Monday, October 19, 2009

Daily Links, Oct 19, 2009

Massage
Getting massaged in a park in Fengyuan. What's being rolled around on the blogs today?
PHOTOS: Holly found this unusual ad. Take a close look at the O in Oh

MEDIA: CSIS Pacific Forum with many articles containing overviews of US relations with other nations. Chinese spy ops in the US underscored in recent case: "The U.S. Embassy in Beijing had a backlog of over 1,200 cases … [in March 2008], and their single Commerce Department export control investigator … could only close 12 cases a month. Commerce later said they had 'doubled' their investigators in China, meaning, going from one to two". Introducing Critical Han Studies. Joe Hung of the China Post criticizes Japan for reviving the Greater East Asia C0-prosperity Sphere. Since this is exactly what China is currently attempting to do, Hung is simply engaging in that favorite KMT pastime of accusing others of doing what you yourself are doing. Taiwanese universities move to attract Chinese students even though legal permission has yet to be enacted. Saying sex is power, NTU student gives away free condoms and lubricant. Taiwan asks China not to punish Kaohsiung. Guys, give'em the middle finger and move on -- don't beg favors from bullies. Meanwhile President Ma says the KMT-controlled legislature will review the ECFA pact, which will be signed in 2010. Trade between Taiwan and China fell over the first three quarters compared to 2008, says Xinhua, though stock market is at 16 month high. Taiwan bans internet games in government offices as Facebook's farm game lowers government productivity. Central Bank Governor says foreign investors have $15.5 billion in funds sitting in Taiwan doing nothing, and fears speculation on the NT. If any of those investors want to give that unemployed money to me, I will put it to good use. Economic crisis hurts Taiwan worse than South Korea. Chinese tourists deliberately prevented from going to southern Taiwan? But tourism numbers have been in decline since May: Chinese citizens have been allowed to go on sightseeing tours of Taiwan since July. Taiwan in principle allows no more than 3,000 Chinese nationals to visit Taiwan per day. In April, an average of 3,280 Chinese tourists entered Taiwan per day. That number fell to 1,500 per day in May and has averaged about 1,000 since, Tourism Bureau statistics showed.

SPECIAL: FEER on Chinese attempts to impose censorship on other countries. Many thanks for Christopher Walker and Sarah Cook for an excellent and timely article.

CONGRATULATIONS are due to one of the best human beings I am privileged to know and call a friend, Anthony van Dyck of Forumosa fame, now the proud father of daughter Isabel, born last week.
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(Permalink) 12:09 PM

Sunday, October 18, 2009

GIO corrects ECFA press release

The GIO released two versions of the same press release last week, the second correction issued within a day, according to sources. They are identical except for the last paragraph:

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Government Information Office Press Release October 14, 2009

President Ma: Financial MOU and ECFA to be priority cross-strait tasks

At a ceremony celebrating the 98th National Day of the Republic of China, President Ma Ying-jeou said that relations between Taiwan and the Chinese mainland have improved greatly over the past year, and that a turning point for cross-strait peace has appeared. This is the result of efforts on both sides of the Strait that accords with the hopes of the vast majority of the Taiwan public and has been universally affirmed by the international community.

He went on to say that over the past year, on the pragmatic basis of the “1992 Consensus,” Taipei and Beijing have signed nine agreements enabling larger numbers of visits to Taiwan by mainland tourists, direct air, sea, and postal links, food safety inspections, and mutual cross-strait judicial assistance. Cross-strait cooperation continues to expand daily, leading to the gradual accumulation of mutual trust and good will. Nevertheless, Ma added, “We believe that much remains for us to tackle on behalf of the well-being of our peoples, including negotiation of memorandums of understanding on financial supervisory cooperation and an economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA).”

The president also emphasized that cross-strait differences and concerns are rooted in historical factors that cannot be overcome all at once. To achieve further peaceful development of relations, both sides must remain patient, face up to practical realities, and move forward in a gradual, orderly manner, so as to build mutual trust and find common ground amid differences. In addition, the government’s foremost guiding principle in dealing with cross-strait issues is to safeguard national sovereignty and advance the people’s welfare.

FINAL PARAGRAPH, CORRECTED VERSION:
According to the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Taipei and Beijing will hold preliminary talks on an ECFA in the near future and exchange preliminary views on what to include in the agreement. The Ministry of Economic Affairs emphasized that the signing of an ECFA will allow establishment of a stable framework for economic cooperation, initiation of a mechanism for positive cross-strait interaction and solidification of Taiwan’s position in the international supply chain. This will provide new opportunities for Taiwan’s industrial development and contribute to Taiwan’s transformation into a global center for innovation, an Asia-Pacific trade hub and an operations headquarters for Taiwanese businesses.

FINAL PARAGRAPH, ORIGINAL RELEASE:
According to the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Taipei and Beijing will hold the first formal talks regarding an ECFA at the end of October. A fourth informal negotiation meeting is scheduled for next week at which the two sides will first exchange views on the general items to be included on an “early harvest” list. At present, less than 700 priority items are slated for inclusion on the list, spanning mid- and up-stream petrochemical products, mechanical equipment and components, and mid- and up-stream textile products. In the service industry sector, the financial services industry will seek access to the Chinese mainland’s banking, securities, and insurance markets on more favorable terms than WTO preferential treatment. The commercial services sector will also strive for access to the mainland’s wholesale, retail, distribution and logistics market, while the transportation services sector will endeavor to gain access to the mainland’s cargo delivery and freight forwarding markets.

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An interesting list of items in that original paragraph. It will be interesting to see how far Beijing is willing to go to integrate Taiwan's economy with China's.
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(Permalink) 7:59 PM

Leave the Future Some Clean Rivers, Please: Central Taiwan Science Park


Image from Wild at Heart

The Taiwan News had an interesting editorial on the problem of waste disposal from the Central Taiwan Science Park (CTSP), which sheds more light on how our developmentalist construction-industrial complex works. The editoral argues that the government should not start the environmental impact assessment for the expansion of the CTSP until there is a concrete plan to prevent the waste from being dumped in the Chuoshui River.
The greatest point of dispute concerns plans for the CTSP Erlin campus to discharge 100,000 tons per day of treated wastewater into nearby Chuoshui River's old or current channel for its "fourth phase expansion," which primarily refers the construction of an 11th generation TFT-LCD fabrication plant planned by Taiwan's AU Optronics.
....

While farmers and fish-farmers on both sides of the Chuoshui River are concerned about possible pollution from wastewater from the project, environmentalists are also concerned that the massive pumping of groundwater for the AUO plant will worsen the already grave problem of subsidence in the Erlin region and are worried that the additional inflow into the Chuoshui and its nearby delta will worsen conditions for the survival of the critically endangered Taiwan humpback dolphin.
Three problems are identified here. First, the wastewater itself polluting the river. Second, the effect of that wastewater on the dolphin habitat on the west coast. Third, the AUO plant will be pumping groundwater like there's no tomorrow, in an area where subsidence is already severe.

