Friday Night Lights

Making lu wei eggs at a factory in Gangshan.

WantWant goes after student who got Chomsky to pose with anti-media monopoly image. Chomsky and another academic contacted have clearly said they did not know that the words "China's black hand" were included in the sign. The student appears to have misled them. Great work, now it appears WantWant has a genuine grievance. Perhaps the student can supply the documentation? Because at this point it appears that not only has the student invalidated Chomsky's action, she's also made it that much harder for the anti-media monopoly campaign to get other big names to sign on. UPDATE: Yay! Chomsky was just being scatterbrained. The original student email is here. It indeed mentioned China and correctly translated the sign.

Retired generals from PRC and ROC want China and Taiwan to work together on Senkakus issue. That would be awful for Taiwan in so many ways, from making Tokyo and Washington angry at it, to strengthening China's claim to Taiwan. Remember, in the minds of right-wing nationalist fossils on both sides of the Strait, the claim to the Senkakus, Taiwan, and Okinawa are of a piece. And it comes right on the heels of the CRS report I linked to below which warns Congress to pay attention to possible Taiwan-China cooperation. It's pretty clear that at least one fork in the KMT's Senkakus strategy involves using the islands to make the US distance itself from Taiwan. I hope someone high up in AIT gives an interview in Chinese with the local Chinese language press and explains this strategy to the locals so pressure can be put on Ma to stop. And that the US re-considers its support for Ma. But see below....

...Why won't the US reconsider its support of Ma? This article by Brendan O'Reilly in the Asia Times looks like yet another one of those dreary articles claiming that the "pivot" of Obama is triggering a war in Asia. Forget that silliness. Look instead at who it relies on, Ken Lieberthal and Cheng Li, of Brookings. Cheng Li is at the John Thornton Center at Brookings. That center is named after the Chairman of the Brookings Board of Trustees and a big donor, John Thornton. I quote from The Mandarins:

....Thornton is also a director not only of corporations with huge interests in China (Ford, News Corporation) but also of large Chinese corporations (Commercial Bank of China, China Netcorn), and is even a professor at Tsinghua University.

...as for Kenneth Lierberthal, a major Asia figure who was the NSC's Asia Director under Bill Clinton and is Hillary Clinton's Asia guy, he had/has a post in Stonebridge China, the quietly influential China consulting firm which has/had several of its members in Administrations past and present. O'Reilly is no doubt writing in good faith; as for his sources, readers will have to make up their own minds. But I've seen a lot of pro-China whitewash stuff from Stonebridge employees scattered all over the media (for example). The US foreign policymaking community is populated with individuals doing business with China. Probably why US policy and media discourse on China is so awful. Now go and read The Mandarins if you haven't.

The staidly conservative pro-blue organization TISR (formerly Global View's survey unit) finds that support for independence has dropped. Can we see some analysis of the sample, please?

In case you live in a cave, Chinese hackers attack NYTimes for Wen Jiabao reporting. Best tweet: @JoshGartner: MOFA [Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs]: "We have read all of the NY Times internal emails and they have no evidence that China hacked their accounts."

ADDED: Forgot to point out that Ma tapped his fourth premier in five years. Remember when he accused Chen of constantly rotating officials? Under Taiwan's strange customary arrangements, cabinet officials are axed to "take responsibility" for Administration unpopularity or screw ups. But a perspicacious friend tipped me off to this prescient blog post in Chinese arguing that Premier Chen's replacement, Jiang Yi-hua, would become premier and make a great 2016 candidate. The KMT news organ noted:

Jiang Yi-huah was born in 1960. He holds a PhD degree in political science from Yale University and was a professor of political science at National Taiwan University. When President Ma was running for President for the first time in 2008, Jiang assisted in composing white papers for Ma. After Ma took office, Jiang was first appointed as Minister of the Research, Development and Evaluation Commission under the Executive Yuan, before being promoted to Minister of Interior. Furthermore, on February 6th, 2012, he took up the position of Vice Premier.

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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! Delenda est, baby.

