Cablegate: Media Reaction: U.S. Arms Sales to Taiwan

VZCZCXYZ0006
RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHIN #3726/01 3052257
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 012257Z NOV 06
FM AIT TAIPEI
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 2860
INFO RUEHBJ/AMEMBASSY BEIJING 5867
RUEHHK/AMCONSUL HONG KONG 7087

UNCLAS AIT TAIPEI 003726

SIPDIS

DEPARTMENT FOR INR/R/MR, EAP/TC, EAP/PA, EAP/PD - DAVID FIRESTEIN
DEPARTMENT PASS AIT/WASHINGTON

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: OPRC KMDR KPAO TW
SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION: U.S. ARMS SALES TO TAIWAN

1. Summary: Taiwan's major Chinese-language dailies continued to
focus November 1 on the prosecutors' request Tuesday to detain a
Financial Supervisory Commission member for his alleged involvement
in corruption. News coverage also focused on the arms procurement
bill, which was again blocked by pan-Blue legislators Tuesday; and
on a "Defense News" article on the U.S. arms procurements. The
pro-independence "Liberty Times," Taiwan's largest-circulation
daily, front-paged the "Defense News" article and ran a banner
headline on page two that read "Arms Procurement Bill Blocked Again;
Top Authorities: Situation Is Alarming."

2. In terms of editorials and commentary, an opinion piece in the
mass-circulation "Apple Daily" defended AIT Taipei Director Stephen
Young's remarks on Taiwan's arms procurements last Thursday. The
article said Young's press conference was in reality a move to stop
the deep-rooted evils of Taiwan's politicians who tend to monopolize
the channels of U.S. information. A separate "Apple Daily" opinion
piece also urged Taiwan's political parties who intend to take power
to consider Taiwan's national defense and security and reasonably
discuss the arms procurement bill. An editorial in the
limited-circulation, pro-independence, English-language "Taipei
Times" lashed out at the pan-Blue camp for its repeatedly attempts
to block the arms procurement bill in the Legislative Yuan. End
summary.

A) "Rusty Island Chain and Stephen Young's Remarks"

Chang Tzu-yang, the dean of Nanhua University's Department of
International Studies, commented in an op-ed piece in the
mass-circulation "Apple Daily" [circulation: 500,000] (11/1):

"The press conference hosted by AIT Taipei Director Stephen Young on
October 26 triggered quite a big stir in Taiwan's political circle,
with criticism that he was forcefully promoting arms sales and
interfering in [Taiwan's] domestic politics. But perhaps this kind
of comment will neither be able to safeguard national dignity nor
foster national interests. The analysis is as follows. First, the
comment regarding [Young] intervening in domestic politics was
somewhat far-fetched. Young was in reality stepping in to stop the
deep-rooted evils of Taiwan politicians who tend to monopolize the
channel of U.S. information.

"Young is clearly aware of Taiwan's political situation, and he
knows that Taiwan's political figures, following closed-door
meetings with him, may likely twist his original intention, so he
said in the very beginning of his press conference that he wanted to
convey the United States' true message to the Taiwan people via the
media. This move was to show respect to the Taiwan people. In
addition, Young chose to hold his press conference at the American
Cultural Center (ACC), which is U.S. property. His discussion of
Taiwan's interests, security and their connection with the United
States at the ACC resembled the U.S. State Department spokesmen who
discussed the Taiwan issue in a regular State Department press
briefing. The nature [of the press conference] was to confine the
discussion to the matter at issue, which should not be regarded as
interference. Young's intention was for Taiwan's interests; even
though U.S. interests were also involved, his move at least met the
diplomatic principle of equality and reciprocity.

"Second, there are various interpretations for Young's motives, but
I believe Young's sense of urgency came mainly from the fact that
the Bush administration has reset the tune for its China policy. It
is already determined that the United States wants to contain China
strategically, and Washington has already started its action. This
is something Young could not say out loud, as he did not want to
provoke China and encourage Taiwan independence. ...

"In the face of the several-months-long chaos and ceasing of
function in Taiwan's politics, plus Pyongyang's nuclear test to make
the situation worse, the United States, which is eager to mend the
island chains in the West Pacific, can only ask Young to make a big
move by appealing to public opinion to push Taiwan's ruling and
opposition parties to work together on arms procurements. But
Taiwan seems to have become a rusty link in the island chain, and
perhaps the United States will have to work harder to polish it."

B) "Big Parties Must Behave Like Grown-ups"

Senior political commentator Sun Ching-yu noted in an opinion piece
in the mass-circulation "Apple Daily" [circulation: 500,000]
(11/1):

"... As a representative posted in one of the two sides that make
business deals, and as one of the two parties which are involved in
joint military defense, Stephen Young was fully entitled to remind
Taiwan. But the same bunch of people who blocked the arms
procurements even dared to loudly criticize Young for 'making
remarks out of his capacity [as a diplomat],' for 'diplomatic

intimidation,' and for 'not respecting the dignity of a sovereign
country.'

"Can the leaders of major parties in a sovereign country break their
promise without any reason after having assured the United States
that the arms procurement bill would be passed this fall? Can the
legislative caucuses of a sovereign country oppose 'extravagant arms
procurements' and uphold a 'reasonable arms deal' while repeatedly
blocking the arms procurement bill and leaving no room for the
'reasonable arms procurements' to be discussed? In addition, 'a
country will not be insulted by others unless it insults itself
first.' Can a country which fails to respect its conventions win
other people's respect? Is it a dignified move to postpone and act
unreasonably on one's promise? ..."

C) "National Defense Starts at Home"

The pro-independence, English-language "Taipei Times" [circulation:
30,000] editorialized (11/1):

"... There are those in the US who believe in Taiwan and believe in
its freedom, and these people work hard to convince the military,
the executive and Congress that Taiwan is worth supporting and, if
necessary, fighting for. Then there are those who think that Taiwan
is expendable. They think Taiwanese are a jumped-up bunch of
Chinese who cannot be trusted to run a democracy, let alone to
defend themselves from the Chinese juggernaut. To them, Taiwan
endangers good relations with China and industry and is simply not
worth the trouble - despite the fact that Taiwan's democracy grew
under US protection. There is a strong case to be made, therefore,
that Young was ordered by his superiors to ignite the pan-blue
camp's deep anti-Americanism so that the procurement bill would be
scuttled - providing ammunition to pro-China forces in the US of the
'unwillingness' of Taiwan to defend itself.

"Whatever the truth of the matter, a clash between pro-Taiwan
interests in the US and the pan-blue camp was inevitable because
pan-blue contempt toward the US has always nestled very close to the
surface. Never mind that the pan-blue elite are US-educated; the
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) has a long and inglorious history of
relying on US funding, education, technical know-how and military
support, then denying its own incompetence and its debt to the
American people and labeling the US 'colonialist' for presuming to
defend Taiwan against Chinese dictatorship. What Washington has to
understand is that KMT hypocrisy and carpetbagging do not represent
the sentiments of the average Taiwanese, nor even the sentiments of
the average KMT supporter. Taiwanese politics is polarized, but
Taiwanese themselves maintain a civilized polity that is worth
standing up for. The other option is to condemn Taiwan to the care
of a regime that a draft US-China Economic and Security Review
Commission report has described as a country unlikely to be willing
to act as a responsible world power. ..."

YOUNG

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