US embassy cable - 05TAIPEI3783

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 TAIPEI 003783 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR INR/R/MR, EAP/RSP/TC, EAP/PA, EAP/PD - 
ERIC BARBORIAK 
DEPARTMENT PASS AIT/WASHINGTON 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: OPRC, KMDR, KPAO, TW 
SUBJECT: CORRECTED MEDIA REACTION: U.S. ARMS SALES TO 
TAIWAN, WAR ON TERRORISM 
 
 
1. Summary: The coverage of major Chinese-language 
Taipei dailies focused September 10-12 on local 
politics; a Taipei District Court ruling in which Kuro, 
Taiwan's most popular peer-to-peer software company, 
was found guilty of intellectual property rights (IPR) 
infringement; a local feud over sperm-harvesting; and 
Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's landslide 
victory in its general election.  The pro-independence 
"Liberty Times,' Taiwan's biggest daily, was the only 
newspaper to run a banner headline on its page two that 
read: "[Taiwan's] Minister of Foreign Affairs was 
searched by U.S. security personnel [at the airport 
last May] while transiting the United States."  The 
newspaper spent almost the whole of its page two 
discussing the issue and citing a similar experience by 
First Lady Wu Su-chen three years ago. 
 
With regard to the U.S. arms procurement bill, both the 
pro-unification "United Daily News" and the centrist 
"China Times" reported in their inside pages September 
10 that PFP Chairman James Soong asserted that there 
may be NT$200 billion-worth of kickbacks in the U.S. 
arms procurement bill. 
 
2. Only one Chinese-language newspaper editorialized on 
U.S. arms sales to Taiwan September 10-12.  An 
editorial in the pro-independence "Taiwan Daily" called 
on Taiwan's Defense Ministry to use concrete evidence 
to fight James Soong's false accusations.  An editorial 
in the limited-circulation, conservative, pro- 
unification (English-language) "China Post" criticized 
the U.S.-led war on terrorism, saying the global anti- 
terrorist campaign has fallen far short of the noble 
objectives the United States has tried to achieve.  End 
summary. 
 
1. U.S. Arms Sales to Taiwan 
 
"[Taiwan's] Defense Ministry Should Stand up and Fight 
James Soong's False Accusation about [the Government 
Taking] Kickbacks in Arms Deals" 
 
The pro-independence "Taiwan Daily" [circulation: 
100,000] editorialized (9/11): 
 
". As a matter of fact, the three arms procurements 
with the United States are different from ordinary arms 
deals.  They are arms deals between Taiwan and the U.S. 
governments, whereas the ordinary arms deal is made 
between arms dealers and may easily involve problems 
like commissions or kickbacks.  With arms procurements 
between two governments, there are no problems with 
kickbacks.  [PFP Chairman] James Soong is clearly aware 
of this, but still, he used `kickbacks' remarks to 
undermine the government's prestige and falsely 
accused, without providing any evidence, [the 
government of taking] kickbacks and [claimed that] the 
price tags for the arms procurements are too high.  The 
Defense Ministry should not overlook these unreasonable 
and serious accusations and should publicly clarify the 
situation by offering concrete evidence in order to 
fight Soong's accusations and let the Taiwan public 
understand the truth. ." 
 
2. War on Terrorism 
 
"Taking Stock of U.S.-led War against Terrorism" 
 
The conservative, pro-unification, English-language 
"China Post" [circulation: 30,000] commented in an 
editorial (9/12): 
 
". The global anti-terrorist campaign has fallen far 
short of the noble objective the United States has 
tried to achieve.  No actual combat has taken place, 
but American troops have to be deployed in Afghanistan 
and Iraq to keep peace and prop the two unworkable 
`democratic' governments in Kabul and Baghdad.  Suicide 
bombings continue to bleed the Anglo-American 
peacekeeping forces, and the Western world, the United 
Kingdom in particular, lives under threat of terrorism, 
the removal of which is the aim of the two invasions. 
 
"What went wrong?  American war strategies have never 
tried to learn historical lessons.  President Lyndon B. 
Johnson blundered into the Vietnam War in 1964, and it 
took ten years for Washington to finally extricate 
itself from the Southeast Asian quagmire, after tens of 
thousands of troops had been killed and wounded.  The 
Soviet Union had its Vietnam War in Afghanistan, which 
started in 1978 and, in the end, wound up with the 
Taliban in power.  Former President George H. W. Bush, 
was successful in driving the invading army of Saddam 
Hussein out of Kuwait but his Operation Desert Storm 
ended without American troops marching on Baghdad in 
1989. 
 
"President George W. Bush failed to learn from his 
father.  When the Gulf War started, the United States 
had all the justifications to attack and topple Saddam 
Hussein.  The Arab world, with the exception of the 
Hashmite Kingdom of Jordan, supported the American war 
that aimed at liberating oil-rich Kuwait from its 
jingoistic neighbor.  The Iraqi army was routed, and 
the American soldiers could have taken Baghdad and the 
Iraqi despot without any difficulty.  The older Bush 
stopped the war, knowing full well the toppling of 
Saddam Hussein would saddle the United States with many 
more difficulties than keeping the Iraqi tyrant in 
Baghdad.  The conflict in Iraq now looks every bit like 
the Vietnam War minus actual combat.  The only comfort 
is that, unlike in Vietnam, there is no North Iraq 
which might try to gobble up a South Iraq. 
 
"If the Americans leave Iraq now or in a couple of 
years, maybe by 2009, the country will remain just as 
strife-torn as it is now without Saddam Hussein 
policing his domain with a brutal hand.  But it will 
still be one country." 
 
KEEGAN