This scientific journal article on groundwater in the Choshui alluvial fan observes:
Among areas with geological hazard subsidence, the alluvial fan of the Choshui River has experienced serious problems of ground subsidence, in large extent due to soft ground features in the alluvial fan and a long history of groundwater over-pumpage. In certain areas of the region, the subsidence rate reaches as much as 14.3 cm/year (Liu and others 2000).
Subsidence is a severe problem in Taiwan, where uncontrolled pumping has lowered an area equal to about 16% of the western plain of the island. Only in Taipei, where groundwater pumping was forbidden in 1978 and the law enforced, has the problem been brought under control (ref).

Groundwater supplied about a third of the water in Taiwan in the 1990s, and the government began a long term monitoring program of the groundwater situation in the Choshui aquifer at that time. This paper from a few years ago describes the Choshui Alluvial Fan:
The Choshui River alluvial fan, the largest in Taiwan, is located at the west coast of central Taiwan. It is triangular in shape with the apex at Linnei and divided into north and south parts by Choshui river. The area of the fan is 1,800 km2. In the fan area, the overall water consumption is 3.1 billion m3, of which 0.9 billion m3 is from groundwater.... The groundwater basin is composed of three aquifers and two aquitards... Aquifer II is the most important water bearing formation of the fan area. Its large grain size suggests that it has high hydraulic conductivity. Aquifers I, II, and III probably pinch out in the Taiwan Strait.... The groundwater stored in the fan area is generally confined in nature throughout most of the area, except at the upper part near the apex of the fan....

The apex of the fan can be conserved for groundwater storage and the groundwater should be extracted out during the dry season only from the middle and fringes of the fan. From long-term monitoring, the groundwater level had gradually declined since 1960, but yet rebounded after 1990. Aquifer II has been over withdrawal all the time. The water table fluctuates by as much as 15 m during a given month and 5 m during a given day. The average amount of groundwater recharge is 1.024 billion m3/yr. According to the study of numerical modeling, the safe yield, which is equivalent to the natural recharge is estimated to be 0.818 billion m 3/yr.....
This paper says that in the southern part of the Choshui alluvial fan aquifer sea water began intruding back in the 1970s due to the already high levels of groundwater pumping, though the paper above says there is no sea water intrusion in the aquifers. It also gives a good description of the composition of the aquifer. It is clear that whether or not there is sea water in the groundwater at present, removing thousands of tons of water will invite sea water intrusion, and reduce water quality. In the southern part of the aquifer, in Yunlin, deterioration of groundwater has lead to a unique endemic disease, blackfoot disease, which occurs only in that area and appears to be related to arsenic levels in the groundwater.

But there is another effect of massive groundwater pumping: the threat to structures. This paper observes:
During 1992–2007, excessive pumping of groundwater caused large-scale aquifer-system compaction and land subsidence in the Choshui River Alluvial Fan, especially in the area of Yunlin county. The subsidence impedes surface-water runoff and endangers the operation of Taiwan High Speed Rail. Leveling, Global Positioning System (GPS), multi-level compaction monitoring well, and Differential Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (DInSAR) are used to study the extent of subsidence in Yunlin and its mechanism. These sensors complement each other in spatial and temporal resolutions. A leveling network totaling 434 km in length was deployed to derive subsidence at every 1.5 km along the routes, and the result is accurate to few mm and shows a basin-like subsidence pattern centering at Tuku Township.
In addition to the threat to the HSR, which crosses severely subsided areas all over southern Taiwan on its way south, "impedes surface water runoff" is polite language for "causes flooding when the water on the surface can't get out to sea." It was not a coincidence that the areas flooded by Morakot in Pingtung County, centered around Linbian, are places where groundwater depletion is severe. We do not get many typhoons here in central Taiwan, but they do arrive every few years. Increased pumping simply invites future flooding.

Taiwan News describes the current plan for the Central Taiwan Science Park (CTSP):
Late last month, Executive Yuan Secretary-General Lin Chung-sen told local news media that the Cabinet hoped the EIA [environmental impact statement] could be approved in October and thus allow the groundbreaking for the CTSP expansion to take place in November.

Speaking to reporters on Oct. 1, Premier Wu Den-yi told reporters that he had proposed after discussions that the 100,000 tons of waste water could instead be transferred directly for the use of the NT$400 billion Kuokuang Petrochemical complex, which is slated for construction in a planned industrial zone in adjacent Dacheng Township on the Changhua side of the Chuoshui River.

Wu stated that his proposal would ease the worries of farmers and fish farmers on both sides of the Chuoshui River (and presumably consumers as well) and said that the additional NT$2 billion cost would not be great compared to the benefit of adding production and employment from the CTSP expansion project.

Although a cross-ministerial meeting was held later to discuss the suggestion, Wu's proposal has not yet been officially included in the CTSP Erlin expansion plans or its EIA.

Moreover, the feasibility of the notion is open to question since the EIA for the petrochemical complex itself has yet to be approved.

In addition, the Kuokuang complex, which might yet be relocated to the Changpin Industrial Zone near Lukang, will at earliest enter production in 2015, leaving open the question of how to deal with the water problem in the three-year (or longer) interval.

The fact that Wu's proposed solution was not even discussed in yesterday's meeting will unavoidably give rise to questions as to how seriously his administration takes his declared concern for "ordinary people's economics."

A demonstration by over six hundred farmers from Changhua and Yunlin Counties along with environmentalists in Taipei noisily protested the plans at the Environmental Protection Administration's Taipei headquarters was unable to prevent a EIA subcommittee from recommending "conditional approval" to the final review for the fourth phase expansion of the CTSP Erlin campus for rubber-stamping by the full EIA commission later this month in line with the Cabinet's demand.

The EIA subcommittee did require that the CTSP construct a special pipeline and discharge the water either in the Chuoshui delta or further out to sea, but this resolution does not address the most serious problems in the CTSP expansion since the EIA subcommittee did not specify which of the two possible locations for the wastewater should be used.
The EIA subcommittee proposed either dumping it in the delta, affecting fish both directly and secondarily through ingestion of poisoned species, such as plankton, or out to sea. The kicker?
Incredibly, the EIA committee agreed to allow the CTSP management itself decide which option to follow, a decision which is an out and out prescription for the selection of the lowest cost and most environmentally harmful alternative.
Wild at Heart noted of the plan to dump the wastewater into Choshui, where it will water the market gardens of Hsiluo county, one of Taiwan's most important vegetable production areas, is that the stuff that will actually be discharged is completely unknown:
“The chemicals listed in the developers’ documents as being prohibited or controlled include a lot of agricultural chemicals, not the types of chemicals used in the electronics industry,” says Hsieh. “The developers should list the names and volumes of chemicals to be used and discharged. If, during the environmental impact assessment process, we don’t even know what kinds of chemical substances will be used, what potential impacts can possibly be assessed?”
Wild at Heart also blogged on another issue involving water and the CTSP: a diversion to meet the parks future water needs. To wit:
The Taan River-Tachia River Combined Use Water Transport Project (大安大甲溪水源聯合運用輸水工程計) aims to divert 1.5 million tons of water per day from the Tachia River in Taichung County, ostensibly to meet the predicted public water needs of the greater Taichung area. The water will be diverted northwards into a water treatment plant and an irrigation channel in Houli, Taichung, and across the Tachia River to a second treatment plant at the Liyutan (artificial) Reservoir in Miaoli County, via a series of tunnels and pipes. Construction is expected to take four years.