Heritage Event: Shoring Up the U.S.-Taiwan Partnership

An impressive list with some of my favorite Taiwan-related people.

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Heritage Foundation Event: Shoring Up the U.S.-Taiwan Partnership

~ Co-hosted by Taiwan Benevolent Association of America ~

Please join us for a discussion of the future of the U.S.-Taiwan partnership and how to strengthen it both on the economic side and political, security side. On the political side, this may entail anything from support for Taiwan’s democracy to removing unnecessary diplomatic barriers to providing Taiwan the military wherewithal and political support it needs. On the economic side, it means helping it find a place in the regional economic architecture and building robust a U.S.-Taiwan economic relationship, up to the conclusion of a U.S.-Taiwan FTA.

Agenda
9:00-9:15 a.m. Welcoming Remarks
Walter Lohman, Director, Asian Studies Center, The Heritage Foundation
Ms. Taidi Fang, President, Taiwan Benevolent Association of America

9:15-10:00 a.m. Keynote Address
Joanna Lei, Former Member Legislative Yuan

10:00-11:15 a.m. Panel 1
Rupert Hammond-Chambers, President, U.S.-Taiwan Business Council
Claude Barfield, Resident Scholar, American Enterprise Institute
Matthew P. Goodman, Simon Chair in Political Economy, Center for Strategic
and International Studies
Derek Scissors, Ph.D., Senior Research Fellow, The Heritage Foundation
(Moderator)

11:15-11:30 a.m. Break

11:30 a.m.-1:00 p.m. Panel 2
Randy Schriver,President, Project 2049
Dean Cheng, Research Fellow, Asian Studies Center, The Heritage Foundation
Stephen Yates, CEO, DC International Advisory and former Deputy National Security Advisor to Vice President Cheney
Vincent Wang, Professor, University of Richmond
Walter Lohman, Director, Asian Studies Center, The Heritage Foundation (Moderator)

1:00-2:00 p.m. Light Luncheon and Refreshments

Remarks by The Honorable John Cornyn (R-TX), United States Senator

Friday, February 8, 2013 – 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
The Heritage Foundation’s Allison Auditorium
RSVP online | or call (202) 675-1752
Terms and conditions of attendance are posted at heritage.org/Events/terms.cfm
All events may be viewed live at heritage.org News media inquiries, call (202) 675-1761
214 Massachusetts Avenue, NE | Washington, DC 20002 | (202) 546-4400
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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! Delenda est, baby.

The Senkakus Irritant Watch: Bandwagoning Edition

Remember when Ma Ying-jeou said Taiwan was going to be a "peacemaker, not a troublemaker"? I bet you already forgot that. I bet you forgot that one of Ma's priority pledges before the 2008 campaign and early in his first administration was repairing relations with the US. Remember when Ma was pragmatic, along with his China policies? The p-word has dropped from the media. Yup. That thwap-thwap you're hearing is me patting myself on the back. Again (brace yourself, rant coming).

A new report from CRS was profiled in the Taipei Times today. The report, Maritime Territorial Disputes in East Asia: Issues for Congress (online at FAS), says that Taiwan puts pressure on Japan in parallel with China.

One issue for U.S. policy concerns trends across the Taiwan Strait since 2008, particularly the question of whether Taiwan’s moves to engage more closely with the PRC have created a greater willingness in Taipei to cooperate with China on issues in which it sees their interests as aligned, such as in the East China Sea. Some analysts argue that there is an issue for U.S. policymakers surrounding whether Taiwan coordinated with the PRC in asserting sovereignty of the Senkaku Islands against Japan amid rising tension in September 2012. Beijing has urged cooperation over the islands to advance cross-strait ties. Taipei’s officials have denied cooperating with the PRC. Even without explicit coordination, the parallel actions of the PRC and Taiwan in the current East China Sea flare-up have added pressure against Japan. Both the PRC and Taiwan deployed government patrol ships and military assets that raised concerns about the potential for accidental collisions and the escalation of tensions.

