I am Zhao Shaokang Welcome to the set of Xinwen Haike Well I will analyze and comment for you from Taipei on various incidents that happened this week various incidents that happened in Taiwan Well one of the incidents that has attracted the most attention this week is the Bian-Soong meeting that ended just last week ah the meeting between Chen Shui-bian and Chairman of the People First Party Soong Chu-yu They signed 10 joint resolutions Uh originally um the pan-blue camp including particularly members of the People First Party called on the phone to protest and they almost jammed the main switchboard of the People First Party Nonetheless the voice of the pan-blue camp has become relatively lower the voice has gone this week Why is that It is because all of a sudden the pan-blue camp found out that um the internal conflicts um of the pan-green camp that they are fighting against each other In other words the pan-green camp is uh furious at the 10 resolutions signed in black and white during the Bian-Soong meeting Thus we saw reports by some media in Taiwan on the pro-independence camp's soiree the 2/28 candlelight evening party In the beginning Chen Shui-bian decided not to attend They originally said that none of them would attend Figures from the pro-independence camp strongly protested afterwards Well in the end Chen Shui-bian Annette Lu and Hsieh Chang-ting these three magnates were all forced to go Moreover they were even booed and were given very nasty treatment Chen Shui-bian was even requested by the MC to stand up and counted backwards from 10 9 8 7 for the lights to be turned on Well everyone was sitting except Chen Shui-bian Therefore the media made a remark saying that ah the MC asked Chen Shui-bian to stand up ah it was to make him stand as punishment Well moreover we saw um Lee Teng-hui said that ah Chen Shui-bian said that ah it was Lee Teng-hui who made them hold this Bian-Soong meeting Lee Teng-hui asked you to hold a meeting he did not ask you to sign an agreement to betray Taiwan Therefore um I laughed perfunctorily after I saw this As it turns out the People First Party considers people like us as betraying Taiwan In Taiwan as long as you oppose Taiwan independence and support cross-strait peace then you are betraying Taiwan uh you are Wu Sangui you want to betray Taiwan Finally to one's surprise Chen Shui-bian who always brands people uh and who also branded me as betraying Taiwan and did not love Taiwan by Chen Shui-bian is unexpectedly branded by Lee Teng-hui today saying that he is betraying Taiwan Oh this is so funny And then the Taiwan Solidarity Union asked Chen Shui-bian not to be ungrateful to his benefactor saying that he needed their votes before the election and that now after the election was over he wanted to kick them out Of course Chen Shui-bian is also the personality of Chen Shui-bian is unwilling to be outdone Chen Shui-bian then said even Lee Teng-hui uh Lee Teng-hui had not declared Taiwan independence in the past 12 years Even today Lee Teng-hui himself cannot change the name of Taiwan oh is not able to change the name of Taiwan either No doubt Lee Teng-hui became angrier once he heard this Lee Teng-hui then said It was laughable You people and so on and so forth In any case they are fighting against each other Let's watch a segment of um VC and see how exactly they fight Chen Shui-bian and the People First Party Chairman Soong Chu-yu signed 10 joint resolutions after the meeting on February 24 Pro-independence camp figures from party B were dissatisfied and advisors of the Chen Shui-bian administration resigned one after another Lee Teng-hui who was considered by outsiders to be as close as father and son with Chen Shui-bian in the political arena even criticized him relentlessly Nevertheless Chen Shui-bian claimed that Lee Teng-hui was the one who helped to bring about the Bian-Soong meeting On February 28 the pro-independence camp organizations held the 2/28 commemorative soiree Originally Chen Shui-bian Annette Lu and Taiwan Executive Yuan Premier Hsieh Chang-ting were not going to attend but later changed their mind and words However Chen Shui-bian did not give a speech on the stage While Annette Lu and Hsieh Chang-ting were making an address the hissing from the audience was non-stop Good We have seen this VC Well to one's surprise the pan-blue camp would criticize Soong Chu-yu saying You were doing fine Why did you meet with Chen Shui-bian Nonetheless due to the internal conflicts of the pan-green camp and their fight against each other Lee Teng-hui and Chen Shui-bian oh and some other um see um Koo Kwang-ming Huang Jhao-tang and Jin Mei-ling they all want to resign from Chen Shui-bian's Senior Advisory and State Policy departments Ai on the contrary it seems that the legitimacy of Soong Chu-yu has been increased instead due to the internal conflicts of the pan-green camp Therefore the pan-blue camp figures have said relatively less recently They want to see the extent to which the pan-green camp will fight To a certain extent they are watching the development quietly and even have a touch of looking on at the pan-green camp's trouble with indifference and gloating over their misfortunes However I have to remind these people not to take pleasure in the pan-green camp's misfortunes too early Don't forget Chen Shui-bian and Lee Teng-hui called each other names a few years ago Chen Shui-bian called Lee Teng-hui ah 'Old Insane' while Lee Teng-hui called Chen Shui-bian What is an old insane It means that he is old and has senile dementia It means he changes repeatedly just like a maniac Chen Shui-bian called Lee Teng-hui names a few years ago Well Lee Teng-hui was also unwilling to be outdone He called Chen Shui-bian What does it mean by in fact it means despicable good-for-nothing Um um this despicable worthless person He called him such nasty names However they can unite out of needs They have been extremely friendly with each other these two years It seems that they have become very close once again Basically neither Lee Teng-hui nor Chen Shui-bian is with principle Their highest principle is need Their needs are their principles Their highest principle is the situation created by their needs If the Democratic Progressive Party and the Taiwan Solidarity Union which is the pan-green camp together have more than half of the seats this time then it will be surprising if Soong Chu-yu and Lien Chan will not be trampled under their feet How would it be possible for him to reconcile with Soong Chu-yu Uh thus Lee Teng-hui said that it was laughable that he was a liar that he betrayed Taiwan and so on and so forth Then Chen Shui-bian cursed Lee Teng-hui by saying You did not succeed at that time either and now you criticize me and so on and so on What do you have to laugh at me for Uh That was true Lee Teng-hui had been the Taiwanese leader for 12 years Did Lee Teng-hui dare to do it He dared not either He only made a little noise Am I right Lee Teng-hui is someone whom I despise When you were the then Chairman of the Kuomintang you would use all kinds of excuses um um to spend the assets of the Kuomintang to the fullest He put Liu Tai-ying put a few um henchmen there and Su Zhi-cheng and then he happily spent the assets of the Kuomintang However once he stepped down he immediately said Ai we should expose and denounce those who swindled the assets of the Kuomintang What exactly is this Oh when Lee Teng-hui was in office he had said more than 100 times that he would never declare Taiwan independence Oh even though I exposed him a long time ago saying that he had a timetable for fast independence he had said over 100 times that he would not declare Taiwan independence Once he left office he immediately called for Taiwan independence every day and things like that Thus he has given Chen Shui-bian huge pressure In fact the 10 resolutions of Bian-Soong are truisms and lack originality However what really breaks the pro-independence camp figures' hearts is not the 10 resolutions but Chen Shui-bian's claim that it is deceiving oneself as well as others to call for Taiwan independence identification and enactment of a constitution now I don't believe that it may not be deceiving oneself Uh Chen Shui-bian has always known that it will not succeed But deceiving others is true to gain votes and voters by deception Oh before the election he had already said that he would enact a constitution in 2006 uh and would implement the new constitution in 2008 This had stirred up the interest of everyone Wa the enthusiasm of the pro-Taiwan independence figures They believed that independence and the establishment of a state would soon be materialized but now they find out that it will not come true After all Chen Shui-bian knows that it is impossible to enact a constitution in 2006 and to implement the constitution in 2008 and he will be dressed down at that time Rather than being dressed down in 2006 and 2008 he may as well simply say it first now Moreover if you want to dress me down now go curse Soong Chu-yu instead Soong Chu-yu is a scapegoat He forced me I can even blame it on Soong Chu-yu Of course Chen Shui-bian is very cruel Oh because Chen Shui-bian had said before that having dreams is the most beautiful thing dreams accompanied by hope The most beautiful thing for a person is to be able to dream Now you suddenly shatter the dream of the pro-Taiwan independence figures Don't you think that this is cruel Am I right You should allow them to continue with their dream All of a sudden today you made their dream uh just like the emperor's new clothes you said that the emperor is naked is naked The emperor is naked but everyone has to tell him that his clothes are pretty How could you expose his lie Now all of a sudden Chen Shui-bian said said that it is impossible it is self-deception What a heart-breaking thing it is Ah in fact we know that for instance Lee Teng-hui Lee Teng-hui still needed votes he has to continue to deceive the voters Am I right Chen Shui-bian said that he would no longer run for election I believe that Chen Shui-bian will stop running for election However other people still need to other people still need to run for election Other people still need to keep on getting votes by deceiving people This is why Chen Shui-bian has angered so many people from the pro-independence camp this time Lee Teng-hui criticized Chen Shui-bian by saying that not enacting a constitution and changing the name of Taiwan