There is trouble in Taiwan…and naturally, the regime in Beijing is part of the mix.  Of course, Beijing is part of the mix in many troubled parts of the world, usually where thugs and chaos rule.  But in this case it is Taiwan, a young representative democracy that so obviously functions as an independent state except for the  significant fact that Communist China claims sovereignty over its territory and citizens.

On March 22, Taiwan held a presidential election. Ma Ying-Jeou of the Nationalist Party (Kuomintang, or KMT) defeated the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) candidate. It was Taiwan’s second peaceful transfer of party power through democratic elections, which can generally be viewed as an excellent sign of a healthy and maturing democracy.  Unfortunately, a recent (and rare) visit to Taiwan by an official from the communist People’s Republic of China (PRC)  has resulted in President Ma and the KMT run Taiwan government acting to appease Beijing at the expense of the democratic values of free and open expression, freedom of assembly and the rule of law.

This should be seen as a significant step backwards by the new Taiwanese government in cross-Straight relations, and a threat to Taiwan’s hard won democracy.

Earlier this month,  China’s head Taiwan negotiator, Chen Yunlin of the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS) traveled to Taiwan…the highest ranking Communist Chinese official to visit Taiwan in over a half-century.  The visit sparked large scale protests against Communist China by Taiwanese citizens.  In response the Ma administration sent in security forces to suppress the protests and ensure that the Communist official didn’t have to experience any uncomfortable pro-independence moments.

According to the China Post:

The most senior Communist Chinese official to visit Taiwan bid farewell to the island Friday, saying his historic trip was a success but that the rivals had a long road to travel toward better relations.

The official, Chen Yunlin, signed a landmark trade deal during his five-day trip, but his mission also sparked daily street protests that were often violent.

Before he left for the airport, Chen thanked the thousands of police who were deployed in the capital, Taipei, to protect him. In a possible dig at the protesters, Chen assured the Taiwanese that if they visit China, they will see “harmony everywhere.”

So just what did those thousands of police have to do to earn the gratitude of the representative from Beijing?  Here is a summary of a portion of the egregious behavior, from an e-mail from a member of the Formosan Association for Public Affairs (FAPA).

I. Incident regarding the Suppression of Freedom of Speech During Chen’s visit to Taiwan, the Ma administration commanded over ten thousand police officers to keep protesters away from the places that Chen planned to visit. Protestors were making nonviolent demonstrations, demanding reparation from the Chinese government for the export of melamine-tainted dairy products to Taiwan and expressing opposition against China’s intention to take possession of Taiwan.

The police unconstitutionally prohibited protesters from accessing the restricted areas and destroyed protesters’ banners, signs, balloons, and any other materials bearing political statements. In addition, police officers stormed into a record store near Chen’s reception site and forced the owners to turn off a radio that was playing Taiwanese human right songs that might disgruntle Chen.

These actions manifest the Ma administration’s deplorable suppression of freedom of speech. Furthermore, the Ma Government violated people’s freedoms by drawing security lines to restrict the protesters from certain government-controlled areas, without providing sufficient explanation for the restrictions. In response to the protests, Ma simply explained to the Taiwanese media that “freedom of speech only exists outside of the security lines.”

II. Incident regarding the Violation of Due Process of Law During Chen’s visit in Taiwan, the Ma Government searched pedestrians and their vehicles on the streets without any warrants or reasonable suspicion. The purpose of the search was not to find weapons or drugs but to remove banners, signs, balloons, and other forms of political expression. Furthermore, the police also used brutal violence to expel the protesters. Such acts and conducts represent a serious violation of due process of law.

Other instances of blatant human rights violations included clearing out the international airport and the highway of cars, including those of the media; prohibiting people from waving national flags and from saying that “Taiwan is not a part of China;” taking away people who held DVs shooting near Yuan Shan area; and destroying balloons with “lack of conscience” written on them. The police have also removed banners in support of Tibet independence from motorcycles based on the unfounded premise that they violate the Assembly and Parade Law.

On November 7, FAPA released a statement from some nineteen Taiwanese-American organizations blasting the Ma administration’s tactics.  The statement reads in part:

The undersigned are deeply saddened by, concerned with and outraged at the unjustified actions taken by the Ma Ying-jeou administration to suppress mass protests during the visit of China’s ARATS Chairman Chen Yunlin to Taiwan.

