would drop the referendum.

Bonnie Glaser, senior associate at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, said she sensed that Washington had shifted to acceptance of the referendum after a meeting with a senior US official a few weeks ago.

The view is echoed by Richard Bush, former chairman of the AIT and director of the Washington-based Brookings Institution's Center for Northeast Asian Policy Study. "The attitude [of Washington] has been shifting for some time," Bush said, as the US government has known for a while that the chances were pretty low that the DPP would abandon the referendum.

++++++++

The train of US officials speaking out against the referendum reached another high with Sec. Rice herself labeling it "provocative" in remarks yesterday, the day after she received a letter from two Congressmen asking the Administration to stop this unseemingly behavior. The BBC reports:

At an end-of-year news conference at the state department, Ms Rice said: "We think that Taiwan's referendum to apply to the United Nations under the name 'Taiwan' is a provocative policy.

"It unnecessarily raises tensions in the Taiwan Strait, and it promises no real benefits for the people of Taiwan on the international stage."

Beijing has attacked the referendum, calling it a precursor to attempts to declare independence.

It has consistently threatened to use force if that happens.

Driving this wave of Bush Administration self-expression, I suspect, is the belief that Taiwan's voters actually correctly receive, interpret, and act on, warnings from the US. Tom Christensen, who has been particularly active in elaborating this policy of attacking the referendum on China's behalf, seems to hold this belief. Do people really care what the US says? How can they see what it is saying when everything that is reported here goes through the pro-Blue media's distortion machine?

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

Max Hirsch of Kyodo News, consistently one of the best reporters on the island's affairs, has another insightful piece on the emerging importance of Japan in the domestic political battle here. I've been observing over the last couple of years how Japan's Taiwan policy has undergone a shift in response to China's challenge to Japan, a very favorable shift for Taiwan. Hirsch's piece elaborates on how this has affected Taiwan's internal struggles. Interesting bits highlighted (now in the Japan Times):

Such is the significance of Japan to Taiwan's Mar. 22 presidential election, in which tacit support from the vital trading and strategic partner could make or break the diplomacy platforms of Ma and Hsieh. Hence, Japan has emerged as a key battleground in the political fight for Taiwan's top job, as both frontrunners scramble to curry favor with Tokyo.

''Obviously...both candidates put Taiwan-Japan relations front and center in this race,'' says Andrew Yang of the Chinese Council of Advanced Policy Studies, a Taipei-based think tank.

Concern in Tokyo over whether Taiwan's next president will ''exercise an independent voice'' for the island ''while avoiding miscalculations with Beijing'' is behind Tokyo's keen interest in the race, Yang says.

Taiwan's growing interest in Japan, meanwhile, is obvious.

Amid booming trade and tourism links, Japan's importance to Taiwan on security hit a zenith in 2005, when Tokyo joined Washington in referring to Taiwan as a ''common strategic objective'' -- a veiled reference to likely intervention by the United States and Japan in a Taiwan Strait conflict.

China views Taiwan as a breakaway province that must be united with the mainland, by force if necessary.

Beijing's threats to attack the island have spurred Hsieh to capitalize on Japan's 2005 statement -- issued by then Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi -- by seeking U.S.-style security guarantees from Tokyo during his trip.

However, fears abound in Taipei that the current prime minister, Yasuo Fukuda -- known for his ''China-friendly'' stance -- will back off of commitments to the island to soothe Beijing.

''We have a poster of Junichiro Koizumi tacked up in our office, but not of Prime Minister Fukuda,'' says DPP Legislator Hsiao Bi-khim, who serves in Hsieh's campaign and runs foreign affairs for the DPP.

''It's not that we don't like [Fukuda]; it's just that we connect more with leaders like...Koizumi,'' she adds.

All the more reason, then, for Ma and Hsieh to court Fukuda's administration. Bullish economic ties further explain why wooing Japan is more important in this race than in past races.

Taiwan's trade with Japan, for example, totaled nearly US$63 billion last year, a record high allowing Japan to overtake the United States as Taiwan's second largest trading partner, after China. Taiwan for its part ranks fourth among Japan’s trading partners, while the two exchanged some 2.3 million tourists last year -- another record high.

That both frontrunners sent their running-mates to the United States on goodwill visits before visiting Japan themselves, undermines another piece of conventional wisdom -- that Washington mainly arbitrates the island's geopolitical fate.