is degeneration Lee Teng-hui's daughter had even made a more provocative remark recently Annie Lee Lee Teng-hui's daughter said that Chen Shui-bian and Soong Chu-yu were asked to go meet their prospective mate but were not told to have sex Wa Annie Lee had received higher education and had even studied overseas it was boorish for her to say this It did not sound like something that an educated woman would say at all But it was very boorish to say it this way It sounded like an uneducated woman However of course if we look at it from another angle what will the result of meeting a prospective mate be After all isn't it true that meeting a prospective mate is to hope to have sex in the end Isn't it true that meeting a prospective mate is to hope to get married in the end Then all Bian and Soong did was to have sex ahead of time Wa the Lee father and son father and daughter had let loose a stream of abuse against him Thus uh when commenting on this incident we have to pay attention that Chen Shui-bian is fickle Well he reconciles with Soong Chu-yu today because he needs Soong Chu-yu's vote He needs to split up the pan-blue camp because for the pan-blue camp if the Kuomintang and the People First Party add up to more than half of the seats then Chen Shui-bian will not be able to achieve anything in the future In the future people will only remember his eight-year term with eight words which are 'two rounds of bullets nothing has been achieved' Oh he relied on two bullets to win the election People will only remember these two bullets nothing else has has been achieved Therefore Chen Shui-bian has to reconcile with Soong Chu-yu At this stage Chen Shui-bian needs Soong Chu-yu Chen Shui-bian does not need Lee Teng-hui at this stage At this stage the need of Lee Teng-hui for Chen Shui-bian is far greater than the need of Chen Shui-bian for Lee Teng-hui because a few of Lee Teng-hui's cases including the secret overseas account and the kickback from the purchase of the Lafayette frigates are all controlled by Chen Shui-bian Oh the Taiwan Solidarity Union has only won 12 seats this time so it is not very useful You do not as long as you do not have more than half of the seats what can you do with the 12 that you have If the Taiwan Solidarity Union does not have the support of the Progressive Democratic Party then the Taiwan Solidarity Party will not get anywhere in the Legislative Yuan either Therefore at this time I believe that Chen Shui-bian has an upper hand over you and want to see what choice you have So now he needs Soong Chu-yu so he cooperates with him However Soong Chu-yu has to be aware that one day when Chen Shui-bian no longer needs Soong Chu-yu the fate of Taiwan Solidarity Party's Lee Teng-hui will be the fate of Soong Chu-yu tomorrow We will come back after the break I am Zhao Shaokang Welcome back to the set of Xinwen Haike I will seriously criticize analyze and comment from Taipei on the various incidents that happened in Taiwan within the last week for you The special guest on our set is Miss Chen Fengxin How are you Fengxin Hello everyone How are you Mr Zhao Uh this is the first time that Fengxin has joined our show Fengxin is also an experienced media personnel She has um a lot of experience in both um newspaper and television She is concurrently the spokesperson for the Kuomintang She was Uh very noble ah spokesperson Hng hng Uh um however it was in fact extraordinary at that time that the Kuomintang dared to use you as their spokesperson You were so young Yes Many people are amazed by this However because the Kuomintang wanted to employ some new and young talents at that time so I was assigned by the Chairman at that time Uh she is also the host of our 6098 radio station Good We just talked about the Bian-Soong meeting and the internal conflicts arising after the meeting Uh-huh Let's watch a segment of VC first and we will come back to ask Miss Chen Fengxin for her advice The guiding principles of the Progressive Democratic Party clearly state that the independence of Taiwan is the goal of the Progressive Democratic Party However during the current affairs meeting with the European Union on the 1st Chen Shui-bian frankly admitted that it would be impossible to declare independence during his term of office Some people resigned because I said that I would not declare Taiwan independence because I would not change the name of Taiwan I cannot lie to myself and I cannot deceive other people either I am unable to do it I am really unable to do it I cannot change Taiwan's name to the Republic of Taiwan within my term of office I believe that in his past 12-year term Lee Teng-hui failed to do it either This has led to more dissatisfaction of the Taiwan Solidarity Union of which Lee Teng-hui is the spiritual leader and the pro-independence camp figures What is his point of saying that it was not done and I cannot do it either It is pointless The target of your statement is this 84-year-old man how old can a person be before you will stop criticizing him You still talk about the 543 I think it is a bit Don't say things recklessly People will feel that you Ah Bian is quite ruthless The People First Party which has always been tit for tat with Chen Shui-bian has become the supporter of Chen Shui-bian after the Bian-Soong meeting They urge people from Taiwan's pro-independence camp to look at the situation realistically and not to make things difficult for Chen Shui-bian Good Now the People First Party actually supports Chen Shui-bian and asks the Progressive Democratic Party and the Taiwan Solidarity Union not to reproach Chen Shui-bian Oh some people say that it is absolutely dissension while others believe that ah it will not last too long The self-deception that Chen Shui-bian spoke of seems to be particularly heartbreaking What do you think about the entire matter I think that the development that I saw now is that their superficial clashes the skin-deep verbal fights may not last for too long However the secret headhunt and cutthroat I believe that these acts are beginning What makes you say that Thus I think that on the one hand they feel that the skin-deep clashes are in fact disadvantageous to them It is because they found out that speaking generally there are still more people who sympathize with Chen Shui-bian among their supporters Then when will the ignition point be The year-end city and county chief elections will be the ignition point Right He is thinking What can you do If you don't support me are you really going to support the Kuomingtang and the People First Party What irritates Soong Chu-yu the most is also the fact that the Kuomingtang has total control over him In fact these two small parties both feel that the big parties have the upper hand over them Ah Soong Chu-yu feels that the Kuomintang has the upper hand over him and Kuomingtang are waiting to see what he can do Therefore this proves one thing that is Soong Chu-yu does not necessarily have control of the operation of the People First Party The suggestions that Soong Chu-yu and Chen Shui-bian exchanged in secret at that time will have to be passed by the Legislative Yuan in the end If Soong Chu-yu has absolutly no control over the caucus of the People First Party in the Legislative Yuan the result will be I think that the two of them at that time Chen Shui-bian will run into huge pressure Ai you have not gained anything from Soong Chu-yu but we have suffered such great loss We may have to pay a price at the year-end Legislative the year-end county and city chief elections At that time when they turn around and pressure Chen Shui-bian I believe the possibility of the two sides making friends will become very high Thus I believe the observation point will be this April or May It seems that the People First Party is also preparing to send their vice president Chang Chau-hsiung there Since everyone is scrambling to go and establish cross-strait ties the Progressive Democratic Party may also want to do so Let's look at a segment of VC After the People First Party Chairman Soong Chu-yu indicated his intention to visit China in the capacity of a civilian in the middle of the year the Kuomingtang also expressed their intention to visit China in an icebreaking tour I suggest sending vice-chairman Jiang of our party because he is a Legislative Yuan Committee member now Is it possible to lead a delegation representing our party to visit the mainland to experience the spirit of our Mr Chung-shan next month as scheduled According to the information among the string of the Kuomintang's plans on visiting the mainland Jiang Bingkun is only the pioneer The possibility of Lien Chan himself leading the group has not been ruled out This can be considered as an icebreaking tour No doubt in the days to come a parade of people will continue their planning hoping that they can visit the mainland one day Some Taiwan media interpret Lien Chan's dispatch of Jiang Bingkun to the mainland to promote the reconciliation of the two sides of the Straits as the launch of the Kuomintang's attempt to strive for the leading role in the subject of the two sides of the Straits after the Bian-Soong meeting How come everyone is rushing to go now Do you think that Lien Chan will go after Jiang Bingkun Jiang Bingkun Actually this subject has indeed been under constant deliberation after Lien Chan lost the presidential election in 2000 However since Lien Chan has confirmed that he will relieve he will relieve his um position as the um Party Chairman in August moreover the chartered flight during the Spring Festival has given many people inspirations They have discovered that there are indeed many many ways to open the door of reconciliation between the two sides of the Straits As a result under this condition Lien Chan has in fact more or less confirmed before the Chinese New Year that he will visit the mainland However the crux of the issue is that he cannot just say Ai I'm just going there to visit and then People will chew you out if you enter a treasure trove and come back empty-handed Right right right Then the red hat will be even bigger What exactly do I think this result will be Uh-huh Therefore it may not be as what Taiwan has expected that wa Lien Chan goes there for a visit and returns with a whole bunch of great successes and can um um justify it to the people in Taiwan I believe that Lien Chan is waiting for this Good Besides Clinton has visited us recently Am I right A whirlwind um less than 