We are saddened because the Ma administration, in order to embrace this Chinese Communist representative, has violated and stripped the human rights (particularly the right of freedom of speech) of those who wished to demonstrate their love for Taiwan through waving flags, playing Taiwanese songs and other peaceful ways and means.

We are concerned because the Ma administration, in order to protect this Chinese Communist representative, ordered 7,000 police and rendered Taiwan a “police state”, a phenomenon only seen in an authoritarian country.

We are outraged because democracy, freedom, human rights and the rule of law that were earned with blood and tears by our Taiwanese forebears have been trampled upon in recent days. Taiwan has seemed to revert to the days of Martial Law when there was no freedom of speech, no personal liberties, no freedom of association but only the confrontation between the police force and public.

The Ma administration knows that the majority of the Taiwanese people do not support a rapid pro-China policy. Yet his administration decided to go ahead with hosting the meeting between Chen and Taiwan’s SEF chief Chiang Pin-kung. This decision is to deliberately provoke the Taiwanese people, divide the Taiwanese society and attack Taiwan’s fragile and hard-fought democracy. We strongly condemn the KMT government’s China policies and protest the government for denying Taiwan’s sovereignty and ignoring Taiwan’s human rights, freedom and democracy.

Whole statement available here.

Stay tuned.

In the October 30 Wall Street Journal Asia, the Cato Institute’s Ted Galen Carpenter writes:

Officials in Washington and Beijing seemed relieved when Taiwan’s moderate Kuomintang took control of the legislature earlier this year and Ma Ying-jeou was elected president. But that optimism is fading fast as China’s lack of meaningful concessions has undermined Mr. Ma’s political position. It’s becoming clear that the Taiwan side has done all it can so far. The next steps will depend on Beijing.

Don’t hold your breath.  Really, what motivation does China have to concede to Taiwan anything “meaningful” at all?   Most all of the West–and certainly the United States specifically– and the United Nations as a body,  routinely kowtows to Beijing’s ludicrous claim over Taiwan and stands mutely by while China marginalizes Taiwan’s efforts at international recognition.  Carpenter notes that China has been willing to play along around the edges, such as the establishment of direct air links between Taiwan and Mainland China.  But what about the big things…like Beijing’s threats of annihilation against Taiwan?

Carpenter continues:

So it’s important that Mr. Ma be able to show voters he’s not simply making an endless series of one-sided concessions. Yet Beijing hasn’t been willing to play ball so far. Despite repeated calls in Taiwan for Beijing to remove the more than 1,200 missiles aimed at the island, Chinese leaders show no inclination to reduce that number. Nor has Beijing shown any willingness to allow Taiwan to become a member of the World Health Organization or other international bodies. That unresponsiveness plays into the hands of DPP hardliners who argue Taiwan has gained little from Mr. Ma’s conciliatory efforts.

On his blog, Tom Palmer from the Cato Institute points to an essay from the China Daily on the difficulty of being gay in China.  From the essay:

Last November, government agencies published a report that put the number of gay men in China who are “of a sexually active age” at 5-10 million. Scientists say this is the low end of the estimate. They figure that there are around 30-40 million homosexual men and women in total.

In 1997, China’s Criminal Law decriminalized sodomy. In 2001, homosexuality was removed from the list of mental disorders by health authorities.

But the changing law does not necessarily change public perception. Most gay people interviewed for this story agree that the single biggest source of pressure and stigma comes from their own families. “My employer doesn’t care about my private life, and the neighbourhood grandma is not nosy any more. But there’s no way I can get past my own mum and dad,” said Lu Youni, a Guangzhou high school teacher.