At the meeting on 26 August, lawyer Thomas Jhan (詹順貴) of the Primordial Law Firm (元貞聯合法律事務所 ) in Taipei, who acted on the EIA committee from 2005 to 2007, referred to the Tsengwen Interbasin Tranfer (IBT) Project in Chiayi County, southern Taiwan, which is believed may have been at least partly responsible for the deadly mudslide that buried Shiaolin Village a month ago, a matter currently under investigation. With one mouth of the tunnel of the Taan/Tachia IBT being situated only two hundred metres upstream of the Shihkang Dam, which breached during the magnitude 7.6 earthquake that occurred on 21 September 1999, and with around ten known geological faults and sheer zones within the project area, Jhan said the Taan-Tachia River project appeared to be even more dangerous than the Tsengwen project.
A few days the NY Times had a feature on the new Japanese government's attempt to derail the developmentalist express in Japan, where local governments and economies depend on state spending on infrastructure construction. Virtually every river in Japan is dammed, gargantuan concrete edifices may be found in the smallest village, and the government is up to its ears in debt. That future where the government struggles to right the errors of the past is one possibility for Taiwan.

But in the meantime, we are stuck with a government that simply ignores calls for rational treatment of wastewater.

UPDATE: Oct 25 protest needs you!

REF: Taiwan Review piece on land planning, my blogpost on the wreck of the Shigang Dam, this 2008 piece on river dust from a local environmental blog, this post on EIA and dolphins
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(Permalink) 7:36 PM

House Resolution on Consent of the People for Change of Status of Taiwan

FAPA sent this around:

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U.S. Representative introduces legislation:

Future of Taiwan should be determined with the express consent of the people of Taiwan

House Armed Services Committee member and a long-time friend of Taiwan, Congressman Robert Andrews (D-NJ), introduced House Concurrent Resolution 200 “expressing the sense of Congress regarding the freedom, security, and stability of Taiwan” last night.

The resolution concludes that it is the sense of Congress that--

(1) grave concerns exist concerning the continued deployment by the People's Republic of China of over 1400 ballistic missiles directed toward Taiwan, which threaten the security and stability in the Taiwan Strait;

(2) the President should seek a public and unequivocal renunciation from the leaders of the People's Republic of China of any threat or use of force against Taiwan;

(3) the future of Taiwan should be determined free from coercion by the People's Republic of China, peacefully, and with the express consent of the people of Taiwan.

The resolution highlights China's coercion and increasing military threat against Taiwan and refers to the latest Pentagon report on the Chinese military power and to the passage by China of the anti-secession law in 2005 that drew a severe rebuke from the U.S. Congress.

The 2009 Pentagon Report warns that the People's Liberation Army's military modernization "could in the future be used to pressure Taiwan toward a settlement of the cross-Strait dispute on Beijing's terms while simultaneously attempting to deter, delay, or deny any possible U.S. support for the island in case of conflict."

The House of Representatives characterized the China's passage of the Anti-Secession Law at the time as "a unilateral change to the status quo in the Taiwan Strait."

The resolution also invokes pertinent sections of the Taiwan Relations Act, "which is the cornerstone of United States-Taiwan relations," which reaffirms the U.S. commitment to Taiwan's security.

FAPA President Bob Yang, Ph.D. states, "The fact that Rep. Andrews is a senior member of the House Armed Services Committee adds to the relevance and importance of this resolution. Taiwan's security interests are intricately interwoven with those of the U.S. in the region."

Yang continues, "In addition to the military threat, China is now also gaining tremendous economic leverage over Taiwan. China's dual strategy of economic and military coercion to compel Taiwan into submission has alarmed many Taiwan supporters in the U.S. Congress.

Dr. Yang concludes: "The missiles that China has targeted at the 23 million peace-loving people of Taiwan are the equivalent of China putting a gun to the heads of the people of Taiwan. They are the clearest and strongest indicator of China's real intentions vis-à-vis Taiwan. The people of Taiwan live under a constant dark cloud of threats, intimidation and harassment. It is not only high time that Beijing remove its missiles, it is time that the people of Taiwan be able to determine their own future free from fear."

*****

111TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION H. CON. RES. 200
Expressing the sense of Congress regarding the freedom, security, and stability of Taiwan.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

Mr. ANDREWS submitted the following concurrent resolution

CONCURRENT RESOLUTION

Expressing the sense of Congress regarding the freedom, security, and stability of Taiwan.

Whereas for over half a century a close relationship has existed between the United States and Taiwan, and such relationship has been of enormous economic, cultural, and strategic advantage to both countries;

Whereas the United States has vital security and strategic interests in the Taiwan Strait, with United States troops stationed in countries within the Taiwan Strait region;

Whereas the security of the 23,000,000 people in Taiwan is threatened by the deployment by the People's Republic of China of over 1400 short and medium-range ballistic missiles targeted at Taiwan;

Whereas the National People's Congress of the People's Republic of China passed an anti-secession law on March 14, 2005, which was subsequently condemned by the United States House of Representatives in House Concurrent Resolution 98, passed by the House of Representatives on March 16, 2005;

Whereas such resolution states that the anti-secession law seeks ‘‘to create a legal framework for possible use of force against Taiwan'' and that it constitutes ‘‘a unilateral change to the status quo in the Taiwan Strait'';

Whereas a 2009 Pentagon report on the military power of the People's Republic of China states that ‘‘[t]he PLA's modernization vis-a`-vis Taiwan has continued over the past year, including its build-up of short-range missiles opposite the island'', and that ‘‘[i]n the near-term, China's armed forces are rapidly developing coercive capabilities for the purpose of deterring Taiwan's pursuit of de jure independence'';

Whereas such report also states that ‘‘[t]hese same capabilities could in the future be used to pressure Taiwan toward a settlement of the cross-Strait dispute on Beijing's terms while simultaneously attempting to deter, delay, or deny any possible U.S. support for the island in case of conflict'';

Whereas the Director of National Intelligence, Admiral Dennis Blair, in the 2009 Annual Threat Assessment of the Intelligence Community for the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, stated that ‘‘[p]reparations for a possible Taiwan conflict continue to drive the modernization goals of the People's Liberation Army and the Chinese defense industrial complex'';

Whereas section 2(b)(4) of the Taiwan Relations Act (22 U.S.C. 3301(b)(4)), which is the cornerstone of United States-Taiwan relations, declares that it is the policy of the United States ‘‘to consider any effort to determine the future of Taiwan by other than peaceful means, including by boycotts or embargoes, is a threat to the peace and security of the Western Pacific area and of grave concern to the United States''; and

Whereas section 2(b)(6) of such Act (22 U.S.C. 3301(b)(6)) declares it the policy of the United States ‘‘to maintain the capacity to resist any resort to force or other forms of coercion that would jeopardize the security, or the social or economic system, of the people on Taiwan'': Now, therefore, be it

Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), That it is the sense of Congress that—

(1) grave concerns exist concerning the continued deployment by the People's Republic of China of over 1400 ballistic missiles directed toward Taiwan, which threaten security and stability in the Taiwan Strait;

(2) the President of the United States should seek a public and unequivocal renunciation from the leaders of the People's Republic of China of any threat or use of force against Taiwan; and

(3) the future of Taiwan should be determined free from coercion by the People's Republic of
China, peacefully, and with the express consent of the people of Taiwan.