24 hours Moreover uh um um Chen Shui-bian and his people had paid him approximately US $250000 for a speech However Clinton had said a few something that made the pro-independence camp dissatisfied Clinton had two I think that Clinton had broken their hearts in two aspects One Clinton said that the issue of the Taiwan Straits had to be resolved peacefully with the consent of the people from the two sides of the Straits People from the pro-independence camp were unhappy about this because they unanimously believed that only the Taiwanese had to agree and now the statuses of the two sides of the Straits have drawn closer How can the two sides of the Straits compare with each other The mainland has a population of 13 to 14 billion while Taiwan only has 23 million Why do both sides have to agree How can they compare with each other Am I right This is one thing Another thing is that Clinton said that one China would be the biggest protection for Taiwan Of course this argument had no doubt infuriated figures from the pro-independence camp Let's watch a segment of VC Former US President Clinton arrived in Taiwan on the evening of February 27 to promote his new book During an interview with the media the day after he indicated that as long as the two sides of the Straits continued their frequent contacts between their economies and their people both sides would eventually resolve their differences through peaceful talks and anything you can do to break down the barriers of that and I think it's good And then I think as long as both sides say we don't intend to use force here we want a peaceful resolution of this puts you on the same boat together We want you to grow we want you to work together we want to move us forward together If both of you have to comprise that's good that's what we intended Clinton believes that the issue of the two sides of the Straits has to be peacefully resolved under the condition that the people from both sides agree However during his term as US president he only advocated for the consent of the Taiwanese and excluded the ones from the mainland Prior to his visit to Taiwan Clinton stated that the United States and he himself had not changed their 'one China' position and would unswervingly abide by the 'Three No's' policy he proposed which was 'no support for Taiwan independence for two Chinas or one-China one-Taiwan' A 22-hour visit to Taiwan Apart from giving speeches and holding a book signing Clinton also met with Chen Shui-bian and Kuomintang Chairman Lien Chan to exchange opinions on the political situations on the two sides of the Straits and Taiwan What is your opinion on this matter Nevertheless I think that it had shown that before Clinton left his office as US president I'm afraid I'm afraid that he was already already a little dissatisfied with Taiwan the Taiwan government That was why there were already some changes in his tone I believe that this matter is indeed a relatively big change for him However even though Clinton does not have much influence on the policies I believe I believe that the basic principles that he upholds are actually quite important He persistently said that economic exchanges market exchanges people exchanges were beneficial to the cross-strait ties If the mainland also put forward China also put forward a referendum law Beijing also put forward a referendum law and China said at that point that they had 13 billion people what would Taiwan do Thus to compare this thing in fact such such competition is actually very foolish We will come back after the break I am Zhao Shaokang Welcome back to the set of Xinwen Haike We have Miss Chen Fengxin on our set To surpass the set standard in the area The overall economic growth of the European Union still lags behind its economic rivals the United States and Japan The research funding of the European Union member states is also far less than that of the United States and fails to reach the 3 percent of the Gross Domestic Product standard Among the European Union member states Sweden and Finland are the two exceptions in this respect Barroso stressed that the specific modified measures proposed by the Commission of European Union were to encourage scientific research and discoveries and to increase the labor mobility The goal of the amendment to the European Union's Lisbon Strategy was to maintain the economic growth of the European Union to the 3 percent level and to create 6 million jobs in the next five years In order to achieve this goal countries must strengthen their investment environment improve the subsistence environment of small and medium-sized enterprises and increase research funding substantially The amendment to the Lisbon Strategy foretold that the European economic model would move closer toward liberalization In respond to this European United Left - Nordic Green Left group and member of the European Parliament Wurtz criticized that the plan would make European countries pay dearly in the areas of social and environmental protection Wurtz said In consideration of the apparent gap between the goal and the result should we seriously question the tenet of free economy that serves as the guiding principle of the Lisbon Strategy The Commission of European Union decided to keep the main goal set by the Lisbon Strategy at present Each member state would establish a Mr Lisbon to assist and supervise each member state to reach its goal especially in the domain of scientific development This had been a report by Emma correspondent of Voice of America from Paris Dear audience in this Current Affairs and Financial Report of Voice of America we had reported the announcement of the Chief Executive of Hong Kong Tung Chee-hwa's resignation and had also discussed the impact of his resignation to Hong Kong politics Moreover we reported that China continued to accept the request of the United States to reconsider the Anti-Secession Law Dalai Lama also reiterated his position of not seeking the independence of Tibet and his willingness to keep it within China Good Now we have reached the end of this Current Affairs and Financial Report of Voice of America Thank you for tuning in This program was edited by Zhang Nan and Wang Nan and directed by He Zhicheng I am Zhao Wancheng I am Qi Yongming We will see you again at the China Asian Report in an hour OK see you later Good evening audience and viewers I am Bao Shen Thank you for tuning in to the Let's Talk Current Affairs program of Voice of America on March 10 2005 Hello everyone I am Yang Chen The Chinese National People's Congress is expected to pass the Anti-Secession Law next Monday The US government stated on Tuesday that this law is not helpful to the peace of the Taiwan Straits region and requested Beijing to reconsider However spokesman of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs claimed today that this was an irresponsible statement made by the United States What is Beijing's intention of passing the Anti-Secession Law How will the passage of the law affect the US-China-Taiwan relationships We have invited a Taiwan issue expert from the United States to examine these issues with us First we would like to ask Shen Honghui to broadcast the world news for this hour Honghui Sure Lebanon President Lahoud re-nominated pro-Syria Omar Karami as Prime Minister Large-scale demonstration broke out in Lebanon two weeks ago protesting against Syria's influence on Lebanon's politics Karami later announced his resignation of the Prime Minister position Lahoud announced the decision on Thursday after consulting with the parliament The Lebanon parliament in which Syrian allies occupy majority of the seats suggested to reappoint Karami as Prime Minister Karami is a pro-Syria Sunni Muslim politician He immediately called for the establishment of a national united government and urged the opposition faction to join the government He claimed that this was the only way out for Lebanon to avert a crisis The opposition faction who had not nominated any candidate demanded a complete withdrawal of the Syrian troops from Lebanon On Tuesday part of the 14000 Syrian troops started to transfer to the border region in Eastern Lebanon UN emissary Larsen is currently in the region conducting consultations on the United Nations' proposal of requesting foreign troops to withdraw from Lebanon President Bush stated that Syrian troops and intelligence agents must leave Lebanon by Lebanon's May election Hong Kong Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa officially announced his resignation Tung Chee-hwa denied that his resignation was due to pressure from Beijing Tung Chee-hwa told reporters on Thursday that his resignation was due to health factor Tung Chee-hwa's announcement of his resignation had ended more than one week long speculation of the outsiders on whether he would no longer act as the Hong Kong Chief Executive Sources from Hong Kong stated that it was expected that Beijing would accept Tung Chee-hwa's resignation and would probably appoint Tung Chee-hwa's assistant Hong Kong Administrative Secretary Donald Tsang to succeed him as the Chief Executive until the end of Tung Chee-hwa's term of office in 2007 The Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa has always been unpopular in Hong Kong Hong Kong residents criticized Tung Chee-hwa of failing to manage the Hong Kong economy and to exert himself to the advancement of Hong Kong democratic reform Iraqi authorities said that insurgents had killed at least three policemen including the police station chief of downtown Baghdad Authorities claimed that the gunmen fired at the vehicle driven by the policemen to work on Thursday morning A day before the attack al-Zarqawi terrorist group claimed responsibility for the suicide truck explosions that killed three people outside the Iraqi Ministry of Agriculture and Baghdad Hotel occupied by Westerners At the same time Iraqi officials said on Wednesday that they had discovered 41 executed bodies in two different locations In another incident in Baghdad Iraqi Minister of Planning narrowly escaped an assassinationA gunman fired at his vehicle and killed two of his bodyguards A US soldier was killed in another roadside bombing in Baghdad The Israeli army claimed that a Palestinian militant was shot dead by the Israeli troops in a surprise attack near the West Bank City of Jenin Authorities stated that the Israeli troops also destroyed the residence of the militant The militant belonged to