While a sypathetic piece, it does not quite tell the whole story.  As Palmer notes on his blog, “It’s discreetly not mentioned, but the situation is infinitely preferable to the public executions to which gay people were sentenced in the old days. What’s missing from an otherwise interesting story is any explanation of why things have been changing in China.”  Palmer then recounts a story:

My friend Zhou Xiao (those of us who have difficulty pronouncing Chinese names call her “Kate”) told me in Shanghai in 1997 that she was convinced that “China will never go communist again.” I asked her why she was so sure and she announced that she (and her very patient husband) had already been in Shanghai for a week doing field research on on changing public attitudes in China and they had found that “Shanghai is just full of gay bars. And when the gay bars come in, they’re never going back to socialism!” In her discussions with customers, she said that she asked what had accounted for the change (that was before the laws were amended to eliminate criminal penalites for sexual contact among members of the same gender) and she said that the response was that the big step had been privatization of housing. Under socialism, housing was rationed and allocated by the state. Married couples were eligible to be allocated flats; unmarried people were not. So gay people (who had not been forced into phony marriages) had to live with their parents or in worker dormitories and couldn’t create households together. When housing was privatized, however, “landlords didn’t care if you were purple and had horns, if you were willing to pay.” A little bit of the profit motive swept away a great deal of irrationality, cruelty, and oppression.

A fairly cheery story of the property rights necessary for China to at least partially un-shackle its economy from the misery of communism leading in turn to more personal freedom.

Hat tip to Ilya Somin at The Volokh Conspiracy for pointing the way to Palmer’s ineresting post.

“Subverting Freedom in Macau” from today’s Wall Street Journal Asia :

It’s been five years since pro-Beijing elements in Hong Kong tried — and failed — to curtail free speech in the former British colony. Now Macau Chief Executive Edmund Ho says it’s his “sacred duty” to try to do the same thing in his territory. The legislation he’s proposing represents the most serious threat to freedoms since Macau’s 1999 handover from Portugal to China.

Mr. Ho’s government proposed last week to enact enabling legislation on Article 23 of the territory’s miniconstitution, the Basic Law. As with Hong Kong’s Basic Law, Article 23 was inserted into the law by Beijing after the 1989 Tiananmen Square pro-democracy uprising. It says Macau’s government “shall enact laws, on its own, to prohibit any act of treason, secession, sedition, subversion against the Central People’s Government, or theft of state secrets.”

Under Mr. Ho’s proposed national security legislation, offenders could be jailed for up to 30 years for such crimes. Trials on some offenses would not be public. At a press conference last week, Mr. Ho said “chanting a few slogans, writing a few articles criticizing the central government or the Macau government . . . won’t be regulated by this proposed law.” But Beijing uses such laws to quell dissent and there’s no guarantee that Macau would not do the same.

In addition, the proposed law would remove protection for whistleblowers exposing government corruption — a problem in a territory dominated by the gambling industry and with an entrenched mafia and a self-censoring press. Hong Kongers have questioned whether they would be subject to the law if they visited Macau.

Read the whole thing here.

My Independence Institute colleague, Dave Kopel, has published a new paper concerning Taiwan’s trade policies with China and Taiwanese sovereignty. Here is David’s post on the paper from the excellent legal blog, The Volokh Conspiracy:

Last Friday, I presented a paper at a symposium at the University of Chicago’s International House. The paper was part of a symposium on “Taiwan’s New Approach: Opportunities and Challenges for President Ma Ying-jeou’s Government.” The paper is titled Poisoned Milk and the Poisoning of Democracy: Some Cautions about China Trade and Taiwan Sovereignty. It argues that Taiwan should make national security the foremost consideration in trade policy with China. This would support liberalization of Chinese tourism and Chinese students being allowed to study in Taiwan, the better to win the hearts and minds of the Chinese people. The paper suggests that–for purposes of human rights, and to sow the seeds for long-term political reform in China–new Taiwanese foreign direct investment in China be required to go to businesses which allow Chinese workers to elect a workers council. Taiwan should energetically develop its trade with India, as an alternative to China; should further restrict Chinese food imports; and should get rid of trade negotiators who have business interests in China. Allowing economic integration with China without regard for national security could, the paper suggests, lead to the destruction Taiwan’s sovereignty, independence, and freedom.

British writer Peter Hitchens has a long and compelling firsthand account in the Daily Mail (a British newspaper) of what Hitchens refers to as China’s “new slave empire” in Africa:

These poor, hopeless, angry people exist by grubbing for scraps of cobalt and copper ore in the filth and dust of abandoned copper mines in Congo, sinking perilous 80ft shafts by hand, washing their finds in cholera-infected streams full of human filth, then pushing enormous two-hundredweight loads uphill on ancient bicycles to the nearby town of Likasi where middlemen buy them to sell on, mainly to Chinese businessmen hungry for these vital metals.