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(Permalink) 2:16 PM

Friday, October 16, 2009

Riding, walking, driving photos

Driving, biking, walking, seeing things all the time....

Big adverts for big businesses

Steamed, but not angry

Biking is the in vogue activity all over Taiwan this year; several people have remarked to me about how Taiwanese, whose home is the world capital of bike firms, have taken to biking with a kind of nationalistic pride. The result has been its wholesale adoption by local politicians in their attempts to portray themselves as both energetic and Taiwan-centered.

The eyes of TJ Eckelberg?

It could be anywhere, but it is in Guishan township.

Pithy information about this shop is known as a "q-tip."

All over the island, vendors walk up and down lanes of traffic selling yulan hwa, whose cloying scent is a favorite of mine. Surely genetic engineers can make a mint by conjuring up one with new car smell.....

A betel nut girl keeps one eye on the cars on their way to the highway.

Ornaments in a truck....

Walking on the bike trails outside of Taichung city.

Right next to a chicken farm -- is it a mutant chicken?

No one works harder than local farmers.

They've hatched now so you can count them.

There's nothing prettier than a rice field at sunset.

Crop tipis.

Riding off into the sunset.
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(Permalink) 9:02 PM

The closer we move to Beijing, the farther we move from democracy

Taiwan News with another awesome editorial on how things are moving here. This one is on the PRC boycott of southern Taiwan, the KMT's client-agent relationship with China, and the obvious political nature of the economics relations with China....
"Ten Conditions of Love" on exiled Uighur rights activist Rebiya Kadeer this month. It is important to note that the Dalai Lama made no inflammatory statements during his visit to Taiwan and neither the content of "Ten Conditions of Love" or any public or reported statement by Rebiya Kadeer have manifested "propaganda for war" or contained "advocacy of national, racial or religious hatred."

Doubts over the veracity of reports by Kaohsiung hotel operators of a retaliatory boycott by PRC tourists were dispelled this weekend when Taiwan's own Tourism Bureau revealed that 9,500 Chinese visiting Taiwan later this month under the auspices of Beijing-based Pro-Health Company would not visit the south.

Responding to a question by the PRC state-owned China News Service, the TAO spokeswoman confirmed the boycott and its political motivation. "There are some forces in Kaohsiung which have joined together with 'Tibetan independence' and 'Xinjiang independence' splittist forces and manufactured some incidents which impact on core mainland interests and hurt the feelings of mainland compatriots," said Fan, who added that "it is very natural that mainland masses are dissatisfied with these actions" According to a transcript on the TAO website, Fan declared that "stopping the alarm requires someone to hit the button," presumably a demand that the Kaohsiung City government apologize for inviting the Dalai Lama or cancel the KFF showings of "Ten Conditions of Love."

Fan's statement made explicit a trend which has been obvious since the KMT took office last May and implemented a China-tilting policy of KMT-CCP "reconciliation" and cross-strait economic "deregulation."

To put the matter in "economic" terms, Beijing is using its control over the flow of Chinese tourists to force the Taiwan government, at both central and local levels, to act as its "general agent" for the exportation of PRC's draconian restrictions on freedom of speech and expression to Taiwan and impose these CCP - made standards on our own citizens.

The comment by the TAO spokeswoman also exploded months of pollyannaish propaganda by the Ma government that the ECFA "only concerns economics" and will not "impinge on sovereignty" since it constituted an open declaration of Beijing's intent to use commercial interests to dictate the standards of human rights of Taiwan citizens in direct violation of our national sovereignty.

The TAO action demonstrates that Beijing absolutely does not "separate politics from economics" but, on the contrary, fully intends to use any and all market openings or deeper business relationships to intensify political pressure on our society and government. While the DPP and other Taiwan-centric groups have denounced the PRC's move to "use business to pressure politics," the KMT government has so far remained mum, with the exception of a meek complaint by Mainland Affairs Chairwoman Lai Shin-yuan that Fan's statement had "hurt the feelings of the Taiwan people." Such a response is woefully inadequate because what Beijing aims to hurt is not our feelings but undermine the most fundamental "core interest" of the Taiwan people, our democratic freedoms.

Indeed, the International Covenant on Civic and Political Rights, which President Ma Ying-jeou signed into Taiwan law earlier this year, commits its signatories, to "respect and to ensure to all individuals within its territory and subject to its jurisdiction the rights recognized in the present Covenant," including the right of free expression.

The Taiwan government is therefore legally obligated to defend the right of free expression of our citizens and must no longer bow to Beijing's pressure if it wishes to retain its own political legitimacy.

Indeed, as any police officer knows, caving into blackmail never leads to outpourings of "goodwill" by the blackmailer toward the victim but only paves the road for even more ruthless extortion by exposing the weak will of the victim to resist.

The Ma government must now decide whether it is willing to act as Beijing's official agent or show some backbone and suspend further cross-strait consultations pending a public apology by the PRC authorities.
As Taiwan's dependence on China increases, so will this kind of pressure. On a related issue, the Supremes today said that the change of judges in the Chen Shui-bian case was constitutional. Juxtapose that with some over events: last month a KMT legislator complained when William Stanton, our new AIT director, pointed out that some learned Americans were concerned about the judicial system here (Good work, Mr. Stanton!). President Ma is currently calling for an extradition treaty with the US, but I have heard that there is quiet concern in the halls of Congress about the fairness of the judiciary in Taiwan. This is delicately hinted at in Jerome Cohen's piece in SCMP earlier this week responding to KMT attacks on his criticism of the decision not to permit Kadeer to enter Taiwan....
Informative government responses to foreign critics also benefit domestic audiences. What I had actually criticised was not the Taiwan government’s decision to ban Kadeer’s visit but the explanation offered by Interior Minister Jiang Yi-huah. He might have followed the precedent set by his government last December when temporarily declining a visit by another figure opposed by the mainland government, the Dalai Lama. It had simply noted that the timing of the visit was “inappropriate”, the unspoken but understood premise being that the visit would strain the sensitive new effort at cross-strait reconciliation.

Whether or not one agreed with that decision, the explanation given was honest, respectful of audiences in both Taiwan and abroad, and not harmful to anyone. Jiang’s explanation, by contrast, linked Kadeer to terrorism. At least at this juncture, that accusation seems inaccurate and unfair. It echoed Beijing’s as yet unproven claims rather than the conclusions of many democratic governments – including that of her host, the US. Worst of all, it appeared to defame a person who enjoys wide respect for her struggle against the mainland government’s oppression of her ethnic group.

