World Economic Forum Annexes Taiwan to China

The contact form for WEF general inquiries is here. The email is contact@weforum.org. Be polite.

UPDATE: Response to one letter, not mine:

> Dear Mr. ___________
>
> Thank you for your message.
>
> Please note that our policy to enlist Taiwan, China in all our
> publications is aligned with United Nations, the World Bank, and the
> International Monetary Fund's practices which the World Economic Forum
> follows.
>
> We thank you for your understanding.
>
> Best regards,
>
> Ciara

You see, sir, when many are wrong, we can be wrong too! Yay!!! *sigh*

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

Daily Links, Sept 7, 2009

This just in: Premier Liu has resigned. I've been hearing for a year that the old cabinet may be moved out to make room for a more election-oriented team. The first step? UPDATE: Wu Den-yih is the new premier. WSJ article.

Not many blog posts this week.....

• Steve Crook looks at Sanxia again.
• If you have young children, you can't do better than flying cow ranch. Bonus cute pics of Jim's daughter.
• Xiaotzukeng and the old coal mining areas from Laorencha.
• Patrick Cowsill on old temples and the lawless frontier.
• Jerome K on the Yeh's loss in the Hualien primary.

MEDIA: Sierra Leone to deport Taiwanese fishermen it says were illegally fishing. Aboriginal resettlement begins. Credit Suisse says smaller contraction for Taiwan's economy. Deputy Bank Governor of China arrives after postponement due to Dalai Lama's visit. Local government debt problems: Taipei city resolves land swap issues. Julian Baum with an excellent essay in FEER on the DL's visit.

VIDEO: Was surfing and came across this incredible 8 minute video of a 2006 incident of police chasing a vehicle and repeatedly shooting at it, ending in hail of gunfire that resulted in a dead driver.

EVENTS: Rock Taichung this weekend. The latest Taiwan Communique is out. Climate Change Awareness Event, October 24 (blog with more information).
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[Taiwan] Don't miss the comments below! And check out my blog and its sidebars for events, links to previous posts and picture posts, and scores of links to other Taiwan blogs and forums!

Things seen out riding and walking

Been cramming in a lot of walking and riding before the new semester begins.

My man Drew is bikeless while waiting for parts for his damaged bike, so my son took pity on him and lent Drew his bike. We made sure the bike is properly loaded for riding in Taiwan.

A temple near my house is crammed to the gills with offerings for ghost month.

My daughter got one of her pictures framed. Proud father, am I.

One of the great things about living in Taiwan is that no matter where you are, you're never more than an hour from some glorious mountain bike ride.

Traffic waits for the light to change in Taichung city.

Butterflies on grass, seen out hiking in Ta-keng Scenic Area

Golden Orb spider webs, which feel like 8 pound test line. In many parts of the world such strong spider webs are used for fish nets by local peoples.

One of my attractive former students, Apple, who took me out for dinner.

Watering the fields.

Yes, the government is out there fumigating the sewers. Fear of H1N1?

The Chinese get lots of credit for paper and gunpowder, but not enough for one of the world's best treats, steamed bread.

In Dongshih town on our way into the mountains.

Outside Tanzi town, harvesting.

Police risk their lives every day doing this.

Taking the pig for a walk.

An all too common accident situation in Taiwan -- missing one of these small roads in the dark. The guy was lucky, for that hole is big enough to swallow the car if it fell in sideways.

On the Dongfeng Bike trail. Romantic looking, but the smoke was caused by some dimwit burning trash right next to the bike path.

The Guo Min (bian) Dang that 7-11 is now advertizing, complete with PRC inspired propaganda poster. Satirical or sycophantic? You make the call.

Women construction workers, a common Taiwan sight.

Today Drew and I rode part-way up the rode to Da Hsueh Mountain Forest Park. The road is absolutely stunning.

A denizen of the Kingdom of the Butterflies.

Beautiful vistas, but we didn't have time for the long ride up.

Turning back, we encountered two men net-fishing by the Shihgang Dam. Here one casts his net. Good luck to him, and to you, dear reader.
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Daily Links:

• Formosa Foundation Newsletter
• Story going around that China Daily is reporting that the PRC rag is going to fly on the South Lawn of the White House. This is a lie, as even Fox News reports: it is going on the Ellipse.
• Swine flu hits more Taiwan kids.
• Filipino paper argues that more Filipino workers will be required here to service tourists since Taiwan has opened to China, and Filipinos speak better English. The logic of this eludes me.
• The legislature passed the legal framework to remove aborigines from their land in record time, and now it has begun, again in record time. Global Voices collects local commentary.
• CNA article on rise of altruism in Taiwan, with numbers.
  

UPDATE: Although it is not online yet, the mag Mental Floss has picked Ma Ying-jeou as one of the five gutsiest leaders on the planet. No, this is not parody. Taiwan News now has it.
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[Taiwan] Don't miss the comments below! And check out my blog and its sidebars for events, links to previous posts and picture posts, and scores of links to other Taiwan blogs and forums!

Kaohsiung Film Festival to Screen "Ten Conditions of Love"

I'm using the AFP report, which is a classic AFP compilation:

The Kaohsiung Film Festival in the island's second largest city is scheduled to show "Ten Conditions of Love" on the World Uighur Congress leader Rebiya Kadeer, said organiser Liu Hsiu-ying.

"We selected Kadeer's film because it fits one of this year's themes -- 'people power.' Our goal is to promote arts and culture, we hope people will not see it from a political angle," Liu told AFP.

More than 70 films from around the world are scheduled to be screened at the festival between October 16-29, she said, adding it was a coincidence that none of them was from China.

Cue the world media: can't wait to hear all the commentary on how "immature" the Taiwan opposition is, how it "riles" Beijing. And how "restrained" Beijing is because of the "warming ties." Because when you show films, you're immature, but when you butcher people by the thousand in Tibet, you're being statesmanlike.