On September 25, 2012, Taiwan deployed 12 Coast Guard ships that escorted 60 fishing boats and fired water cannons toward Japan’s patrol ships. Furthermore, Taiwan dispatched military systems sold by the United States during the incident.

The government in Taipei is clearly attempting to stoke the Diaoyutai issue at home, to drum up some faux nationalism and to divert attention from the many problems the economy is facing. During recent exercises the military wore patches saying "The Diaoyutai are ours!" (DefenseNews). In the most recent exchange of water cannon fire between ROC coast guard vessels and Japanese ships, Chinese ships were hanging around. The two sides probably aren't actively coordinating, but of course they don't need to. Everyone knows the score and knows how they should behave.

For quite some time I've been arguing that the Ma Administration is deliberately using issue such as the beef issue and the Senkakus to perturb and irritate relations with Tokyo and Washington. People are finally starting to notice this (similar argument today in Taipei Times). Now the Congressional Research Service has called attention to the possibility.

I've heard US officials are unhappy with the incidents in the Senkakus. When Chen Shui-bian had a couple of democratic referendums, US officials excoriated him publicly. When Ma Ying-jeou's military confronts Japan in the Senkakus as China shadows events, a place the US is bound by treaty to defend, the US....oh yeah, what has the US said? Nada. All I can say is, Ma is just lucky he isn't pushing a referendum. Then he'd really be in trouble.

Let's not forget, the ROC is also strengthening its presence on the South China Sea islands. As if it wants to irritate relations with nations to the south.....

Really, what did the US expect when they supported Ma? That he would support them? This is a guy who spent his early life being groomed as an ROC ideologue.This is a guy who wrote his thesis on how China owns the Senkakus. This is a guy who dresses up and performs the Confucian rites with children dancing to him like an old-time emperor (remember? Vaguely, you do). This is a guy whose public speeches are filled with open references to Han Chauvinist ideology. This is a guy who publicly speaks as if Taiwan, the Senkakus, and Okinawa all belong to China. This is a guy who thinks he is President of China.

Good luck getting him on board, Washington. I'm sure you'll hear some very pretty words. Would you be having this problem if you'd supported Tsai Ying-wen? As my man Drew remarked today:

It seems the pragmatists were both Chen and especially Lee (those pro-independence firebrands) who maximized Taiwan's international space, saw China's bluffs, but recognized the value of engagement with caution without compromising their principles or spurning valuable allies. They were not dreamy Greater China ideologues. Funny that.

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Daily Links:

• President Ma says the pension system must be overhauled. Translation: the little people are screwed, but at least the nation's wealthy won't be paying taxes.
• Not news: the air in south, central Taiwan is bad for you.
• Taipei property prices reach new high
• Taiwan's 2012 election, one year on.
• Birding Taiwan on the new year.
• Brian Benedictus: Can Taiwan modernize its submarine fleet?
• BLAST FROM THE PAST: Life visits Aboriginal Princesses Near Sun Moon Lake, 21 Feb 1949

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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! Delenda est, baby.

Lovely video of Taiwan, and some links

A gorgeous video from Gigabyte for a new product launch this week.

If you haven't seen the pics from '57-8 below this post, take a look. Meanwhile some links...

• People talking about....Chinese tourist has her kids take a crap in the airport lounge in Kaohsiung. Have money to travel, can't find the toilet in the airport. Thank you for specially selecting tourists for us, government of China. 
• People talking about....Rice vermicelli is a major item many local dishes. The nation was shocked to find that the labeling on almost all rice vermicelli is false and misleading. Apple Daily has a list of firms with their rice content and protein content. Go here, then click on the leftmost thumbnail at the bottom.
• Pro-KMT UDN calls for non-partisan plebiscite on nuclear power. DPP's Su wants it held during 7-in-1 election. UDN probably terrified it will raise turnout and energize voters. 
• ROFL. President Ma asks US delegation for submarines. That was after his party blocked that purchase from coming to the floor over 60 times when Chen was President and part of the time, Ma was Chairman of the KMT. I'm sure the submarines will arrive right about the time that our 66 F-16s come. 
• Fengshan's divine magistrate, still worshiped two centuries after his death.
• An update on the Mirimar Hotel story in Taitung from Wild At Heart. A related link, on the struggle to preserve biodiversity in Taiwan.
• First offshore wind power slated for Taiwan.

