VZCZCXYZ0008
RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHIN #0048/01 0082226
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 082226Z JAN 07
FM AIT TAIPEI
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 3652
INFO RUEHBJ/AMEMBASSY BEIJING 6164
RUEHHK/AMCONSUL HONG KONG 7394

UNCLAS AIT TAIPEI 000048 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR INR/R/MR, EAP/TC, EAP/PA, EAP/PD - DAVID FIRESTEIN 
DEPARTMENT PASS AIT/WASHINGTON 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: OPRC KMDR KPAO TW
SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION: PRESIDENT CHEN SHUI-BIAN'S TRIP TO 
NICARAGUA, SADDAM'S EXECUTION 
 
 
¶1. Summary:  Taiwan's major Chinese-language dailies focused their 
coverage January 6-8 on the insolvency crises involving The Chinese 
Bank and the Enterprise Bank of Hualien.  Coverage also focused on 
legislative elections in 2007, the pairing of possible candidates as 
running mates in the 2008 presidential elections, and the trial 
operations of Taiwan's new high-speed railway system. 
 
¶2. In terms of editorials and commentaries, Washington correspondent 
Norman Fu noted in the pro-status quo "China Times" that President 
Chen Shui-bian's relationship with Washington will not return to 
normal before he leaves office, because Chen wants to push himself 
out of the box while the United States will try to box him in.  An 
editorial in the limited-circulation, conservative, pro-unification, 
English-language "China Post" argued that Chen should not make a 
trip to Nicaragua, as President Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua has vowed 
to cut diplomatic ties with Taiwan.  An editorial in the 
limited-circulation, pro-independence, English-language "Taiwan 
News," however, said Chen can revamp the island's ties with 
Nicaragua and that Washington's decision to allow Chen to transit 
the continental United States "signifies the repair of the rift 
between Washington and Taipei."  A separate "China Post" editorial, 
on the other hand, discussed the execution of Saddam Hussein.  The 
article said Bush "has succeeded in hunting down Saddam and sending 
him to the gallows, but he has failed to extricate American troops 
from the Iraqi quagmire and from preventing Saddam's ghost from 
haunting him."  End summary. 
 
¶3. President Chen Shui-bian's Trip to Nicaragua 
 
A) "Bian's Transit Unexpectedly Placed Under the 'China' Category" 
 
Washington correspondent Norman Fu noted in the "Washington Outlook" 
column in the pro-status quo "China Times" [circulation: 400,000] 
(1/8): 
 
"... What's regretful is that the United States has gone so far as 
to link A-Bian's transit with the 'one China' policy and the 'three 
communiqus;' this is something that has never happened before.  It 
is believed that such a move by Washington is related to Chen 
Shui-bian's statement in his New Year Day's address that 'Taiwan is 
part of the world, but absolutely not part of China.'  As the KMT 
stated, Washington's new way of addressing [Chen's transit] was a 
result of Chen's looking for trouble.  If he did not say the 
sentence above in his New Year Day's address and strongly emphasize 
the need to break away from the narrow framework of 'on China' and 
'cross-Strait' [relations], perhaps the United States would not have 
put it in such a way as to target him directly. 
 
"But the real irony was that while A-Bian was vowing to draw a clear 
line between [Taiwan] and China, the U.S. State Department has 
unexpectedly put his request for transit under the 'China' category 
[of its daily press briefing].  ...  In fact, based on the State 
Department's record of its previous press briefings, Bian's transits 
and other matters involving Taiwan were all placed under the 
'Taiwan' category.  The change this time was not without the 
intention to embarrass Bian deliberately.  There is an analogy to 
Washington's move - namely, it's like putting Bian into a box, and 
as long as he intends to break out of the box, the United States 
will not hesitate to squeeze him back into the box and stop him from 
acting ostentatiously.  To quote the American saying, A-Bian is 
really 'boxed in.' 
 
"Of course Bian will not surrender easily; instead, he will wait for 
a chance to try to push himself out of the box.  Washington, to 
prevent him from doing so, will naturally move carefully every step 
of the way and watch [him] closely.  As a result, Bian's relations 
with Washington will not return to normal before he completes his 
term.  This is basically a relationship based on a 'battle of wits.' 
 One can hardly blame the United States, because over the past six 
years since Bian came to power, there have been plentiful examples 
of his failure to keep his promises and creating surprises for the 
United States.  How can the United States try not to guard against 
[him]?" 
 
