Bird flu: We're &*^%#@!!!

ICRT:

Authorities in southern Taiwan are denying reports of an outbreak of the
H-5-N-2 strain of avian flu.

According to the Council of Agriculture ... a joint investigation by members
of its Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine and the
Centers for Disease Control has shown that poultry farms in Tainan and Nantou
counties are free of the disease, and that the sudden deaths of chickens at
farm in Gaoxiong in October is unrelated to the H-5-N-2 virus.

The statement follows media reports that the C-O-A attempted to cover-up a
series of outbreaks across southern Taiwan.

Speaking to reporters ... a C-O-A official said that an investigation into
the death of some 400 chickens in Gaoxiong County in late October and early
November showed that only around 3-per cent of the total number of chickens
had died - a fatality rate the C-O-A says is within the normal range for
poultry farms and far lower than the average mortality rate of the H-5-N-2
virus.

The C-O-A official added that although the dead birds did not show any signs
of respiratory disease, health officials decided to cull all the remaining
18-thousand chickens in an effort to prevent any negative consequences.

C-O-A officials are still checking agents obtained from the poultry farm in
order to determine the cause of the deaths and areas adjacent to the farm
are being closely monitored.

The official added that the C-O-A had never attempted to cover-up the
situation at the Gaoxiong farm and that a panel of experts has still not
completed an investigation into the deaths and that the delay in releasing
information about the possible outbreak was unrelated to the Ma
Administration's opening-up of more direct transport routes with China.

There have been claims that the C-O-A was forced to cover-up the outbreak in
order that not overshadow Monday's opening of direct maritime and air routes
to China.]

However .... Japan has announced that it will halt poultry imports from
Taiwan until results of the investigation are completed.

Unlike the H-5-N-1 strain of avian flu, there is no evidence that the H-5-N-2
virus can infect humans.

KMT will strip Chen of courteous treatment upon first guilty verdict

Assuming there is a guilty verdict, of course. I'll wait to see the draft law before saying which privileges would be stripped (they would likely include the allowances and possibly the security detail).

Proposed amendments to the Election and Recall Law (公職人員選舉罷免法) are being put on hold for now. If passed would turn vote buying into a much more palatable experience for legislators, since they could drag out cases and appeals for much longer before being stripped of their seats. Guess the KMT is waiting for a better internal consensus (or a time when nobody is paying attention).

Premier: we need direct communications channel with DPP

What a revelation. So, will the DPP take some initiative, exhibit maturity and establish such a channel? Or will they continue the long tradition of stonewalling that so defines legislative politics in Taiwan?

Of note

Legislator Chiu Yi has hair-raising experience

DPP says launch of direct flights unconstitutional

Media: Xiamen will host next round of talks between Taiwan and China

Special Counsel decides to appeal Chen’s release / Judge has little time to argue Chen detention

Roundup

Ministry of Defense: Our hypothetical enemy is the PRC, not China.

Thanks for clearing that up guys. But doesn't that contradict Ma's "One China" policy?

Meanwhile, Ma fantasizes that Taiwan's democracy has had a huge impact on the "mainland" while the KMT caucus seems to have come together behind the pro-vote buying and pro-corruption amendements to the election law. Let's see if they're actually shameless enough to ram it through.

Mounds of horse dodo

Stay classy, Legislative Yuan!

A proposal to amend the Public Officials Election and Recall Act (公職人員選舉罷免法) is on the agenda. The idea is to amend Article 127, which would annul an election after an unsuccessful second appeal instead of after an unsuccessful first appeal, as is the case now.

If the amendment were passed, it would allow elected officials suspected of vote-buying to serve out their terms as their cases drag on from one trial to another. The law as it stands is a thorn in the side of corrupt legislators, with its so-called “blitzkrieg clause” requiring that the verdict after the first appeal be final, and that the duration of each trial be limited to six months.

The effectiveness of the existing law can be seen from the fact that, among officials elected in 2005, 37 city and county councilors have been removed from their posts and replaced by runner-up candidates, while 14 city mayors, county commissioners and township mayors have been dismissed and replaced in by-elections.

If the law is not amended, the 18 legislators and defeated candidates who are facing criminal charges will see their cases move to an appeal. If their convictions are upheld, the unsuccessful candidates will go to prison immediately, while those elected will be removed from their seats and then go to jail.

If the Act is changed so that cases limited to two trials are allowed one more appeal, the example of former Taichung City Council speaker Kuo Yen-sheng (郭晏生), which has dragged on for 13 years after he was accused of irregularities in 1995, will be commonplace. If vote-buying cases against elected officials cannot be resolved within their term of office, there would be little point in investigating anyone.

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Also, I remember seeing a shitty editorial in UDN a few weeks ago arguing that Japan, Germany and the US all have pre-trial detention systems, and there's nothing wrong with Taiwan's! Of course, the writer missed the main point -- that you have to charge someone with a crime before you can detain them in democratic countries (though there are 24-hour exceptions in most US states).

