Tue, Sep 17, 2002 page8

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  Losing Taiwanese hearts

  Bonnie Glaser's article ("Beijing pursuing a new policy toward Taiwan," Sept. 3, page 8) was interesting.

  To win over the hearts of Taiwanese, China must first win over the hearts of its own people.

  Take the example of Hong Kong. People in Hong Kong may have accepted their "return" to China without any other choice, but their freedom and human rights have not improved since "reunification." In fact there are more controls and more suppression of those rights by Beijing than by the British. This has reduced Hong Kong to a "sub-colonial" existence, to use a term from Sun Yat-sen (孫逸仙).

  In its attempts to win over Taiwanese hearts, China has looked more like a man pursuing a new concubine while neglecting and abusing his wives. If China succeeds in winning over the hearts of its own people, it would not be hard to win over those of people in Taiwan or anywhere else in the world.

  Chen Min-Chung

  Chicago, Illinois

  Hong Kong heads wrong way

  Taiwan should heed not only Hong Kong's economy but also its political future ("Taiwan should heed Hong Kong's example," Sept. 15, page 3). Recently, Hong Kong's justice secretary, citing the Basic Law, argued that time had come for an anti-subversion law. This is a misguided route for Hong Kong's political future under "one country, two systems." It is the start of a slippery slope that will erode the civil liberties of Hong Kong residents. It also fails to enhance their political rights.

  Ever since Hong Kong's return to Chinese rule, the New York-based Freedom House has ranked Hong Kong as a "partly free" territory, with its political rights scores (the rights of citizens to choose their leaders and be elected) consistently trailing its civil liberties scores (freedoms of speech, assembly and so on). The sedition law, if passed, will further lower the civil liberties score, threatening to downgrade Hong Kong to the lowest "not free" category.

  From the standpoint of the people of Taiwan, who live in a vibrant democracy, the urgent matter for Hong Kong is to move up the schedule for the chief executive to be directly elected by the people (rather than basically appointed by Beijing), as mandated by the Basic Law.

  Vincent Wei-cheng Wang

  Richmond, Virginia

  Bush leading the US astray

  A surreal year has passed since the tragic events of a year ago. Sept. 11 changed not only the US, but also the rest of the international community. The US had a unique opportunity to examine the root cause of why a group of men would wreak such destruction. Rather than truly examining the causes, the US government under the inept President George W. Bush has missed the boat.

  Since Sept. 11, Bush has grown from an illegitimate leader to one who dares to compare himself to the great British prime minister Winston Churchill, here to save the free world. As the guardian of truth, morality and democracy, the US has instead chosen to further isolate a number of Islamic countries. The US, which thinks it enjoys a monopoly on God's blessings (God bless America rhetoric has increased ten-fold), has chosen to label regimes it does not like as the "axis of evil." Thanks to continued initiatives by the Korean people, the damage that this comment caused has nearly been repaired and unification talks between North and South are on track again.

  Bush has also failed to provide clear, unequivocal evidence of arms developments in Iraq. This of course is just a smoke screen -- Bush has made it clear he does not approve of President Saddam Hussein as a leader. What arrogance and self righteousness.

  Immediately after Sept. 11, the US conveniently remembered it was part of a global community. To truly be a part of that community, it will have to change its treatment of countries who do not embrace its idea of democracy.

  Brandon Stoltenkamp

  Kaohsiung

  Ma's concrete achievements

  I have finally found out what Ma's "concrete" achievements are. Thank you for publishing a very informative article on the sorry practices of the city government's so-called flood-

  protection projects and especially its bizarre love affair with concrete ("Ma envisions a concrete jungle," Sept. 13, page 8).

  In addition to the examples Chiu Hei-yuan (瞿海源) cites, one might also add the new wall along Mucha Road, which totally cuts off any view of the river and the hills behind, making the road feel like a tunnel. Or the new 3m high walls along a ditch (which used to be a stream) in Nankang, where a road passes through them and across the ditch at ground level. How are walls with road-sized gaps supposed to stop any water?

  The sad fact is that Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou's (馬英九) administration accomplished almost nothing in its first three years. Only after the Typhoon Nari debacle last year has it decided to rush through a huge number of infrastructure projects to try to put on a good show before the election. On this artificially tight schedule, the government decided to dispense with trivial things like public consultation, as Chiu correctly observes.

  Of course the results are shoddy and ugly. In fact, they remind us of the "good old days" of martial law, when so much environmental destruction occurred all over our country.

  Ma talks a lot about making Taipei an "international city." But I hope the international community in Taipei can see through his fluent English rhetoric to understand the "concrete" reality of his administration's performance.

  Hsu Chia-ching

  Taipei
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