MEDIA REACTION: BEIJING OLYMPICS

UNCLAS AIT TAIPEI 001216 SIPDIS DEPARTMENT FOR INR/R/MR, EAP/TC, EAP/PA, EAP/PD - NIDA EMMONS DEPARTMENT PASS AIT/WASHINGTON E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: OPRC KMDR KPAO TW SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION: BEIJING OLYMPICS Summary: Taiwan's major Chinese-language dailies continued to focus August 14 news coverage on the Beijing Olympics and on President Ma Ying-jeou's transit stops in the United States Tuesday. An editorial in the pro-independence, English-language "Taiwan News" discussed the Beijing Olympics and said U.S. President George W. Bush's statement made in Bangkok on cross-Strait situation "signals that Taiwan may well be slated to be used as a bargaining chip to realize 'peace in our times' with a rising authoritarian power." End summary. "Olympic Games Mask PRC Rights Crisis" The pro-independence, English-language "Taiwan News" [circulation: 20,000] editorialized (8/14): "... However, the fact that PRC has fulfilled virtually none of its promises has not impeded world democratic leaders, such as United States President George W. Bush and French President Nichols Sarkozy, from eschewing calls by the global human rights community to refrain from attending the lavish opening spectacle. Instead, fearful of offending this rising military and economic powerhouse, world leaders have had shown more enthusiasm to rush to Beijing to endorse the authoritarian CCP regime than attending the 2004 Olympics in Greece, the birthplace of democracy. ...'' "The declaration by Bush in Bangkok on the eve of the Beijing Olympics that cooperation with the PRC had succeeded in 'ensuring peace in the Taiwan Strait' for the price of explicit opposition by Bush to 'Taiwan independence' signals that Taiwan may well be slated to be used as a bargaining chip to realize 'peace in our times' with a rising authoritarian power. Only continued efforts by the world community in word and action to pressure Beijing to fulfill its human rights commitments and clear demonstration of the resolve of the 23 million Taiwan people to protect our democracy and autonomy can prevent the Beijing Olympics from following the example of the Berlin Games and becoming the prelude to a strengthening of authoritarianism in China and sentencing Taiwan to becoming another Czechoslovakia." YOUNG