To see them, as they plod miserably past, is to be reminded of pictures of unemployed miners in Thirties Britain, stumbling home in the drizzle with sacks of coal scraps gleaned from spoil heaps.

Except that here the unsparing heat makes the labour five times as hard, and the conditions of work and life are worse by far than any known in England since the 18th Century.

Many perish as their primitive mines collapse on them, or are horribly injured without hope of medical treatment. Many are little more than children. On a good day they may earn $3, which just supports a meagre existence in diseased, malarial slums.

We had been earlier to this awful pit, which looked like a penal colony in an ancient slave empire.

Defeated, bowed figures toiled endlessly in dozens of hand-dug pits. Their faces, when visible, were blank and without hope.

We had been turned away by a fat, corrupt policeman who pretended our papers weren’t in order, but who was really taking instructions from a dead-eyed, one-eared gangmaster who sat next to him.

By the time we returned with more official permits, the gangmasters had readied the ambush.

The diggers feared – and their evil, sinister bosses had worked hard on that fear – that if people like me publicised their filthy way of life, then the mine might be closed and the $3 a day might be taken away.

I can give you no better explanation in miniature of the wicked thing that I believe is now happening in Africa.

Out of desperation, much of the continent is selling itself into a new era of corruption and virtual slavery as China seeks to buy up all the metals, minerals and oil she can lay her hands on: copper for electric and telephone cables, cobalt for mobile phones and jet engines – the basic raw materials of modern life.

It is no accident that in many parts of the world where thuggery and misery rule,  Beijing can be found hard at work keeping things that way.

As an interesting aside, here is Peter’s brother Christopher Hitchens on Beijing’s numerous client regimes and captive nations.

I turned my recent blog post on Barack Obama and Taiwan into an op-ed piece for the Colorado Daily newspaper (which is the newspaper of the University of Colorado at Boulder) and which was published in yesterday’s edition.   The online version is available here.

Here is the published piece in its entirety (with one small typo fixed):

On March 22, Taiwan held a presidential election. Ma Ying-Jeou of the Nationalist Party defeated the Democratic Progressive Party candidate. It was Taiwan’s second peaceful transfer of party power through democratic elections, an excellent sign of a healthy and maturing democracy

Commenting on Ma’s election, Sen. Barack Obama stated that the U.S. should respond by “rebuilding a relationship of trust and support” with democratic Taiwan. “The U.S. should reopen blocked channels of communication with Taiwan officials,” Obama said.

This would actually be a hugely significant step towards recognizing the obvious — that Taiwan is a sovereign and democratic nation deserving of formal relations with the United States. It would also be a step that would undoubtedly annoy Communist China, Taiwan’s thuggish and bullying neighbor.

So does Obama mean it?

When Obama touched on “America’s promise abroad” during his acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention, the candidate mentioned both protecting Israel and standing up for Georgia. And indeed, the U.S. has a long history of both supporting emerging democracies and standing by existing democracies under threat from hostile neighbors. Taiwan certainly fits this bill.

Problem is that the Chinese communists in Beijing claim sovereignty over democratic Taiwan — even though it is obvious that Taiwan functions as an independent state.

Unfortunately, the U.S. continues to appease Beijing’s claim over Taiwan through recognition of “one China,” a weak and outdated policy that goes back to a 1972 “joint communiqué” issued by President Nixon and Chinese dictator Mao Tse-Tung.

Since then Taiwan has transformed itself from an authoritarian regime and into a representative democracy with a dynamic market economy — precisely the kind of country whose representatives should be able to communicate directly with Washington, D.C.

In October 2007, Sen. Tim Johnson of South Dakota introduced Senate Concurrent Resolution 48, which, among other things, called for a lifting of travel restrictions to the U.S. by “high level and elected officials of Taiwan, including the president of Taiwan” and for “direct cabinet-level exchanges in order to strengthen a policy dialogue with Taiwan.”

Yet missing from the very short list of co-sponsors for the resolution was Obama (to be fair, Sen. John McCain, along with the majority of the rest of the U.S. Senate, was also absent as a co-sponsor).