The AFP article is a classic. The remainder consists of 6 sentences/paragraphs, five of which directly give Beijing's view of things, without any balancing information or viewpoints. I think AFP would save itself a ton of cash if it just closed down its China offices and sourced everything from Xinhua.
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Daily Links:

• Israel, Taiwan, and the UN Disclaimer: I don't agree with everything I link to.
• Asia Times on the Dalai Lama visit, good and some of it subtly snarky. Apparently there is a global news blackout on KMT-CCP communication. Anybody out there want an op-ed?
• A new film about the White Terror.
• Taiwan just enjoyed a US$15 billion surplus in trade with China. Of course China wants the island's industries to relocate there -- that will bring that surplus to China.

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

Rehabilitating Ma Ying-jeou??

One thing that struck me about both the awful Economist piece on the Dalai Lama I explored in the post below this one, and the equally execrable TIME magazine viewpoint on the Dalai Lama's visit, is the theme of Ma the Brave that appears in both. The Economist stated:

Mr Ma was well aware that he was taking a risk when he decided on August 27th to approve the Dalai Lama’s request to visit the island.

Similarly, the TIME writer said:

Ma took a gamble. He approved the trip — and bet on China's leaders appreciating his dilemma. They did: their censure was directed solely at the DPP with no mention of Ma whatsoever.

A body of literature is defined by the way it uses and subverts convention -- like the ancient Greek historical fictions filled with innocents going to their execution willingly, or modern horror movies with their virgins who are never slain. Like any good literature, the Establishment media is marked by its conventions, one of which is the Leader Who Makes Bold decisions. It makes for good narrative. But is it for real? Max Hirsch of Kyodo reports (behind paywall):

The Friends of Tibet, an India-based advocacy group with an office in Taipei, accused Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou of bowing to the wishes of Beijing and paring down the Dalai Lama's itinerary during his Sunday-Friday visit to the island.

''First it was the press conference that was canceled, then the public speech was downsized,'' the group's director Chow Meili said in a phone interview, referring to the Dalai Lama's engagements on Monday and Tuesday.

''It could not be clearer that the Ma administration is taking orders from the Chinese Communists,'' added Chow, whose husband, Khedroob Thondup, serves as a parliamentarian of the India-based Tibetan government-in-exile headed by the Dalai Lama, Khedroob's uncle.

Last week, opposition leaders in the south invited the Dalai Lama to console the victims of Typhoon Morakot, which lashed the island's south with heavy rains from Aug. 7-9. Floods and mudslides killed more than 600 people, with damage to property and crops estimated at roughly US$1.5 billion.

Risking the ire of China, Ma, of the ruling Nationalist Party (KMT), approved the invitation, and the Dalai Lama arrived in Taiwan on Sunday night.

The Ma administration sent KMT spokesman Lee Chien-jung to Beijing last week to soothe frayed nerves in a secret meeting with Chinese officials, Chow said.

Lee, she said, agreed to three conditions raised by the Chinese government in ''a horse trade'' conducted on behalf of Ma -- namely, that no KMT political heavyweights meet the Dalai Lama, and that the spiritual leader be barred from holding press conferences and from giving public speeches.

In return, Beijing would refrain from mentioning Ma, his administration and the KMT in criticizing the visit, she added.

In passing note the connections -- the Dalai Lama's nephew is married to an important aide of Lee Teng-hui (nephew's talk last year).

In other words, as we know, the CCP and the KMT have been in regular communication for several years now. Not only do we have the assertions of the Dalai Lama's people and of LTH's entourage that the KMT and the CCP were talking, but we also have the word of Premier Liu himself that they were, as reported on Sept 2:

[Premier] Liu would not comment on the nature of the communication that had occurred between Taiwan and China on the visit by the Dalai Lama, saying that he “was not involved” but was “aware of the process.”

“We had some information and made some impact assessments … But to say more about this would do no good,” Liu said.

Apparently, the writers for TIME and The Economist either do not know this -- in which case they lack the knowledge necessary to write on this topic -- or else they chose to sex up Ma's behavior to make him look stronger by ignoring the communication lines between the two Chinese parties. The reality, in other words, is that the risk was only apparent -- the deal was already made and the fix was in.

It is hard to tell whether this is simply writers engaging in conventional modes of presentation, or whether the media is returning, like robots equipped with only one solution for all problems, to its posture of admiration for Ma Ying-jeou, in an attempt to rehabilitate his image after the international media here in Taiwan widely publicized the incompetence and indifference of his administration's response to the typhoon, and his own seeming narcissism.
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[Taiwan] Don't miss the comments below! And check out my blog and its sidebars for events, links to previous posts and picture posts, and scores of links to other Taiwan blogs and forums!

Mirror, Mirror: Mirrored

Once again, as I fired up the transporter to visit Ardana to pick up a load of zenite for my FTL computer, I found myself transported to that other universe where everyone has a goatee and -- you won't believe it -- a black guy is president of the United States. Shopping in a local mall in the Republic of Formosa, I picked up a Roykirk Robot that the locals use to teach their children reasoning: if you outlogic it, it blows up and showers you with candy. Next, I searched the intertubes on the ubiquitous Atari OS and pulled down this article from the well-known rag The Socialist, which, upon my return here, I have placed side by side with a recent article on Taiwan from The Economist, so you can see how awful the propaganda is in that other universe.

