VZCZCXYZ0008
RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHIN #1165/01 1440916
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 240916Z MAY 07
FM AIT TAIPEI
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 5371
INFO RUEHBJ/AMEMBASSY BEIJING 6821
RUEHHK/AMCONSUL HONG KONG 8077

UNCLAS AIT TAIPEI 001165 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR INR/R/MR, EAP/TC, EAP/PA, EAP/PD - LLOYD NEIGHBORS 
DEPARTMENT PASS AIT/WASHINGTON 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: OPRC KMDR KPAO TW
SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION: U.S.-CHINA RELATIONS, INTER-KOREAN 
RELATIONS, TAIWAN'S BID TO JOIN INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS 
 
¶1. Summary:  Taiwan's major Chinese-language dailies focused news 
coverage May 24 on the assassination of a Taipei County councilor 
Wednesday and on the sentencing of a person involved in a derailment 
case in southern Taiwan in 2006.  In terms of editorials and 
commentaries, a column in the mass-circulation "Apple Daily" 
commented on the U.S.-China Strategic Economic Dialogue.  The 
article called it "an endless strategic race" between Washington and 
Beijing and said "substantive breakthroughs can hardly be expected." 
 An editorial in the centrist, KMT-leaning "China Times" discussed 
inter-Korean relations and urged Taiwan to pay close attention to 
the political and economic effects in Northeast Asia following the 
railway link between South and North Korea.  An editorial in the 
limited-circulation, pro-independence, English-language "Taiwan 
News" discussed Taiwan's bid to join international organizations. 
The article urged the DPP government to continue its current 
approach -- namely, use the name Taiwan in its bids to join 
international organizations for the rest of 2007.  In addition, the 
pro-independence, English-language "Taipei Times" carried the 
translation of a Wednesday editorial in its sister paper, "Liberty 
Times," translated nearly full-text in yesterday's Media Reaction, 
which commented on AIT Taipei Director Stephen Young's speech at 
Taiwan's Chinese National Association of Industry and Commerce 
Monday.  End summary. 
 
¶2. U.S.-China Relations 
 
"U.S.-China Summit" 
 
Columnist Antonio Chiang noted in the mass-circulation "Apple Daily" 
[circulation: 520,000] (5/24): 
 
"... China's rapid economic growth has been realized at the expense 
of damage done to its natural and social environment.  This is a 
kind of growth that borrows or plunders [from its environment]. ... 
The Hu [Jintao]-Wen [Jaibao] rule has long been busy handling [all 
kinds of problems].  Now that the United States is imposing pressure 
[on China], these problems will surely grow worse, as China is now 
under attack simultaneously from within and without.  Given the 
current trend, balanced trade between the two countries can hardly 
be achieved, even if the growth rates of United States exports were 
to quadruple.  Moreover, Beijing is able to gain control of energy 
supplies proactively from Africa, the Middle East, and Latin 
America.  Washington and Beijing are competing against each other 
from Seoul to Sidney, and the trade imbalance is just part of [their 
competition].  This is going to be an endless strategic race, and 
substantive breakthroughs can hardly be expected." 
 
¶3. Inter-Korean Relations 
 
"Watch out for the Political and Economic Effects Following the 
Opening of Railway Link between South and North Korea" 
 
"... On Taiwan's part, it needs to pay close attention to the impact 
produced by the opening of railway link between South and North 
Korea on the geo-economics of the entire Northeast Asian region. 
One must know that the border-crossing by South and North Korean 
trains has in fact linked together the two vast economies of the 
Korean Peninsula and China-Russia. ...  Once this railway network 
can be built up effectively, the 'Iron Silk Road,' which existed 
only on paper, will be coming to life.  Traveling [overland] from 
Pusan, South Korea to the Netherlands' Amsterdam will no longer be 
possible only in one's imagination.  If one tries to look at this 
situation from the geo-economic perspective, [one will see that] the 
way people look at the map of Northeast Asia in the future will be 
totally different from before. ... 
 
"... [A]fter Seoul concluded the Free Trade Agreement with the 
United States, South Korea's macro-national strategy to join the 
ASEAN plus three is taking shape, and the development of this 
railway net has already foretold such ambitions.  It's time that 
Taiwan raised its head and looked up at the changes that have been 
happening in the outside world while it has been indulging in 
infighting between the ruling and opposition parties!" 
 
The centrist, KMT-leaning "China Times" [circulation: 400,000] 
editorialized (5/24): 
 
¶4. "Taiwan Must Keep Pressure on PRC" 
 
The pro-independence, English-language "Taiwan News" [circulation: 
20,000] editorialized (5/24): 
 
"... Diplomatic confrontation between Taiwan and the Chinese 
Communist Party-ruled People's Republic of China is inevitable, not 
because Taiwan aims to 'make trouble' but because the PRC is 
attempting to squeeze Taiwan and our 23 million people out of all 
international organizations and the global society altogether, in 
order to emphasize its claim that Taiwan is part of the PRC.  The 
 
RELATIONS, TAIWAN'S BID TO JOIN INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS 
 
drive by 'authoritarian China' to render 'democratic Taiwan' 
invisible in the global community has already put the health of the 
people of the world at risk by excluding Taiwan from the WHO's 
defensive net against outbreaks of dangerous diseases.  This tactic 
has reached new depths this week with a drive to further denigrate 
and restrict Taiwan's participation in the World Organization for 
Animal and Health (OIE). ... 
 
"Although Taiwan's bid to join the WHO failed in form, the new 
strategy exposed the violations of the WHO Secretariat made of the 
organization's own constitution and of the 'Health for All' 
principle in the course of bowing to Beijing's pressure.  At the 
very least, Taiwan's new appeal challenged the PRC's absurd 
arbitrariness and arrogance in attempting to dictate to the WHO on 
how to regulate the activities of another country, and thereby put 
at risk the health of all the people in the world, as well as 
violate the human and health rights of Taiwan's people.  Besides 
regaining the moral high ground and restoring our own self-dignity, 
Taiwan's WHO membership drive did not spark a cross-strait conflict 
or result in any harm to our parallel efforts to associate with the 
World Health Assembly as an observer. ...  We believe that the DPP 
government should continue this approach for the rest of 2007, which 
is both the last full year of Chen's term and the year running up to 
the Beijing Summer Olympic Games slated for next August. ..." 
 
YOUNG