Imagine my surprise when President Ma Ying-jeou made the same empty, misleading, even horrific argument today.

While some have argued that the pre-trial detention of criminal suspects is a violation of human rights, Ma pointed out that a similar system has been in practice in the United States since 1984 to prevent criminal suspects from committing other crimes before trial, running away or colluding with other co-conspirators.

In Taiwan, prosecutors are required to obtain permission from a court before taking any criminal suspects into custody, and in Chen's case, the court only made a decision after a nine-hour session, which showed how carefully considered the decision was, Ma said.

Mr. Harvard-educated Ma "my law degree is worthless" Ying-jeou also fails to notice that United States Code, Title 18, Sections 3141-3150 did not create a bail system in 1984, but just expanded the list of considerations the court made to include security factors. Bail has been around in the US since the colonial period, and since the middle ages in England. And habeas corpus has always long been integral English and American law.

I'm just infuriated by Ma's argument.

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Haitien notes in comments:

The LY is also in the process of neutering the Public Television Service by subjecting its budget approval to "operational oversight" of individual programs, and increasing its governing board by 6 members.

PTS was one of the few media organs in Taiwan to not participate in the tabloid journalism that characterizes most of the mainstream media, and actually did some quality independent reporting. Gonna miss it.

Here comes Santa Claus

I've been watching Christmas movies most weekends with my wife in an effort to brianwash her into loving Christmas as much as I do.

One thing about the holidays is that since she was raised in a Daoist Taiwan household, she has no real background in Christmas festivities (other than what she's seen on TV). And she was actually shocked when I told her about the grand conspiracy that goes on to convince children that Santa exists until they're 8-10 years old (8 is the average).

So that brings me to my question here, especially aimed at getting a dialogue going between Taiwanese and foreigners: how do you all feel about Santa? How do you feel about the vast efforts to convince children there's Santa (think: department store Santa, letter writing, NORAD 'tracking' Santa's path, the milk and cookies, having uncles break in to lay presents, adults saying they've spotted elves around, hiding presents until Christmas eve, etc. etc.)?

Ruh roh

Japan urges Chinese ships to leave disputed waters (AP)

Japan's coast guard is urging Chinese survey ships to leave waters near disputed islands in the East China Sea.

The coast guard Monday said the maritime survey ships entered waters surrounding islands, known as the Senkaku in Japan and the Diaoyu in China, earlier in the day.

The islands are held by Japan but claimed by China and Taiwan.

Ma ventures into the Green Jungle

Following up on his recent interview with the Liberty Times, President Ma Ying-jeou will have television interviews with the two largest green-leaning television news stations, SET-TV and Formosa TV. Should be fun!

As I mentioned, I though the Liberty Times reporter conducting the interview did all right, and that Ma was weak on a few questions in particular, but the tone from the paper seemed a bit overtly hostile and the questions were not Tim Russert enough for my liking.

Meanwhile, Frank Hsieh will begin hosting a radio program.

Chinese BBS watch

In China, the term BBS is often used interchangeably with message board, and I try to keep my eye on some of the most popular sites:

http://bbs.sina.com.cn/
http://bbs.qq.com/
http://bbs.ifeng.com/

When there are popular articles of interest that relate to Taiwan, I will post about them here.

And this week there's really been only one in that category, over at QQ. Here's a rough translation:

Deciphered: Why does Lee Teng-hui want to help Japan claim the Diaoyutai (Senkaku Islands)?

Latest news from QQ: On his visit to Okinawa on the 24th, Lee Teng-hui had the nerve to publically claim "the Diaoyu Islands were Japan's," causing Taiwan's representative in Japan to suffer significant embarassment. In addition, Lee Teng-hui also claimed "China's oil and gas field development in the East China Sea is taking place in Japanese waters."

Lee Tenghui noted that after WWII Taiwan was no longer Japanese territory, but that Taiwanese fishermen still hope to continue to fish at the Diaoyutai. It was this problem that had caused the dispute over fishing rights. Further, Lee Teng-hui also claimed "China's oil and gas field development in the East China Sea is taking place in Japanese waters."

Lee's words upset [former VP] Annette Lu , who used a dinner with journalists to criticise Lee: "I believe that once he arrives in Japan, he becomes Japanese. He rarely says much for Taiwan when he is in Japan. He always speaks in Japanese. He shouldn't speak of domestic matters when he is in a foreign country."

...[Background on Lee's Japanese education and former Communist Party membership, followed by attacks on his behavior and character]

You can imagine what the comments are like. Calling him a traitor, suggesting terrible punishments, expressing disbelief he's not dead yet, etc etc.

Signs of the times

Taiwan opens stock market to China QDII investors

TAIPEI, Dec 4 (Reuters) - The Taiwan Cabinet said on Thursday it will open its local stock and futures markets to qualified direct institutional investors (QDII) from China, in its latest bid to prop up the sagging stock market....