The Socialist	The Economist
The invitation of Taiwan's opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) to the Dalai Lama represented the latest challenge to the government of President Ma Ying-jeou, whose popularity had been slumping since his election by a large margin last March. Ma's approval ratings had taken another hit over his government's slow response to the typhoon, and his own apparent indifference to the suffering of his citizens.	A VISIT from the Dalai Lama was surely the last thing Taiwan’s president, Ma Ying-jeou, wanted amid widespread public anger over his government’s slow response to a deadly typhoon in August. An angry China could have greatly added to his woes. But for all its grumbling about the trip, which is due to end on September 4th, the mainland does not want to upset a budding friendship.
Of course, Ma was well aware that he was taking no risk when he decided to approve the Dalai Lama's third visit to Taiwan. Ma's party, the KMT, is in constant communication with the CCP in Beijing, and China's mild response was apparently the result of talks between the two parties. The Dalai Lama's two previous trips to Taiwan had also triggered sturm und drang from Beijing, noises that Beijing makes to manage the foreign media and bully foreign countries. Fortunately Taiwan was led on the two previous occasions by democracy-minded Presidents who asserted Taiwan's sovereignty despite the hundreds of missiles Beijing points at the island.	Mr Ma was well aware that he was taking a risk when he decided on August 27th to approve the Dalai Lama’s request to visit the island. It would be the exiled Tibetan leader’s first trip there since 2001 and only his third ever. China was furious on the previous occasions, accusing the Taiwanese authorities of colluding with Tibetan “splittists”. Then, however, Taiwan was led by presidents who delighted in riling the mainland. Mr Ma came to power last year promising to mend fences.
Both Beijing and the KMT are more interesting in pushing through Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA), which the Ma Administration is touting as a cure-all for Taiwan's economic blues. The Administration argues that it will be at a trade disadvantage whena free-trade pact between China and the Association of South-East Asian Nations takes effect next year. However, studies by both pro-Taiwan and pro-KMT think tanks in Taiwan show that the effects of ECFA will be mixed, with gains for polluting, subsidy-intensive traditional industries, but a 7-9% shrinkage for Taiwan's flagship IT sector. Hence, critics argue that Ma's real goal is not to secure a similar free trade deal for Taiwan, but to take a major step toward annexing the island to China.	Mr Ma does not want to jeopardise trade negotiations that Taiwan hopes to launch with China in October. His government is keen to secure tariff cuts for industries that it believes will be put at a disadvantage when a free-trade pact between China and the Association of South-East Asian Nations takes effect next year (see article). Mr Ma’s goal is for Taiwan to secure a similar free-trade deal.
Ma had little choice but to approve the Dalai Lama's visit. His previous refusal to permit the religious leader to visit had angered the island's Buddhists, many of whom revere the Dalai Lama. On previous trips he spoke to packed venues. The DPP's invitation to the Dalai Lama thus put Ma in an apparent bind: either reject the visit and look like Beijing's lackey, or accept it and perhaps damage relations with China. However, since China views the ECFA pact as an important step on the road to annexing Taiwan, as Chinese analysts have indicated, there was little chance that relations between the KMT and Beijing would be affected.	In truth he had little choice but to approve the trip. On August 26th seven local politicians from the opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), which favours Taiwan’s formal independence from China, surprised him by publicly announcing that the Dalai Lama had accepted their invitation to visit Taiwan to pray for the souls of Taiwanese who had died during Typhoon Morakot, which ravaged the island earlier in August. The storm left almost 700 people dead. Mr Ma had turned down a proposed visit by the Dalai Lama last year, saying the timing was not right. This time he risked appearing heartless if he had refused. Plunging popularity polls suggested he could not afford that.
China confined its "ire" to blaming the pro-democracy parties in Taiwan and canceling a few minor events. KMT politicians have assidiously avoided meeting with the Dalai Lama. Both the KMT and the CCP claim that Tibet and Taiwan are part of China, while the DPP and the Tibetan freedom movements are allies, since both see themselves as facing similar problems of Chinese expansionism and colonialism.	So far, he seems to have pulled off his balancing act. China’s predictable outrage (it does not like the Dalai Lama paying visits anywhere) stopped short of blaming Mr Ma himself. The president helped by ruling out a meeting with the Dalai Lama, unlike his predecessors President Lee Teng-hui who had done so in 1997 and President Chen Shui-bian who had met him in 2001.
While disputing that his visit was political, the Dalai Lama met with DPP politicians, and said that Taiwan should preserve and protect its democracy, and that China should democratize. His aides canceled a speech and a press conference and scaled down a public meeting.The Dalai Lama’s nephew, Khedroob Thondup, said this was a result of heavy pressure from Mr Ma’s National Security Council.	The Dalai Lama, for his part, appeared eager to avoid trouble. “My visit here is of a non-political nature,” he said at the airport at the start of his six-day visit. “Actually, I am a Buddhist monk. It’s my moral principle to come if someone asks me to share sadness.” His aides cancelled a speech and a press conference and scaled down a public meeting. The Dalai Lama’s nephew, Khedroob Thondup, said this was a result of heavy pressure from Mr Ma’s National Security Council.
At Siaolin Village in southern Taiwan, where some 500 people were buried in landslides triggered by the typhoon, the Dalai Lama prayed with villagers. He also spoke to thousands of people at venues in southern Taiwan. There were a few desultory protests by right-wing Chinese nationalist groups, which Taiwan gangsters in southern China told local TV stations claimed they were behind. Local polls by both the DPP and pro-KMT media organs showed widespread approval of the visit.	In the village of Hsiao Lin, now a grey mass of rubble where an estimated 500 people were buried alive in a landslide triggered by the typhoon, the Dalai Lama embraced weeping relatives of the villagers. Deliberately placing his face away from journalists’ microphones, the exiled Tibetan leader said Taiwan was enjoying democracy. “I myself am totally dedicated to the pursuit of democracy,” he said.
China, intent on annexing the island through its alliance with Ma's party, the KMT, did nothing to disrupt relations between the two parties. With the Dalai Lama scheduled to leave at the end of the week, attention will be shifting to former President Chen Shui-bian, whose corruption trial verdict is scheduled for Sept 11. The government has already replaced one judge in the case when he ruled in favor of Chen, and the former President remains the only person ever indicted on corruption charges to remain in prison prior to his verdict. Few expect an acquittal.	China’s retaliation has been desultory. A delegation led by Su Ning, China’s deputy central bank governor, which was scheduled to arrive in Taiwan on August 31st, postponed its visit—but only by a week. Chinese officials may be pleased that the DPP has apparently gained little. Whatever gains it might have made were overshadowed on September 1st when former President Chen’s wife, son, daughter and son-in-law were jailed for perjury. On September 11th a court is due to announce a verdict in the corruption trial of Mr Chen himself. Few expect an acquittal.

