Bush and Cheney: Good?
Recently, US President George W. Bush and his Veep, Dick Cheney, celebrated their first 100 days in the White House by throwing a couple of barbecues and writing their own, sugary editorials. Bush was quoted as saying things are going "pretty darn good" and Cheney showed no signs of cardiac arrest, or any cardiac signs whatsoever. The man is a walking fence post, isn't he? Is that a pipeline in his pocket, or has his multi-state ID card bent in half?
Anyway, both good old boys from Texas (well, Dick lived in Wyoming until he built that slick road down to Houston, only to move back again during fair weather) feel pretty darn good about themselves and all the darn good they've done since Jan. 20. Let's take a look at some of their accomplishments, shall we?
Bush promised during his campaign to take a serious look at the environment and made lowering carbon-dioxide emissions one of the cornerstones of his platform. Veni, vidi, mispelli. He came. He looked. He couldn't spell environment. Georgie-boy turned tail on those pledges faster than a dry-lipped Clinton cigar.
Bush promised to bring dignity and honor back to the White House. Dignity and Honor? Oh, I get it! Those are the names of the presidential pets, the official doberman and pit bull of the American taxpayers. George Sr. had them as pups, and now they're soiling the Rose Garden with the heat of their maturity. No! Wait a minute! Dignity is George's daughter's name and, "your Honor," is what she said when she pleaded guilty to violating the drinking laws.
Bush has said over and over, on a daily basis, that he wants to treat with respect the leaders of other nations, especially those with which the US has more tenuous relations. By that he means, "I 'spect ya'll gonna see it my way." Oops! There goes the ABM Treaty! It was prioritized to Kyoto under the heading of "collateral damage." Wowie! Look at the stability in East Asia fly out the window! Shucks! The Russians have been backed into a corner from which their only escape is to sell weapons to Iran and China, and to take rich Americans into space for a drive-in movie in the back seat of their Lada.
Cheney has gone public with his desire to annex Canada in order to more quickly tap into our VAST oil reserves up in Alaska. He drives an SUV.
Pretty darn good.
Charles Elliott
Kaohsiung
`One China' a complex issue
The "one China" issue, and how each country deals with it is very complex. The first part of the issue is the rhetoric: the Chinese believe they will be saving their misguided friends in Taiwan from nationalism and capitalism. Taiwanese believe they will eventually save the Chinese from communism. Americans believe the western brand of capitalism is the best form of freedom for everybody, but in general we Americans have a very low understanding of the incredible persistence and low mutability of the Chinese mind.
Just a week ago Bush said "The United States is prepared to do whatever it takes to defend Taiwan if it is attacked by China." This is a very strong statement that upholds the spirit of the Taiwan Relations Act. Beijing and its Xinhua propaganda machine didn't like it at all.
Three days later he said "my administration strongly supports the `one China' policy ... and we expect any dispute to be resolved peacefully." He had to say that to make Beijing chill out. Beijing focuses on "strongly supports the one China policy." Taiwan is nervous for a little while, but still gets most of the defensive technology it wants. Meanwhile the important words the people in Taiwan should focus on are "we expect any dispute to be resolved peacefully" -- and Bush strongly emphasized the word "expect."
Sounds like the president is talking two different stories, but there is more behind the words than appear. The US government expects that Beijing cannot survive in a free trade economy. They expect that what happened in the Soviet Union when it opened to trade with the US will happen in China. They expect the Chinese will taste a little economic change, want more economic freedom, which will bring other freedoms, and soon the Chinese leadership will fail.
So the US believes that if they talk both sides of the story long enough to keep Beijing distracted from the growing economic changes within China, the issue of one China will soon become irrelevant. Communism will fail and Taiwan -- possibly the most successful capitalist country in the world per capita -- will have to step in and help their Chinese cousins adapt.
I think the US underestimates the persistence of the Chinese. Persistence is a good character to have, unless a whole nation of people have it -- then it becomes a wall in the way of change. Even with a free trade policy it will take much longer for communism to end in China than it did in eastern Europe.
Meanwhile, we should expect a lot of bully-talk from Beijing, and a lot of double-talk from Washington. If China did try to create a solution by military means the US would certainly step in. We wouldn't let the nation that supplies 90 percent of the computer hardware we need to sustain our economy be taken over by the Chinese.
One last thought. Why are so many Taiwanese companies moving manufacturing to free-trade zones in China? If the high-tech companies move their manufacturing to China, the US has no reason to defend Taiwan. For the president of the US it all comes back to the best interests of the US.
Taiwanese technology manufacturing business leaders need to put some focus on nationalism and the protection of intellectual and technological assets over profit.
Daniel Fernandez
Costa Mesa, California
As Taiwan’s domestic political crisis deepens, the opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) have proposed gutting the country’s national spending, with steep cuts to the critical foreign and defense ministries. While the blue-white coalition alleges that it is merely responding to voters’ concerns about corruption and mismanagement, of which there certainly has been plenty under Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and KMT-led governments, the rationales for their proposed spending cuts lay bare the incoherent foreign policy of the KMT-led coalition. Introduced on the eve of US President Donald Trump’s inauguration, the KMT’s proposed budget is a terrible opening
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus in the Legislative Yuan has made an internal decision to freeze NT$1.8 billion (US$54.7 million) of the indigenous submarine project’s NT$2 billion budget. This means that up to 90 percent of the budget cannot be utilized. It would only be accessible if the legislature agrees to lift the freeze sometime in the future. However, for Taiwan to construct its own submarines, it must rely on foreign support for several key pieces of equipment and technology. These foreign supporters would also be forced to endure significant pressure, infiltration and influence from Beijing. In other words,
“I compare the Communist Party to my mother,” sings a student at a boarding school in a Tibetan region of China’s Qinghai province. “If faith has a color,” others at a different school sing, “it would surely be Chinese red.” In a major story for the New York Times this month, Chris Buckley wrote about the forced placement of hundreds of thousands of Tibetan children in boarding schools, where many suffer physical and psychological abuse. Separating these children from their families, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) aims to substitute itself for their parents and for their religion. Buckley’s reporting is
Last week, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), together holding more than half of the legislative seats, cut about NT$94 billion (US$2.85 billion) from the yearly budget. The cuts include 60 percent of the government’s advertising budget, 10 percent of administrative expenses, 3 percent of the military budget, and 60 percent of the international travel, overseas education and training allowances. In addition, the two parties have proposed freezing the budgets of many ministries and departments, including NT$1.8 billion from the Ministry of National Defense’s Indigenous Defense Submarine program — 90 percent of the program’s proposed
RSS