the Islamic Jihad group and had participated in the suicide bombing that killed five Israelis in Hadera last month The attack might complicate the negotiations between Israel and Palestine on the turn over of security responsibilities of the two West Bank cities of Tulkarem and Jericho to Palestine Both Israeli and Palestinian officials stated on Wednesday that the negotiations on whether Israel agreed to demolish the main checkpoint at Jericho city gate or not had been in stalemate During the summit held in Egypt last month Israel agreed to turn over five West Bank cities to Palestinian authorities Chinese authorities said that the gas explosion happening in Northern China had destroyed a mineshaft with at least 16 miners were killed and seven missing The official Xinhua News Agency stated that the explosion happened in a mine in Shanxi Province on Wednesday At the time of the accident 83 miners were in the pit among whom 54 had escaped Shanxi Province is the largest coal production area in China where coalmine accidents are frequent China's coalmine industry is the most dangerous in the world At least 6000 miners were killed at work last year China rejected US request to reconsider the Anti-Secession Law which will allow China to use force against Taiwan China's National People's Congress is expected to pass the controversial Anti-Secession Law on Monday The law authorizes China to use force against Taiwan if Taiwan formally declares independence The White House said on Tuesday that this legislation was not helpful and urged Beijing to reconsider the issue Spokesman from the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated on Thursday that this was an irresponsible statement made by the United States Meanwhile officials of the Democratic Progressive Party in Taiwan who supported independence said that they would organize a demonstration on March 26 protesting the draft Anti-Secession Law of China Chairman of the Taiwan Democratic Progressive Party Su Tseng-chang indicated on Thursday that China's Anti-Secession Law posed direct threat to democratic Taiwan The above world news of Voice of America was broadcast by Shen Honghui Thank you for tuning in Good evening audience and viewers I am Yang Chen Thank you for tuning in to the Let's Talk Current Affairs program of Voice of America on March 10 Our topic today is China's Anti-Secession Law A formal vote on the Anti-Secession Law that is drafted to deal with the Taiwan issue will be taken on March 14 Taiwan believed that this law was for Taiwan attack for setting off mainland's attack on Taiwan The US White House and spokesman of the State Department both stated that the United States opposes to Taiwan's independence but is also against does not support anything other than peaceful means The following is a report by Voice of America reporter Yi Lan Yi Lan During the People's Congress meeting on Tuesday Wang Zhaoguo vice-chairman of China's National People's Congress announced the draft of the Anti-Secession Law for the first time However he did not specify the conditions under which China would decide to use force This law is to prevent Taiwan from being independent It also clearly states that if Taiwan insists on seeking independence and when all other means are exhausted Beijing can take military action against Taiwan Stipulations of the draft Taiwan independence secessionist forces should act under any name or by any means to cause the fact of Taiwan's secession from China or that major incidents entailing Taiwan's secession from China should occur or that possibilities for a peaceful reunification should be completely exhausted the state shall employ non-peaceful means and other necessary measures to protect China's sovereignty and territorial integrity The draft also stipulates the use of non-peaceful means or other necessary measures The State Council and the Central Military Commission shall decide on the execution of this article and shall promptly report to the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress Wang Zhaoguo stressed that only after the last effort for the peaceful reunification of China has been exhausted will China take military action as the last resort He repeatedly pointed out that some Taiwan independence forces had posed serious threats to the peace and security of Taiwan Straits and the entire Asian Pacific region China's Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing stated that he believed international community would understand China's determination to safeguard its sovereignty It is to protect the people Uh humph It is a good thing for Chinese people I believe it will also be well received internationally Taiwan leaders fiercely opposed to Beijing's Anti-Secession Law and warned that the passage of the law would issue a blank check to China for using force against Taiwan The United States urged Beijing to reconsider the Anti-Secession Law White House spokesman McClellan said that Washington would oppose anything other than peaceful means regarding the Taiwan issue We urge Beijing to reconsider the enactment of the Anti-Secession Law The currently proposed law will allow Beijing to take punitive action against Taiwan We oppose any attempts to determine the future of Taiwan by anything other than peaceful means Our views are very well known in terms of our continued commitment to a one China policy that upholds the three communiques and does not support Taiwan independence We oppose any attempts to unilaterally change the status quo State Department spokesman Boucher said that Taiwanese and mainland Chinese must reach a consensus in resolving the existing clashes The foci of the Taiwan issue are the special relationship the tense atmosphere and the explosive risk between the people from the two sides of the Straits China's National People's Congress will vote on the Anti-Secession Law on March 14 It is expected that this law will be carried successfully Yi Lan reporter of Let's Talk Current Affairs reported from Washington Good Thank you Yi Lan Now we have gotten through with Xiong Jian Voice of America reporter covering the two conferences in Beijing How are you Xiong Jian How are you Yang Chen Hello Could you please tell us the newest developments or responses toward the enactment of the Anti-Secession Law Sure Uh with regard to this law uh it can be seen as a formal legislation that stipulates that China shall use non-peaceful means to check the moves of Taiwan's independence forces to secede from China when all peaceful efforts are completely ineffective Under three conditions we heard earlier uh Wang Zhaoguo vice-chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress uh mentioned that if Taiwan independence secessionist forces should act under any name or by any means to cause the fact of Taiwan's secession from China or that major incidents entailing Taiwan's secession from China should occur or that possibilities for a peaceful reunification should be completely exhausted this law will authorize the State Council and the Central Military Committee to execute non-peaceful measures to prevent Taiwan from being independent Jiang Enzhu spokesman of the National People's Congress stated at a press conference that this is not a law on the use of force against Taiwan let alone a so-called war mobilization order He claimed that the enactment of the law is for checking Taiwan's independence forces from seceding from China It has actual effect on maintaining the peace and stability in regions of the Taiwan Straits and safeguarding China's national sovereignty Yang Chen Good Can outsiders interpret this law as a war mobilization order against Taiwan Uh I mentioned earlier that Jiang Enzhu spokesman of the National People's Congress stated at the press conference that this is by no means a so-called use of force against Taiwan or a war mobilization order Okay I am not sure uh okay Xiong Jian whether you have interviewed any Taiwanese businessmen who do business on the mainland What are their opinions on this law Uh with regard to this question I have interviewed a Mr Wang who is engaged in the catering industry in Beijing He said that as a Taiwanese businessman who is in business in Beijing he has many thoughts and feelings about this draft He said that the two sides of the Straits have made numerous contacts regarding the peaceful reunification issue for a long time However no one is positive or enthusiastic about reaching a consensus This was what he said At present I hope that the Taiwanese government can put forward a partial sincere enthusiastic and positive policy and conduct a timely discussion with the Chinese government as soon as possible Uh he said that the enactment of the law also uh stressed the safety of the Taiwanese across China which is relatively comforting for Taiwanese businessmen He added Our true concern this time is still the over 1 billion people on both sides of the Straits What we truly hope is that China can really coexist peacefully as soon as possible so that China can develop even better instead of facing a cruel war A Mr Tang who is engaged in the food industry said uh with the publication of the Anti-Secession Law people from the two sides of the Straits should handle the matter calmly This was what he said We should make use of the emergence of the Anti-Secession Law on both sides of the Straits to calm down and give careful thought to truly working for the wellbeing of the people of the two sides of the Straits Yang Chen Okay Thank you Xiong Jian This has been a live report from Beijing by Voice of America reporter Xiong Jian Next Bao Shen is going to host today's discussions and talk Bao Shen Okay Thank you Yang Chen China's National People's Congress is expected to pass the Anti-Secession Law next Monday The US government said on Tuesday that this law was not helpful at all to the peace of the Taiwan Straits region and requested Beijing to reconsider while Taiwan stated that this law was a serious threat to democratic Taiwan Today we have invited Mr John Copper professor of International Studies at Rhodes College in Tennessee United States to join our discussions on our program and to explore these issues with us Professor Copper is one of the well-known Taiwan issue experts in the United States He has published more than 20 works on China and Taiwan issues While we are having our discussion you are welcome to call our toll-free number to ask Professor Copper questions or to express your opinions