MEDIA REACTION: CROSS-STRAIT TRADE

UNCLAS AIT TAIPEI 002626 SIPDIS DEPARTMENT FOR INR/R/MR, EAP/TC, EAP/PA, EAP/PD - SCOTT WALKER DEPARTMENT PASS AIT/WASHINGTON SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: OPRC KMDR KPAO TW SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION: CROSS-STRAIT TRADE ¶1. Summary: Taiwan's major Chinese-language dailies gave significant coverage August 4 to a Supreme Administrative Court ruling Thursday, which voided a controversial partnership between the Ministry of Transportation and Communications and a local company on the operation of the highway electronic toll collection system. News coverage also focused on Premier Su Tseng-chang's clarification of his 'revisionist line,' and President Chen Shui-bian's continued efforts to clarify the details of the Presidential Office's special state affairs expense account. The pro-unification "United Daily News" ran a banner headline on page four that read "Fixing Su's Revisionist Line? Bian Determines Cross-Strait Trade and Economic [Policy]." The pro-status quo "China Times," on the other hand, front-paged an exclusive story about a possible reshuffle of the Cabinet's economic and financial chiefs. Most papers also reported in inside pages remarks by Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Thomas Christensen Thursday before the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission. Christensen said the U.S. views the possible visit by China's Taiwan Affairs Council Director Chen Yunlin to Taiwan as a positive development and will continue to urge China to engage in direct dialogue with Taiwan's duly-elected leaders. ¶2. In terms of editorials and commentaries, an editorial in the pro-independence "Liberty Times," Taiwan's biggest daily, urged Premier Su to use concrete action to strive for the sustainable development of Taiwan's economy. An editorial in the limited-circulation, pro-independence, English-language "Taiwan News" also praised Su for holding his line on the ceiling on investments in China. End summary. A) "Premier Su Should Use Concrete Action to Strive for Sustainable Development of Taiwan's Economy" The pro-independence "Liberty Times" [circulation: 600,000] editorialized (8/4): "... Indeed, people in Taiwan are basically divided into two rival camps: the pro-China one and the nativist one. The former camp calls for complete leaning toward and opening to China, viewing the Chinese market as the only place on which Taiwan's future hinges, while the other camp sticks to the 'Taiwan first' idea and the nativist line, and pushes for sustainable development of Taiwan's economy, in order to consolidate nativist values and Taiwan-centered consciousness. The two camps have completely different thoughts about Taiwan's future. Some people have labeled the nativist line as fundamentalist, meaning that they determine economic affairs with their ideology, whereas the pro-China camp was described as pragmatic, as if these people use reason to think about cross-Strait relations. But the truth is just the opposite. Since cross-Strait economics is essential to Taiwan's survival, the nativist camp -- which wants to ensure Taiwan's survival and development and is undeceived by the myth of the Chinese market -- is the real pragmatist. The pro-China camp, which indulges in wishful thinking about China and totally disregards China's threats to Taiwan's survival ... is actually the authentic fundamentalist. ... Luckily, Premier Su also understands the ill intentions of the pro-China media and the negative impact of the 'Su revisionist line.' Premier Su should thus not only orally reiterate his insistence on the 'Proactive Management' policy, but also use concrete action to manifest the nativist line. Only by doing so can he remove other people's doubts and set a solid foundation for the sustainable development of Taiwan's economy." B) "Su Merits Praise for Holding Line on PRC Ceiling" The pro-independence, English-language "Taiwan News" [circulation: 20,000] editorialized (8/4): "We strongly approve of Wednesday's decision by Premier Su Tseng-chang that the Democratic Progressive Party-led Cabinet will SIPDIS not lift the so-called 'ceiling' on foreign investment by Taiwan publicly listed companies into the hostile People's Republic of China. ... As was entirely predictable, business calls for a lifting of the investment ceiling, which really benefits only large scale Taiwan conglomerates, and immediate direct air passenger links with the PRC were met with intense opposition from delegates representing labor, social welfare groups, environmentalists and many lawmakers from the pan-green Taiwan Solidarity Union and the DPP itself. ... "We also urge business leaders and their media spokespersons to abandon 'semantic games,' such as the convoluted claim that the DPP administration should lift the ceiling because a ban on such a move did not receive 'consensus' support. The best way that proponents can build support for a lifting of the ceiling is to comply with the consensus of the 'global deployment and cross-strait economics' section of the conference on the construction of a genuinely effective risk management mechanism and show in action their willingness to 'invest in Taiwan first' without demanding that Taiwan society reduce our standards of wages, environmental protection or the human and civic rights of domestic and foreign labor in exchange." YOUNG