US embassy cable - 05TAIPEI4188

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, Cross Strait Politics 
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