MEDIA REACTION: G-20 SUMMIT

UNCLAS AIT TAIPEI 001622 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: G-20 SUMMIT Summary: Taiwan's major Chinese-language dailies focused news coverage November 18 on the Cabinet's plan to issue consumption vouchers to the general public; on the controversy of the four agreements signed recently between Taiwan and China; and on the state of former President Chen Shui-bian's health after Chen started a hunger strike subsequent to his detention. In terms of editorials and commentaries, an op-ed in the pro-unification "United Daily News" said Chinese President Hu Jintao attended the G-20 Summit because he wants to obtain a better understanding of U.S. President-elect Barack Obama and the latest U.S. political situation. An editorial in the conservative, pro-unification, English-language "China Post" criticized the United States for being the culprit of the global financial crisis, but one can only wait until President-elect of the United States Barack Obama assumes office to solve the problem. End summary. A) "Obama, Hu Jintao, Will There Be Sparks Coming out When They Meet?" Chen Yu-chun, a Taiwan academic now working as a senior research fellow at China's Tsinghua University, opined in the pro-unification "United Daily News" [circulation: 400,000] (11/18): "[Chinese President] Hu Jintao recently attended the summit initiated by [U.S. President George W.] Bush to tackle the financial crisis. Hu did so first because of China's position in the global economic system nowadays, and second because he wanted to use this opportunity to obtain a better understanding of the latest U.S. political situation and to observe [U.S. president-elect] Barack Obama more closely. For Hu, Obama will be his rival in wrestling for power over the next four years. As a result, Obama's understanding of China, his views about geopolitics, U.S. power and the international system have all added to make Beijing feel that it is necessary to evaluate the possible challenges the Obama Administration might pose to Chinese power. ... "Finally, of course there is the Taiwan issue and the U.S. arms sales to Taiwan. Even though both Beijing and Washington emphasize the importance peaceful dialogue across the Taiwan Strait, U.S. strategic interests lie with 'no unification and no independence,' whereas China's national strategic goal is to 'oppose independence and facilitate unification.' Evidently potential dangerous clashes lie [ahed]. The Obama camp has stressed the importance of the Taiwan Relations Act, but there are two kinds of views [within the camp]: One believes that [Washington] can restrain its arms sales to Taiwan, and the other advocates that [Washington] play the Taiwan card to restrain China. Beijing, in particular the Chinese military, is opposed to the Taiwan Relations Act. Even though Hu expressed his expectations for [the future of] Sino-U.S. relations when Obama was elected, both sides are still in the break-in process; whether sparks will fly between the two is an uncertainty factor." B) "Waiting for Obama to Lead" The conservative, pro-unification, English-language "China Post" [circulation: 30,000] editorialized (11/18): "The emergency meeting of world leaders in Washington over the weekend was a success because everybody who should be there was there and a failure because its goal, producing a plan to arrest the worsening global financial crisis, was beyond reach. Not that the 20 presidents or prime ministers did not have plans to tackle the crisis, but because the host country, the world's undisputed leader since WWII, did not have a clear leader to take charge -President Bush is leaving office in 60 days and it is unconstitutional for president-elect Barack Obama to step in before Bush leaves. So the world's worst financial crisis in 80 years must wait. ... "The leaders also agreed that a dramatic failure of market oversight in 'some advanced countries' was among the root causes of the financial crisis, an implicit rebuke of the United States. ... The final communique was significant in what it did not include. There was no mention of the creation of a global financial market enforcer as demanded by emerging countries but opposed by the U.S." YOUNG