As you can see, in our universe we are fortunate indeed to have such fine reporting for Serious Readers.
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Daily Links

• NYTimes on the India-China border as a flashpoint. As always when Taiwan is not the topic, note how the article has no trouble identifying the source of the tension as China's expansionist dreams. When Taiwan is the topic -- as in the above Economist piece -- you can bet that the source of the tension is Taiwan.
• Taipei schools don't want to fly Chinese flags. And why should they, with China boycotting the opening ceremonies.
• Bruce jacobs' excellent commentary on Chen and the judicial system. It is, however, missing two sentences from the beginning, where he points out that he had to meet Chen in a visiting room set aside for prisoners convicted of felonies.
• RTI on a trip to Siaolin Village where 500 lay buried beneath the mud.
• J Michael on China Post's insane editorial saying democracy was basically a bad idea.

SPECIAL: if you like biking, this video is ROFLMAO (h/t) to Andew Leonard at Salon.
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Sentence Parsing

It was a week of convictions here in Taiwan, with the KMT meting out...well, justice probably isn't the right word...

First up, the story that got missed: KNN reports that General Yuan Shiao-lung received a heavy sentence for allegedly bribing a con man NT$6 million. All he bought was ten years in the slammer. Yuan was one of a number of generals who rose during the Chen years to be caught up in such scandals -- critics allege that the KMT simply wants to make a clean sweep of everyone promoted under Chen.

Yesterday the Taipei Times reported that former President Chen Shui-bian's wife got sentenced to merely a year which turns out to be community service....

Although they do not qualify for a scheme that lets those convicted to terms of six months or less pay a fine rather than serve jail time, they will be able to take advantage of a new program that allows convicts to do community service rather than go to jail.

Former first lady Wu Shu-jen (吳淑珍), convicted for instigating perjury, received a one-year jail sentence, which was half the sentence following commutation.

As the former first family committed perjury before April 24, 2007, and because the offenses they committed were eligible for commutation, they met the requirements of the 2007 Sentence Commutation (罪犯減刑條例) and had their sentences reduced by half.

The best they can do is a year for perjury? This sentence appears to be more or less an admission that they don't have anything on Wu. It is difficult to see what this portends for the case of Chen Shui-bian....the KMT has already indicated, with the totally unnecessary detentions and the replacement of a judge who ruled in a way the KMT didn't like, that Chen is to be destroyed.

Many thanks to all who have spoken out on these cases and on the judicial processes here, from Ma mentor Jerome Cohen, who has written several towering missives in influential international publications, to the scholars who have signed four open letters to the Ma Administration, to the locals who have fought the good fight. It is impossible to know for certain, but it is hard to imagine they didn't have an effect.

From the political standpoint, the key case in that pile yesterday wasn't actually Wu, whose conviction was a foregone conclusion, and whose reputation has already been comprehensively smeared, but rather that of Diana Chen....

Diana Chen received the full sentence of one year and six months because she committed perjury after Apr. 24, 2007, and therefore did not qualify for a reduced sentence. Her refusal to admit to the charges against her in exchange for a lighter sentence also resulted in her receiving a longer prison sentence than the others.

Prosecutors said she purposely gave false testimony during questioning last year about the former first family’s alleged money-­laundering activities. They also said Diana Chen bribed the former first lady with NT$10 million (US$300,000) to obtain her position as chairwoman of Taipei Financial Center Corp.

Chen, who is smart, competent, and totally hot (more info + pic), will do a year and six months because she insisted she was innocent. While prosecutors alleged she bribed Wu, bribery is difficult to prove and prosecutors apparently had to settle for perjury. The point of the case was apparently not to win, but simply to smear Chen and move her out of her then-current position as Chair of the Taipei Financial Center Corp, a position Someone Connected apparently wanted. The China Post lays out some of the ins-and-outs of the case, yet another involving the Koo family, in this article. Chen has already said that she will go into politics on the DPP side once she serves her sentence. ADDED: As a commenter below reminds, the other reason they went after Diana Chen was because she was a big donor to the DPP. That sends a signal to other businesspeople about which party they should be donating to.
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Daily Links

• Andrew Leonard discusses the Prius' dependence on rare earth elements from China.
• Karen C passed around this link to an amazing Taiwanese sign language dictionary.
• Taiwan What's Up! newsletter is out.
• Nothing like smashing the Dalai Lama in effigy to show who you really are.
• Daily Bubble Tea has links, and lovely photos for today.
• Jon Adams in FEER on the Dalai Lama's visit.
• The EU Chamber of Commerce says China is backsliding on opening its market to foreign firms. What? Our Good Cooperation Partner and Peaceful Riser^© not keeping a promise to foreigners? Who could have imagined that?
• BTW -- if you get the email about barcodes and Made in China/Taiwan, it's an urban legend.
  

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

Lien Chan is Keynote Speaker at Sept 17 Berkeley Conf

From H-Asia:

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

H-ASIA
Sept 3 2009

UC Berkeley Conference on China-Taiwan Relations
********************************
From: Caverlee Cary

The Institute of East Asian Studies at the University of California, Berkeley will host the former Vice-President of Taiwan, Dr. Lien Chan, as keynote speaker for the upcoming conference on September 17 on relations between China and Taiwan, “Dynamics Across the Taiwan Strait, 1949 to the Present.” His address is entitled "Sixty Years of Cross-Strait Relations: From Conflict to Conciliation."

In "Dynamics Across the Taiwan Strait 1949-Present," Taiwan's history and current outlook are explored in the light of on-going and evolving relations with China. Panelists address Taiwan's political culture, democratic practice, and the negotiation of identity. Papers to be presented include:

Yomi Braester, University of Washington — Taipei Is Gone: The Invisible City on Film
Melissa Brown, Stanford University — Authenticity and Change in Taiwan's Identities
Leo Ching, Duke University — Colonial Nostalgia and Postcolonial Anxiety: Japan, Taiwan, and the Discourse of Intimacy
Lowell Dittmer, UC Berkeley — American Strategic Interests and Taiwan Strait Relations
Thomas Gold, UC Berkeley — IUP Across the Taiwan Strait
Shelley Rigger, Davidson University — Strawberry Jam: Politics and Identity in Taiwan's Strawberry Generation
Emma Teng, Massachusetts Institute of Technology — From "Ball of Mud" to "Chinese Province": The China-Taiwan Relation in Historical Perspective
Alan Wachman, Tufts University — Cross-Strait Controversy: What Has Changed, What Has Not?
Robert Weller, Boston University — Democratic Culture, Responsive Authoritarianism and Political Change in Taiwan
Wen-hsin Yeh, UC Berkeley — Democratic Practices and Public Culture: Reading Taiwan's Media

The conference takes place Thursday, September 17, 2009, from 8:00 AM to 6 PM, in the Heyns Room, The Faculty Club, on the UC Berkeley campus. Further information and the conference schedule can be found at http://ieas.berkeley.edu/events/2009.04.29a.html. This event is free and open to the public.