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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! Delenda est, baby.

Cool Collection of Pics from 1957 and 1958

Former US serviceman Tom Jones sent these around and eventually they made their way to me. Here's his story in Chinese. Visions of a lost Taiwan, in color. The last dozen plates are from his round the island scooter trip. Enjoy by clicking on READ MORE below:

Eating Bottle-nose Dolphins in Yunlin.

Make yourself ill.

One link here. With news videos.

Another information link from same blog is here.
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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! Delenda est, baby.

Richard Bush on ROC 100th, Sept 2012

Richard Bush's speech to the Academia Historica in Taipei last September, up at Brookings this month. Bush is a major US government expert on Taiwan. The speech is studded with errors and omissions, most likely the result of a need to play to its audience. I'd like to isolate a couple of points. Bush writes:

Civic nationalism, I would suggest, is becoming the dominant type for a majority of Taiwan people. It is an attachment to the island’s democratic system and its norms of popular sovereignty and majority rule. To put it simply, it is an attachment to today’s ROC and all it stands for.

The last sentence has everything backwards. Taiwanese are attached to their democracy and link it to the ROC only to the extent that the ROC equates itself to Taiwan. The Taiwanese are hardly attached to the ROC's grandiose territorial goals and do not see themselves as the rulers of China. Moreover, as I have noted here many times, prominent ROC symbols, such as the flag are increasingly being reinterpreted by the locals as symbols of Taiwan. Of course, the attachment to democracy is not an attachment to the ROC and all it stands for -- to get democracy, the locals had to fight the ROC and all it stood for. But Bush can't say that to a bunch of crusty old deep blues at a national nostalgia fest, I suppose.

These differences between ethnic nationalism and civic nationalism and between territory and the state are not simply an abstract academic matter. They have significant consequences for cross-Strait relations. A Taiwan that cannot agree on these issues is a Taiwan that is in a weaker position visà-vis the PRC.

Skipping over his remarkably bass-akwards construction of ethnic and civic nationalism, Bush has been making this point about Taiwan's lack of internal consensus for a while (for example). This point is often made, but it is never made concretely. For example, Bush has never identified what would count as "consensus" or explained how such a "consensus" would help Taiwan concretely.

Indeed, does Bush really want Taiwan to internally resolve the issue of whether it is a territory or a state? Fact is, Washington analysts like Bush would be buying ulcer medicine by the case if Taiwan ever actually came to a consensus and formally resolved the issue of whether it is a territory or a state. Because everyone who has ever lived here for twenty minutes knows which outcome the Taiwanese would prefer. The actual consensus on that issue -- do nothing, hope we can muddle through somehow -- is what keeps Washington happy.

Ironically Bush already named some of the elements of the Taiwan consensus in another piece of his, a response to Bob Sutter he co-wrote with Alan Romberg (here with my responses). The actual, real consensus in Taiwan rests on the bedrock of Taiwan's democracy and is quite clear. So is the consensus about dealing with China -- everyone wants the economic benefits, nobody wants political talks. And nobody wants to pay to clean up the mess.

Further, it is hard to see how this alleged lack of consensus makes Taiwan any weaker than it already is in talks with China. Taiwan's problems are caused by China's rampant military buildup and growing economic might. There is little Taiwan can do about that. This situation is compounded by the fact that Washington has burned trillions of dollars and tens of thousands of lives over the last decade making central Asia and the Middle East safe for Chinese investment and expansion, instead of having its eye on the ball in Asia and investing in its people at home.