The new plan could allow up to US$1.125 billion from QDIIs into the stock market, according to estimates from industry observers....

But observers said they did not expect the QDII funds, used by big mainland Chinese banks and other institutional buyers, to buy Taiwan stocks anytime soon until China sets up a framework officially allowing such investment.

OK, now number two on the Chiang-Chen agreeemnts; please read the whole article for lots of details on what sections the DPP was challenging as illegal without amending laws:

Amid heated debate and verbal disputes, the four agreements signed by Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) Chairman Chiang Pin-kung (江丙坤) and Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait Chairman Chen Yunlin (陳雲林) last month passed the Legislative Yuan’s joint committee review yesterday....

One of the disputes was over the issue of exemptions from income and business taxes for marine transport companies on revenues from cross-strait cargo services.

Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Chairwoman Lai Hsin-yuan (賴幸媛) and Vice Chairman Fu Don-cheng (傅棟成) insisted that the exemptions were legal, but DPP lawmakers challenged that view.

“Any tax breaks — including those for the automobile industry recently proposed by the government — require a revision of the tax laws,” DPP Legislator Tien Chiu-chin (田秋堇) said during a question-and-answer session of a joint meeting of the Internal Administration Committee and the Transportation, Health, Environment and Labor Committee....

The agreements will be sent to the legislature’s General Assembly for approval today.

And since the leiglsature's already reviewed them, here is the result:

The ruling KMT caucus had decided to review the agreements today, which was postponed in case of opposition protests to the shopping voucher special statute due to pass on the same day Friday. Thus, three agreements of sea transport, direct flight, and postal links will automatically be effective on Dec. 7 in accordance with regulation that agreements will take effect automatically if not reviewed by the Legislative Yuan within one month of the signing.

And finally there's this article in the Liberty Times, which says yesterday morning Taiwanese food products arrived at Shanghai harbor. They belonged to a number of Taiwanese businessmen who were in a group of 68 companies being led by the International Trade Institute (外貿協會) to a food expo in Shanghai. Customs spotted "Made in ROC" on some of the packaging and began to more carefully inspect the products. Four or five companies had similar "Made in ROC" markings. The Taiwan respresentative was asked to scratch out/black out each instance or ROC before their material could clear customs and come into China.

According to the article, some customs guys even went to the expo today and asked Taiwanese businessmen to scratch out the ROC on their business cards.

Inheritence tax to be cut

Taiwan News:

The finance committee of the Legislative Yuan yesterday completed the first reading of the draft revisions to the Inheritance and Gift Tax Act, reducing the tax rate to a single level of 10 percent from the existing maximum of 50 percent, but having yet to determine relevant tax exemption amounts.

Ma says peace treaty not pressing issue

Taiwan News reports...

Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou said yesterday that signing a peace treaty with political rival China, which sees the island as its own, was not an urgent matter because trade issues were more pressing.

"This is something that both sides have in mind, but it's not really an urgent question for both sides to engage each other on because hostility or even the atmosphere of hostility across the Taiwan Strait has been reduced to an all-time low," Ma told a news conference with foreign correspondents....

The two sides plan to discuss deals on financial services, double taxation and crime fighting at talks in early 2009, Ma said. Prevention of disease epidemics will also be on the agenda, his vice president, Vincent Siew, said earlier in the day.

So then I think the time table may look like this:

+ Issues mentioned above in 2009

+ CEPA in Marchish-2009

+ Peace treaty discussions start & partial removal of missiles by Augustish-2009.

New bet

How long will it be before Ma reactivates the National Unification Council (國統會/國家統一委員會)?

I say 45 days-60 days. Oh wait, ranges like that only work for shipping dates, not bets. I'll stick with 45 days then.

Person who gets closest wins. You can go over. No Price is Right rules today.

Yeah, looks like I won the Dalai bet

Dalai Lama not welcome to visit: Ma (Taipei Times)

President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said yesterday that the Dalai Lama is not welcome to visit Taiwan.

Ma, attending a presidential briefing held by the Taiwan Foreign Correspondents Club in Taipei, was asked how he would respond to the Tibetan spiritual leader’s Nov. 28 comments to Elta TV in the northern Indian city of Dharamsala that he would like to visit Taiwan next year.

“We generally welcome religious leaders from all over the world to visit Taiwan, but I think at the current moment the timing isn’t appropriate,” he said.

The comments mark a distinct change of attitude for the president, who on March 23 said he welcomed the Tibetan spiritual leader to visit the nation following his inauguration.

Meanhwhile the DPP caucus will raise a bill about welcoming the Dalai, Wang Jin-pyng encourages the government to reconsider from a religious standpoint, the Presidential office says it is putting country first, and blue legislators decry the DPP bill as ideologically motivated.