VZCZCXYZ0003
RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHIN #0353 0740724
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 140724Z MAR 08
FM AIT TAIPEI
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 8358
INFO RUEHBJ/AMEMBASSY BEIJING 7938
RUEHHK/AMCONSUL HONG KONG 9193

UNCLAS AIT TAIPEI 000353 
 
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 March 14 on the KMT's apology for its party legislators' 
intrusion at DPP presidential candidate Frank Hsieh's campaign 
headquarters; on the presidential election campaigns; on Chinese 
Taipei baseball team's expected face-off with South Korea on March 
14; on the rise in commodity prices; on the results of Taiwan's 
college admissions tests; and on New York Governor Eliot Spitzer's 
prostitution scandal.  In terms of editorials and commentaries, an 
editorial in the pro-independence, English-language daily "Taiwan 
News" explained why the policy of a "cross-Strait common market" 
proposed by KMT presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou and his running 
mate Vincent Siew will allegedly put Taiwan in jeopardy and hurt the 
U.S.-Taiwan security relationship.  The editorial urged the U.S. to 
welcome DPP presidential candidate Frank Hsieh's presidency for 
long-term security in the region.  End summary. 
 
"'Common Market' and Security" 
 
The pro-independence, English-language daily "Taiwan News" 
[circulation: 20,000] editorialized (3/14): 
 
"... the Ma-Siew call for a common market with our far larger and 
authoritarian neighbor will undoubtedly affect Taiwan's global 
economic links, international position and security relations with 
other nations, particularly our close ties with the United States 
and Japan. 
 
"Indeed, Ma and Siew claim that signing such pacts with Beijing will 
remove the biggest political obstacle in the way of free trade 
agreements with the U.S., Japan or other nations and ease our entry 
into international organizations such as the World Bank, the 
International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and even the United 
Nations. ... 
 
"Even more damaging will be the consequences of such integration on 
our high technology industries, which purchase or license the bulk 
of advanced technology and know-how from U.S. or Japanese firms. 
 
"Closer association with the piracy-prone PRC market will spark deep 
concern among U.S. and Japanese high-technology providers about the 
security of their intellectual property and spark fears that 
know-how licensed to a Taiwan-based company will be passed on to a 
PRC partner and be used to compete against the original technology 
provider. 
 
"In addition, the PRC is now subject to restrictions imposed by the 
United States, the European Union and Japan on arms or "dual use" 
technologies or high-technology equipment. Cross-strait economic 
integration could well result in the application of such 
restrictions to Taiwan. ... 
 
"... an official 'cross-strait economic integration' agreement [is] 
more likely to give Beijing a pretext to declare that it should 
"represent" Taiwan in negotiating or signing any FTAs [Free Trade 
Agreements] and that our 23 million people can be represented by the 
PRC in international organizations or at most be allotted a small 
subordinate presence as 'Taipei, China.' ... 
 
"Since both Washington and Tokyo do not wish to see absorption of a 
substantively independent and democratic Taiwan into an 
authoritarian and "rising hegemonic" PRC, we believe that the U.S., 
Japan and other powers should welcome a Hsieh presidency." 
 
YOUNG