The truth is that Taiwan's divisions over China mirror the Beltway's own schizophrenic behavior -- it formally defines Taiwan's status as undecided but breaks out in hives if the I-word is mentioned. It lauds democracy, human rights, rule of law, and social consensus, but then supports the KMT, the party that benefits the most from ruling a divided society with a rough, imperfect democracy. It worries about China's growing power and influence, yet trades with it, transfers new technologies to China, trains its engineers and technologists, and invites its state-run economy to play in capitalist markets. Even Washington's China experts and punditocracy fill the airwaves with China commentary and advice to the government, while quietly doing lucrative consulting deals with Beijing. In fact, it seems to me that the real division and lack of consensus lies in Washington, and that as soon as the Beltway starts providing real leadership on Asia and displays a consistent, forward-looking, and concrete policy attitude on China, Taiwan will respond.

Lead, Washington.

REF: Bush once wondered aloud why China continued with the military build up since Ma was playing ball. Washington amazes me sometimes.
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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! Delenda est, baby.

Two calls for papers

Handing out parking fees in Kaohsiung.

H-Asia passed these around, one on Taiwan in Dynamic Transition, the other on the Kennedy period and East Asia, click on read more:

Singapore Film Company Looks for Haunted Places in Taiwan and Elsewhere

H-ASIA
January 25, 2013

Seeking input on relationship between famous hauntings and Asian culture and history for documentary
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From; Christopher Laursen , (continue by clicking READ MORE)

A couple of interview Links

Blossom of a sensitive plant.

Michael Richardson interviewed several people on a recent trip to Taiwan, including....

• Interview with Jerome Keating on the subject of Chen Shui-bian and his unfair trial. 
• Judge Hong Yin-hua interview on why trial of Chen Shui-bian was unfair.

Meanwhile, my post from last month: Free Chen Shui-bian? Think about 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! Delenda est, baby.

Big By-election in Taichung Area...not really

A K-town street.

UPDATE: Low turnout leads to close victory for KMT by a mere 1200 votes after Yen Sr. won by 39,000 the last time. Much better than I expected the DPP to do. But it also goes to show how Taiwanese bitch about political corruption, and then, when given the clear choice....

By-election in Taichung District 2 looks to be an easy KMT win though the DPP is pushing hard for votes..... the Taipei Times reports:

The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) appears to be hoping that a conflict between Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) candidate Yen Kuan-hen (顏寬恆) and President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) could help it win tomorrow’s legislative by-election in Greater Taichung’s second electoral district.

Wait...what is the conflict the DPP hopes to exploit?

“Ma, who is the KMT’s chairman, has not campaigned for Yen, and Yen has not used the KMT’s logo during his campaign, nor has he emphasized that he represents the KMT,” DPP Chairman Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) said at a campaign stop in Greater Taichung.

...and the situation?

The DPP has promoted the by-election as a vote of no confidence in Ma’s governance in an apparent effort to neutralize the Yen family’s strong political presence in the electoral district, a traditional KMT stronghold which includes the districts of Shalu (沙鹿), Longjing (龍井), Wurih (烏日), Dadu (大肚), Wufeng (霧峰) and part of Dali (大里).

The Yen family is the family that runs the big Matsu procession that terminates at the Dajia temple (Check out this informative post from two years ago). Its patriarch Yen Ching-piao himself is a former KMTer who parted ways with the KMT because he was... umm.... too colorful. In reality he's independent of the KMT in the sense that the Byelorussian SSR was independent of the USSR, as I noted before. Yen Sr. is reliably pro-KMT and pan-Blue and Yen Jr. is running as a KMT politician. Yen is probably the most representative local politician in Taiwan, making a fortune from gravel operations, running a powerful political patronage empire, with tight links to the ruling party, and also cultivating links to China through religious and business links. I've noted on several occasions that one of the most important beneficiaries of the burgeoning cross-strait relationship is cross-strait organized crime. Actually I don't even know why I wrote that last sentence. It has nothing to do with the rest of the paragraph. Did I mention that Ma hilariously appointed Yen Sr. the Administration's ECFA spokesman?