Submitted by:
Caverlee Cary
Assistant Director for Program Planning
Institute of East Asian Studies
University of California, Berkeley

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Dalai Lamaze: Breathe Deeply and Relax

Hahaha. While everyone else is reporting all sorts of complexities about the Dalai Lama's visit, AFP is there to reassure us that China is really really really gonna do it this time -- omigawd it could delay ECFA! Everybody panic! Hard to imagine how much more delay can occur, since Ma already said it is DOA until after the December elections -- and this on a project which we heard last year was absolutely imperative and must be done ASAP to "save" Taiwan's economy.

As Reuters notes, China has canceled minor exchanges and events...although the China Daily, reporting on the "cancellations", quoted a spokesman for China Southern Airlines as saying that no celebrations were planned in the first place, since budgets were tight and cross-strait flights were now routine.

Next we hear from TIME: glib, uninformed, shallow, lecturing -- it's everything you'd expect in a TIME viewpoint on the Dalai Lama's visit. Clearly here is a writer headed for bigger and better things in the Establishment media. The TIME writer says that the fact that exchanges go on through disagreement shows that relations are good. But last week, the Economist told us that relations worsened under the DPP even though exchanges went on through the disagreements. I get so confused...

In addition to the high popularity of the Dalai Lama's visit, one unfolding story has been the "protests" linked to Chinese nationalist gangs on both sides of the Taiwan Strait. J Michael Cole blogged yesterday on it, and it was all over the news today. Taiwan News described....

Most of the protests were conducted by the pro-China Labor Party or the pro-Beijing "Alliance for the Promotion of Chinese Unification," which has been linked to former United Bamboo Gang chief Chang Pai-leh. The latter group was involved in a violent scuffle at the Taoyuan High Speed Railway Station Sunday evening.

Said one outlet:

Chang An-lo, formerly a gang leader and dubbed "White Wolf," later said that he was behind the demonstration.

"We will follow the Dalai Lama wherever he goes in Taiwan," Chang told the TVBS cable television network.

Chang An-lo is a mainlander gangster with oldtime connections to the KMT's martial law era security apparatus.

This brings me to another point, which is our media double standard. Lest anyone has forgotten, for Beijing, "being provoked" is a policy choice, not a visceral reaction. Commentators have given China points for not crapping on Ma Ying-jeou, instead restricting its bloviating to hacking on the DPP. But you can see how the wind would have blown: had China rapped Ma's knuckles, the DPP and the DL would have taken the blame for "provoking". Either the DPP provokes China (poor China, so sorely tried!), or China "shows restraint" and keeps relations warm. No matter what happens, China always wins.

Speaking of poor China, so put upon by pacifists and democracy advocates, for those of you who have always wondered, there is an answer to how many times China's feelings have been hurt since 1949, as Asia Sentinel reports:

Fang plugged into an online archive of People's Daily at Peking U that dates back to the founding in 1948 and began typing the Chinese characters for "hurt feelings" into the search data base.

The result has become his master's thesis for which he has graphed the number of times the Chinese people's feelings been officially "hurt" and what countries have done it the most.

He found a sharp distinction between the Mao era (1949-1978) when Chinese feelings were hurt only three times, and the reform era (1978-present) when a bar graph he created showed hurt feelings spiking at 11 times in 1989 and 1998 and 12 times in 2000.

...and the winner is: the US, with 27 times. U-S-A! U-S-A! Japan!
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ECFA August Round Up

The Dalai Lama has come to Taiwan, touring disaster areas, speaking to packed stadiums, and meeting with the pro-Taiwan parties. KMT Sec-Gen Wu Dun-yi told reporters today that China was trending toward canceling $1.5 billion in orders, Max Hirsch of Kyodo reported. China also scaled back celebrations for the cross-strait direct flights that started on the 31st, and has also nixed meetings on cross-strait business cooperation.

Just another bit of evidence showing that, unless you are absolutely subservient to China's demands, relations will "worsen." One wonders why anyone in the KMT imagines China will keep any private agreements it makes with them, but as the omnipresence of scams in local society attests, suspicion will never win its never-ending battle with greed.....

Meanwhile, the March to ECFA and the 2011 Hu-Ma Nobel Peace Prize Lovefest Tour continues apace. Morakot may have driven the cross-strait economic agreements from the headlines, but there was a bunch of good stuff in the news over the last month.

Chao Wen-hung, a fellow of the pro-Taiwan Taiwan Institute for Economic Research (TIER) asked whether ECFA will keep Taiwan's firms here. Chao's logic is quite elegant. First, China will not permit other countries to have Free Trade Agreements (FTA) with Taiwan, though China has FTAs with a number of countries. It is a common tactic for nations to move production to countries with FTAs to gain access to markets in the FTA. For example, one reason that China wants to move closer to Central American nations is to gain access to the US market through NAFTA and other FTAs. Chao argues that since China is unlikely to change its stance on FTAs after ECFA (it has nothing to gain thereby), Taiwanese makers will be forced to relocate to China to get access to other markets. In other words, ECFA will in fact marginalize the island.

Economist Peter Chow made a similar argument in the Taipei Times as well, arguing that only negotiating a comprehensive trade agreement with the US could prevent Taiwan from being a mere spoke with China as the hub. This means that Taiwan needs to accept US beef.

