Morning tea with Tsai Ing-wen

Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) spoke to a group of foreign residents in Taipei yesterday morning. She first spent some time outlining her vision for Taiwan before taking questions from the floor.  Tsai is currently on leave from her position as chair of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) as she competes in the party’s primary for the presidential nomination. The primary will be decided by opinion polls conducted in the next few days with the announcement of the result expected on 4 May.

In outlining her vision for Taiwan, Tsai focused mainly on relations with China and economic policy. She had some interesting ideas about Taiwan’s future economic development.

On the issue of jobs Tsai said, “We don’t have enough jobs and enough good jobs. Despite the fact you may be able to find a job, you may not be able to find a job with good pay. So the quality of jobs is important too.” Tsai then discussed how this was related to the structure of the economy. Since the 1990s as Taiwanese businesses and capital moved to China the restructuring of the economy was delayed.

This led to Tsai mentioning the effect of large numbers of Chinese tourists coming to Taiwan. “With the outward movement of industrial production to China we are exporting higher pay, better jobs to China. With the inflow of Chinese tourists we are actually importing lower pay service jobs,” Tsai said.

Tsai presented some of her ideas for creating better jobs in Taiwan. These revolved around promoting R&D industries and locating these in rural areas. She also mentioned encouraging artists to move to rural areas. Tsai also mentioned the importance of agriculture. She said Taiwan needs more professional farmers and that people from the cities need to move to the country to get involved in agriculture. These ideas are laudable but I would like to see some more concrete details of the policies.

Asia Pacific Greens Network Congress in Taipei

The Asia Pacific Greens Network Congress took place in Taipei from Friday through Sunday. It brought together members of Green parties and environmental activists from many countries throughout the Asia-Pacific region and also from Europe. I attended the conference on Saturday.

The focus of the day’s talks was climate change, particularly in the light of the failure of the COP15 meeting in Copenhagen last December to achieve a satisfactory outcome. The opening speech was given by Mr Apisai Ielemia, the Prime Minister of Tuvalu. Tuvalu is one of the smallest nations on Earth and also one of the most vulnerable to climate change. The people of Tuvalu must face not just the impacts of climate change but the possibility that their entire country may be submerged by rising sea levels.

Ielemia explained why he believed the talks in Copenhagen were a failure. He put the blame squarely on the USA, saying the Copenhagen Accord was hastily put together to cover over the lack of action by the USA and for President Obama to have something to take home for domestic political reasons.

A problem with the Accord is that it sets a target of below 2ºC for the peaking of global temperatures. “Recent science tells us that a global temperature peak of around two degrees is likely to cause Tuvalu to disappear under the sea. I was certainly not going to sign on to a document that would spell the end of Tuvalu,” Ielemia said.

Ielemia proposed that the continuation of the Kyoto Protocol and setting ambitious targets for this. “The Kyoto Protocol is the only international agreement that binds industrialised countries to emission reduction targets,” Ielemia said. He also said the UK government has expressed support for continuation of the Protocol and he hopes the rest of Europe will follow.

AIT Director speaks at NCCU

William Stanton, the Director of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT), gave a speech at the Institute of International Relations at National Chengchi University (國立政治大學) this morning. He addressed the topic of US-Taiwan relations highlighting the close ties between the two countries especially in the areas of education, trade and military exchanges.

Last week Taiwan lifted a ban on US beef imports that had been in place since 2003. This topic seems to be of great interest to the Taiwanese media and there were cameras from a number of Taiwan television stations present. (All the cameras left immediately after Stanton commented on the beef issue.)

Stanton addressed the beef issue early in his talk saying, “There’s never been one case of any person getting Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease from eating US beef. I’d like to point out in contrast that in 2008 1,034 people tragically lost their lives riding motorscooters in Taiwan. There really is no risk eating US beef.” He added that more than 50 countries in the world import US beef.

Stanton went on to discuss the close ties that exist between the US and Taiwan. He highlighted education and trade as key areas. The US has more trade with Taiwan than it does with India, Spain, Italy and Singapore. He noted Taiwan was once the largest source of foreign students for the US. It is currently ranked sixth even though it only has 23 million people.

Stanton noted the improvement in cross-strait ties. He said, “We believe that the improved relationship fosters stability. It makes Taiwan a more attractive place to invest and do business.”

