VZCZCXYZ0006
RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHIN #1352/01 3170944
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 130944Z NOV 09
FM AIT TAIPEI
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 2707
INFO RUEHBJ/AMEMBASSY BEIJING 9498
RUEHHK/AMCONSUL HONG KONG 0903

UNCLAS AIT TAIPEI 001352 
 
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: PRESIDENT OBAMA'S TRIP TO ASIA, 
CROSS-STRAIT RELATIONS 
 
¶1. Summary:  Taiwan's major Chinese-language dailies focused news 
coverage November 13 on the Taiwan government's probe into the toxic 
ducks found in Kaohsiung; on the APEC meetings currently going on in 
Singapore; and on developments in cross-Strait relations.  The 
KMT-leaning "China Times" ran a banner headline on page three 
reading "[U.S. President Barack] Obama to Arrive in Tokyo Today, 
Will Expound [His] Asian Policy." 
 
¶2. In terms of editorials and commentaries, a column in the 
mass-circulation "Apple Daily" discussed Obama's trip to Asia and 
said relations between China and the United States have undergone a 
substantive transformation compared with years ago.  An op-ed in the 
pro-independence, English-language "Taipei Times" suggested that 
Obama take a new approach and discuss clean air as a human rights 
matter with his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao.  With regard to 
cross-Strait relations, an editorial in the pro-independence 
"Liberty Times" criticized President Ma Ying-jeou's plan to sign a 
peace pact with Beijing within his term of office.  The article said 
the peace pact is nothing but a belated, formal surrender by the 
Nationalist Party to the Chinese Communist Party.  End summary. 
 
¶3. President Obama's Trip to Asia 
 
A) "Obama's Trip to Asia" 
 
Columnist Antonio Chiang wrote in his column in the mass-circulation 
"Apple Daily" [circulation: 520,000] (11/13): 
 
"The United States' influence in the Asia-Pacific region has been on 
the decline, while China's influence in the area is growing day by 
day.  It is already too late if [U.S. President Barack] Obama wants 
to take advantage of his nine-day trip to Asia to turn the tide. 
But still, Asia has very high expectations for the Obama 
administration, a situation quite different from that under the 
[former] Bush administration.  Ten years ago, [U.S. President Bill] 
Clinton made a guarantee to the Congress, saying that Beijing's 
accession to the World Trade Organization would strengthen 
democratic power in China, and that economic freedom would 
eventually lead to political freedom.  Such a viewpoint has long 
since become extinct.  China has become the United States' biggest 
creditor -- a kind of change that has made Washington's preaching to 
China about human rights sound meaningless.  By contrast, [Chinese 
Premier] Wen Jiabao, speaking in an admonishing tone of a creditor 
to debtor, openly urged the United States to 'keep its credit and 
commitment so as to ensure the safety of Chinese assets.'  It is 
obvious that Sino-U.S. relations have undergone a substantive 
transformation. 
 
"Sino-U.S. ties have turned into an equal and cooperative 
relationship of the G2, and Obama needs Hu Jintao's assistance on 
issues from North Korea and Iran to climate change.  Both sides 
share an active and optimistic relationship while there are no new 
barriers emerging between them.  Such a development differs 
completely from the relations between the United States and Japan. 
..." 
 
B) "Clean Air Is Key in Talks between Hu and Obama" 
 
Zhu Zhiqun, an associate professor of political science and 
international relations at Bucknell University in Pennsylvania and 
the University's John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur chair in East 
Asian politics, opined in the pro-independence, English-language 
"Taipei Times" [circulation: 30,000] (11/13): 
 
"When US President Barack Obama makes his first visit to China next 
week, human rights is likely to be one of the major issues in his 
talks with Chinese leaders. While it will be a great opportunity for 
him to express his concerns for human rights in China, he should 
address it with a different strategy and focus than past US leaders. 
Instead of openly challenging the Chinese government on issues like 
political freedom and Tibet, which are bound to anger Chinese 
leaders and are not really helpful for improving human rights 
conditions in China, Obama should promote the idea of clean air as a 
human right. ... 
 
"... If Obama continues to talk about human rights only through the 
lens of political and religious freedom during his visit, he is 
likely to alienate much of the Chinese public. Instead, he should 
raise China's environmental degradation as a human rights issue and 
offer the US' strong support for a better environment in China. 
Clean air is a basic human right that all Chinese care about, but do 
not have. ...  The Obama-Hu meeting in Beijing will be a litmus test 
of how serious they are in curbing greenhouse gases. To a large 
extent, a successful Obama visit to China depends on whether the two 
countries will agree to cooperate on clean air in China and 
elsewhere." 
 
¶4. Cross-Strait Relations 
CROSS-STRAIT RELATIONS 
 
 
"'Peace' Is Just Another [Way] to Sell Out Taiwan" 
 
The pro-independence "Liberty Times" [circulation: 680,000] 
editorialized (11/13): 
 
"President Ma Ying-jeou said recently that he is willing to try his 
best to fulfill the signing of a peace pact with mainland China 
within his term of office.  President Ma used the so-called 1992 
consensus to resume talks with China and bragged about the false 
appearance of peace.  [If he] tries 'his best to sign a peace pact 
with mainland China,' Taiwan will certainly have to pay the price 
with its sovereignty, except that Ma dared not say it so clearly. 
The peace pact, as Ma envisions it, is not built on equal 
state-to-state relations between Taiwan and China, but is a problem 
left behind from the civil war between the Nationalist Party and the 
Chinese Communist Party (CCP).  Frankly speaking, such a peace 
accord is a belated, formal surrender by the Nationalist Party to 
the CCP. ... President Ma has not only betrayed those who insist on 
Taiwan's sovereignty but also those who believe that he will 
safeguard the Republic of China (ROC).  Selling out Taiwan on the 
one hand while betraying the ROC on the other, President Ma is not a 
political moron but an ambitious schemer. ..." 
 
STANTON