Hsu Chung-hsin dissected the Chunghwa Institute for Economic Research (CIER) report. The pro-KMT economic think tank points out, as I noted before, that Taiwanese flagship electronics sector will shrink, while polluting, lower-tech industries will benefit. While the government claims that textiles will benefit, the CIER report says that many textile subsectors will also take a hit. Hsu also points out that shifting products to the Chinese market will not grow the Taiwan market -- instead, Taiwan's markets in other countries will be cannibalized to send stuff to China, and China will move in to replace Taiwan. Another commentator observed that the CIER report assumes full employment in Taiwan, meaning that no claims about employment can be supported from that report, but the government uses it as the basis for its claims of job creation from ECFA.

Essentially Chow, Hsun, and Chao all say the same thing: increased dependence on China will restructure Taiwan's industries in a highly negative way. Taiwan needs to globalize more, not less.

Lee Teng-hui's former NSC deputy and key negotiator also criticized Ma....

Chang Jung-feng (張榮豐), who served as National Security Council deputy secretary-general during Lee Teng-hui’s (李登輝) presidency, said that it was important to strengthen the “best alternative to a negotiated agreement” before negotiating with Beijing.

Taking the example of both sides’ bids to join the WTO, Chang said Taipei had Washington’s backing that if Beijing obstructed Taiwan’s bid, Washington would strike down Beijing’s attempt to join the organization.

To be impatient only puts Taiwan in an adverse position when negotiating with Beijing, Chang said, adding that it was “stupid” for the administration to show its eagerness to sign the proposed pact by revealing its deadline.

The Administration plans to hold the ECFA meeting with China after the December elections.

In the furor over the Dalai Lama's visit many missed the absurd decision of the Executive Yuan's Referendum Committee to turn down the DPP's referendum about a referendum on ECFA. The Taipei Times editorialized:

The Cabinet’s Referendum Review Committee rejected the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) referendum proposal on Thursday in part because the proposal “was not clear enough and asks the public to vote on something that has not yet happened.” These reasons defy common sense and show how the committee is trying to use administrative measures to block the move and thereby deprive the public of its right to hold a referendum.

The committee’s decision is not surprising or unexpected. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) still believes in a party-state with minority rule and opposes the idea that the public should be allowed to directly express its will or help formulate government policy. The KMT can do nothing to stop Taiwan’s democratic progress, but it has used its legislative majority to set almost insurmountable requirements for the proposal, collection of signatures, registration and passage of referendums.

It was only to be expected that the six referendums held under these restrictive rules over the past few years have all failed. With its total grip on power, it was only natural that the KMT would block any referendum related to its proposed economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA).

The committee ignored procedural justice by forcing through a motion suspending the right to speak and moving to a vote before all committee members had a chance to express their opinions. Absurdly, this meant a decision was reached even before the reasons for that decision had been established.

Taiwan News made similar points:

RRC Chairman Chao Yung-mao told reporters stated that "the topic was unclear and did not propose a concrete legal principle" and was "a petition to hold a referendum to ratify something which had not yet happened."

The RRC chief also claimed that the proposed topic to decide whether an ECFA should be submitted to citizen referendum "obviously exceeds the boundaries" of the scope of the Referendum Law.

Besides the fact that the RRC has no constitutional right to decide "for" the people what they should vote on, Chao's rationalizations actually demonstrate that the DPP-TSU topic does indeed involve a major "legislative principle," namely that any ECFA with the PRC should be subject to what is called a "mandatory referendum" in Switzerland, the country with the most sophisticated direct democracy mechanisms.

Finally, blogged before, but let's say it again. What's the Chinese goal with ECFA. According to Li Fei, the Deputy Director of China's Xiamen Taiwan Research Center...

"It’s a start toward full cross-strait economic integration and a necessary condition for marching forward toward final unification," Li said.

Yes, cross-strait relations are warming, the way a house fire warms you even as it burns your house down.
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[Taiwan] Don't miss the comments below! And check out my blog and its sidebars for events, links to previous posts and picture posts, and scores of links to other Taiwan blogs and forums!

Taichung Jen Ai Hospital Need International Project Manager

Jen Ai Hospital in Taichung sent this around

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

Dear all international patients,

I wanted to take this opportunity to thank you for your continued support of Jen-Ai Hospital International Patient Center. We will be celebrating our 6th Anniversary, at the end of this month and we are quite pleased to announce that we have served over 9,000 patient visits, with close to 2,000 international patients coming from more than 75 different nationalities!

To better serve the international community in Taichung, we are looking to hire a new Project Manager at our International Patient Center. If you know of somebody that may be a good candidate for this position (the candidate must be fluent in English & Chinese), please have them send their resume / C.V. to me via email and I will arrange for an interview with them, as soon as possible.

As I close, I would like to thank you again for your support of Jen-Ai Hospital International Patient Center. We are looking to serve even more international patients, especially foreigners from “not so common” nationalities. We understand that it’s not easy living in a foreign country, and our IPC program was created with the hopes of helping foreigners when seeking medical help in Taichung. It’s been 6 years since people, like yourselves, have been recommending our services to all of your friends and family. All of this wouldn't have been possible without each and every one of you, so thank you for all of your support!

For your future reference, if you need to schedule / reschedule your medical appointments, you may complete the abbreviated request form at the following link http://www.jah.org.tw/international/ipc_request_regular.asp ; or you may call the English Information Hotline: 0963-175-765, Monday ~ Friday, 9:00 am ~ 5:30 pm or you could always email me at
mchan@mail.jah.org.tw for any medical-related questions that you may have.

Wishing that happiness, good health, and good times greet you, each & every day!

We at Jen-Ai Hospital International Patient Center will continue to do
our best to serve you and other foreigners living in Taichung!

Sincerely yours,
===========================
Mark K. Chan, M.B.A.

