Well, Isn’t That Special?

Sorry for not posting for the last two weeks.  Had a lot of work…and really bad insomnia.

Couldn’t let last Sunday’s China Post editorial slip by without comment, though:

In the course of planning surprise visits by our president to countries that have no formal diplomatic relations with us, it is sometimes understandable that government officials try to keep their cards close to their chest.

Uh-huh.  Beijing frequently sends its diplomats to cajole or bully other countries into denying planes carrying Taiwanese officials a place to land.  As a result, the Chen administration misled reporters as to President Chen’s stopover point, thereby foiling Beijing’s plans.  Rather than congratulate Chen for outmaneuvering the Communists, the China Post saw fit to castigate him for, of all things, dishonesty:

From the very start of the nine-day trip, when the Foreign Ministry announced that the president’s plane would make a refueling stop in Alaska, it was clear that officials were making misleading announcements.

After the plane took off, reporters on board who were not told where they were going relied on hand-held compasses to confirm they were heading west and southwest, toward Southeast Asia and the Arabian Peninsula, rather than east toward the North American continent. Before his return trip, false announcements were again made suggesting places where President Chen’s aircraft would stop over, only to have the president make jaunts to Libya and Indonesia.

[…]

In his announcement made over the aircraft’s public address system, President Chen addressed demands that Foreign Minister James Huang step down for blatantly lying about every detail of the trip.

[…]

If Foreign Minister Huang was instructed to tell lies by the president and other superiors, we can forgive him for that. But we should not forgive President Chen for his bizarre and cavalier attitude about telling lies, even if those lies are ostensibly for a good cause.

In the future, President Chen would be wiser to follow the international standard of "refusing to confirm or deny" rather than lying point blank. Rather than do no harm by just keeping mum, President Chen has instead fostered a dangerous culture of lying. (Emphasis added)

Churchill once said that in war, truth is so precious that she should always be accompanied by a bodyguard of lies.  That’s probably irrelevant though, because the China Post doesn’t view the Communist Party of China as being hostile, let alone as being an enemy.  But when its editorialists accuse others of "fostering a dangerous culture of lying", they should perhaps reflect on the possibility that a few of their own fabrications might contribute to that culture as well:

[One of the reasons that the U.S. refused Chen a transit stop on the American mainland is that it] has also been annoyed by Chen’s lukewarm response to Bush’s 2001 offer of selling an unprecedented robust package of advanced arms to Taiwan.

(From Chen’s problems U.S.-made, The China Post, May 9/06)

Staggering.  Chen and his party attempted to bring the arms package to a vote over fifty times, but were blocked each and every time by the opposition KMT party.  Meanwhile, it was the China Post that cheered, or least rationalized, the KMT’s obstructionism.

And now, given its own record of hostility to the deal, that newspaper has the face to claim that it was Chen’s response that was lukewarm?

Friendship

How does the joke go?  A friend is someone who’s always there to help you; a true friend is someone who will stick around afterwards to help bury the bodies.

By that measure, Taiwan’s KMT must now be counted as a true friend of the Communist Party of China:

The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus [on May 2nd] blocked a legislative resolution that would have asked the UN and international human-rights groups to investigate China’s persecution of Falun Gong practitioners.

[…]

According to the Taiwan Falun Dafa Association, China has stepped up persecution of Falun Gong members, imprisoning them in concentration camps — including one in Liaoning Province where some are said to have had organs removed for transplant.

I’m SO disillusioned.  The China Post has written countless editorials extolling the KMT’s love of sweet veritas.  President Chen beat the KMT in an election after being shot.  Give us the truth, the China Post repeatedly states – we have to know how Chen orchestrated the assassination attempt on his own life in order to win crucial sympathy votes!

But now, despite that kind of idealistic commitment to the truth, the KMT helps the CCP bury corpses.  Say it ain’t so!  Someone wants to look into whether the Communists murdered members of a religious minority and harvested their organs?  Why, a trivial little matter like that, and the KMT’s appetite for investigations vanishes.  Let’s just quietly kill this in committee instead, they whisper.

What’s remarkable about the entire affair is that even members from the People First Party (a heavily pro-Communist political group) were in favor of the measure.  Their allies in the KMT would have nothing of it, however.  An investigation like that would destroy all of the KMT’s hard work to cozy up to the Communists.  An investigation like that would look bad when China makes a grab for a seat on the UN Human Rights Council.  An investigation like that would make the Taiwanese reluctant to hitch their wagon to China’s star.

Dare I also point out that shining light on the subject might also reduce the available supply of fresh kidneys, hearts and corneas for members of Taiwan’s KMT?  Maybe it’s just a coincidence that a large number of them happen to be a tad on the geriatric side.

“Duty” Duty

Must be a lotta angry bureaucrats in the southern Taiwanese county of Tainan right about now…

The Tainan County Government implemented a trend-setting measure yesterday by requiring its staff to clean their office bathrooms.

Despite protests from some bureaucrats, County Commissioner Su Huan-chih (蘇煥智) said he would stand by his decision as part of his effort to promote good public hygiene practices throughout the county.