To be sure, every country imposes restrictions on entry. The US itself
maintains an overly broad barrier against Taiwan’s highest leaders, in order not to cast doubt on its recognition of the People’s Republic as China’s only legitimate government. But such barriers restrict domestic audiences’ democratic rights to interact with important speakers and must be frequently challenged. Another recent case of an unfortunate Taiwan reaction to foreign criticism occurred when William Stanton, the new head of the “unofficial” US mission in Taipei, pointed out that many learned Americans were concerned about the fairness of former president Chen Shui-bian’s criminal trial. This led some of Taiwan’s legislators and media to label his remarks impermissible foreign interference in the administration of justice.

Taiwan’s minister of justice, Wang Ching-feng, however, rejected this charge. She is more aware than most of the importance to Taiwan of American perceptions of its legal system, since she is attempting to negotiate an agreement that would require the US to extradite fugitives to Taiwan.

The US, like any nation contemplating extradition, has a valid interest in the quality of justice in the country that is requesting it and a right to express reasonable concerns. More generally, as President Ma Ying-jeou has emphasised, despite his efforts to improve relations with the mainland, Taiwan cannot afford to neglect its military defence. That defence relies implicitly on the security guarantees of the US Taiwan Relations Act. They, in turn rest, on the American people’s continuing belief that the island is worth defending, even at the cost of nuclear war. While Taiwan was once valued mainly for its strategic location, its thriving democracy and developing rule of law are now seen to deserve protection in and of themselves. Its leaders and people should keep this in mind.
Cohen does not follow through the consequences of his logic: if it is democracy that attracts the US to defending Taiwan, then it follows that in order to annex the island to China, it must be made hollow. That will have a twofold payoff: reducing US interest, and reducing local opposition.

More importantly, Cohen still has not made the connection, at least publicly, that connection that Beijing has openly with this latest "boycott" of the south: that the "reconciliation" between the KMT and the CCP can only be made over the dead body of the island's democracy. The economic closeness that US Establishment analysts laud and Cohen has played cheerleader for can have only one outcome, Beijing has made that clear. It's time for US critics to stop mixing their signals.

Note also how the Chinese tourists finally give Beijing the leverage it needs to affect Taipei openly and publicly. As I have observed many times, Beijing always makes noise whenever Taiwan does something pro-Taiwan, but it could never take action against Taiwanese in China, since that would harm itself. Hence it attempted to browbeat the US into hacking on Taiwan, transferring the costs of harming Taiwan to the US-Taiwan relationship, something that the Bush Administration was only too happy to comply with. Now, with the tourists, it can dispense with the middleman, and directly punish Taiwan. Scary.

Finally, as a human being outraged at my own nation's inexcusable behavior, I can only add that for the US to express reservations about another country's judicial system, after secretly kidnapping foreign nationals abroad and depositing them in third countries to be detained and tortured, as well as to torture human beings and detain them indefinitely in US prisons overseas, is to raise hypocrisy to high art. Please, let's get our own house in order so that our comments actually have teeth.

REFERENCE: J Michael's paper on prospects for Chinese espionage in Taiwan.
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(Permalink) 7:30 PM

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Mirror, Mirror: If they treated India like Taiwan

I was reading this BBC article on how China is making noises about the Indian territory of Arunachal Pradesh because the Prime Minister of India, Manmohan Singh, visited the state earlier in October. Suddenly, as I read, a random transporter beam caused by a failure in the neutrino displacement grid due to a flux distortion storm bouncing off a resonating FTL damper, flung me into an alternate universe where every nation around China was treated like Taiwan. Ignoring the scantily clad paan girls in brighty-lit glass booths lining the streets, I made my way to the nearest सात-ग्यारह where a clerk with a neatly-trimmed goatee sold me a paper with this story....

China ire over India border visit

China has strongly criticised a visit by Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to the north-east Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh, currently administered by India, saying that India had ignored its concerns and that Singh was "gambling with the interests of his compatriots."

China claims Arunachal Pradesh, which split from China in 1951 following China's liberation of Tibet. The territory has been governed separately ever since.

On Tuesday US State Department officials warned India that it was "unnecessarily" provoking China. The US remained silent on what India claimed was a large-scale military buildup across the border.

Trade between India and China has reached all time highs amid warming relations, but tensions remain. Longtime Asian affairs commentator Tom Plate observed that for China, "Arunachal Pradesh is the last piece of the puzzle" and praised Hu Jin-tao for being a "suave, gentlemanly leader." A leading business association in New Delhi said that Manmohan Singh was a "radical" whose failure to pursue closer business links with China had led the economy to crash in the last few years. "It's time to shelve these senseless disputes over sovereignty, which everyone knows Singh only does to get elected, because if we only move closer to China, our economy will boom."

Chinese officials said that the government was mulling an Ante Succession law, which would give it the legal right to attack any government of any territory which at any time status quo ante, may have succeeded to ownership of a territory now governed by a state that once sent a mission to Beijing. Stocks were mixed in reaction to the proposed law.
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(Permalink) 10:25 PM

Taiwan Cycling excellent, says China expat on visit

As my dear readers know, lately I've become a cycling enthusiast. I urge you to become one too! Taiwan is in many ways ideal, with plentiful stops for food and water along most routes, beautiful mountain scenery easily accessibly from any of the major cities, and year round cycling possibilities. The following was posted to a discussion forum about cycling here. The comments about traffic and littering are especially delightful.

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To: TEFLChinaLife@yahoogroups.com
My 30 day cycling trip around Taiwan last summer holiday.

I was not very enthusiastic about visiting Taiwan, I did not expect there to be much difference to the mainland, I also did not know much about the island.

But what a very pleasant surprise, it's been great.
The people very helpful, friendly & so different to mainlanders.
Chinese are a group culture, whereas Taiwanese are far more like foreigners - more individualists. They are adventurous & willing to try new things.
The media is very strong & I can access all overseas news channels.
The food is also more international, offering a lot of western food both in restaurants & in supermarkets. The food is also of a high quality, with many vegetables & fruit I have not seen before. I love mangos & they are so good here.
The island is kept very clean, with everybody concerned about the environment. Many Taiwanese carry their own metal chop sticks so disposable ones are not used. Lots of picnic spots with good facilities provided & very clean.
Banking, transportation, shopping, etc is all handled very efficiently. Changing RMB to Taiwanese dollars is so easy & quick.
The people are VERY law abiding, traffic is not at all chaotic with everybody staying on the proper side of the road for the direction they are travelling in, so I don't have to worry about people travelling on the wrong side of the road & nobody crosses a red light.
The scenery is breathtaking, a stunning coastline & incredible mountains. The sky & sea is so blue, the rivers so clear, the trees so green. When you are on the top of a mountain you can see everything so clearly as no pollution (this is on the eastern side of the island).

Taiwan is the perfect cycling destination, everything is great. Taiwanese are really into cycling in a big way. Everyday I see 100's of Taiwanese cyclists going the opposite direction, about 30% being female. They all look like bank robbers with their faces totally covered up, only sunglasses showing. They all wear cycling clothing & wear helmets. They don't worry that it's 30 - 38 degrees, they just get out & explore their island.
Every town has a 7-11 shop which is open 24 hours a day, that's the cyclists meeting place. Giant bike shops everywhere, even hotels for cyclist. All police stations offer toilets, washing facilities, water & a compressor for pumping tyres.
Cycling is the latest fashion & whole families are on the road, all masked up. Everybody waves & motorists are careful. Nobody breaks the traffic rules.