For audience and viewers from mainland China please dial 10-810 first then dial 866-837-5161 Professor Copper welcome to Let's Talk Current Affairs Nevertheless we knew that this law was approved on Monday It is unavoidable It is impossible for Beijing to reconsider the issue What position will the United States adopt after Beijing passed the law Will the passage of this law create a fundamental or relatively large impact on US-China ties How how should I put it I believe it will have long-term effects on US-China ties because after all this matter had gone through a legal procedure The US government knows has known for a long time that China has been deliberating on this law Uh however it had never really expressed its position The policy of the United States is to have one China one China In that case in that case um of course it has not violated such policy Nonetheless what it does the role it plays um is to cause the dissatisfaction of other people It has led to a tense situation and unstable factors on the two sides of the Straits which are what the United States does not want to see It is because the United States has had many concerns over regions in the Middle East North Korea and other places They do not want Taiwan the Taiwan Straits regions to have such a tense situation The US government does not want such a state to appear Uh you mentioned that that the passage of this law will not cause any long-term effect on US-China ties but how about relationships between the two sides of the Straits As we know leaders of the Taiwanese government particularly Premier of Taiwan's Executive Yuan Frank Hsieh was still talking about it two or three days ago if he brought this up while he was answering questions at the Legislative Yuan if China passed the Anti-Secession Law Taiwan would definitely consider revising the constitution or holding a referendum What actions do you think Taiwan will take I believe What Frank Hsieh said was he is um um pan-green um um Their position they did not like to see such situation Then if we talk about the referendum issue I don't think it will be significant because after all the pan-green they were just defeated in the election Then if you put this pan-green and this Taiwan independence issues and put them forward the pan-green camp it does not have the majority in um the Legislative Yuan seats Thus I don't think they can can can accomplish anything The United States is another factor that we need to consider In the latest election it had exerted exerted great pressure on Taiwan especially on Chen Shui-bian during the campaign preventing him from um um making trouble um um creating some tense situations because the United States did not want this situation to happen This time the US government held an even sterner position Um some said it has also taken a pre-emptive measure They said in in Taiwan even before Chen Shui-bian had said said anything they already told him not to say this or that It was because Chen Shui-bian mentioned before that he wanted to um to carry out um to draw up a constitution and hold a referendum and such an independent referendum The United States took immediate action to respond The United States exerted pressure on him preventing him from provoking these clashes This showed that the United States did not want any tense situation or disturbance to appear in the Taiwan Straits Let's discuss China's Anti-Secession Law itself Do you think that the enactment of this law has fundamentally changed China's policy toward Taiwan or it is merely a way to curb Taiwan's orientation toward independence From China's point of view I can see that part of this law isum a response to the frequent quote of the Taiwan Relations Act by the United States It is because the United States always says that because of the Taiwan Relations Act it has to do this and that Thus Chinese officials also believe that they can do the same It is because if they do this um they will have some bargaining chips in the negotiations with the United States and some bargaining bargaining chips in their dealings with Taiwan Meanwhile uh the Chinese government also faces pressure from the army which is to take certain actions in the Taiwan issue There are two camps in this area which is which related to um the defeat of the pan-green First China was not very happy about this Therefore will um take certain actions to um strive for the improvement of the situation Another case is that Beijing officials believe that this is a good chance an opportunity Thus thus the pan-green camp um after the defeat of the pan-green camp it will enable China to exert pressure more effectively I believe the latter opinion is more accurate Good Next We will take some calls from our audience and viewers The first one is Mr Wu from Anhui How are you Mr Wu How are you host How are you honored guest Hello Let me talk about my view The Chinese Communist Party enact this Anti- Anti- Anti- Anti-Secession Law Is to incite public's feelings to suggest maintaining its one-party-numerous-rule rule I only want to put forward this point Good Thank you Mr Wu from Anhui We will then talk to Mr Wu from Zhejiang and see what question or opinion Mr Wu has How are you Mr Wu How are you host How are you honored guest Uh the publication of the Anti-Secession Law it will um not really produce any effect on the stability of the two sides of the Taiwan Straits Well well in reality as for Taiwan the Chinese Communist Party has never ruled Taiwan where does secession come from Don't you think so Besides um originally the situation has improved um Taiwanese businessmen have been doing business in mainland China for so long and have had chartered flights during the Spring Festival Thus to publicize the Anti-Secession Law at this moment um has no doubt um cast a slur on the peaceful reunification um er between the mainland and Taiwan in the future In fact this uh whether Taiwan um should be under Chinese rule or not I don't think the issue is significant for the common people This is a matter of the regime Judging from the ancient concept of China this is the emperor's business Am I right Professor Copper what is your feedback on the opinions of the two Mr Wu a Mr Wu from Anhui and a Mr Wu from Zhejiang How should I put it With regard to the first question it's also whether this will strengthen the Chinese government um strengthen the Chinese government I believe it will Um um some Western scholars believe the current situation in China um is that there are differences of opinions between the army and the non-army leaders on the Taiwan issue In that case this may improve the situation As long as the army is satisfied that the government has adopted some measures and not to remove its control and allow Taiwan to gradually um go further and further at the end just like some army leaders have said As for the second question What um Mr Wu said earlier was right Um um um common people do not care about this These these decisions are all made by um government officials Um the government officials had not um conducted any public opinion poll public opinion survey to determine its correctness to decide whether it is right or wrong However it may not um have significant um impacts on the economic ties between China and Taiwan Because um the economic ties between the two um has continuously developed and in fact has now become has formed an economic community Of course there is no um formal ties However the trade and investments of the two sides of the Straits are like Europe the former European Community Nonetheless these it will cause some political issues but it is an issue of different aspect However judging from short-term basis Taiwanese may be may be very unhappy very dissatisfied with this law Nonetheless this situation will change very soon with the passage of time Great Next we would like to invite Mr Zhang from Hebei to join our program How are you Mr Zhang Uh how are you I am not a Communist but I am a self-claimed Patriot I believe this Anti-Secession Law um is not a bad thing for Chinese people Let me make a couple of brief statements I hope uh the US government will be the friend of the Chinese people I am I have always thought this way What I hope the US government to do is is to persuade Mr Chen Shui-bian in Taiwan ah to give up Taiwan independence and then to advice mainland China to accelerate its political reform and to maintain the stability of Hong Kong If these two things are done I believe we are all Chinese Chinese should not fight against each other Ai Mao Zedong and Chiang Kai-shek did not did not go to war How could we end up with war when it comes to Mr Hu Jingtao and Mr Chen Shui-bian This is not something that the Chinese people and a common citizen are willing to see I have finished talking Thank you Okay Thank you Mr Zhang from Hebei Next we will invite Mr Lu from Tianjin to ask his question or express his opinion How are you Mr Lu How are you expert How are you host Hello We hope that international community particularly the United States will not forget the disaster caused to human society by Nazi Germany and Japanese imperialism Everything that the autocratic tyranny of the Chinese Communist Party does including the farce of toying with the enactment of the Anti-Secession Law is to uphold its illegitimate rule and to divert the attention of the people in China It cannot represent the Chinese people at all A totalitarian despotic rule that relies on the sacrifice of the wellbeing of its people to expand its military strength will definitely endanger world peace Thus the protection given to Taiwan by the United States is absolutely not a charity for Taiwan What it does not conforms to the American values but also makes up for the mistake that the United States had made in those days because it is the United States who forbids Taiwan to develop nuclear weapons Thus we welcome the new US-Japan security treaty However it is far from being enough All right Thank you expert and host Thank you Mr Lu from Tianjin Professor Copper it seems that the viewpoints of these two audience and viewers are poles apart Besides they have placed different hopes on the US government One hopes that the US government will act as a friend of the Chinese people uh and to promote political reform in China and the stability of Hong Kong while the other hopes that the Unites States will keep its words on Taiwan's safety and strengthen the US-Japan security treaty What do you think