| Current edition | Previous edition | News Index | Contents | |
| Current edition | Previous edition | News Index | Contents |
Thu, Sep 4, 1997
Lee Teng-hui Starts Trip to Americas
also: Beijing objects to US granting Lee a night in Honolulu; Taiwan news round-up; calls from parties for political reform; Japanese PM in Beijing; and more . . .Taiwan: [today we commence an 'enhanced' Taiwan news component which promises to provide timely and fairly frequent reports about happenings there. Please be patient as we get it up and running -- Editor]
1. Li Tenghui set out for four countries in Central and South America today. He'll stop over in Hawaii and stay at the Mandarin Hotel in Oahu. The primary goal of his trip is to attend the World Canal Meeting. While in Hawaii, President Lee will not meet with Hawaii's Governor Ben Cayetano, who has been hospitalized for a bleeding ulcer.
Lee is expected to sign several agreements with Panama, Honduras, Paraguay, and Costa Rica. He is also expected to offer an economic aid package for at least five countries in this region.
So far China has not said anything about his visit. However, Taiwan's stock market was down 313 points today. Are investors afraid of China's reaction to Lee's visit to Central and South America? Taiwan's evening news did not think so. The fall was attributed to a weakness in stock markets in Japan, Hong Kong, and Southeast Asia.
Interestingly enough, the government announced this evening that it will offer some remedies for the market tomorrow.
2. Vietnam Airlines Flight VN 813 crashed in Cambodia. 22 Taiwanese died in the crash. Some local Cambodians stole the belongings of the dead passengers, it was reported in the local news.
3. The Taipei City government announced it would no longer issue work permits to prostitutes. About 40 licensed prostitutes are protesting to government officials and legislators, and preparing to sue them for depriving them of their right to work.
4. There will be a meeting between Clinton and Jiang Zemin. Taiwan has been told that America won't betray Taiwan. [Editor's note: we'll look for more information and references for this story]
Taiwan: ( SCMP Internet Edition ) Beijing has made "representations "to the United States for its issuance of a transit visa to Taiwan President Lee Teng-hui. Mr Lee departed from Taiwan for a 16 day visit to Central and South America. The US State Department granted Mr Lee and his party of nearly 100 officials a transit visa to stop over in Honolulu, Hawaii. The State Department acknowledged that Mr Lee will return to Honolulu on September 17-18.
"These kinds of activities are not beneficial to the warming of relations across the strait, nor are they beneficial to the process of peaceful reunification," said the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Shen Guofang.
Richard Bush, the newly appointed US envoy to Taiwan, will meet Lee at the airport in Honolulu.
Reform: ( SCMP Internet Edition ) According to a source quoted in the South China Morning Post, representatives from eight democratic parties have petitioned Jiang Zemin to step up political reforms. The paper quotes its source:
"Leaders of the democratic parties have presented Jiang and his aides with detailed studies and opinion polls they had done on growing popular demands for quickening political reform."
"They told Jiang political liberalization would help defuse worsening social contradictions.
"The Jiang office was caught off guard, but it has pledged to study their proposals carefully."
Among their proposals submitted for Beijing's consideration was to permit the direct election of officials up to the county level. It should be noted that such a proposal is not in itself a new or radical thing. In recent politics as well as in modern Chinese history various schemes have been put suggested or implemented to install some version of 'local self-government' or elected local administrations. A good number of village heads have been selected in direct elections, and Beijing has committed itself to implementing this scheme at each administrative level from local to national; but a time table has never been set.
The paper also reports that the representatives favour ending the 'special status' of the PLA and the predominance of the state-owned sector in the economy.
These calls for greater reform and 'autonomy' at the local level come as the government prepares for the 15th Party Congress which is set to convene later this month. The paper reports, Jiang Zemin is much more willing to appease local 'warlords', as the paper characterizes the regional power players, and this runs contrary to the views of such elder statesmen as Bo Yibo, who fear that this can only dilute the central government's power.
As we lead up to the Party Congress, more calls for greater political reform might be heard.
Japan: ( Li urges Tokyo to learn from past ) Japanese Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto arrived in Beijing on a four day trip and met with Premier Li Peng. The trip is designed to commemorate 25 years of diplomatic relations and to begin a dialogue on how to shape future relations. We'll have more on Hashimoto's trip and its goals in a later issue.
Taiwan: ( SCMP Internet Edition ) South China Morning Post reports, "Taiwan is set to buy 13 OH-58D Kiowa Warrior helicopters and launchers for Hellfire anti-tank missiles as part of a package worth US$172 million (HK$1.33 billion), the Pentagon said."
Agriculture: ( Forecast raises hopes for autumn harvest ) an official with the Ministry of Agriculture said that despite drought conditions in the north this summer, it is too early to predict a decline in the harvest.
The paper writes, "According to another official source, by the end of August, 9.3 million hectares of crops were still suffering from drought, among which nearly half were said to be in serious danger."