They have home stays called Ming Su, that are cheaper than hotels but very clean.
So much cycling gear & gadgets for sale.
I could happily come back here again & strongly recommend a cycling trip to Taiwan
I cycled from Nanning to Guiyang. The mountain scenery is very good, better than Guilin but very tiring. As soon as I managed to cross a mountain, there's another one waiting for me. Some roads were atrocious, dirt, rocks & just too steep to cycle. I didn't meet another cyclist (which is normal on the mainland).
Strangely from arriving in Nanning to Guiyang I have seen no foreigners & found very little English spoken in Guizhou, which is very polluted.

Hotels are very good & so cheap (some not so good in Guizhou).
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(Permalink) 11:54 AM

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Falling Birth Rates to kill universities?

Taiwan's universities will shrivel in a few years if they don't have more warm bodies, Taiwan Today article from the China Times warns:
In 2008 there were 59,000 unfilled vacancies for first-year students. The Ministry of Education said the total will exceed 100,000 in 2021 if steps are not taken. The ministry has decided to reduce the total enrollment quota by 2 percent every year. Even so, with the influence of the baby bust, it is estimated that enrollment will still fall short by 71,000 students.

Kuomintang Legislator Huang Chih-hsiung pointed out that currently there are 164 colleges and universities (excluding military and police schools and National Open University). With people having fewer and fewer children, it is predicted about one third of all colleges, or 60 schools, will go out of business, leaving only 100 or so colleges in operation.
When supply of something vastly exceeds demand, look for the subsidy. The reason there are too many universities is because it is profitable for construction and other companies to open them, due to the generous subsidies. Now legislators are concerned that important cash cows in their districts may wilt -- hence the pressure by university administrators to permit Chinese students to come -- the China Cargo Cult, academic version. That gusher of warm bodies from across the Strait can save us!

The smart thing would be to shut down the lowest 80 or so universities, but that would lead to screaming from local legislators and from local PHDs, for whom the universities are little more than a jobs program (Taiwan churns out more than it needs, of course). In fact this year the government has quietly been handing out subsidies to local universities to take on more educated assistants -- our department hired a slew of masters degree holders under this program, for one year.

The Ministry of Education is currently working on regulations to permit universities to exit the market, covering land use, taxes, and so forth. According to another piece on this issue:

Under the new regulations, universities that fail to recruit up to 70 percent of their officially approved student numbers for three consecutive years will have their annual quotas cut by between 10 percent and 30 percent.

As a result of the regulations, no local universities will see their student quotas slashed until the 2011 school year, which critics say will hold back domestic education reforms.

Quotas slashed? Taiwan's universities have their intakes controlled by strict quotas based on a complex formula involving number of professors, facilities, etc. At one university I worked at part time, Arkham Institute of Technology, for example, the Applied Foreign Languages Dept was limited to 100 students for its annual intake, in two classes of 50 each. Thus each year 100 students joined the four year program in theory. In reality we usually had slightly more as students transferred in from elsewhere. Because the quota restricted the intake, and because the intake was treated like a layer cake, with the top scoring students on the college entrance exams going to top universities, the second best students to the second best schools, and so on down the line, in the 1990s and early 2000s the student body in any given department at Arkham was remarkably uniform in talent and ability.

However, the MoE used to regard unfilled quotas as a bad thing, and thus a trend many in the universities took hold as the number of warm bodies dried up: universities began poaching from the ranks below their quota limits. Thus at Arkham over the years I began to notice that the first 60 or so students were of the old quality, but the next 40 were not up to snuff -- they should have gone to less awesome schools. This process went on at many universities, and universities at the bottom of the ladder soon found themselves with no students at all, their students having been stolen by the universities ahead of them in the queue.

Hence, the MoE's decision to relax quota punishments means that low tier universities may continue on life support until 2011. Probably it will squeeze out another year, since 2012 is an election year and the body politic is not going to want to hear that Little Snowflake can't go to college....
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Daily Links
  • An article in Journal of Current Chinese Affairs by two local deep blue academics which offers an overview of Chinese policy toward Taiwan.
  • Chen Shui-bian now says he was victim of trickery by Roger Lin and never supported the lawsuit against the US government that claimed Taiwan was a US holding.
  • AIG sells Nanshan Life to Hong Kong outfit for $2.1 billion.
  • Global warming to triple rain over Taiwan: "number of days with 'excessive heat'" over 36 degree Celsius (97 degrees Fahrenheit) has doubled since 1961...." In fact before WWII it frosted every few years in the Taipei basin and bananas could not be grown there.
SPECIAL: Gorgeous photo essay on the production of food around the world entitled The End of Plenty. Thanks to Tobie Openshaw for this one
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(Permalink) 7:53 PM

Next Meet Up: Oct 17

Jerome announces next meeting: short notice -- it is this Saturday!!!! Notify Jerome if you are going: "Jerome Keating Ph.D." ,

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To all,
This is short notice for a meeting this coming Saturday, but a special speaker has just happend to be in town for a week.

He is
Dr Nicola Casarini
Marie Curie Research Fellow
Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies
European University Institute
and his topic is 'Taiwan in EU-China Relations'

Dr. Casarini has recently published a new book
"Remaking Global Order: the Evolution of Europe-China Relations
and its Implications for East Asia and the United States"

To reference it go to You can check it out at the following website: http://ukcatalogue.oup.com/product/9780199560073.do.

Dr. Casarini will address how Taiwan fits into that equation.

The time is 10:00 AM

The venue is back to our normal breakfast place.
The meeting location is the restaurant 婷婷翠玉 at 174 AnHe Road, Section Two. (rough translation of name is Tender, Pretty Green Jade.) You will be able to tell the restaurant by the lace curtains on the window--it was used in a TV commercial a while back. (We will have the downstairs room--breakfast cost will range between NT$100 and NT$200. Phone if lost 2736-8510.

Restaurant is between Far Eastern Plaza Mall/Hotel and HePing East Road--about a half a block north of the corner of HePing East Road Sec. 3 and AnHe Road. or a half a block south of Far Eastern Plaza on the AnHe Road side.

Take the MRT Mucha Line to the Liuchangli Station exit there, and walk west on HePing East Road 3/4 of a block till you reach where AnHe Road dead-ends into it.Then go north on AnHe Road; it is a half a block up on the west side of that street.

Or take any bus down HePing East Road and get off at the first stop that is east of Tun Hua South Road. That will put you at the corner of HePing and AnHe.
You can also take a bus down Tun Hua South Road to the stop right across from Far Eastern Plaza and walk over to AnHe Road.
Or if you take the 235 bus east, it turns off of HePing onto AnHe Road and the first stop is right across from the restaurant.
(There may be some construction in front of the restaurant--remember a year or so ago we replaced the square sidewalk blocks with long rectangular ones;
now it seems we are replacing the long rectangular ones with square ones--don't ask me, I just pay my taxes.)

