VZCZCXYZ0002
RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHIN #0161/01 0320841
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 010841Z FEB 08
FM AIT TAIPEI
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 8054
INFO RUEHBJ/AMEMBASSY BEIJING 7796
RUEHHK/AMCONSUL HONG KONG 9060

UNCLAS AIT TAIPEI 000161 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR INR/R/MR, EAP/TC, EAP/PA, EAP/PD - NIDA EMMONS 
DEPARTMENT PASS AIT/WASHINGTON 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: OPRC KMDR KPAO TW
SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION: U.S.-CHINA-TAIWAN RELATIONS 
 
 
Summary:  Taiwan's major Chinese-language dailies focused news 
coverage February 1 on KMT presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou's 
green card controversy, on the March presidential poll, and on some 
public health hazard cases in Taiwan.  In terms of editorials and 
commentaries, an editorial in the pro-independence "Liberty Times" 
called the public's attention to China's military expansion, which, 
according to the article, will result in regional military imbalance 
and create a threat to cross-Strait security and world peace.  An 
editorial in the pro-independence, English-language "Taiwan News" 
discussed Taiwan's UN referenda and criticized other democratic 
countries for putting themselves at Beijing's service to put 
pressure on the DPP administration over the UN referendum.  End 
summary. 
 
A) "Be Vigilant That China's Military Expansion Will Result in 
[Military] Imbalance in the Region" 
 
The pro-independence "Liberty Times" [circulation: 720,000] 
editorialized (2/1): 
 
"... China's military development over the past few years, be it in 
the aspect of military scale, budgets, adjustments in its strategy 
and tactics, and in particular, its military purpose, has attracted 
worldwide attention and generated considerable discussion.  It is 
generally believed that ... China's threats have created a severe 
impact on world peace and order. ...  The United States, as a 
result, has published reports seven times on China's military 
strength in which it expressed worry about the regional [military] 
imbalance caused by China's military expansion and Beijing's true 
intent behind such a move.  Washington also pointed out that China's 
capabilities to develop advanced weapons systems have empowered 
Beijing the 'destructive military technology' and the 'greatest 
potential' to counterbalance U.S. military strength.  Indeed, it is 
difficult for any outsider to judge China's real intent behind its 
military expansion.  But the negative impact that has already been 
generated [by China's continuous military buildup] can highlight the 
fact that China's intent is by no means self-defense, rather [it is] 
secret schemes against Taiwan and attempts to intervene in 
 
SIPDIS 
international affairs. 
 
"In other words, even if China asserted that its rise is peaceful 
and it will not seek hegemony, various signs show that China is 
making full preparation for turning itself into a hegemonic power. 
China has deployed more than one thousand missiles targeting Taiwan 
and conducted exercises using guided missiles in the Taiwan Strait, 
triggering severe threats in the Taiwan Strait, the so-called 
'lifeline' of East Asia.  In addition, in order to secure its energy 
resources, China also supports some notorious totalitarian countries 
that suppress human rights, [support] international terrorism and 
violate non-proliferation practice.  In short, China follows a 
policy of expansionism by military means, whereas Taiwan is, without 
a doubt, its number one prey.  But China's evil ambitions will by no 
means be satiated solely by invading Taiwan.  If China fails to 
renounce its belief in socialism, its obsession with Great China 
nationalism, and its autocracy, the constant expansion of Beijing's 
military buildup will only turn the country into a source of turmoil 
and conflict for the world.  This is the focal point that the entire 
world should be concerned about." 
 
B) "Possible Fates Awaiting Taiwan" 
 
The pro-independence, English-language "Taiwan News" [circulation: 
20,000] editorialized (2/1): 
 
"... Despite repeated claims of fealty to the values of democracy 
and freedom, the U.S. and the EU, along with many less democratic 
states, continue to oppose the entry of a democratic and highly 
developed Taiwan into sovereignty-based international organizations, 
such as the United Nations and the global security system, simply 
because of the claim and threats of an expansionist authoritarian 
power.  By encouraging the belief among Beijing's hardliners that 
'might is right,' this renewed policy of appeasement could spark a 
regional or perhaps even global conflict as well as result in the 
selling out of the 23 million people of Taiwan and their right for 
democratic self-determination, just as London and Paris sold out the 
democratic Republic of Czechoslovakia to Hitler and acquiesced in 
the overthrow of the Spanish Republic by the fascist forces of 
Francisco Franco, who received active support from Nazi Germany and 
Fascist Italy. 
 
"But Taiwan also appears to be in the process of sharing analogous 
historical experiences with its relationship with democratic 
leaders, specially the U.S., with Latin American states such 
Guatemala and Chile as Washington has shifted in recent months from 
a 'strategic ambiguity' regarding the PRC's threat to Taiwan's 
democratic republic to a position of actively assisting Beijing in 
putting Taiwan's democracy into a Chinese-designed birdcage.  The 
'timely' intervention of the U.S. administration of right-wing 
Republican President George W. Bush against the center-left DPP 
 
government of President Chen Shui-bian parallels the actions of the 
Republican administration of the late U.S. president Dwight D. 
Eisenhower against the center-left government of the late Guatemalan 
president Jacobo Arbenz in the early 1950s. ... 
 
"Despite the fact that all of the countries opposing Taiwan's 
referendums regularly conduct referendums, senior diplomatic 
officials in the U.S. and the EU have expressed open opposition to 
the referendum on whether Taiwan should apply to join the United 
Nations under the name of Taiwan proposed by the DPP and other civic 
organizations and put on the ballot not by the will of President 
Chen but by the signatures from 2.72 million citizens. ... As 
foreign diplomats in Taipei have privately admitted, such 
'democratic' governments have put themselves at Beijing's service to 
put pressure on the DPP government and overlooked the possibility 
that such pressure could contribute to the restoration of 'one party 
monopoly' KMT rule.  The capturing of absolute legislative control 
by the KMT on January 12 has made the reversal of Taiwan's 
democratic progress a very real possibility, but this prospect has 
evidently not discouraged U.S. officials from continuing to pressure 
the DPP government. ..." 
 
YOUNG