VZCZCXYZ0000
RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHIN #1222/01 2861032
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 131032Z OCT 09
FM AIT TAIPEI
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 2478
INFO RUEHBJ/AMEMBASSY BEIJING 9435
RUEHHK/AMCONSUL HONG KONG 0849

UNCLAS AIT TAIPEI 001222 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR INR/R/MR, EAP/TC, EAP/P, EAP/PD - THOMAS HAMM 
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 October 10-13 on former Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian, 
who filed a petition with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed 
Forces earlier asking the court to order Taiwan President Ma 
Ying-jeou, who Chen described in his suit as the "current civil 
administrator in Taiwan," to set him free and rescind the life 
sentence imposed on him; on the KMT's Central Standing Committee 
election Sunday; and on U.S. President Barack Obama's winning the 
Nobel Peace Prize.  In terms of editorials and commentaries, an 
op-ed in the pro-independence, English-language "Taipei Times" said, 
judging from U.S. President Obama's "tendency to please enemy states 
while overlooking allies," he might postpone the sale of F16 C/D 
fighter jets to Taiwan because of China's opposition.  An editorial 
in the pro-independence, English-language "Taiwan News" discussed 
Obama's winning the Nobel Peace Prize and said he "can best fulfill 
the trust symbolized by the Nobel Peace Prize by realizing that 
genuine peace in East Asia requires effective guarantees for the 
protection of smaller nations from an authoritarian and militarily 
belligerent power. ..."  End summary 
 
A) "U.S. Position on Taiwan Defense Is Shifting" 
 
Lin Cheng-yi, Director of the Institute of European and American 
Studies at the Academia Sinica, opined in the pro-independence, 
English-language "Taipei Times" [circulation: 30,000] (10/13): 
 
"Former US President George W. Bush planned to station missile 
interceptors in Poland and radar bases in the Czech Republic to 
prevent Iran from attacking Europe with missiles. However, because 
the plan upset Russia, US President Barack Obama canceled it. A Wall 
Street Journal editorial criticized Obama for giving dictators more 
room to maneuver while not giving those who challenge dictators 
enough opportunities. Obama's tendency to please enemy states while 
overlooking allies and the way he has dealt with Poland and Tibet 
make one wonder whether he might postpone the sale of F16C/D fighter 
planes to Taiwan because of Chinese opposition.  This is something 
that Taiwan cannot afford to ignore.  Obama administration officials 
have repeatedly said the US has the responsibility to provide 
defensive weapons to Taiwan according to the Taiwan Relations Act. 
However, he has also extended strategic guarantees to Chinese 
President Hu Jintao.  While the Obama administration slapped 35 
percent tariffs on Chinese tires and sent the USS Chung-Hoon 
destroyer to protect the US' naval right of passage in the South 
China Sea, his postponing of a meeting the Dalai Lama, muted 
criticism of China's human rights and finance policies and 
increasing China's voting power in the IMF all show that moral 
principles are losing to practical concerns. 
 
"Over the past two years, Taiwan has set funds aside and requested 
that the US provide it with weapons. ...  In the past, it was Taiwan 
that delayed arms purchases; now it is the US government, and in 
doing so it is allowing the cross-strait military balance to shift 
in Beijing's favor.  Obama will find that the longer he postpones 
the sale of the F16C/Ds to Taiwan, the stronger China's reaction and 
the higher the price the US and Taiwan will have to pay to pacify 
it. ...  [Kurt] Campbell is now Assistant Secretary of State for 
East Asian and Pacific affairs. In the past, he was also a member of 
the Center for a New American Security, a Washington-based think 
tank, as is US Assistant Secretary of Defense for Asian and Pacific 
Security Affairs Wallace Gregson.  This implies that the Obama 
administration plans to increase the 'soft power' of Taiwan's 
military and will not be focusing so much on weapons sales. 
 
"At the conference, Gregson said that as Taiwan's national defense 
resources are limited, Taiwan should adopt more creative security 
concepts.  He also suggested that Taiwan develop asymmetric warfare 
capabilities. This suggestion is very similar to the 'porcupine' 
defense strategy proposed by US Naval War College professor William 
Murray and probably shows the way for future US-Taiwan cooperation 
on defense.  The method dodges the matter of selling F16C/Ds to 
Taiwan and eases US worries that US-made weapons could end up in 
Chinese hands 20 years from now." 
 
B) "Obama Must Promote Real East Asian Peace" 
 
The pro-independence, English-language "Taiwan News" [circulation: 
20,000] editorialized (10/12): 
 
"...  Obama's foreign policy principles entail the extensive use of 
multilateral diplomatic negotiation to defuse potential conflicts 
and has emphasized 'engagement and dialogue' over 'containment and 
confrontation' in handling the challenges posed by rising regional 
powers, notably the Chinese Communist Party-ruled People's Republic 
of China.  So far, Obama has tallied several notable achievements in 
accordance with the goals of maintaining peace and protecting human 
rights, including his initiative to seek reconciliation between the 
U.S. and the Muslim world, the closing of the notorious the U.S. 
concentration camp at Guantanamo, the beginning of the 
implementation of his plan to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq and his 
 
renouncement of plans for a missile defense system deployment in 
Poland.  However, the decision to award Obama with a Nobel Peace 
Prize in advance with the apparent strategic intention of 
encouraging Washington to stay on the multilateral track has its 
blind spots. 
 
"First, it is by no means the case that Obama's foreign policy is 
simply a product of 'ABB' ('Anything but Bush') considerations but 
is largely a reflection of domestic pressures. ...  Moreover, the 
Obama administration's approach in Asia is fraught with fundamental 
dilemmas. 
Undoubtedly, a difficult challenge concerns whether Obama can 
display both strong determination and smart diplomacy in dealing 
with 'rogue states' such as North Korea and Iran.  Moreover, the 
Obama administration has not only supported new Japanese Prime 
Minister Hatoyama Yukio's notion of an Asian regional community but 
has also strongly encouraged its allies to follow policies of 
engagement with the PRC. 
 
"The problem lies in the fact that the PRC itself and its 
transparent ambition for regional hegemony and the threat to 
regional democracies and human rights posed by its military-backed 
authoritarian influence is precisely the main long-term structural 
threat to regional peace and security.  Obama has yet to show 
awareness for the need for a balance in maintaining peace in 
military terms and ensuring the continuation and fostering of 
democracy and human rights in Asia, a balance which we deeply 
believe must be tilted in favor of the latter.  Indeed, on the eve 
of his first official trip to Asia and the PRC, Obama put off a 
planned meeting with the Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama in 
Washington last week.  This move hints that Obama is continuing his 
predecessor's excessive dependence on Beijing's 'cooperation' on 
other issues while neglecting to hedge the risks of the PRC's rise 
to hegemony in Asia, ignoring its threat to regional democracy and 
human rights and failing to be aware of the possibly grave 
reverberations on hopes for democracy in the PRC itself of the 
erosion of democracy in other Asian nations, especially Taiwan. 
 
"Obama can best fulfill the trust symbolized by the Nobel Peace 
Prize by realizing that genuine peace in East Asia requires 
effective guarantees for the protection of smaller nations from an 
authoritarian and militarily belligerent power and by sowing the 
seeds of democracy and human rights instead of sacrificing these 
basic values for the sake of short-term calm.  We therefore urge 
President Obama to express his concern on the CCP regime's continued 
violation of human rights in his scheduled visit to China next month 
and to express his concerns for the recent signs of regression in 
Taiwan's democracy under the restored Chinese Nationalist Party 
(Kuomintang, KMT) government under President Ma Ying-jeou." 
 
STANTON