about the opinions of these two audience viewers In regard to the question raised by the first person who called the first gentleman he claimed that he is a Patriot You have to remember that this law is not a mobilization order It is merely a law that claims that China will not allow Taiwan to um declare um independence It implies that because in reality Taiwan has already as everyone knows has already been independent in certain sense because Taiwan or the Republic of China has its own sovereignty This is another issue from the diplomatic point of view and another issue it has in international community because it only has such diplomatic ties uh with a few countries in the world This shows that it is not um an independent and sovereign state President Chen Shui-bian has been um advocating independence Look at him he has been talking about independent referendum um enact um enactment of independent constitution for a long time Um this was what they said during the election campaign These are all for to win over people's votes to be elected Um then um while the pan-green in the Legislative Legislative Yuan has to have majority in order to in order to put a check on him However currently it does not have a majority majority thus now it is very difficult to um very difficult to say um He does what he wants now I think it is very hard to cool him down now Due to the higher-level elections and the pressure from the United States preventing him from going too far in this matter I don't know what he will do now The second gentleman mentioned that it um um involves the legitimacy of the Chinese Communist Party In my opinion it may be um more related to the relationship between the military and non-military leaders I don't think it will um help greatly in deciding the legitimacy of the Chinese Communist Party whether it is legitimate or not because um the legitimacy of a party mainly depends on whether it succeeds in developing the economy and raising the living standard of the people and um whether it can maintain the stability of the country or not Only this will involve only this is its only this will relate to its legitimacy Great You are listening and watching the Let's Talk Current Affairs program of Voice of America Our discussion topic today is China's Anti-Secession Law and the US-China-Taiwan relationships Now I would like to ask Yang Chen to tell us another news about the relationship of the two sides of the Straits Yang Chen Sure Bao Shen During a press conference of the National People's Congress on Thursday Chinese officials said that the Chinese government will further open Chinese market for Taiwan's agricultural products this year and will actively create favorable conditions to promote agricultural exchange between the two sides of the Straits Next please listen to a report by Xiao Xun reporter of Let's Talk Current Affairs program At a press conference of the People's National Congress held on Thursday Du Qinglin Chinese Minister of Agriculture stated that mainland China would further promote agricultural cooperation between the two sides of the Straits and would create favorable conditions for Taiwan's agricultural products to export to China For Agricultural products of Taiwan to be expected to Mainland Favorable conditionsNeed to be created We should discuss in detail with our friends of Taiwan agricultural industry on specific measures on resolving this issue and increase our work effort Du Qinglin said that the total value of agricultural products exported from Taiwan to mainland China last year had reached US $116 billion an increase of 104 percent compared to the year before He was optimistic about the current situation of the agricultural cooperation between the two sides of the Straits and its prospects He added that mainland China was a huge market for Taiwan's agricultural products and that Taiwan's agricultural development would benefit from it Moreover when touching upon the three agricultural issues during the press conference officials of the Chinese Ministry of Finance indicated that the government would increase the direct subsidy for the farmers to encourage them to grow food This is Xiao Xun reporter of Let's Talk Current Affairs reporting from Washington Thank you Next we would like to invite Bao Shen to continue to host today's discussion and talk Bao Shen Sure Thank you Yang Chen Next we will continue our discussion on China's Anti-Secession Law and the US-China-Taiwan relationships Our guest today is Mr John Copper professor of International Studies at Rhodes College in Tennessee United States Professor Copper speaks English what you hear is a simultaneous interpretation in Chinese In the beginning of the program we have mentioned that Professor Copper is a scholar and an author who has many publications on US-China-Taiwan relationship issues He has already written more than 20 monographs on Chinese and Taiwanese issues Among the monographs the latest work is titled Consolidating Democracy in Taiwan - An introduction of current democratic development after Taiwan's presidential election in 2000 and the Legislative Yuan committee election in 2001 Professor Copper I'm holding your latest published work that discusses the election results of Taiwan in 2000 and 2001 Many scholars believe that these two elections have succeeded in um advancing or consolidating the democraty development in Taiwan It seems that you have some different opinions What do you think about the elections of 2001 and 2000 in Taiwan as well as the presidential election and the Legislative Yuan committee election last year The two elections that I discussed in this book were the 2000 presidential election Chen Shui-bian took over the high post of presidency in the election and then the later Legislative Yuan committee election the pan-green camp won in the election An easy easy win Well among the scholars some said that their um study um Taiwan democratization issues said said that these two elections had in fact strengthened consolidated Taiwan's um democracy In that case in that case this argument in other words they enabled um the democratization of Taiwan to enter the final consolidation stage No My position in this book was that this was um this argument was worth questioning Obviously um these elections were extremely important If you believe that um um the change of regime between parties will lead democracy into its final stage then then then you can say that they already consolidation Taiwan's democracy However Chen Shui-bian his being elected was indeed a coincidence These it was um because un at that time the pan-blue and the conservative they um they split Lee Teng-hui's dislike of this person and that person um had caused dissensions among the Kuomingtang within the Kuomingtang Song Chu-yu at the end entered the election as an independent candidate while Lien Chan um won the Kuo the support of the Kuomingtang This caused the votes to diffuse the votes to diffuse and only because of this um Chen Shui-bian was elected Thus he was um elected as president under under such um an unfavorable situation Because he um if he wanted to implement his his plan because after the election Song Chu-yu and Lian Chan reunited um in the Legislative Council the Legislative Yuan um and have been um causing some suggestions of Chen Shui-bian to fail to be passed In fact they also tried to impeach him Thus Chen Shui-bian had to make some concessions However it did not work He wanted to um reshuffle the government Um um Taiwan's political system political system is extremely um strange It is a kind of a kind of three-in-one type type type of monster It's a parliament parliamentary system a presidential system and also um a cabinet system In this case in this case now Chen Shui-bian has control over the Executive Yuan and the Legislative Yuan while he did not have such control before In this case at um at that time um that when he was elected for the first time the situation was more stickier So let's think What should be done to consolidating democracy Taiwan has to carry out reforms but they fail to do so because they are at a deadlock on many issues Um they dislike each other and have to hinder each other Um as a result neither side has accomplished anything Look at this um er that time that one during and after the election campaign um Chen Shui-bian had estranged somewhat among the Fujianese the Hakkaese the non-locals and the locals in um Taiwan It is because Fujian Taiwanese is the majority They felt that between themselves and others this was was unfavorable to them but it was favorable to them before that and this enabled him to win in the election Um this enabled his um his support the Fujian Taiwanese to discriminate others discriminate other people Thus if you want to have um effective democracy then such situation should not exist It had caused um social stability issues It later spread unchecked to decisions on national defense policies and foreign policies Um because these bureaucratic organization were mainly um controlled by non-locals Chen Shui-bian wanted to oust them Um it was impossible to build a large bureaucratic mechanism in a short time Many Taiwanese Um he wanted to plant many Taiwanese in various positions and send them overseas Thus in consolidating democracy This in fact had caused many tough problems in foreign policies national defense policies and defense policies Good Next let's listen to or take some calls from the audience and viewers You can continue to express your opinions or raise questions on China's Anti-Secession Law or you can comment on present democratic situation and democratic development in Taiwan Next we would like to invite Mr Zhou from Jiangsu to join our program How are you Mr Zhou How are you host Bao Shen Hello Please go ahead Sure I would like to talk about Taiwan's democratic issues In other words at present Taiwan nationality is keenly aware of their national identity I listened to the broadcast of British BBC two days ago A Taiwanese ah audience called the station He said that um Taiwanese are superior I felt weird to hear that It was exactly the type of national superiority similar to the Nazi's As we can see Chen Shui-bian's propaganda of this type of this type of Taiwanism is quite successful I also heard an audience saying yesterday that he said that uh democracy this 'minju'is the 'ju' as in 'juli' If it does not aim at shortening the distance between the government and its people then then