But anyway, the Yen family comprises one of the most powerful political patronage networks on the island. They are solidly behind the son. The dearth of Ma and other senior figures is probably not indicative of any split, but rather is more likely a wish to avoid calling undue attention to the KMT's deep and abiding involvement with...colorful local figures (like Ma's secretary planning major gangster funerals here or the massive wedding of Yen Ching-piao's son attended by KMT bigshots here/here), or even more likely, the Yen family's lock on Taichung 2 is so strong that bringing out the big guns isn't necessary. As Frozen Garlic noted a while back:

There are two interesting stories.  Most of the attention will be on the contest to fill the empty Taichung 2 seat, so let’s start with that one.  The Taichung 2 district boundaries were drawn specifically for Yen Ching-piao.  His best town, Shalu, was put into Taichung 2 with the rest of his base instead of Taichung 1.  This created a bit of a population imbalance as well as a political imbalance, since the blue camp is quite a bit stronger in Taichung 2 than Taichung 1 and Shalu, where the KMT is particularly strong, exacerbates the difference.[1]  In fact, Taichung 2 is easily the blue camp’s strongest district in the old Taichung County.

I don't give the DPP much of a shot here to win. I think they can best hope to play the better-than-expected card when it's all over.
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Daily Links:

• Movies of life in Taiwan from the 1950s
• China Post commentary argues that KMT is headed for dismal showing in next local elections and so no one wants to challenge Ma for Chairmanship.
• Genetic studies show powerful evidence that Polynesian explorers brought the sweet potato from South America back to Polynesia. Thor Heyerdahl lives!
• Taiwan and China National Palace Museums to do exchange?
• Chinese tourist quotas to be raised. "On the evening of January 22, the Tourism Bureau announced that the quota on Mainland tour groups would be increased from 4,000 to 5,000 per day, while the quota on Mainland individual tourists would be increased from 1,000 to 2,000 per day."

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

The Senkakus Irritant Pricked Again =UPDATED=

At the train station in Pingtung. Sign holding loons such as these sometimes take up residence at train stations around the island. The signs read, right to left: 1. The Bible prophecies disasters will increase. 2. Believe in Jesus and get eternal life. 3. God wishes your family peace. Either believe or die! Oh, and have a nice day!

The CNA account (Taipei Times) of the latest Senkakus spat with its presentation of the government's comically droll position: "Japan must be rational":

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday urged Japan to adopt a “rational” attitude about a Taiwanese protest boat that sailed into waters near the disputed Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台) earlier in the day.

“The voyage was a voluntary action by private citizens and should in no way affect Taiwan-Japan fishery talks,” said Su Chii-cherng (蘇啟誠), the deputy director-general of the ministry’s Department of East Asian and Pacific Affairs.

The boat went to the island, the Japanese coast guard got in its way, then sprayed water from water cannons on it, and the ROC Coast Guard answered with water cannons [one moment please. I'm suppressing the urge to make phallic puns.] The ship from Taiwan then returned, its mission to plant a shrine on the island unconsummated [ok, let me have one bad pun.]

I especially love MOFA's admonition that Japan must be "rational." As if letting shiploads of loons into a disputed area to provoke two huge neighboring powers is rational. Such language seems intended to arouse Japanese pride even more.

And what if the Chinese ships had decided to intervene on behalf of the ROC Coast Guard vessels?  Or someone screws up and intervenes. I sure hope a protocol is in place to cover that contingency. The government said that the Chinese vessels had been warned off, just to show the two sides weren't cooperating -- as if their simultaneous appearance in location and time was just a coincidence. Sure. Cooperation doesn't have to be overt to be effective, and everyone involved knows what the game is.

The China Post scribed:

The seven people onboard the fishing vessel were Chinese Association for Protecting the Diaoyutais (中華保釣協會) Chairman Hsieh Mang-lin (謝夢麟), four fellow activists, the ship's captain, an Indonesian crew member and a reporter.

Hsieh previously told local media they were planning to install a statue of Mazu (媽祖) on one of the islands in the hope that the Taoist sea goddess would protect the safety of Taiwanese fishermen operating in the area.