I know this is short notice, but please let me know if you plan to be there so I have an idea of the headcount.

Two good future speakers to finish out the year:
Dr. Joseph Wu, Taiwan's previous representative in Wash. DC will speak on "Taiwan and its Sovereignty Issues."
Also another friend James Spencer who had worked for Christies Auction House and is now curator in charge of the Chang Foundation Collection of Chinese Art;
James will speak on "Collecting Chinese Art".

Cheers,

Jerome
"Jerome Keating Ph.D." ,
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(Permalink) 2:33 PM

Monday, October 12, 2009

Daily Links, October 12, 2009


Found these signs the other day. Deep water? Hardly. No littering? The stream bed and banks are made of ugly concrete shapes. No water sports in typhoon? Puh-lease. Meanwhile, what's drifting on the blogs today?
MEDIA: Wretch is now largest social networking site in Taiwan. KMT expels seven members who ran as independent candidates. Don't worry, local factions have plenty of uncles, brothers, and wives to take their place. The Water Resources Agency continues to blame the 500 people of Hsaiolin for being buried in a landslide. The DPP says it has no plans to invite the leader of the Falun Gong to Taiwan, which is good, since the NSC won't let him in. Taipei Times says local factions will hurt Ma's clean image. Not a chance. Did you know that the government reimburses legislators for the number of votes they get at NT$30 a vote? Ground broken for Taichung metro. Somebody finally discovers that pay in Taiwan universities is awful: Taiwan is lowest among Asian dragons. Boat Burning in Taiwan (Taiwan Today, Online WSJ).

SPECIAL: NHK documentary on Japan's colonial rule in Taiwan sparks controversy led by local Paiwan people.

EVENTS:
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(Permalink) 8:49 PM

Sunday, October 11, 2009

Paper on Parade: Taiwan: Baseball, Colonialism, and Nationalism

Baseball in Taiwan is growing in international stature. Several of the major league teams have scouts here, and Taiwan is now regularly sending players to the major leagues. If you haven't been to a local baseball game, you're missing an important part of Taiwan culture.

But where did it all come from? Andrew Morris' excellent book chapter, Taiwan: Baseball, Colonialism, and Nationalism, provides an engaging discussion of the history of baseball in Taiwan, and its connection to the various nationalisms and colonialisms that have shaped the history of Taiwan...
President Chen’s attention to the game marks only the latest chapter in the history of Taiwanese baseball, a game that has become much more than just a sport. It is a colonial legacy that was planted and sunk deep roots during the fifty-year Japanese occupation of the island from 1895 to 1945. The professional version of the game in Taiwan is a reminder of the profound influence of transnational capitalism on Taiwan.

Taiwan’s complicated history has given rise Taiwan’s complicated history has given rise to the need to present and understand Taiwan as part of the world community in its own right, not as part of the People’s Republic of China (prc). Much of contemporary Taiwanese culture, thus, emphasizes both the global and the local, and the blending of the two. Professional baseball in Taiwan is a perfect example of this self-conscious, ideological combination of the cosmopolitan and the provincial, the international and the Taiwanese. The history of professional baseball in Taiwan, in many ways, is nothing more or less than the history of the effort to create a “baseball culture” that could speak to both of these striking and complementary aspects of Taiwanese life.
Baseball began, of course, in the Japanese colonial era. The game was already established in Japan by the 1890s, and was imported to Taiwan as early as 1897. By 1915 there were 15 all-Japanese teams on the island. In the early 1910s, however, locals were already being encouraged to participate. In the 1925 a team composed entirely of Amis went to Japan and gained great fame, winning 4 of 9 games against Japanese school teams. Then came the Chiayi years....
The most famous of all Taiwanese baseball traditions was that born at the Jiayi Agriculture and Forestry Institute (abbreviated Kanô) in the late 1920s. Under the guidance of Manager Kondô Hyôtarô, a former standout player who had toured the United States with his high school team, Kanô dominated Taiwan baseball in the decade before the Pacific War. What made the Kanô team special was its tri-ethnic composition; in 1931 its starting nine was made up of two Han Taiwanese, four Taiwan aborigines, and three Japanese players. Kanô won the Taiwan championship, earning the right to play in the hallowed Ko¯shien High School Baseball Tournament, held near Osaka, five times between 1931 and 193 . The best of these, the 1931 squad, was the first team ever to qualify for Ko¯shien with Taiwanese (aborigine or Han) players on its roster. Kanô placed second in the twenty-three-team tournament that year, their skills and intensity winning the hearts of the Japanese public, and remaining a popular nostalgic symbol even today in Japan. This team of Han, Aboriginal, and Japanese players “proved” to nationally minded Japanese the colonial myth of “assimilation” (dôka)—that both Han and aborigine Taiwanese were willing and able to take part alongside Japanese in the cultural rituals of the Japanese state. Of course, the irony is that the six Taiwanese players on the starting roster probably also saw their victories as a statement of Taiwanese (Han or aborigine) will and skill that could no longer be dismissed by the Japanese colonizing power.
...there's so much to this wonderful paper -- from details like the death of the founder of the Amis team in 1947 in 2-28, to the broad sweep of history: the incorporation of baseball into the service of the KMT state, and later, into the service of US Cold War transnational capitalism.

My favorite part is his discussion of how Taiwan's little league teams in the US became a battleground for pro-Taiwan and pro-China groups:
....In 1969 frenzied Taiwanese fans shouted upon the Golden Dragons’ victory, “The players are all Taiwanese! Taiwan has stood up!” Taiwanese supporters soon raised the stakes in this implicit protest against the Guomindang government. In 1971, as the Tainan Giants swept to a world championship, Taiwanese independence activists at Williamsport hired an airplane to fly over the stadium towing a bilingual banner reading, “Long Live Taiwan Independence, Go Go Taiwan.” The Taiwan teams’ games attracted fans from all points of the political spectrum, so each Taiwan independence flag or banner was matched by pro-Nationalist fans waving flags and cheering for the “Chinese” team. The pro-state fans had an advantage, however, in the dozens of New York Chinatown thugs hired by the Guomindang to identify and rough up Taiwan independence activists at the games. The 1971 championship game was interrupted when a dozen of these toughs ran across the field to rip down a banner reading in English and Chinese, “Team of Taiwan, Go Taiwan.”

In 1972, when the Taibei Braves challenged for the world title, the Guomindang was better prepared, renting every single commercial aircraft for miles around to keep the Taiwan independence crowd from repeating their coup. Some seventy to eighty roc military cadets training in the United States were also recruited to Williamsport to, as they shouted while beating Taiwanese male and female supporters with wooden clubs, “Kill the traitors!”...
Explore this one yourself, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
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(Permalink) 8:18 PM

Sarcasm Circulating among the Taiwan blogs

This advertisement from the government asks riders to take care of their "nau dai gua" -- a local way to refer to the head and brain -- because it will split like a watermelon in an accident, "gua" being the word for melon.

A friend sent me this sarcastic description of Taiwanese life that has been circulating in the Taiwan blogosphere....

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

在台灣 ..
In Taiwan...

