Ma sell out Taiwan

Taipei Times - archives
The second round of negotiations on a proposed economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) with China opened yesterday in Dasi (大溪), Taoyuan County, amid scuffles between police and protesters who accused the government of attempting to sell out Taiwan.

China threat

Taipei Times - archives
“The PLA has focused considerable effort on building up its integrated air defense capabilities and has deployed an increasing number of upgraded Russian SA-20 PMU 2 along the Taiwan Strait,” Admiral Robert Willard said, ­confirming ­earlier reports by a Canadian defense magazine that said China has deployed eight battalions of advanced missile systems in Fujian Province.

Liar KMT still a liar

Taipei Times - archivesIt may be too much to ask KMT legislators not to defend their government’s policies, but for legislators to blindly stand behind any policies proposed by their party without prioritizing voters’ interests is delinquency. It is equally unacceptable for them to support motions that would institutionalize — by signing into law — discriminatory policies.

justice

Taipei Times - archivesFor example, Huang promised in the report that if anyone violates the principle of confidentiality in ongoing investigations, he would immediately look into the legal implications for their behavior in criminal and administrative law. This is a step in the right direction, although it might be difficult to put into practice. However, he will be able to win the public’s approval if he gives assurances that he will step down of his own accord if there are more information leaks even after he has had a shot at reprimanding previous offenders. It should also keep the people working for him in check.

liar ECFA

Taipei Times - archives“People in Taiwan are very much concerned about an ECFA, but strangely the government is keeping them in the dark,” he said during an interview in Washington, where he is currently visiting family.

China rolls out sticks and carrots

Taipei Times - archivesPublished on Taipei Times
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/editorials/archives/2010/03/11/2003467715

China rolls out sticks and carrots
By Paul Lin 林保華

Thursday, Mar 11, 2010, Page 8

China wants to absorb Taiwan. That’s its policy, which it calls “complete reunification” (完全統一). The policy will change as circumstances change. The basic strategy is a two-pronged approach of military force and the so-called “united front strategy,” a classic carrot-and-stick policy that is manifested in a variety of ways. Intimidation by violence is relatively simple, but Beijing can be more creative with the carrots.

What is the united front strategy? Put simply, it’s the use of underhanded tactics to divide the enemy, win over the majority and come down on the minority, in order to crush both — divide and conquer. In the past it spouted noble concepts like equality and justice, but then the world found out how Beijing ruled its own country. After that, it needed to offer some incentives to implement the united front policy. It had little choice.

Beijing has used these incentives to lure Taiwanese businesspeople, and dangled other carrots to tempt the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) to move from opposing the communists to colluding with them. Fast forward to when President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) came to power, and even Beijing was surprised by how pro-China his administration became.

And so Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) collects incentives he can parcel out to Ma so he can keep up the litany of demands. An example is the promise to reduce restrictions on tourists, which fell through, leaving Ma having to make more concessions.

The same is happening with the signing of an economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA). Meanwhile, we have not seen an actual improvement in diplomatic relations since Ma gave up and conceded to the use of “Chinese Taipei.”

There have been improvements in other regards, in that Ma is being rewarded for pressing on with his pro-China stance, but only because this very stance is being met with fierce opposition in Taiwan, and Ma’s popularity is sinking like a stone. These rewards are an emergency measure to prevent the government from crashing.

During the Typhoon Morakot disaster in August, Beijing offered to help, ostensibly to help the rescue efforts, but actually to gather some intelligence. When the US got wind of this it rushed a US rescue team to Taiwan to diffuse a potential crisis. Beijing wasn’t happy, and is still fuming.

In mid-November, Zheng Bijian (鄭必堅) from Hu’s staff came to Taipei with some retired generals to take part in the first round of cross-strait talks, where they blasted the pro-independence faction. One week later, Chinese Major General Luo Yuan (援), a known hawk, publicly accused Ma of following a policy of “peaceful secession” with his “three noes” — no unification, no independence, and no use of force — obliging Ma to backtrack.

Then there was another perceptible shift. When China’s Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait Chairman Chen Yunlin (陳雲林) made his second visit to Taiwan, he was met not only by protests from Taiwanese but also Ma’s inability to quell unrest within his own party. When the US sold arms to Taiwan, Beijing blamed the US for selling, not Ma for buying, making allowances for him.

During the Lunar New Year break Hu went to Fujian to address Taiwanese businesspeople there, dangling still more carrots. After this, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao (溫家寶) made concessions to speed up the ECFA process.

Wouldn’t it be nice if these were offered with no strings attached? Unfortunately, there were two conditions: First, Taiwan was to accept the “one China” principle, and second, China was to get something in return down the road.

For the first condition, Beijing was not actually asking for a written acceptance of the “one China” principle, but more of a tacit agreement — which would have gone on record nonetheless — and a public announcement that Taiwan accepted the principle. Although this would not be a formal agreement, the government would have a difficult time backtracking on it and would end up hoist by its own petard.

For the second condition, Beijing stands to lose precious little, but gain a huge amount. It says there will be a temporary ban on importing Chinese agricultural products in Taiwan, but this means the Taiwanese market will be flooded in the future, putting local farmers at a distinct disadvantage, unless the ECFA includes a clause stating the ban would be in place for 50 years. This is another reason why we need a referendum on the ECFA.



Paul Lin is a political commentator.

TRANSLATED BY PAUL COOPER
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liar ma

Taipei Times - archives

http://help.funp.com/lib/exe/fetch.php/funp/tools/tools_postbtn_script.png?cache=cacheWhen Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國) was president of Taiwan, he introduced a policy called “innovation and protection of Taiwan” in response to the political situation at the time. Writing about the Kaohsiung Incident in Biographical Literature magazine, Ruan Da-ren (阮大仁), who had close connections with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), made some interesting revelations. Apparently, when the incident broke out, Chiang’s Taiwanese staff were sickened by what was happening. There was one voice among them, that of Hsieh Tung-min (謝東閔), the first Taiwanese to serve as vice president, who suggested “the firing squad for the lot of ’em.”

228 massacre

Taipei Times - archivesThe 228 Incident of 1947 has been interpreted in different ways, depending on the changing political environment and varying political standpoints. During the martial law period, starting from the time of the 228 Incident itself, the ruling Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) offered two official explanations.