Cablegate: Media Reaction: Cross-Strait Relations

This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 TAIPEI 004188

SIPDIS

DEPARTMENT FOR INR/R/MR, EAP/TC, EAP/PA, EAP/PD - ERIC
BARBORIAK
DEPARTMENT PASS AIT/WASHINGTON

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: OPRC KMDR KPAO TW
SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION: CROSS-STRAIT RELATIONS

1. Summary: Major Chinese-language Taipei dailies
centered their coverage October 14 on President Chen
Shui-bian's meeting with DPP politicians Thursday
evening to discuss the party's reform plans, and
Academic Sinica President Lee Yuan-tseh's remarks
before the Legislative Yuan with regard to Taiwan's
educational reforms and his feelings toward the DPP
government. Both the pro-independence "Liberty Times"
and "Taiwan Daily" chose to report the contents of
Chen's meeting with the DPP politicians on their front
pages. The "Liberty Times" front-page headline said:
"[Vice President] Annette Lu Urges [the DPP] to Quickly
Push for a Cabinet Reshuffle," while the "Taiwan Daily"
ran a banner headline on its front page that read:
"Bian [Speaks of] the Kaohsiung KMT Scandal: Willing to
Step Down If Found to Be Linked with [the Scandal].
The centrist "China Times," in the meantime, reported
on Chen's meeting with the DPP politicians from a
different perspective. On its front page, the "China
Times" said the DPP's reform movement has intensified
factional conflicts within the party. The pro-
unification "United Daily News" highlighted on its
front and second page Academic Sinica President Lee
Yuan-tseh's remarks at the Legislative Yuan Thursday in
which he apologized for the failure of 10 years of
educational reform and expressed disappointment with
the ruling DPP government.

2. Several newspapers editorialized on the DPP's
possible involvement in some recent scandals, while
others focused on China's protests over President
Chen's appointment of Legislative Yuan President Wang
Jin-pyng to attend the upcoming APEC summit in Pusan.
A "Liberty Times" editorial discussed China's attempts
to manipulate Taiwan's year-end elections by
instructing Taiwan businessmen in China not to support
the pan-Green camp. A "Taiwan Daily" editorial
criticized the "Cross-Strait Peace Promotion Law"
initiated by the People First Party, calling it a bill
that will surrender Taiwan to China. End summary.

A) "It Is All Too Clear That China Is Attempting to
Extend Its Black Hand to Manipulate Taiwan's Elections"

The pro-independence "Liberty Times" [circulation:
600,000] editorialized (10/13):

"This newspaper reported Wednesday that China's Taiwan
Affairs Office and its Ministry of Foreign Trade and
Cooperation have summoned and met with several major
Taiwan businessmen in China over the past two months,
warning them not to support the pan-Green camp [in the
year-end elections] and `to restrain themselves' when
making political donations [to the pan-Green camp].
Chinese officials told these Taiwan investors in China
very clearly that the mayoral and magistrate elections
scheduled for the end of this year are closely related
to `Taiwan's presidential election' slated for 2008, so
they must not support the pan-Green camp in public. In
the meantime, Beijing is also gesturing welcomingly to
the pan-Blue mayors and magistrates in Taiwan.
Taichung Mayor Jason Hu already departed for China and
will discuss with Beijing [the plans to] send pandas to
Taiwan and to resume charter flights between Hong Kong,
Macau and Taichung's Chingchuangkang Airport. All
these gestures show that China's black hand has
intervened in our country's year-end elections and that
China has deliberately sought to act `in favor of' pan-
Blue candidates for the elections. China's intention
to dominate Taiwan's politics via elections is all too
clear. .

"Since democracy operates in a transparent way, it
naturally gives China plenty of opportunities to play
with the system. But it is mainly because of the awful
results caused by the ruling party's opening policy
that have turned the Taiwan businessmen in China into a
form of leverage in an attempt to influence Taiwan's
elections on behalf of China. This newspaper believes
that since Taiwan businessmen are shrewd in economic
activities, they are not dumb in political planning.
They must understand that only when Taiwan maintains
its independent sovereignty and is not annexed by China
can the island be their powerful support. ."

B) "If the Pan-Blue Camp Maneuvers to Pass the `Cross-
Strait Peace Promotion Law,' Which Attempts to
Surrender [Taiwan] to China, It Will Be Like Another
Form of `Coup'"

The pro-independence "Taiwan Daily" [circulation:
100,000] commented in an editorial (10/14):

". The People First Party's (PFP) version of the `Cross-
Strait Peace Promotion Law' is aimed at presenting an
ideological foundation and an actual implementation
procedure and agency for the so-called `peace progress
across the Taiwan Strait.' The principle ideology for
this bill is that Taiwan must uphold the `1992
Consensus' and `one China principle' as the standards
for negotiations between the two sides of the Taiwan
Strait. In order to serve such an end, the bill will
shift the powers of negotiations with China and
relevant policy making from the government to the so-
called `Special Committee for Cross-Strait Peace
Negotiations.'

"Both sides of the Taiwan Strait have not reached any
consensus on the `1992 Consensus' and `one China
principle' at all. In China's eyes, there is no such
thing as the legitimacy, sovereignty or status of the
Republic of China (ROC). For the international
community, if Taiwan agrees or even sticks to the `one
China' principle, the one China will naturally be the
People's Republic of China (PRC), and Taiwan or the ROC
will be automatically categorized as a province or
administrative region of the PRC. If that be the case,
Taiwan will be annihilated, and the ROC will be
annihilated, too. Such a principle [i.e. bill] of
surrender and betrayal of one's country is exactly the
`consensus' that the PFP wants all Taiwan people to
shoulder, and the `Cross-Strait Peace Promotion Law' is
the means that provides legal foundation for Taiwan
people to accept such a `consensus'. .

"The PFP's `Cross-Strait Peace Promotion Law' attempts
to use the power of legislation to replace the
government's administrative power and the power of the
Commander-in-Chief and to use lawmakers to replace the
government and the nation. It will be like another
form of coup if the bill is passed under the
maneuvering of the KMT and PFP. ."

PAAL

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