B) "The Presidential Voyage That Should Not Be Made" 
 
The conservative, pro-unification, English-language "China Post" 
[circulation: 30,000] editorialized (1/8): 
 
"... We cannot bring ourselves to wish President Chen a happy trip, 
because it is a voyage that should not be made.  There is no reason 
why Chen has to make the trip to extend his congratulations in 
person to Ortega, who has vowed to cut of diplomatic relations.  The 
Sandinistra president made that promise to Beijing in the run-up to 
his election. ...  Another purpose of the visit, which is much more 
important, is to avenge the slap in the face Uncle Sam dealt Chen in 
May last year.  He was going to San Jose to attend the inauguration 
of the Costa Rican president, but Washington, offended by his 
NICARAGUA, SADDAM'S EXECUTION 
 
end-run to terminate the National Unification Council, denied him 
transit stopovers in the contiguous United States.  As a result, the 
president had to make two long detours to and back from Costa Rica. 
 
 
"Of course, President Chen learned a lesson.  So this time around, 
he took every caution not to offend Uncle Sam again in delivering 
his New Year's Day address.  He had his spokesman state that 
Washington had not asked to read his speech.  Washington had to make 
sure he did not mention a new constitution for Taiwan before 
permission was given for him to lay over in San Francisco and Los 
Angeles. ..." 
 
C) "Chen Can Revamp Nicaragua Ties" 
 
The pro-independence, English-language "Taiwan News" [circulation: 
20,000] editorialized (1/8): 
 
"... The mainstream media has [sic] interpreted this presidential 
excursion as an effort to 'regain the high post' [sic] in Taiwan's 
domestic politics and to rise above the past months of being mired 
in controversy over a series of alleged scandals in the presidential 
office and the first family.  Any exercise in 'head of state 
diplomacy' is bound to have domestic ramifications.  In this case, 
Washington's arrangement to allow Chen to land in the two most 
important cities on the continental U.S.'s west coast signifies the 
repair of the rift between Washington and Taipei over the flap of 
the president's refusal to stopover in Anchorage on his way to the 
inaugural of Costa Rica President Oscar Arias last May.  Moreover, 
Washington's decision marks a mild rebuke to opposition Chinese 
Nationalist Party (Kuomintang) Chairman Ma Ying-jeou by both [sic] 
refusing to deny U.S. transit to Chen, whom the KMT has painted as a 
'corrupt' president. ..." 
 
¶4.  Saddam's Execution 
 
"The Death of a Dictator" 
 
The conservative, pro-unification, English-language "China Post" 
[circulation: 30,000] editorialized (1/6): 
 
"... There is no denying that Saddam was a brutal despot, and 
aggressor to boot.  His invasion and occupation of Kuwait prompted 
the first Gulf War.  He was eying Kuwait's oil the same way as 
America is eying Iraq's.  Saddam knew this, and he told the world 
that George Bush's attack on Iraq was not because of his false 
accusation that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction, but 
because it possessed oil.  It turned out that Saddam was telling the 
truth.  Bush's hubris plus his over-confidence in America's military 
might has bogged the world's sole superpower down in a costly and 
unpopular war.  He has succeeded in hunting down Saddam and sending 
him to the gallows, but he has failed to extricate American troops 
from the Iraqi quagmire and from preventing Saddam's ghost from 
haunting him. 
 
"Far from being 'an important milestone in Iraq becoming a 
democracy,' as President Bush so brazenly put it, Saddam's hanging 
is not an example of Western justice but instead of jungle justice. 
Saddam's worst crimes were committed when he was an American ally in 
the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s, but he was condemned only after he 
became America's enemy.  Saddam Hussein, the tyrant, dictator and 
despot, has suddenly become a martyr and hero in the Muslim world, 
and possibly beyond.  In contrast, George Bush is seen as a bully 
and an aggressor.  A milestone?  Probably not.  It is a millstone 
around Bush's neck.  The mid-term elections last November spoke 
volumes of the voters' resentment of Bush, resulting in the GOP's 
resounding defeat in both houses of Congress.  It seems that Bush's 
nightmare is just beginning, now that Saddam Hussein is dead." 
 
YOUNG