MEDIA REACTION: U.S.-CHINA RELATIONS, INTER-KOREAN

UNCLAS AIT TAIPEI 001165

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

DEPARTMENT FOR INR/R/MR, EAP/TC, EAP/PA, EAP/PD - LLOYD NEIGHBORS
DEPARTMENT PASS AIT/WASHINGTON

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: OPRC KMDR KPAO TW
SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION: U.S.-CHINA RELATIONS, INTER-KOREAN
RELATIONS, TAIWAN'S BID TO JOIN INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS


1. Summary: Taiwan's major Chinese-language dailies focused news
coverage May 24 on the assassination of a Taipei County councilor
Wednesday and on the sentencing of a person involved in a derailment
case in southern Taiwan in 2006. In terms of editorials and
commentaries, a column in the mass-circulation "Apple Daily"
commented on the U.S.-China Strategic Economic Dialogue. The
article called it "an endless strategic race" between Washington and
Beijing and said "substantive breakthroughs can hardly be expected."
An editorial in the centrist, KMT-leaning "China Times" discussed
inter-Korean relations and urged Taiwan to pay close attention to
the political and economic effects in Northeast Asia following the
railway link between South and North Korea. An editorial in the
limited-circulation, pro-independence, English-language "Taiwan
News" discussed Taiwan's bid to join international organizations.
The article urged the DPP government to continue its current
approach -- namely, use the name Taiwan in its bids to join
international organizations for the rest of 2007. In addition, the
pro-independence, English-language "Taipei Times" carried the
translation of a Wednesday editorial in its sister paper, "Liberty
Times," translated nearly full-text in yesterday's Media Reaction,
which commented on AIT Taipei Director Stephen Young's speech at
Taiwan's Chinese National Association of Industry and Commerce
Monday. End summary.


2. U.S.-China Relations

"U.S.-China Summit"

Columnist Antonio Chiang noted in the mass-circulation "Apple Daily"
[circulation: 520,000] (5/24):

"... China's rapid economic growth has been realized at the expense
of damage done to its natural and social environment. This is a
kind of growth that borrows or plunders [from its environment]. ...
The Hu [Jintao]-Wen [Jaibao] rule has long been busy handling [all
kinds of problems]. NOW that the United States is imposing pressure
[on China], these problems will surely grow worse, as China is NOW
under attack simultaneously from within and without. Given the
current trend, balanced trade between the two countries can hardly
be achieved, even if the growth rates of United States exports were
to quadruple. Moreover, Beijing is able to gain control of energy
supplies proactively from Africa, the Middle East, and Latin
America. Washington and Beijing are competing against each other
from Seoul to Sidney, and the trade imbalance is just part of [their
competition]. This is going to be an endless strategic race, and
substantive breakthroughs can hardly be expected."


3. Inter-Korean Relations

"Watch out for the Political and Economic Effects Following the
Opening of Railway Link between South and North Korea"

"... On Taiwan's part, it needs to pay close attention to the impact
produced by the opening of railway link between South and North
Korea on the geo-economics of the entire Northeast Asian region.
One must know that the border-crossing by South and North Korean
trains has in fact linked together the two vast economies of the
Korean Peninsula and China-Russia. ... Once this railway network
can be built up effectively, the 'Iron Silk Road,' which existed
only on paper, will be coming to life. Traveling [overland] from
Pusan, South Korea to the Netherlands' Amsterdam will no longer be
possible only in one's imagination. If one tries to look at this
situation from the geo-economic perspective, [one will see that] the
way people look at the map of Northeast Asia in the future will be
totally different from before. ...

"... [A]fter Seoul concluded the Free Trade Agreement with the
United States, South Korea's macro-national strategy to join the
ASEAN plus three is taking shape, and the development of this
railway net has already foretold such ambitions. It's time that
Taiwan raised its head and looked up at the changes that have been
happening in the outside world while it has been indulging in
infighting between the ruling and opposition parties!"

The centrist, KMT-leaning "China Times" [circulation: 400,000]
editorialized (5/24):


4. "Taiwan Must Keep Pressure on PRC"

The pro-independence, English-language "Taiwan News" [circulation:
20,000] editorialized (5/24):

"... Diplomatic confrontation between Taiwan and the Chinese
Communist Party-ruled People's Republic of China is inevitable, not
because Taiwan aims to 'make trouble' but because the PRC is
attempting to squeeze Taiwan and our 23 million people out of all
international organizations and the global society altogether, in
order to emphasize its claim that Taiwan is part of the PRC. The

RELATIONS, TAIWAN'S BID TO JOIN INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS

drive by 'authoritarian China' to render 'democratic Taiwan'
invisible in the global community has already put the health of the
people of the world at risk by excluding Taiwan from the WHO's
defensive net against outbreaks of dangerous diseases. This tactic
has reached new depths this week with a drive to further denigrate
and restrict Taiwan's participation in the World Organization for
Animal and Health (OIE). ...

"Although Taiwan's bid to join the WHO failed in form, the new
strategy exposed the violations of the WHO Secretariat made of the
organization's own constitution and of the 'Health for All'
principle in the course of bowing to Beijing's pressure. At the
very least, Taiwan's new appeal challenged the PRC's absurd
arbitrariness and arrogance in attempting to dictate to the WHO on
how to regulate the activities of another country, and thereby put
at risk the health of all the people in the world, as well as
violate the human and health rights of Taiwan's people. Besides
regaining the moral high ground and restoring our own self-dignity,
Taiwan's WHO membership drive did not spark a cross-strait conflict
or result in any harm to our parallel efforts to associate with the
World Health Assembly as an observer. ... We believe that the DPP
government should continue this approach for the rest of 2007, which
is both the last full year of Chen's term and the year running up to
the Beijing Summer Olympic Games slated for next August. ..."

YOUNG