Program Director
International Patient Center
Jen-Ai Hospital: Tali
Mobile: 0963-175-765
===========================
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Daily Links

• Author of the excellent The Enigma of Japanese Power on the possibility of revolutionary change in Japan with the DJP's big victory in the elections.
• Far Eastern Sweet Potato explores the links between international pro-China gangsters and the current anti-Dalai Lama protests.
• David on the Dalai Lama's arrival
  

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

Daily Links, Aug 31, 2009

One of a series of pics I took over 45 minutes one afternoon of Mormon missionaries near my house interfering with traffic and harassing passing motorists with their attempts to stamp out local religions, secure income streams for the Church and make everyone wear magic underwear. In this pic the missionary, after harassing some hapless scooter driver in the center of the street, makes everyone wait for him while he crosses over to the other street to repeat this act. Does someone have to be killed before Mormons stop this stupid, self-centered behavior?

Is there any news today that's not Dalai Lama? Yes, the blogs are, as always, full of it.

• Paul Katz with another in the excellent series of posts on Siaolin Village.
• Jim on the LDP and the KMT.
• Your bike: made in Taiwan
• Global Voices collects blog posts on the DL's visit.
• US Taiwan Defense Command has slides from 1968-9
• FVARGA wonders whether H1N1 is a disaster in the making for Taiwan.
• Jerome asks whose side Ma is on.
• Patrick Cowsill has pics and more commentary on Taipei's new bike lanes.
• Lief runs down some of the issues involved with roads and relocation in aboriginal areas.
• A-gu discusses the Executive Yuan's Referendum Review committee's shameful rejection of the DPP's request to hold a referendum on ECFA.

MEDIA: Monkeys, Gods, and Hiking at Global Post. California beats Taiwan in Little Leagure World Series. WSJ on DL's visit: Ting-i, those protesters want "unification" or "annexation" not "reunification." Swine Flu may cause elections to be put off. US Dept of Commerce sends official here to look for Taiwanese investment in US green tech. Regular direct flights from China to Taiwan start today, Aug 31. At present the government says it will not permit investment from China Mobile in local telcos. How long will that last? Labor activists question joblessness figures. National Museum of History has exhibit on 60th anniversary of arrival of KMTers fleeing Chinese communism. Remember this case? The Grand Justices send case of Filipino woman who murdered local back to appellate court. Bloomberg, which has had some excellent stuff on Taiwan lately, has another good article, this one on overproduction of tea and the Morakot disasters. FT's Robin Kwong on the DL promoting democracy here. Sarah Palin is keynote speaker in Hong Kong, will shortly announce her foreign policy expertise on China, since she has seen it from Hong Kong. Asia Sentinel looks at India's restive northeast and China, as border war puts China-Myanmar ties to the test. Chinese Deafolympics team to arrive Friday. That's a good sign.

Panorama of an endless line of gravel trucks in front of the Shihgang Dam (click to see).

MA "ABLE" YING-JEOU WATCH: AFP notes that Beijing blasted the Dalai Lama's visit and warned that it would impact relations. China canceled celebrations over the direct flights, leaving that gaggle of eunuchs that constitutes the Ma government struggling for ways to bend over even further for Beijing. Speaking of having no stones, after Ma says government should only get 45 of 60 Blackhawk choppers from the US and spend the rest on rescue helos, the Ministry of Defense gives Ma the finger and says we're getting the 60. Today Ma says "Uh, ok." But my favorite is this one from today where Ma tells a group of aborigines that they must evacuate when told, otherwise it will be bad for him. Poor Ma! I think my next post might be entitled: Is Ma a narcissist?
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Dalai Lama Taiwan Schedule =UPDATED=

UPDATES: Thanks, David on Formosa.

The press conference and the public talk in Taoyuan have been cancelled. I suggest checking the Friends of Tibet website for the latest information on the schedule (in Chinese) http://blog.yam.com/taiwanfortibet/article/23629810

UPDATES -2: The Kaohsiung appearance on Sept 1st has been moved to 9:30 AM from the original time of 1:00 PM. Revised schedules will appear here.


From Taiwanderful:


31 August to 4 September

8/31 10:00am press conference for Taiwanese and international media in Kaohsiung
8/31 afternoon visit disaster victims
9/1 1:00pm Public speech and blessing ceremony for disaster victims at Kaohsiung Ju Dan (高雄巨蛋)
9/2 morning discussion with Cardinal Bishop Paul Shan Kuo-hsi (單國璽樞機主教) at Kaohsiung Ju Dan (高雄巨蛋)
9/3 Public speech in Taipei. Time and venue to be confirmed.

Information translated from Taiwan Friends of Tibet (台灣圖博之友會) at http://blog.yam.com/taiwanfortibet/article/23629810 at 11pm on 28 August 2009. Further updated with additional information received via e-mail on the morning of 29 August. I will continue to update with more details when they become available.

Also check the website of The Tibet Religious Foundation of His Holiness the Dalai Lama for more information.

* His Holiness the Dalai will visit Taiwan end of August: spoken-person - Regional Tibetan Youth Congress, Taiwan

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China Expresses Ire to Manage US

Our good cooperation partner, the Peaceful Riser^© is starting to put pressure on the US in all sorts of ways. Kathrin Hille, the former longtime Financial Times correspondent here in Taiwan, reports now from China:

China has called on the US to phase out its military surveillance missions close to the Chinese coast, in Beijing’s clearest indication so far that it will not tolerate American dominance indefinitely in an area it views as its strategic sphere of influence.

The remarks came after two days of negotiations on maritime safety between military officials from both sides following a series of confrontations between US and Chinese ships in waters off the Chinese coast earlier this year.

“The way to resolve China-US maritime incidents is for the US to change its surveillance and survey operations policies against China, decrease and eventually stop such operations,” Xinhua, the official news agency, quoted the Ministry of National Defence as saying.

Hille further observes:

Chinese military officials have also in the past steered clear of confronting the US over its influence in Asia. They have sometimes even suggested that the two could coexist.

Yesterday’s declaration, however, suggests that China is moving closer to scenarios long painted by defence experts under which it becomes more assertive and starts drawing lines for the US military.

It's easy to see down which road we're heading here. The right-wing Washington Times discusses China's attempt to browbeat US military officials over Taiwan arms sales. To wit:

On Aug. 20 in Beijing, Gen. Ge Zhenfeng, deputy chief of the general staff of the People's Liberation Army, accused the United States of failing to respect China's interests, triggering an argument and rebuttal from the Army four-star, according to defense officials familiar with the exchange.

