Australia Taiwan Education and Business Exchange Tuesday Sep 27, 2005 Taiwan Daily Headlines Tuesday Sep 27, 2005 Edition * Now read by over 25,000 people in 11 countries * * Headlines - Lee Jye apologizes for China-arms deal link remarks. - Chen denies 'money-diplomacy' allegations over new initiative. - Arrest in death of Taiwan club goer. - Officials, gangsters collude to smuggle arms. - Taiwan writer Li Ao hails good chance for China. - Pan-blue bill aims to surrender Taiwan. - KMT's lack of respect made clear to everyone. - Taiwan Shares Gain Slightly. - Phone companies prepare for number portability. - ViewSonic to increase LCD product procurement from Taiwan. - Taiwan's UMC seen making over 10,000 wafers for iPod Nano chips. - Chinese American Press Institute to award Cheng. - Wake up and smell the Taiwan coffee festival. * News Stories Lee Jye apologizes for China-arms deal link remarks. Defense Minister Lee Jye yesterday apologized to opposition law makers after his ministry linked their disapproval of a billion-dollar U.S. arms deal to their party leader's landmark China visits, as he pleaded for more support. "I apologize ... as opposition parties are not the only ones who visit China," Lee told legislators during a question-and-answer session. Lee's remarks were aimed at winning over the skeptical opposition, which has used its slim legislative majority to block a special budget for purchasing sophisticated U.S. weaponry for over a year. Opposition law makers told him the defense ministry criticisms a week ago spoiled the ministry's neutral image. Lee said his military officials made the comments as they felt pressured by top level U.S. officials publicly questioning Taiwan's resolve to defend itself around this time. The original http://www.atebe.com.tw Powered by Joomla! Generated: 26 June, 2007, 20:59 Australia Taiwan Education and Business Exchange package of Patriot anti-missile systems, diesel electric submarines and anti-submarine jet fighters, offered by the Bush administration in 2001, had an initial price tag of NT$610 billion. The government slashed it to NT$480 billion to please the opposition after the budget failed to get a legislative hearing. http://www.chinapost.com.tw/i_latestdetail.asp?id=31059 Chen denies 'money-diplomacy' allegations over new initiative. President Chen Shui-bian yesterday denied categorically allegations that his new initiative to pursue common prosperity with Taiwan's diplomatic allies in Central America, dubbed the "Jung Pang Project," is a kind of money diplomacy. Chen stressed that the project is a new strategy designed to help Taiwan businesses invest in Central America and the Caribbean, thereby further cementing diplomatic ties around the region. "This is absolutely not a kind of financial aid or donation." Chen made the statements during a tea party held in Santa Domingo, with reporters accompanying him in an ongoing tour of some Central American countries. The president also denied reports that under the project, US$250 million will be spent per year, saying that the project will call for a total outlay of US$250 million, paid out in stages rather than as a lump sum. Chen said the new initiative will be designed to help the diplomatic allies in the region bolster investment and upgrade industrial structure. As the government wants to seize the great business opportunities resulting from the passage of the Central American Free Trade Agreement by the U.S. Congress and the expected formation of the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), it has to join hands with the private sector to increase investment in Central America and the Caribbean. according to Chen. http://www.chinapost.com.tw/taiwan/detail.asp?ID=69183&GRP=B Arrest in death of Taiwan club goer. FOLLOWING a month's investigation and a pursuit across three provinces, city police arrested seven key suspects in an armed Shanghai nightclub fight that left one Taiwanese businessman dead and three others injured. The arrests were made in Dalian, Liaoning Province, police said yesterday. They are still hunting for other attackers, known as hatchet men, involved in the assault on August 30. It was triggered by a dispute over the bill between nightclub employees and Taiwan customers at Zunzun Nightclub in Zhoupu Town, Nanhui District. The arrested included a nightclub shareholder, Fu Yanjun, and the alleged chief attacker, Liu Zhenli. Local industrial and commercial authorities withdrew the nightclub's business permit. It was ordered to shut down and fined 20,000 yuan (US$2,477). City police were called shortly after midnight, but the armed attackers had escaped. The four wounded were taken to the hospital, where one victim, identified as Li Deyuan, died from blood loss after his left thigh artery was severed. Police said the other three injured were Li's father, brother and a friend, all of them doing business in Shanghai. The four went to the nightclub and later quarreled over tips. Later they were assaulted