Stanton said that improved cross-strait relations, “avoids the risk of miscalculation and potential conflict.” He added that, “The nature, the scope and the pace of that relationship is for the people of Taiwan to decide. Despite the warming trend, Taiwan’s sense of security — whether politically, economically or militarily — is certainly not as strong as it should be. Taiwan, in order to feel secure, needs friends and the United States will continue to be a dependable friend to Taiwan.”

This led to the security issue. Stanton said US policy is, “based on the Taiwan Relations Act which commits the United States to ensuring sufficient self-defense capability for Taiwan. We’re not going to waiver in that commitment.”  The issue of F-16’s was still under discussion, but he said that one year ago the US concluded a US$6.4 billion deal which provided Apache helicopters, Javelin anti-tank missiles, Harpoon missiles for ships, upgrades to the E-2 reconnaissance aircraft, Patriot PAC-3 missiles and also aircraft spare parts.

Stanton then emphasised that the security relationship was not just about weapons sales. He said, “It’s an ongoing dialogue. We have regular exchanges between our militaries.” He noted that some Taiwanese military personnel were receiving training and education in the United States.

Questions following Stanton’s talk gave NCCU students a great chance to ask a high ranking US diplomat about key issues in the US-Taiwan relationship.

A diplomacy student from the US asked what the US could learn from Taiwan’s development. He said that Taiwan’s healthcare system could be a model for the US.

Stanton replied, “The biggest lesson from Taiwan is the theme that President Obama is stressing, the need for education. A decision that Taiwan made early on was intensive high-level education and it has been a great formula for success.” On healthcare he said he personally supported the program President Obama was working on. He also cited a personal example of the high costs his daughter had faced for basic medical treatment in the US.

An exchange student from China said that Taiwan officials had said that Taiwan would be a peacemaker rather than a troublemaker in the Asia-Pacific region. However, the US arm sales to Taiwan contribute a potential threat that would make Taiwan a troublemaker.

On the US arms sales Stanton said, “It’s a two-way street. There are somewhere between a 1,000 and 1,400 missiles along the Chinese coast aimed at Taiwan. Taiwan feels very vulnerable. The mainland [sic] has never given up its policy of saying it would strike if independence were declared.”

“There hasn’t been much done by the mainland to reassure the people of Taiwan. It’s a US policy going back 30 years that we will support the self defense of Taiwan. The principle issue is the relationship between Taiwan and the mainland and the sense of threat that people here feel.”

Deepening democracy in Asia

A forum in Taipei yesterday titled “Democracy Building in Asia” brought together experts from Taiwan, the US and Asian countries. The forum was sponsored by the Heritage Foundation, Taiwan Foundation for Democracy (TFD) and the Institute for National Policy Research.

In one of the opening speeches John Chiang (蔣孝嚴), a Vice-Chairman of the KMT and board member of TFD, said it was timely to have the conference in Taiwan now that there have been two orderly and peaceful transitions of power and this shows that democracy can work in Asia.

Lin Wen-cheng (林文程), the President of TFD, speaking in the afternoon said that democratic countries should be more pro-active in promoting democracy in their foreign policy. Taiwan is the only country in Asia that has established a national foundation to promote democracy in the region. Lin said that other countries, especially Japan and South Korea, should establish similar organisations.

The need for greater regional efforts in promoting democracy was highlighted by the presentations of several foreign speakers. Malik Imtiaz Sarwar, President of the National Human Rights Society in Malaysia, said that Malaysia had a very good constitution that included a bill of rights when it obtained independence in 1957. However, since 1987 its democracy has been under attack. Malik emphasised the harm that had been done to the judiciary through sacking key judges who made decisions that went against the government and appointing crony judges.

Jarius Bondoc, a journalist from the Philippines, said that 67 journalists had been killed in the Philippines since 2001 and the harassment of journalists continues.

The first session in the morning was about legislative optimisation. It included talks by representatives of the Congressional/Parliamentary Research services from the US and India.

Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴), a former legislator and currently Director of International Affairs for the DPP, spoke about how procedure in Taiwan’s Legislative Yuan could be improved to consolidate democracy. She identified four categories for change: (1) electoral system, (2) structure of the Legislative Yuan, (3) accountability and (4) quality of legislation.

With regard to the electoral system she said the new system, first adopted in the 2008 election, resulted in a the KMT winning a large majority with many more seats than the percentage of their vote. Small parties were also locked out by the new system. I raised a question about exactly how the system should be improved. Bi-khim replied the issue is being discussed by the DPP but there is no consensus within the party. There is also no consensus between parties on the issue.