so-called democrats are just a bunch of um pigs and wolves that know how to vote I don't know whether our honored guest agrees with this argument Good Thank you Mr Zhou from Jiangsu Now we would like to invite Mr Ding from Guangzhou to join our discussion How are you Mr Ding How are you Ai let me say something I think the content of the Anti-Secession Law has larger flexibility in its content but you called it a blank check instead The three characters in Chinese 'Anti-Secession' alone are worth deliberating It has been more than 50 years since the two sides of the Straits split up Now why don't they call it 'anti-Taiwan independence' but 'anti-secession' instead I think it might be because if they call it anti-Taiwan independence it will have binding force on the mainland Does it mean that if there were no independence then force would not be used While after all anti-secession will allow the mainland to act actively and to avoid not having any progress forever However I believe that the strengths of the two parties would become important only if the Anti-Secession Law have great significance This is my opinion Thank you Thank you Mr Ding from Guangzhou Professor Copper what are your opinions on the viewpoints of the two audience on Taiwan democracy and Anti- Anti-Secession Law First um what he said about the first issue was right In other words some people in Taiwan there are this type of people who believe that since we are under a democratic system thus we are more advanced and um we are better than other non-democratic countries In fact the United States um Western countries all encourage people to hold this position That is to say democratic countries um their human rights records are better their economies their developments are better and are better in other areas as well Thus Taiwan has used this argument as an excuse Then in Taiwan um um some people believe that since we are under a democratic system we um um have accomplished um certain missions This is excellent Um we are more democratic than China While um um China um has no rights at all um um to torture us and so on not to treat us well and so on In fact um um we are also under a democratic system We can choose our own government Thus we can choose um um the international community and so on These are all um closely related now In this case while um there is a huge divergence with China um a huge divergence Earlier on the the um ah Mister also mentioned that um in China and Taiwan both have um a problem of conforming to the majority Um um um you have to be careful sometimes or it will be too dangerous Why is it so You have always um based all your policy making on um um the poll um the public opinion survey and um make frequent policy changes You can't do this Um in fact you cannot act like this It can't go too fast It is precisely because of this reason among legislation um legislation administration and judiciary there should be the type of the type of the type of restraint restraining power Um we cannot um go overboard in any of the areas In regard to um the question on the issue of the Anti-Secession Law I don't think it um matter much no matter whether you call it anti-Taiwan independence anti-independence or anti-secession Others all believe that it is the same thing no matter how you call it This anti-secession implies that um it implies that Taiwan is China er Taiwan is part of China it's only that it is not ruled by China now China's policy has always been this way from a long time ago and so have the United States' and other countries' They all hold the same position I don't think that this this law um will be inciting Ai because um it has not has not set a um timetable saying that if certain things have not been achieved at certain time then I will take military action It hasn't said so Another thing is that as you said earlier it is not a mobilization order My my opinion is that it is not very inciting Good next I would like to invite Mr Zhang from Zhejiang to join our program How are you Mr Zhang Hello how are you Uh how are you host How are you host How are you honored guest Well uh I think uh in regard to the the enactment of the Anti-Secession Law by the mainland some members of the Mainland Affairs Council in Taiwan have already uh said that they had to enact a corresponding Anti-Annexation Law I think uh I would like to ask um the opinion of our honored guest That is uh if this Anti-Annexation Law um were drafted um as scheduled then um what kind of opinions would the United States have This is it Good Thank you Mr Zhang from Zhejiang next we have Mr Yang from Hubei How are you Mr Yang How are you host How are you honored guest Hello The Republic of China and the People's Republic of China belong to one China This is what the United States and majority of the countries in the world have acknowledged However the US government is also against Taiwan's independence On the one hand it says it is against Taiwan's independence on the other hand it is also against mainland China's Anti-Secession Law Is such an argument In this self-contradictory I would like to ask our honored guest to explain Thank you Good Thank you Mr Yang from Hubei Right Good I believe that the United States is against um any anti-enactment measure adopted by Taiwan In other words if Taiwan it um as a result of China's Anti-Secession Law um um reacted by saying that they had to secede had to declare independence then the United States would oppose However even so the question now is whether this situation will appear or um because Taiwan is um very um very on this issue The pan-green um has controlled all the government departments I don't believe this situation will happen If it happens e the pan-blue um has control over all government camps um the US policy would be to have stability to have stability in the two sides of the Taiwan Straits and neither side should provoke the other or cause problems While um the US policy is to maintain the status quo In other words no action should be taken to upset the status quo The United States would show concern and oppose to any action taken by either side that would upset the status quo Precisely because of this reason as I mentioned earlier um the United States um will not support any anti-enactment actions taken by Taiwan Good next I would like to invite Ms Li from Hubei to join our program How are you Ms Li Hello everybody There is a story about a wolf and a sheep The sheep was drinking water at the lower reaches of the river The wolf said You have dirtied my water The sheep said I am drinking at the lower reaches of the river It does not concern you at all We should also learn some examples from the story In 1949 people from the mainland were still suffering dearly from the civil war and were still badly shaken Thus in 1949 Mao Zedong the leader of the mainland sent Liu Shaoqi to Stalin and asked him to send troops to help attack Taiwan From then on there has been increasing civil war um the demand to attack Taiwan has not stopped The original advertisement ah posted everywhere Generation after generation of mainland leadership have considered Taiwan as eyesore I think it is wrong may be Good Thank you Ms Li from Hubei Next I would like to invite Mr Sun from Anhui to join our program How are you Mr Sun How are you Well I think um the Anti-Secession Law and the ah three represents and ah rule with kindness and ah three emphases education ah and three innovations are all inseparable parts of one ideological construction It is only to defend the challenge posed to mainland China by Taiwan's democratic ideas It is because if you do not have this shield once the democratic ideas spread over here you would not be able to block block it This uh um if this law is passed I would like to ask I only have this question Good Thank you Mr Sun from Anhui Uh we don't have too much time left I would like to invite two more audience and viewers to raise their questions or express their opinions How are you Mr Zhang from Heilongjiang How are you Bao Shen Uh um how are you honored guest I just want to put forward this argument It is said that the Anti-Secession Law will probably be implemented next week Its implementation is to draw Taiwan a to restrict Taiwan's activities to a designated area That's all I want to say Thank you Good Thank you Mr Zhang from Heilongjiang for expressing your opinion concisely Next it's Mr Shi from Shanghai How are you Mr Shi I personally don't think that it seem to have much originality First ever since Zhou Enlai and Mao Zedong they have never announced that they will give up using violence as a means to resolve problems This is the first point Second China's national reality is a one party a situation Moreover it has always been that er the Chinese Communist Party has to lead everything Everything that it has to lead included of course includes Taiwan It doesn't want you to talk and act recklessly Um uh as for Taiwan there is nothing like they believe that they are supervisor or anything like that At the meeting the one who spoke Southern Fujianese and the ones who spoke um Hakkaese and Cantonese they all had a headache Good Missile alone resolve the problems Good Thank you Mr Shi from Shanghai Professor Copper do you want to respond to the raised questions or expressed opinions by the previous four audience or viewers Yes I do Taiwan as the first gentleman said is the eyesore of the Chinese officials because it has always been promoting democracy It keeps saying that China is not democratic enough and its human rights situation is extremely poor so on and so forth I believe that this involves another aspect which is besides um democracy Taiwan also of course has chaos particularly if you look from 2000 Thus we say um um not only other than should China um become democratic it also has to be extremely careful while moving toward democracy at the same time The other thing is that the path that Taiwan takes is what I described as 'Western democracy' in my book not the road of Asian democracyBut the Majority of the Asian countries are um uh stability um umare more concerned about controlling the crime rate and things like that Unlike other Asian countries Taiwan does not pay enough attention to this aspect Precisely due to this reason China um thinks um um wants to follow the paths of Singapore and others in its democratization Um uh with regard to Taiwan Straits issue the United States as I said in the beginning the United States does