Many county employees came to work 30 minutes early, dressed in casual clothes, to clean the toilets. Su took the lead by cleaning the bathrooms next to his office.

First, a little backstory:  Elementary and junior high schools in Taiwan save money on janitorial staff by having their students clean the bathrooms.  Recently though, a few Tainan County schools decided to contract outside firms because the students didn’t seem to care much for the job.  When the county commissioner heard what the school administrators were up to, he tried to shame them into abandoning their plans by demonstrating that even county bureaucrats are required to do that sort of work:

"I think county officials should set a good example for the younger generation by cleaning up their office restrooms themselves," [Su] said. "I hope all county residents can adopt good toilet habits and etiquette."

Now, I’m sure that a lot of people reading this will be saying to themselves, "Make government bureaucrats clean toilets?  Hmm!  Why didn’t we think of that?"

Before you get too enthusiastic though, just consider this scenario:  Take a bunch of civil servants who have passed a grueling set of government examinations to get jobs that have traditionally excluded janitorial work.  Now, make them mop up backed-up toilets. 

Oh, and the kicker is that they’ve got to come to work 30 minutes early in order to do it.  At no extra pay.

Maybe the commissioner will succeed in making the schools back down, but thank Heaven none of MY paperwork will ever cross his employees’ desks. 

You think bureaucrats have a reputation for surliness now?  Man, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet!

But I haven’t come to the best part yet.  You see, the Commish is so enamored of his revolutionary, trend-setting idea that he believes he can save the county even more money by appealing to the altruistic instincts of other virtuous citizens in the county:

Su said he would launch a campaign to recruit volunteers to clean all public lavatories in the county to replace the current outsourcing practice.  (Emphasis added)

In loo of any serious comment, I just have to say, Mr. Su, I think urine luck.  How could a campaign like that ever tank?  After all, the world’s overflowing with starry-eyed idealists – people who are flush with that good-old can-doo spirit.

Of course, the worst case is that not enough people will be Johnny-on-the-spot.  That’d present a wee bit of a problem.  If that happens, my Number One suggestion would be that you provide a set of incentives so that people don’t let this fabulous op-pooh-tunity go to waste.

As an initial measure, might I propose offering partial course credits for those currently working on their Pee-h.D.s?

Cool / Silly Stuff

A lot of people looking for cool / silly links are directed to this site, but I suspect many of them leave in frustration because the list is at the very bottom of the left sidebar.  Hopefully, search engines will direct them to this post from now on.

So without further ado, here's a few links that either made me laugh, or made me say, "Wow!"  Please let me know if any are inactive, so I can keep the list updated.

Inflation Blues

Hey Mr. President
All you congressmen, too
You got me frustrated
And I don’t know what to do
I’m trying to make a living
I can’t save a cent
It takes all of my money
Just to eat and pay my rent
I got the blues
Got those inflation blues…

– B.B. King, Inflation Blues

About a week ago, I spoke to a Taiwanese who mentioned in passing that inflation was now a big problem in Taiwan.  I didn’t want to contradict her to her face, but I was puzzled by her claim.  Because when I go shopping, I can see that the price of orange juice is unchanged, that chicken prices are about the same, and the cost of a newspaper hasn’t gone up in years.  Inflation?  What inflation?

But that’s just anecdotal evidence.  On Wednesday, the China Post wrote an editorial revealing that consumer prices of basic necessities have increased by 10% this year.  Keep in mind that this is likely an overestimate, because consumer price indices have a difficult time reflecting improvements in quality of computers and other electronic goods.  Nevertheless, it seems that at least some inflation is occurring, and the editorialists offered a few solutions.  A few of their suggestions I agreed with, but there was one howler which merits discussion:

At a time when consumer prices continue rising with surging import costs, one effective way to counter the problem is to open up the domestic market particularly to China, a country on which we still impose sweeping restrictions for its products. Allowing in much lower priced mainland products may increase competition for domestic suppliers, but it will help offset a great deal of inflation, to the advantage of the consuming public.

Shazam!  China to the rescue!  Is there any problem from which Taiwan suffers that the Communist Party of China CAN’T solve?  Rather than propose a hike in interest rates (the most effective inflation-buster known to man), the China Post calls for Taiwan to become even more dependent upon supplies from its mortal enemy.  Surely, the economic dangers of such over-reliance should have been made clear to all by China’s recent decision to cripple Taiwan’s construction industry by eliminating gravel exports. *

Still, the basic idea of reducing inflation by allowing cheaper imports into the country is fundamentally sound, once one discards the notion that China (of all countries!) should be the source.  Taiwan currently has about 25 diplomatic allies in the world, and opening its markets further to their products would both reward them for their friendship, as well as be a big help to the Taiwanese consumer.

Following this, Taiwan could also increase market access to the countries that it has military relationships with, such as America and Japan.  Numerous people have informed me of the heavy import duties levied here on imported cars in order to protect the local auto industry.  Giving the local consumer a break on the price of Fords and Toyotas would greatly outweigh the benefits from giving them a bit of cheaper Chinese agricultural produce.

But the list doesn’t end there.  What of local democracies, such as the Philippines or Thailand?  Do they not also have inexpensive exports?  What about other developing countries?  In Asia?  In Africa?  In South America? 