Ma's trip to Japan was apparently very successful. The DPP places such importance on its relationship with Japan that its website is available in both Anglais and Japanese....

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

Finally, from a blogger where the south polar star is found comes this tale of growing Chinese influence in the Cook Islands....

Given the paucity of news in New Zealand media about events in our South Pacific neighbours, unless it is about coups, riots or cyclones, I’m not surprised there has been virtually no news here about the wonderful benevolence of China in the Cook Islands. But I am surprised there has been no coverage whatsoever here of the farewell speech given in Rarotonga a few days ago by the departing New Zealand high commissioner John Bryan, which received considerable publicity in the Cooks because of his candid thoughts on the China connection. It’s not as if our media did not know he was leaving – they have been speculating he will be replaced by NZ First MP Brian Donnelly.

As the daily newspaper, the Cook Islands News, put it, career diplomats seldom express their views on important issues in public, so Bryan’s comments were all the more remarkable and worthy of reporting by the New Zealand media.

“People are saying there is no such thing as a free lunch so what do the Chinese want in return for the assistance they are providing?” Bryan said. “There are lots of ideas floating around, including them wanting access to Cook Islands fishing grounds, the establishment of a fishing fleet in the northern group and the facilitation of migrants. May be there is an ounce of truth in that.”

But what John Bryan believes to be China’s main interest is the Taiwan issue. There is great rivalry between China and Taiwan, the province that broke away after Mao’s communists took over the mainland in 1949 and which was recognised by most Western countries as the “official” China until the early 1970s. Some countries still recognise Taiwan rather than China, including Nauru, Palau, Tuvalu and the Solomon Islands in the Pacific. Almost unnoticed by the New Zealand media, China and Taiwan have been quietly competing for influence in the region, in much the same way, though not as nakedly, as Japan has been trying to buy the votes of Pacific nations at the International Whaling Commission. This makes it all the more disappointing that the New Zealand media missed John Bryan’s speech.

Let me report what he said: “I think it comes down to the bitter rivalry that exists between China and Taiwan in securing diplomatic recognition across the Pacific. China advocates, and most members of the United Nations agree, that Taiwan is still a legitimate province of the mainland. Taiwan likes to think they are ‘autonomous’ and can operate accordingly. Several Pacific nations agree with them and they all have formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan. China would, of course, prefer these countries to respect the one China policy and they continue to try and persuade them to change allegiance. Some argue that this situation is the cause of what is commonly referred to as ‘chequebook diplomacy’ in the Pacific, where the one with the highest financial offering tends to win the battle for diplomatic recognition. Naturally China is concerned that the Pacific island countries that currently support China, including the Cook Islands, might also be courted by Taiwan and be persuaded to change diplomatic recognition. That is why I think they are enhancing their relationship with the Cook Islands and offering tangible assistance. Also, China sees the Cook Islands as having a very good reputation in the region and that they might have the ability to influence those Pacific countries who currently acknowledge Taiwan to change their diplomatic position towards China.”

This is important stuff indeed. An almost unnoticed battle between Taiwan and China for diplomatic influence in our own backyard. These views are presumably what John Bryan was reporting back to Wellington, and what would have been reported from our other diplomatic missions in the region. The Cold War is long over, thank goodness, and China is our friend. But so is Taiwan. We have excellent relationships with both, and we are seeking a free trade deal with China, the first it is likely to sign with a Western country. This makes activities such as China’s and Taiwan’s in our region of more than passing interest, as we could easily be caught up in them. As reported last Sunday by The Hive, Niue has established diplomatic relations with China despite New Zealand being responsible for Niue’s foreign affairs. The Taiwan issue is apparent there, too.

John Bryan’s opinions are of somewhat greater importance than what Lucy Lawless, Hollie Smith and Marcus Lush emote about whales, which the capital’s morning paper saw fit to make its page one lead yesterday. It would be nice to see his cogent, relevant views also get an airing in the mainstream media.

Wow! I would have thought the NZ media would be more interested in South Seas nations, especially since the foreign relations of so many of them are entangled with New Zealand's.

[Taiwan] [US] [China] [Chen Shui-bian] [State Department] [Democracy] [DPP] [Taiwan Independence] [New Zealand]