The usefulness of "private" organizations as political pawns in the KMT Administration's game of using the Senkakus to irritate relations between Taiwan and Japan could hardly be better demonstrated. The results are also clear. Again the CP:

Su, however, said Tokyo has hinted that the incident could jeopardize a second preparatory meeting for the long-stalled 17th round of Taiwan-Japan fishery talks.

The meeting, originally set to be held in January or February this year, was meant for both sides to reach a consensus on fishing boundaries around the disputed Diaoyutai Islands.

At the first preparatory meeting held in Tokyo on Nov. 30, 2012 both parties failed to reach a consensus regarding fishing operations in the region.

The previous 16 rounds of fishery talks, dating back to 1996, failed to deliver concrete results and the talks, which were originally supposed to be annual, have been stalled since 2009.

DPP Chairman Su Tseng-chang made this point in an interview a couple of weeks ago with the Taipei Times, arguing that the KMT is escalating tension on purpose:

Although the former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) administration upheld the nation’s claims to the Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台) and the South China Sea, two areas that have seen escalating disputes recently, there is a “huge” difference between the policies of the DPP and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), DPP Chairman Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) said in an interview on Thursday.

“Washington assumed that President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) would promote stable cross-strait relations — until the Diaoyutai dispute took place, when the US realized there has been a great shift in the balance of cross-strait relations,” Su told the Taipei Times.

The DPP claimed sovereignty over the islands during its eight years in power, Su said, but this did not lead to conflict with Japan.

“Fifteen rounds of fisheries talks were held during that time, while only one’s been held during Ma’s five years in office,” Su said.

Su is half-right. Washington did assume that Ma would keep things quiet, both erroneously misreading Ma's fundamentally ideological mode of action, and wrongfully blaming Chen Shui-bian for "provoking" China. Unfortunately from what I see Washington hasn't meaningfully revised its opinion of Ma Ying-jeou. First impressions...so important.

The fisheries issue highlights how Ma has screwed up relations with Japan. The DPP kept the fisheries talks going and kept the Senkakus issue from disrupting the relationship. Ma, by contrast, is a True Believer in a Greater Chinese Empire that includes Taiwan, the Senkakus, and Okinawa (Doubt me?). Remember in June of 2008 when the Premier sad he didn't rule out force in the Senkakus? That was after a Taiwanese ship captain had rammed/been rammed by a Japanese vessel. The Ma Administration's goal is to gently isolate Taiwan from its two big allies, Tokyo and Washington, so that the perception of increased distance and isolation will encourage the public to become resigned to the fate of annexation to China.

UPDATE: I was thinking about this post today and realized I'd missed a connection. The "activists" had intended to place a statue of Matzu on the Senkakus, ostensibly because she is a sea goddess. But Matzu worship is one of the areas of cross-strait cooperation between pro-China elements in Taiwan and the CCP (see this). I wonder if there is a hidden meaning to the Matzu statue.

REFS: Washington opposes actions that unilaterally change Japanese Administration of the islands
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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! Delenda est, baby.

Ma: Human Rights to be included in discussions with Beijing

Because when you're hungry, what's better than a bowl of boils?

President Ma Ying-jeou sent a few ripples through the Taiwan-watching community this week with the claim that human rights should be included in discussions with Beijing (Taiwan Today):

ROC President Ma Ying-jeou said Jan. 23 that his administration is looking to expand Taipei-Beijing dialogue from economic and cultural affairs to human rights and the rule of law as part of efforts to strengthen freedom and democratic development in mainland China.

“As the first republic in Asia, the ROC is committed to pursuing freedom and democracy,” Ma said. “But years of martial law rule and cross-strait tensions have made us realize that this goal is unattainable without peace.”

Ma made the remarks while addressing the annual conference of Taipei-headquartered nongovernmental World League for Freedom and Democracy.

The event, held at the Grand Hotel in Taipei City, coincided with World Freedom Day, which is celebrated in the ROC and South Korea to mark the decision of 14,000 People’s Liberation Army soldiers to go to Taiwan instead of mainland China after being released as prisoners during the Korean War.

Ma's claim that the ROC was the first republic in Asia is laughable; I can think of two or three earlier ones. He makes this claim quite a bit, no one ever calls him on it.