(Heck, if you really want to scrape the bottom of the barrel, you could think about duty-free importation from Vietnam or Laos.  Sure, they may be communist, but they don’t have 800 missiles pointed at Taiwan now, do they?)

All-in-all, I can think of at least a HUNDRED countries which Taiwan could open its markets to, and bring tangible cost-savings to the Taiwanese consumer.  And yet, for some reason, the China Post‘s sympathy begins and ends with only one – the one country in the world that has sworn to annihilate the Taiwanese government.

Forever.

* The decision also highlighted the political subservience that accompanies economic dependence on Communist China as well.  A Taiwan News editorial notes:

…the chairman for the Taiwan National Construction Engineers Industrial Association [said that since] the Constitution of the People’s Republic of China clearly stated…Taiwan was an inseparable territory of China and not a "foreign country," the supply of Chinese gravel to Taiwan should [therefore] not be interrupted. (emphasis added)

"We’re part of Communist China, always were.  So please, please, please, give us our gravel!" the slavish Taiwanese construction leader cried.

And the China Post‘s response?  Taiwan should just be a good little province and tighten the noose around its neck even further.

UPDATE (May 10/06):  Just noticed that the price of bottled water that I usually buy here has risen from 22 to 25 New Taiwanese dollars.

I also noticed that President Chen and Central American governments are discussing free trade agreements with each other.  An agreement with Guatemala may be concluded this month, and one with El Salvador may be signed in October.  (From Chen talks FTAs with leaders of Central America from the May 9th Taiwan News.  Sorry, no link is available.)  Chen also announced that Paraguayan beef import quotas would be doubled, from 220 to 440 metric tons per year.

It seems then, that there is room for the Taiwanese government to help out the consumer, without following the China Post‘s advice of hitching an economic ride with Communist hatchet murderers.

New Search Engine

Added the Sphere Search Engine to the sidebar last night and decided to give it a try.  Typed in "Chiang Kai-Shek statues" and came up with…

Zip.

A whole lotta nothin’.

Man, that’s just pitiful!  Last month, I wrote four or five posts about the abortive attempt to remove Chiang Kai-Shek statues from Taiwanese military bases.  Needless to say, THAT search engine goes.

Then I tried out the Rollyo Search Engine.  It’s set to preferentially search about 10 websites, and now I’ve got the opposite problem.  Three PAGES of redundant links to my blog alone.

Ugh.  I suppose it’s better than nothing, so I’ll leave it up for now.  Let me know if any of you find it useful.

Fingerprinting

Part of me HATES stuff like this:

The [Taiwanese] Ministry of Justice said yesterday the requirement for visitors from China to have their fingerprints taken upon arrival should be implemented as soon as possible.

[…]

At present, certain categories of Chinese citizens, including professionals and technicians, can visit Taiwan. The newly revised statute on cross-strait exchanges requires fingerprinting for them, but the requirement has not been implemented because some complementary measures have yet to be fleshed out.

As the government is preparing to open the door for ordinary Chinese citizens to sightsee in Taiwan, the officials said they will push for a further law revision to require fingerprinting for Chinese tourists as well as Chinese fishery workers aboard Taiwanese fishing boats and seized illegal Chinese immigrants.

Unfortunately however, I don’t see how Taiwan can afford to be laissez faire about a million prospective tourists from a hostile foreign country flooding onto its shores.  Taiwan and China don’t share criminal dossiers, and the two countries have no extradition treaty.  What a terrific opportunity for China’s criminal element!

But let’s leave concerns about crime aside.  How would America have reacted if the Soviets had allowed 10 million of their citizens to visit PER YEAR?  Sure, on the one hand, a lot of those tourists would have gone home knowing that America wasn’t the demon that the communist propaganda mill was making it out to be.  But on the other hand, the possiblilities for breaches in national security might well have been intolerable.  Here in our time, it’s safe to say that there are plenty of young men from Muslim countries that would absolutely LOVE to visit America.  However, for some reason or another, they haven’t exactly been welcomed with open arms lately.  Ever wonder why THAT is?

So yeah, the libertarian in me has pretty strong reservations about fingerprinting tourists, whatever their national origin.  But the conservative in me, well, he can’t find it in himself to work up much outrage.  Because THAT guy’s of the opinion that if somebody wants to be treated like a friend, then they’d better damn well be willing to act like one.

UPDATE (Apr 28/06):  A KMT legislator suggested that other nationalities also be fingerprinted – in the interest of "impartiality".

Why stop there, Mr. Wizard?  Maybe Taiwan’s armed forces should begin training for a possible Lithuanian invasion.  In the interest of impartiality, of course.

A Few Links

Apologies to those who’ve visited the site only to find no new posts for the last six days.  Haven’t been particularly busy lately, just super tired.  Anyways, ran into a few China-related links on the Weekly Standard and thought I’d post them for your perusal.

China’s Emerging Military (a short piece about a 187 page study by the Rand Corporation)

The Seinfeld Summit

Confucious Say – Caveat Emptor

Talk amongst yourselves.  It’s nap time for me.