VZCZCXYZ0001
RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHIN #1370 2610928
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 170928Z SEP 08
FM AIT TAIPEI
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 9962
INFO RUEHBJ/AMEMBASSY BEIJING 8601
RUEHHK/AMCONSUL HONG KONG 0050

UNCLAS AIT TAIPEI 001370 
 
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: DECLINE OF THE UNITED STATES 
 
Summary:  Taiwan's major Chinese-language dailies focused news 
coverage September 17 on the Taiwan Central Bank's decision to cut 
the reserve requirement for bank deposits in the wake of the 
bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers; on local investors' panic amid 
reports about Lehman Brothers' bankruptcy and AIG's attempt to seek 
a loan from the United States government; on the ongoing rescue 
effort in typhoon-devastated central Taiwan; and on the revelation 
that as many as 69 brands of Chinese baby formula were found to be 
toxic.  In terms of editorials and commentaries, a column in the 
centrist, KMT-leaning "China Times" lashed out at U.S. President 
George W. Bush and his administration, calling Bush the "chief 
culprit who has caused the decline of the United States."  End 
summary. 
 
"[George W.] Bush is the Chief Culprit who has Caused the Decline of 
the United States" 
 
Columnist Lin Po-wen wrote in his column in the centrist, 
KMT-leaning "China Times" [circulation: 300,000] (9/17): 
 
"... One can hardly find a worthy rival in U.S. history when it 
comes to the rapid decline of U.S. national strength under the 
governance of the Bush administration.  The Chinese government spent 
US$40 billion to host the Beijing Olympics, starting many 
large-scale building projects [in the country] and making the 
[Olympic Games] an impressive show, which has won the admiration of 
the world.  Without a doubt, US$40 billion is a huge figure.  But to 
think better of it, the military expenses that the United States 
spends in Iraq every month is as high as US$10 billion.  In other 
words, with merely four months' worth of the [military] costs 
Washington spends on invading Iraq, the Chinese government was able 
to host a remarkable Olympic Games.  The money spent on invading 
Iraq has cost the American taxpayers hundreds of billions (or maybe 
reaching a trillion) U.S. dollars.  But what is more horrifying is 
that, during an era when other countries are striving to move 
forward, the United States instead is wasting humongous resources on 
the war in Iraq.  [As a result,] budgets for many federal agencies 
(particularly those research-oriented ones) were cut significantly; 
many things that should have been done remained undone, and many 
public construction projects were either canceled or suspended.  The 
United States is like a patient that is frail and failing before his 
time. 
 
"Factors contributing to the decline of the U.S. national strength 
are too numerous to be cited individually, a majority of which are 
artificial factors. ... Among such leaders, the worst one and the 
one who should be held notably responsible is Bush.  Quite a few 
political commentators have long since judged that Bush is the 
number one politician who has gone 'brain dead.'  What is most 
ironic is that Bush is the first president in U.S. history who has 
an MBA degree (from Harvard Business School).  All policy decisions 
regarding of the outbreak of the financial meltdown this time and 
the sub-prime mortgage crisis months earlier were all made by the 
heads of the Treasury Department and the Office Thrift Supervision. 
Bush, who 'does not look like a head of a state,' can do nothing but 
stand aside [in terms of these crises], and there is no room for him 
to express his views. 
 
"... [D]uring the eight years of Bush's governance, the Department 
of Justice has degenerated into a filthy place where people accept 
bribes and confer official positions for money.  These servile 
followers of Bush and his administration do whatever pleases them 
and do everything they can to ruin the federal prosecutors' system. 
Under the command of those neo-conservatives at the White House and 
the Pentagon, these people treat international laws and the UN 
Universal Declaration of Human Rights as wastepaper, secretly set up 
gloomy prison cells at Guantanamo Bay, and put thousands of innocent 
Muslims behind bars (including some Uyghur people from Xinjiang) 
without trial ...    All the ideals and dignity advocated in the 
U.S. Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights and the U.S. 
Constitution have become disposable rubbish during the Bush era, and 
the United States is akin to a country without a soul.  It would be 
very difficult for it not to be in decline! ..." 
 
YOUNG