Bi-khim also discussed how there was a need to change the committee system in the legislature. The current system offers advantages to members of certain committees who can use them to secure projects for their electorates. There is no consideration of professional skills or seniority in assigning legislators to committees. The rotation of committee chairs also leads to inconsistencies.

As well as reform of the legislature, judicial reform was the topic in the final afternoon session. Dr Joseph Wu (吳釗燮), Taiwan’s former representative in Washington and now a professor at NCCU, said Taiwan has consolidated its democracy through two transitions of power, but there were still important issues that need to be resolved.

Wu highlighted the cases of the Kaohsiung MRT, Yunlin County Commissioner Su Chih-fen and former President Chen Shui-bian as examples of problems in the judicial system. He said there was a need for serious reform of the judicial system. In particular there needs to be better monitoring of judges, judges should not maintain close relationships with prosecutors, there should be presumption of innocence and the recruitment of prosecutors and judges needs to be reformed. There is also a need to revise the criminal procedure code to limit the detention period, Wu said.

Wu said the top leadership must recognise there is a problem with the judiciary and ask top officials to research and investigate this. The government must accept whatever recommendations are made and put them into place.

Other media: The Taipei Times published an article about the forum. The China Post also has a report. The Taiwan News has a related editorial today on reform of Legislative Yuan.

Poster presented at PNC, Academia Sinica

“The Right to Use Forest Resources: Atayal Culture and Smangus.” Poster presented at Pacific Neighbourhood Consortium (PNC) Annual Conference 2009 at Academia Sinica, Taipei, 6-8 October 2009.

View this document on Scribd

 

Poster presentation at anthropology conference

“Indigenous Rights in Taiwan and the Smangus Case.” Poster presented at the Society for East Asian Anthropology (SEAA) and Taiwan Society for Anthropology and Ethnology (TSAE) conference at Academia Sinica, Taipei, 2-5 July 2009.

View this document on Scribd

How the KMT constructs history

Last week I visited the KMT headquarters in Bade Road with some students from the Taiwan Studies program at NCCU. The ground floor is adorned with some large photos of Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國) commemorating the 100th anniversary of his birth. On the ground floor there is also a small museum of the history of the KMT. As one would expect Sun Yat-sen (孫中山), Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) and Chiang Ching-kuo all feature prominently. The narrative extends to Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) who is featured in many photographs depicting his presidential election campaign and subsequently as president.

But for those who know their Taiwanese history something is missing. Lee Teng-hui (李登輝), who served as the President of Taiwan and Chairman of the KMT from 1988-2000, can only be found in a handful of photos. Lien Chan (連戰), who succeeded Lee as KMT Chairman, features in more photos than Lee.

A 2008 pamphlet detailing the KMT’s history ( side 1 & side 2) also similarly neglects Lee’s role. It only has a single mention of him in a list of party leaders. The pamphlet doesn’t record that he was the first KMT leader ever elected as president through a popular vote. Nor does it mention the key role he played in leading Taiwan from the period of martial law to being a free and democratic country with its first democratic transition of power in 2000.

It is not just in the insular world of KMT headquarters that the party seeks to promote such a blinkered view of history though. A far more public struggle is currently going on over the naming and status of the former Jingmei Detention Centre in Taipei County. Many leading figures in the Tangwai movement, who later founded the DPP, were held there after the 1979 Kaohsiung Incident (美麗島事件). It was reopened as a Human Rights Memorial in December 2007.

I visited the Human Rights Museum several times after it opened. It was a profoundly moving experience that brought history to life. Prisons are places hidden behind barbed wire and walls and rarely looked into. To walk through the halls and look into the rooms is confronting and unsettling.

Now the KMT government has changed the name of this place from a human rights museum to the “Jingmei Cultural Park”. It wants it to be a place for artistic groups to practice and perform while removing things which are a reminder of the site’s dark past.

I wrote the Council of Cultural Affairs back in January about the museum’s closure but I never received a reply. The issue has been in the news in the last couple of weeks though. Yesterday human rights groups and associations of former political prisoners held a press conference to express their opposition to the government’s plan. The Taipei Times reported they had collected 400 signatures opposing the plan from DPP and KMT lawmakers, former political prisoners and 26 civic groups.

I visited the centre again today. A security guard initially told me that I could not enter because work was still going on, but after I challenged him he agreed that he had no right to stop me. Once inside I could access all parts of the site without any problems. The exhibition halls, which once had displays of the history of the White Terror period, have been cleared out. There was a small exhibition of art by students from NTNU on display in two of the halls.