Then during a second meeting the same day, Gen. Chen Bingde, the PLA chief of staff, took the unusual step of allowing foreign news reporters to listen in during a photo session before the meeting when he told Gen. Casey that the United States was "challenging and violating our core national interests, and we have to react."

Such coverage of U.S.-China meetings normally is limited to a few minutes of photographs before reporters are shuffled out of the meeting room and doors are closed.

Gen. Chen then told Gen. Casey that the U.S. had undermined trust by selling arms to Taiwan and that Washington is only friendly when it seeks Beijing's cooperation on terrorism and piracy, but then does "anything they want, even to offend the Chinese people." He said, "I don't think that kind of cooperation can continue."

Gen. Casey stated that "it's difficult to build a lasting relationship when we start from a point that 'we have a problem and it is you.' "

It's a good example of the way China uses "worsening relations" to browbeat its opponents and to manage relationships in its favor. Gen. Ge was quoted in Xinhua saying that the United States needed to "remove obstacles" to better ties, like U.S. arms sales to Taiwan. In other words, when you serve Beijing relations will be "warm" -- at least until Beijing decides on its next demand, at which point the cycle of browbeating, warming relations, and worsening relations, will begin anew.

One irony is that the US military, especially the Navy, has consistently attempted to maintain good relations with China. As I've observed many times, once "good relations" are a priority, that simply makes you vulnerable to increased pressure from the the Peaceful Riser^©.

The arms sales cannot really be that serious of an issue, since the current government of Taiwan is basically allied to the CCP. Rather, China is simply not missing the opportunity to engage in pro forma displays of its consistent foreign policy of browbeating others to get what it wants, and, as China specialist John Tkacik described:

"The Chinese also want to make excuses for not pressuring either North Korea or Iran on their nuclear ambitions, so they point to U.S. support for democratic Taiwan and say, 'See here, if you Americans would only cut loose of Taiwan, we could help more with these other rogues.'"

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AFP in Classic

Reuters reports that President Ma Ying-jeou has no plans to meet with the Dalai Lama. That same article notes that:

On Friday, China gave the green light to 16 airlines to operate regular direct flights to Taiwan in a sign that the Dalai Lama's impending visit would not harm trade ties.

Behind the political theatre of the Dalai Lama's visit, the real politics go on....

Yesterday it was the Economist, today AFP published this brilliant account, so pro-Beijing in its construction that at first glance I thought the Aussie newspaper it appeared in had picked up Xinhua. Its very badness actually highlights some interesting political connections. AFP begins:

RELIGIOUS groups and pro-China activists have criticised the Dalai Lama's visit to Taiwan, saying the trip is "inappropriate" as the island reels from a deadly typhoon.

"Religious groups?" Let's see what they mean.

But the trip, during which the Buddhist leader is scheduled to visit typhoon-hit areas, has come under fire, with a pro-China group labelling him a "trouble-maker" while the Taiwan Mazu Association said the visit was "inappropriate."

"We hope Taiwanese people will believe in Taiwanese religions. Religious exchange is good in normal time but it is inappropriate at such a time," said Cheng Ming-kun, chief of the Taiwan Mazu Association.

"We urge politicians to stop taking advantage of religion... and toying with typhoon victims," he told reporters.

The association represents worshippers of the Taoist sea goddess Mazu, who has millions of followers.

"We urge politicians to stop taking advantage of religion," says Cheng Ming-kun.

Right.

Sometimes hypocrisy elevates itself beyond being merely blatant, achieving a kind of sublime disconnect with reality that is like a work of art. Such is this lecture from Cheng Ming-kun about separating politics and religion.

Who is Mr. Cheng? Cheng holds a couple of key positions in the Matzu Associations, such as the Deputy Chairman of the Jenlan Temple in Dajia. Ring any bells? That's the name of the island's most important Matzu temple, the subject of one of the world's largest pilgrimages. That's right -- the procession run by the former KMT politician, now "non-partisan", Yen Ching-piao, elected out of jail by his loyal constituents a few years back. That procession is a prime example of how politics exploits religion in Taiwan (anyone know where the zillions in donations go?). Cheng, who was kidnapped for 10 days in 2005 in what was widely rumored to be a shady business deal gone bad, was indicted for forgery and breach of trust in connection with the temple association. Naturally Cheng is close to Yen -- I believe the proper expression is "thick as thieves."

What are Cheng's political affiliations? Well, Cheng was in Beijing in July promoting cross-strait ties through better Matzu connections. Cheng also met with Chen Yun-lin, last seen here in November of 2008 negotiating on Beijing's behalf. Is leveraging Taiwan's most important goddess to annex Taiwan to China apolitical?

AFP's presentation is thus a comical parody of actual news construction. First it mentions the "pro-China" group and then opposes Cheng's comments to it as if he were neutral, not "pro-China." Then, the deputy head of the single most politicized temple on the whole island piously informs us that religion should not be politicized!

This piece should definitely be in the Onion.

How to explain this? A friend of mine pointed out that Pierre Louette, the current CEO of AFP, appears to have personal interests in China. Louette is the former CEO of Havas, the main marketing company for the Beijing Olympics. Since Havas represents some of the biggest corporations in China....

UPDATE: More explanations/clarifications in the comments below

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Daily Links:

• As of ten this morning, the NYTimes had this:
  

  Another travel marketer offering jobs is the Republic of Taiwan Tourism Bureau, with a contest called the Best Trip in the World (taiwanbesttrip.net). The offer: “Come up with the best Taiwan tour itinerary, take the tour, write about it online” and win a million Taiwan dollars (about $30,000) for a one-month trip around the island.

• Taiwan Matters notes that Ma went after Public Television three days after Morakot, apparently hoping to use the hoopla over the typhoon as cover to get his man in the top position.
• Average real income regresses to 1996 levels. It's a good thing we elected Ma and his economic czar to -- wait, what's that czar's name again?
• Our new AIT director, William Stanton, has arrived. Godspeed and good luck to the awesome Steve Young, who did a great job here. May his next post be filled with fewer headaches and more margaritas.

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