有資歷與學歷的人當官員，有財力與火力的人當議員。
People who possess both working experience and a diploma become government officials. And those with the power of money and the gun become legislators.

不怕死但最後一定會死的人當小弟，很怕死但最後絕不會死的人當大哥。
People who aren't afraid of death, but will eventually die become “little brother” bag-carriers. And for those who are afraid of death, but won't die in the end become “big brother” gangsters.

說謊不打草稿的當大官，說謊必須看稿的當小官，看稿還說不出謊的沒官當。
People who lie all the time even without preparing what they will say make themselves “big officials” in the government ranks. And those who lie but read their prepared speech anyway become little officials. Those cannot lie even when reading a prepared script have no post in the government at all.

女生長得好看什麼都會的當明星，女生長得好看什麼都不會的當脫星。
Naturally beautiful and capable girls become celebrities. Beautiful but incapable girls become strippers.

挨老師打之後才知道自己犯錯的是小學生，打了老師之後才知道自己犯錯的是中學生，根本就不知道自己犯了什麼錯的是大學生。
Those being punished by their teachers and then realize their mistakes are elementary school pupils. And those hitting their teachers and then realizing their mistakes are junior/high school students. And those not even knowing what the mistakes are are college students.

什麼都知道但最好別亂開口的，當財經官員。什麼都不知道但拼命亂開口的，當教育官員。 Those who know everything but keep their mouths shut are government officials working in the Ministry of Finance. Those who know nothing but boast every now and again are working in the Ministry of Education.

什麼都知道但被命令不能開口的，當教育人員。什麼都不知道所以一句話也不敢吭的，什麼官都能當。
Those who know everything but are ordered to keep their mouths shut are Education Ministry staff. Those who know nothing at all and have nothing to say have no post in any department.

有腦筋有能力的人當院長，有腦筋沒能力的人當部長，沒腦筋有能力的人當局長，沒腦筋沒能力的人當家長。
People with brains and ability become directors in the department. And those with brains but no ability become junior directors in the department. And those without brains but with ability become head of the office in the bureau of the department. And, last but not least, those without brains nor ability are parents in their own house.

想賺錢的就當醫師，想出名的就當律師，想活活氣死的就當老師，
If you want to be rich, be a doctor; if you want to be famous, be a lawyer; and if you want to die from rage, become a teacher.

阿..........想累死的就當工程師。
And, ahhh...if you want to die from work, be an engineer!
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(Permalink) 3:14 PM

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Obama wins Nobel Peace Prize and other Saturday observations


My friend Drew and I took the road to Da Hsueh Mountain today, northeast out of Dongshih, climbing to 1000 meters along ever-more lovely mountain road on a perfect day for biking. Highlight of the trip, though, took place in Fengyuan. As we rode, a cyclist on our side of the street but going in the opposite direction, looked at me as we passed. Instead of a robust "How are you!" or "Hello!", he leaned over all googly-eyed, peered at me, and bellowed: "D-u-m-m-b-l-l-e-d-d-o-o-r-r-e-e!" Drew and I nearly fell off our bikes laughing.

Yesterday night I got on Facebook and saw that everyone was talking about Obama winning the Nobel Peace Prize, which, like probably everyone else at first encounter, I thought was some brilliantly wicked viral internet joke. I'm not going to comment on the award itself; from the Taiwan perspective, what interests me is the Prize Committee's rationale, which only partly appeared to reference Obama's accomplishments, but also appeared to be aimed at encouraging him to end the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as rally support for his policies in the world. Given while the work is in progress and the issue still in doubt.

This is very suggestive, because here in Taiwan the KMT and the CCP are negotiating for a "peace agreement" whose ultimate purpose is to annex the island to China. The "process" is still ongoing. Anyone see how the Prize Committee's rationale applies here? "Let's give'em an early Nobel to keep the peace process moving along." Yes, I think we just moved a step closer to the Hu-Ma Lovefest Male Pattern Baldness Nobel Prize Tour of 2011.

Meanwhile lots of fun this week in Taiwan. The Taipei City government has decided to change the name of the unlucky Neihu MRT line, because in local culture, you can change your luck by changing your name....
Following a similar practice, Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin is considering changing the name of the newly added MRT line whose streak of bad luck seems to be continuing without an end in sight.

The bad luck line is now known as the Zha-Hu line from Muzha, where Taipei City Zoo is located, to Neihu via Songshan Airport. The last syllables of Muzha and Neihu make up Zha-Hu, which is a homophone of the Chinese word of “cheating at the Mahjong table.”

Hau and his Taipei MRT executives are convinced the bad name of the line is bringing bad luck. The line has been plagued by frequent problems since it opened on July 4.

One of the new names they are considering is the Wen-Hu line. Wen is the first syllable of Wenshan, the district where Muzha is located, meaning Literary Mountain. The district is known for the good tea it produces.

.....

Asked why Zha-Hu has had so many problems, the source quoted a geomancer as stating Zha, which means wood barrier, is on the waters of Hu, which is “lake.”

“Wood on lake waters drifts,” the geomancer intoned. “It's only natural that the drifting causes many and frequent delays,” he claimed.
This is actually not uncommon -- I blogged on another case of this a few years ago. Again, it shows how fate in Taiwan is regarded as deterministic and changeable by human action, like a river whose course can be diverted, but if left untouched, will cause disaster. One also has to admire the poetic invention of the geomancer. If only real poets were paid as much....

Turning serious, in Hualien county there are now three KMTers running for the county commissioner position, but only one is party-approved. The other two are renegade local politicians. Though Kinmen split, in Taitung and Yilan the party averted splits. It wouldn't surprise me if the KMT actually emerged stronger from this streamlining, cramming scores of local factions into far fewer elected positions, like an airplane entering a tunnel and emerging looking like a train. The adjustment process will get an easement when the municipalities are upgraded next year -- the county commissioners will preside over an increased government workforce, which means new positions will open for appointees from their parties -- pals from local factions. And even if a renegade is elected, there will not be fundamental changes in things. Moreover, nothing has happened to the party's grip on the flow of monies out of the central governments and into local faction coffers. Perhaps the DPP will pick up a seat here and there as the factions fall out among themselves....(KMT plans to discipline splittists)
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Friday, October 09, 2009

More on the Chen Detention Decision

AP has an interesting summary of the decision on detention in the Chen case by the Supremes....
Taiwan's Supreme Court ordered a lower court to hold a new hearing later Thursday on former President Chen Shui-bian's monthslong detention and questioned whether he was a flight risk.

The move comes two weeks after the High Court ordered Chen to remain in a suburban Taipei jail while he appeals his life sentence on wide-ranging graft charges.

......

The High Court's decision said that Chen was a flight risk and that he was still hiding significant assets overseas. But on Thursday, the Supreme Court questioned those arguments.

"The High Court has not made it clear what evidence they have to say Chen is still hiding money abroad," it said. "As a former president, Chen will also be protected and watched by National Security Bureau details when he is free, so he should not be able to flee the country."
The Supreme Court points out that the High Court has not "made it clear what evidence they have" that Chen has a case stash overseas. Pretty amazing statement. How long can this sudden burst of reason and logic last in such a case?
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