by 10 armed unidentified men as they left. Local police immediately responded and investigators identified the suspects within a day. A special task force first seized three attackers in the city and in the next two weeks officers traced suspects to Jiangsu, Liaoning and Shandong provinces, capturing the other four. http://www.atebe.com.tw Powered by Joomla! Generated: 26 June, 2007, 20:59 Australia Taiwan Education and Business Exchange http://www.shanghaidaily.com/art/2005/09/27/192412/Arrest_in_death_of_Taiwan_club_goer.htm Officials, gangsters collude to smuggle arms. Although authorities have tried to crack down on illegal arms for decades, trade in them remains rampant, as revealed by the large number of weapons found in fugitive Chang Hsi-ming's (5+˜) possession. Recently, two prosecutors have faced allegations of being involved in arms smuggling, with one detained and another indicted. The cases revealed that smugglers are sourcing weapons from the Philippine military, and that collusion by the nation's law enforcement officials is behind the spread of illegal arms. A lead prosecutor at the Kaohsiung Bureau of the Taiwan High Prosecutors' Office, Chang Hsueh-ming (5x), noted the case of one detainee, Chu Jui-teh (1Z·), a Taiwanese gangster who lived in Manila for years and has been indicted for smuggling weapons. Chu worked with a Japanese Filipino, Nemoto Akira, to smuggle arms into Taiwan, procuring a large number of weapons from the Philippine military. Chang said that according to Chu, Akira had close ties with the Philippines' military and Chu had accompanied Akira several times to buy rifles, pistols, submachine guns, grenades and ammunition outside a military base near Manila airport. Chang said that according to Chu, it was easy to procure superior weapons from the Philippine military. http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2005/09/26/2003273257 Taiwan writer Li Ao hails good chance for China. Famous Taiwan writer and cultural figure Li Ao stressed on Monday that there is an unprecedented good chance for China's development and urged the country to grasp it. "Not only China, but also its people, culture and the characters, are experiencing an advantageous opportunity that has never been seen in the past," said the 70-year-old author during his one-hour lecture at the prestigious Fudan University. Li, who arrived here Sunday for his second leg on the 10-day "Chinese culture trip" after visiting Beijing, cited the phrase "Chinaman's chance" born during the gold rush in America, implying that Chinese people used to have slim chances of development. The writer, who left Shanghai for Taiwan at the age of 13, recalled the bitter life of his countrymen more than five decades ago and called on the Chinese to cherish the current good opportunity, highlighting the significance of a strong and prosperous homeland. Li highly hailed the felicity of Chinese wording and phrasing and the dulcet atmosphere of the language, pointing out that it is not so hard to learn Chinese with the help of computer science. Patriotism and professionals "can create a paradise" together, said Li, who is also a member of Taiwan's legislature and a staunch supporter of China's unification. http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-09/26/content_3546900.htm Pan-blue bill aims to surrender Taiwan. Most readers may be unaware that the conservative former ruling Kuomintang and People First Party intend to surrender Taiwan's sovereignty and democracy to the http://www.atebe.com.tw Powered by Joomla! Generated: 26 June, 2007, 20:59 Australia Taiwan Education and Business Exchange People's Republic of China tomorrow. The two "pan-blue" parties will carry out this capitulation by attempting to ramrod a draft "law to promote peace on both sides of the Strait" through the Legislative Yuan. First mooted by the PFP last fall, the draft bill follows in the path blazed by the pan-blue's defunct anti-democratic "truth tribunal" on the March 19, 2004 shooting of President Chen Shui-bian and Vice President Annette Lu in attempting to assign to the Legislature the power of our government to negotiate and sign treaties with the PRC. The proposed law explicitly states that its purpose is to set up a mechanism to negotiate cross-strait peace and other agreements with Beijing under the precondition of "the five noes" and the "Consensus of 1992." The PFP bill, which has gained the support of the KMT legislative caucus, would establish a 17-person "special commission for cross-strait consultations" which will be chosen based on the share of parties in the Legislature and thus will be controlled by the KMT and PFP. This commission would be explicitly empowered with the power to appoint "peace ambassadors" to negotiate and sign agreements on cross-strait peace direct communication links, an investment guarantee agreement for Taiwanese businesses, cross-strait financial interchange and supervision, cross-strait free trade agreements and other deals.