A poster of Cheng Nan-jung (鄭南榕) still stands in one part of the prison, left over from an exhibition last year. It is as if Cheng’s defiant spirit lives on, unable to be silenced. Walking through the halls of the prison I read the names on the doors of the cells, luminaries in the history of Taiwan’s democratic movement: Shih Ming-teh (施明德), Annette Lu (呂秀蓮), Chen Chu (陳菊) and Wang Sing-nan (王幸男).

The Jingmei Detention Centre represents a profound and important part of Taiwan’s disturbing history. It must be preserved as a reminder of what happened during the period of White Terror. The KMT cannot simply erase the parts of history that don’t fit its grand narrative. Only by providing an honest and complete representation of Taiwanese history can it claim to genuinely represent the people of Taiwan.

Further reading

• Why Taiwan human rights history must be preserved – Taiwan News editorial
• 要人權！要歷史！要園區！ – 台灣人權促進會
• Taiwan Human Rights Memorial – photoset at flickr

Green Party protests to save tree in Taipei City

Green Party candidate for the Taipei City No. 6 District by-election, Calvin Wen (溫炳原), spent 26 hours in a camphor tree on the site of the Old Songshan Tobacco Factory (松山菸廠) in Taipei to protest and try to prevent its removal.

The protest began on Friday afternoon as Green Party Taiwan members discovered the last tree was about to be removed. Calvin was able to climb the tree with assistance from several other Green Party members who were  then removed from the site by police. An agreement was later reached with police to allow four people to accompany Calvin at the base of the tree. The Green Party argued that the removal of the tree was illegal as the the second environmental impact assessment for the site had not yet passed.

I heard the news of this incident on Friday night and went to the site early on Saturday morning. I found three people had slept outside the gate of the site on Guangfu South Road. I was able to enter the site around 8:00am and take some photos and talk to Calvin.

At 9:30am a TV crew from CTS (華視) arrived but police refused them entry to the site. Shortly after crews from PTS (公視) and SET (三立) also arrived and police continued to deny the media entry to the site. At about 10:00am a press conference was held outside the main gate to the site on Guangfu South Road.

Green Party Secretary-General Pan Han-shen (潘翰聲) said that this was a non-violent protest to protect the largest tree in the Taipei City lowland area. Protests to save trees began with the Chipko movement in India in 1973 and have since been carried out in many countries around the world. The site is being redeveloped as a 24 hour commercial facility in a BOT project. The Green Party and local residents have long campaigned for the site to become a park.

At 11:05am the police admitted media to the site, but all TV crews had left by that time. I was able to gain access to the site for the second time when I took the photo at the top of this post.

At 1:05pm two out of uniform police officers entered the site claiming they were going to take Calvin down from the tree. I believe one of these officers was the chief of the Xinyi District Police Headquarters. There was a subsequent flurry of phone calls and activity. Calvin called me to say the police said they were going to take him down from the tree and asked me to contact international media. Green Party supporters moved to the basketball courts on Zhongxiao East Road where there was a view of the tree.

 

It was during this time that police forcefully removed the two people who were accompanying Calvin. Calvin also began to climb higher in the tree at this time. The fire brigade also arrived during this time, bringing a hydraulic platform and other equipment. After a clash between protesters and police as firefighters brought equipment onto the site the police allowed media to enter the site 2:10pm. Several TV crews were there and I was able to enter with the media.

 

The fire brigade set two air cushions at the base of the tree for safety. The Xinyi District police chief climbed the tree to try to persuade Calvin to come down.

 

A hydraulic platform was put into place and at 3:20pm Calvin was brought down from the tree. At the same time several Green Party supporters ran onto the site in protest and were forcefully restrained by police.

As far as I know at no time during the incident did any officials from the Taipei City Government make any comment or attempt to address any of the legal issues regarding the removal of the tree. The Green Party plans to file a lawsuit against the Taipei City Government.

Update: A crew began work in the early hours of Sunday morning and removed the tree amidst protests by local residents and Green Party members.  In the afternoon I went to the gate on Guangfu South Road with three students to try to gain access to the site and photograph the tree after it had been moved. The previous day the Taipei City Education Department had said that people would be able to see the tree after it had been moved. One and a half hours of knocking on the gate and making polite requests was duly ignored by the police, City Government officials and staff inside. We were unable to gain access. The tree was visible on the back of a truck inside the site.