A friend pointed out the obvious..... what did Ma say when he was inaugurated a second time:

"We hope the mainland can face some of the issues that have happened in the past and can treat dissidents well. We are looking at this from the point of view of kindness, not based on Western human rights values, but traditional Chinese values."

What was Ma talking about? Well, he's speaking at an event at a KMT landmark on a great day for the Chinese Nationalists. What can the reference to human rights possibly mean in that context, especially speaking to an organization formerly known as the Asian-Pacific Anti-Communist League, one of those far-right organizations that quietly proliferated in the bad old days?

Well, in what kind of talks would the KMT side be discussing human rights? Wouldn't need them for economic or cultural talks, the latter a topic just recently broached.

Oh yeah -- political talks. That's when they'd discuss human rights. But Ma has repeatedly promised no political talks.

Hopefully just the usual meaningless noise.
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Daily Links:

• Casino Developer says Matsu will get $2.5 billion in development money. Right. 
• Ma Ying-jeou to run again for KMT Chairman. In a professional political party, the Chairman and the President would be separate positions. DPP is same way, repeating the KMT mistakes.
• ROC unveils new minesweepers
• 2/3 of firms expect to lose staff to jobs in other Asian countries. D'oh. Pay in Taiwan is crap,  hours are unimaginable, no one can afford a house in Taipei, and prices are rising constantly. What did businesses think would happen in this crappy world they've created for Taiwanese workers?
• Taiwan conducts drill of Chinese attack on Hualien airbase.
• Japan expels "Taiwan" activists from Senkakus with water cannon.

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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! Delenda est, baby.

Three Days with FTV

This week I had the very great privilege of working on some travel segments for FTV. We visited tourist sites across southern Taiwan. It was really great seeing host Michella Jade Weng again and working with professionals in a demanding, high energy industry. It was also wonderful to return to Shuimen town and Sandimen on day 1, a place full of happy memories for me. Click on Read More for more!

FTV Again

Having a fun time in southern Taiwan with FTV and host Michella Jade Weng making some travel shows. Today we headed up to the mountains of Pingtung to visit some of the local aboriginal villages, including Dewen in the mountains above Sandimen. The drive up was a sphincter-clenching nightmare of poor road surfaces and long sheer drops on a steep temporary road, since the main road is under repair. The views were unparalleled however. Dewen is working to develop tourism promotion. They have nature walks and trails, and local teachers show how snares for large mammals and birds are set. I'll have pictures up later. We also got a taste of local foods. The foreground dish is a famous one, but the squash served topped with ground peanuts was a new and delicious experience. They also had a chicken soup flavored with coffee beans, which was actually surprisingly good. This evening finds me in Kaohsiung getting set for more local fun tomorrow. I'll be back posting on Thursday.

BTW, this is my first blogpost from my eeePC with Linux Mint 14 Cinnamon. I put an SSD drive in it, hoping to see if it can work as a travel computer. Very excited about entering the world of Linux, and jazzed to be seeing a command line again, ever so much faster than a GUI.

In the meantime, slurp up some links:
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Daily Links:

• How China was "lost": a new look at an old issue
• Taro town in Taiwan
• Hegemonic Warfare Watch: War of Words escalates in East Asia
• Oz impassioned over man busted for selling dog meat and and keep 400 dog penises
• The Ma Administration continues its strategy of irritating relations with Japan and the US by "not backing down" on the Senkakus.
• Philippine think tank doing feasibility study for Manila on Philippines-Taiwan FTA. Anyone remember when ECFA was going to bring us an avalanche of FTAs?
• Mormons lower age for female missionaries from 21 to 19, more missionaries forecast for The Beautiful Island. 
• Taiwan's Securities Laws and Reg translations updated.
• Ma running for KMT chairman again. KMT denies it will change the rules for him. Search your memories. Remember what happened the last time the KMT had an internal rule that prevented Ma from doing what he wanted to do? Hahahahaha.

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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! Delenda est, baby.