So months before Obama stated that the U.S. “should reopen blocked channels of communications with Taiwan officials,” he had an opportunity to both co-sponsor and help push through his committee a resolution advocating for just such a re-opening of communication with Taiwan.

Actions speak louder than words. And Obama’s failure to take action — even such symbolic action as a concurrent resolution — to “reopen” blocked communication with democratic Taiwan makes his statement about “rebuilding a relationship of trust and support” with Taiwan seem like little more than campaign rhetoric.

Beijing’s toadies at the United Nations are still hard at work appeasing China’s ludicrous claim over democratic Taiwan.  From Taiwan’s Central News Agency:

The United Nations has refused for years to issue press accreditation to Taiwanese journalists for the annual meeting on the grounds that Taiwan is not a U.N. member state.

The policy continued for the 63rd session of the General Assembly that opened Sept. 16 in New York.

Taiwanese journalists used to be able to cover the annual World Health Assembly held every May in Geneva, but authorization was withdrawn in 2004 under pressure from China.

If we ever end up with a League of Democratic Nations–leaving the UN to the thugocracies of the world–one of its first pieces of business, after inviting Taiwan to be a member, should be to bar Chinese journalists.

The 2008 Republican Party Platform was released earlier this month, including positions on both Taiwan and China.

First Taiwan:

Our policy toward Taiwan, a sound democracy and economic model for mainland China, must continue to be based upon the provisions of the Taiwan Relations Act. We oppose any unilateral steps by either side to alter the status quo in the Taiwan straits on the principle that all issues regarding the island’s future must be resolved peacefully, through dialogue, and be agreeable to the people of Taiwan. If China were to violate these principles, the U.S., in accord with the Taiwan Relations Act, will help Taiwan defend itself. As a loyal friend of America, the democracy of Taiwan has merited our strong support, including the timely sale of defensive arms and full participation in the World Health Organization and other multilateral institutions.

A fairly strong statement, but one that seeks to maintain the “status quo” between Taiwan and China…unfortunately, the status quo means Chinese ballistic missiles pointed at Taiwan and threats of violence against the Taiwanese people by Beijing..so more American aquiescence to the archaic “one China” policy.

Now China:

We will welcome the emergence of a peaceful and prosperous China, and we will welcome even more the development of a democratic China. Its rulers have already discovered that economic freedom leads to national wealth; the next lesson is that political and religious freedom leads to national greatness. That is not likely to be learned while the government in Beijing pursues advanced military capabilities without any apparent need, imposes a “one-child” policy on its people, suppresses basic human rights in Tibet and elsewhere, and erodes democracy in Hong Kong. China must honor its obligations regarding free speech and a free press as announced prior to the Olympics.

Our bilateral trade with China has created export opportunities for American farmers and workers, while both the requirements of the World Trade Organization and the realities of the marketplace have increased openness and the rule of law in China. We must yet ensure that China fulfills its WTO obligations, especially those related to protecting intellectual property rights, elimination of subsidies, and repeal of import restrictions. China’s full integration into the global economy requires that it adopt a flexible monetary exchange rate and allow free movement of capital. China’s economic growth brings with it the responsibility for environmental improvement, both for its own people and for the world community.

Nice.

Senator John McCain has a lengthy article laying out his view of American foreign policy in the November/December 2007 edition of Foreign Affairs. Here’s a part of his section on China:

China could also bolster its claim that it is “peacefully rising” by being more transparent about its significant military buildup. When China builds new submarines, adds hundreds of new jet fighters, modernizes its arsenal of strategic ballistic missiles, and tests antisatellite weapons, the United States legitimately must question the intent of such provocative acts. When China threatens democratic Taiwan with a massive arsenal of missiles and warlike rhetoric, the United States must take note. When China enjoys close economic and diplomatic relations with pariah states such as Burma, Sudan, and Zimbabwe, tension will result. When China proposes regional forums and economic arrangements designed to exclude America from Asia, the United States will react.

China and the United States are not destined to be adversaries. We have numerous overlapping interests. U.S.-Chinese relations can benefit both countries and, in turn, the Asia-Pacific region and the world. But until China moves toward political liberalization, our relationship will be based on periodically shared interests rather than the bedrock of shared values.

“Periodicaly shared interests” sounds about right as a policy towards China, at least as long as Beijing remains a thuggish authoritarian regime.

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