Links

• Green Party Taiwan halts tree removal at site of old Songshan Tobacco Factory – Taipei Times
• Green Party’s Calvin Wen forced down camphor tree – Taipei Times
• Taiwan environmentalists clash with police over old camphor tree – Taiwan News

Freedom House report released in Taipei

Freedom House released its Freedom in the World 2009 report [pdf] with a press conference at the Far Eastern Plaza Hotel in Taipei today. The event was hosted by the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy. The 2009 report found a decline in global freedom for the third consecutive year. Sub-Saharan Africa and the former Soviet states were the regions that saw the greatest decline. There was some improvement in freedom in South Asia.

Freedom House’s rankings are based on assessments of political rights and civil liberties. Scores range from one to seven with one being the most free. The average of the score for political rights and civil liberties determines whether a country is classified as free, partly free or not free. Countries such as Finland and Sweden rate the highest with scores of one for both categories. Sudan, Burma and North Korea rank the lowest with scores of seven in both categories. More details of the rankings for each country can be downloaded from Freedom House’s website. Taiwan’s score was the same as last year with a score of two for political rights and one for civil liberties for an overall rating of “free”.

I watched a live webcast of the press conference on the Wild Strawberry Movement’s channel. The conference began with an introduction by Christopher Walker, Director of Studies at Freedom House, and a summary of the key findings in the 2009 report. He also noted press freedom often provides an advance signal of declines in public freedoms. Press freedom has also been in decline.

Cycling the Northern Cross Island Highway

I set off at six o’clock on Monday morning to ride across the Northern Cross Island Highway. This road, which Taiwanese call the Bei Heng (北橫), begins at Daxi in Taoyuan County and goes across the mountains to Yilan. I stopped to eat breakfast somewhere on the road between Xindian and Sanxia. Once I rode through Sanxia the worst of the traffic and urban ugliness was behind me. The scenery on Route 7乙 between Sanxia consisted of small farms with bigger mountains off in the distance.

At Sanmin I joined the Route 7 proper passing by Fuxing and the Xiao Wulai waterfall which I had visited before. I stopped on the Luofu Bridge to take a few photos.

Beyond Luofu the road narrowed and you really had the sense of being in the mountains as the road travelled along the side of a steep valley. The next stop was in Ronghua at an altitude of 510 metres. The Leaf Cafe (葉子咖啡) was a perfect refuelling stop. I made fairly good time and not long after midday I rolled in to the small town of Baling where I had lunch. Baling has hot springs and several hotels and would make a good spot for an overnight stop if you are cycling at a more sedate pace.

Beyond Baling the road headed further upward. You are really in the mountains here and there is very little traffic on the road. At the higher elevations there are cypress trees. The road kept going up beyond the sign in the photo above. I believe the high point of the road is around 1,200 metres. At this altitude the temperature is also noticeably cooler especially when the clouds started rolling in the afternoon.

Around mid-afternoon I reached Mingchi. I arrived there at the same time as two other cyclists and they asked me if I would like to share a room with them. I was grateful for their kindness and company. They were also riding the Bei Heng, but at a slower pace having taken two days to get to Mingchi from Taipei. Mingchi has a beautiful resort set amongst the giant trees of the Ma-kau Ecological Park (馬告生態公園). After taking a shower there was still enough daylight to walk around the lake at Mingchi and enjoy the beautiful forest.

The next morning I was on the road before seven. The road was fairly level for a while before the long descent down to Yilan began. On the narrow mountain roads people generally drive slowly and carefully. It is amazing how two vehicles can pass each other when it seems so narrow. Many people also shouted out encouragement to me as they drove past.

The road descends to the valley of the Lanyang River and follows its banks until it reaches the Yilan Plain. When I got to Yilan there was an ominous looking black cloud to the north and shortly before I reached Jiaoxi it started raining. I took shelter and waited until the rain stopped. I rode through Jiaoxi and started to head along Route 9 to Pinglin. It started raining again. I stopped for a while, but then decided to push on rain, hail or shine. The “nine turns and eighteen bends” afforded some wonderfully dramatic views of Toucheng and the ocean.

When I rolled into Pinglin for a late lunch the roads were finally dry even if I wasn’t. After a hearty lunch I started on the home stretch along a familiar road. A large golden statue of Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva stands guard over the road on the climb up from Pinglin. It was still a bit further to the top of the hill but then it was a nice easy downhill run home.

The two day ride was a great experience and the forest and mountain scenery was especially beautiful. I should add that it is possible to take your bikes back to Taipei on the Capital Bus (首都客運) from Jiaoxi or Yilan if you don’t want to ride over Route 9 or one of the other routes.

中文：跨越北橫的單車日記