not want anyone to um provoke um provoke and create trouble Therefore uh in other words the United States wants to keep the status quo The United States adopts what I called um 'maintaining the power equilibrium of the Taiwan Straits' type of policy and um um sell more arms to Taiwan Then Taiwan um China will will um across the Straits uh um if China deploys more missiles across the Straits then the United States will sell more arms to Taiwan in order to maintain um the power equilibrium there As the United States has been saying for a long time this act is to maintain the power equilibrium of the two sides of the Taiwan Straits Great Thank you very much Mr Copper professor of International Studies at Rhodes College in Tennessee United States for participating in today's discussion Well today is the first anniversary of the Madrid train explosion incident Next at the closing of the program I would like to ask Yang Chen to tell us the related information Yang Chen Sure The Madrid train explosion incident that happened a year ago was considered as Europe's 9/11 A year has passed but Spain and the European Union can still feel the series of political and social changes brought about by this incident Please stay tuned to the following report On March 11 2004 a series of explosions happened on a commuter train that was about to enter the Madrid station ripping the four railway cars apart This deadliest terrorist assault in modern Spanish history had killed 191 people and injured 18 Serfaty of the Center for Strategic and International Studies said that the 3/11 explosion in Spain had reminded Europeans that anti-terrorism war did exist At that time Spanish Conservative Prime Minister Aznar immediately directed the spearhead to the Basque separatist group ETA A national election was to be held three days after the bombings The Aznar administration was strongly against the ETA However one day before the election in a video tape uncovered in a mosque near Madrid the al-Qaeda organization claimed that the 3/11 attack was to punish Spain for sending troops to Iraq The opposition to the Iraqi War of the Spanish public and their belief that the government was intentionally toying with public opinions had led to the loss of Aznar in the election The Socialists Workers' Party led by Zapatero won the election and took over the government Once Zapatero took over the office of the Prime Minister he immediately announced the withdrawal of the 1300-member Spanish troops from Iraq Parrott of Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies in Washington DC said that the entire atmosphere had obviously changed when the Spanish troops were about to withdraw It made the withdrawal of troops from other countries more acceptable Prime Minister Zapatero's decision also had political significance within the European Union It had led Madrid to break away from its alliance with Britain Italy and Poland and to join the so-called 'ancient Europe' alliance with France and Germany to cooperate in issues on Iraq and other wide-ranging topics However just like the United States all the European Union member states have deeply realized that the European Union is a target of terror attacks of the Islamic extremists Investigators found out that an Islamic group in Morocco Spain had organized the Madrid bomb attack The European Union member states have greatly increased intelligence circulation among themselves and had strengthened the security of the entire European Union Serfaty of the Center for Strategic and International Studies stated that the European Union member states had finally realized that they were more susceptible to terrorist attacks than was the United States Serfaty also added that the historical fear of Islam in Europe was forced to resurface The reasons for the European Union to become easier target of terrorist attacks are its geographical proximity economic reliance and cultural sensitivity Great expectations Only about a 15-minute drive from the Expo Tajimi City in Gifu Prefecture is well-known in Japan for its ceramics The city plans to host the International Ceramics Festival from July to August this year Kenji Kagohashi director of the Ceramics Festival Administration said he hopes that tourists attending the Expo will also stop by the Ceramics Festival For that purpose they introduced specific plans Director Kagohashi of the Ceramics Festival Administration of Tajimi City said they plan to provide accommodation for overseas tourists at citizens' households during the Festival so as to help tourists save money on accommodation and to gain more publicity for the place as a ceramics town The Aichi Expo with participation by 121 countries and four international organizations will become a grand stage for the Japanese government for international diplomacy According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan during the six-month Expo top leaders of more than 60 countries will pay their visit in succession Among them are French President Chirac German President Kohler Australian Prime Minister Howard Chinese Vice Premier Wu Yi and others In addition according to reports by Japan's Yomiuri Shimbun the Japanese government also sent an invitation to China's Premier Wen Jiabao At present due to the issue of Japanese Prime Minister Koizumi's visit to the Yasukuni shrine Japan and China have suspended the regular exchange of visits by heads of state of the two countries The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan believes that since the next Expo will be held in Shanghai China China should naturally pay more attention to this Expo If Wen Jiabao visits Japan in the name of coming to see the Expo it will break the political deadlock between Japan and China However there still hasn't been any definitive reply from China The Aichi Expo in Japan will open on March 25 and close on September 25 this year The duration of the Expo will be 185 days This has been reported by Xiao Yu VOA special correspondent from Tokyo Voice of America You are listening to VOA programs of current events and financial news reports Finally let's take a look at Japan The legislature of Japan's Shimane Prefecture took legal measures to support Tokyo's claim of sovereignty over an island South Korea also asserted its claim of sovereignty over this island On Wednesday the Shimane prefectural assembly set February 22 as Takeshima Day in celebration of Japan's sovereign claim of both the island and the rich fishing resources in the Sea of Japan off the island's coast South Korea calls this island Dokdo Island Shimane Prefecture's move caused dissatisfaction in South Korea South Koreans still hold deep grudges against Japan for its colonial rule of South Korea from 1910 to the end of World War II On Monday while South Koreans were holding a demonstration in front of the Japanese embassy in Seoul regarding the dispute over this island two South Koreans severed their fingers in a show of rage OK let's take a break here from this VOA program of current events and financial news reports This program has been edited by Zhang Nan and Wang Nan with He Zhicheng as broadcast director This is Zhao Wancheng This is Qi Yongming At the start of the upcoming program we will air the program Let's Talk about Current Events Listener friends are welcome to call in and participate Meanwhile we will broadcast to you the China and Asia reports in an hour which we hope no one will miss See you in an hour Bye-bye Hello dear listeners and viewers this is Zhi Yuan Hello everyone this is Yang Chen Today is March 16 Wednesday I'd like to welcome you tuning in to the program Let's Talk about Current Events In response to the passage of the National Anti-Secession Law by China's National People's Congress Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian today issued a serious statement for the first time saying China will only further divide cross-Strait relations by passing this aggressive law So will the National Anti-Secession Law lead China to resolve the Taiwan issue by non-peaceful means In which areas can we see expressions of overall national power due to the integration into the international community of China's economic development over the past two decades What impact will China's soft power and hard power have on the resolution of the Taiwan issue For today's edition of Let's Talk about Current Events we've invited Huang Yanzhong associate professor at Seton Hall University in New Jersey of the United States to discuss these topics with us But first of all let's welcome Tang Ximing on air for the international news of this hour Tang Ximing OK thanks Zhi Yuan The Iraqi National Assembly elected by the first free election in 50 years began its first meeting on Wednesday but negotiations on forming the new government are still underway The 275-seat Iraqi Transitional National Assembly was officially inaugurated in the convention center located in the heavily-guarded Baghdad green zone Minutes before the national assembly convened the area was shaken by a series of explosions The cause of the explosions and resulting casualties have not yet been identified In the meantime Iraq's Shiite Kurdish politicians continued negotiations on forming a unified central government The Shiite Muslim-dominated United Iraqi Alliance holds a weak majority in the parliament They need Kurdish support to win the two-thirds majority required to elect a presidential council The presidential council will nominate the candidate for prime minister In Baquba north of Baghdad a car bomb exploded at a security checkpoint on Wednesday killing at least three Iraqi soldiers Israeli troops began to transfer the security control of Jericho to the Palestinians This is the first of five towns in the West Bank which Israel promised to hand over Chief officials from Israeli and Palestinian security agencies met today at a security checkpoint outside Jericho to hold a handover ceremony After that Israeli troops began to hand over several security checkpoints in the vicinity of Jericho to the Palestinian security forces In the coming days Israel will also hand over Tulkarem and then Qalqiliya but no definite schedule has been set yet for the handover of Ramallah and Bethlehem In the meantime Egyptian and Palestinian officials met with leaders of Palestinian radical organizations in Cairo to discuss a proposal for a one-year-long ceasefire against Israeli targets Israeli Prime Minister Sharon said in addition to reaching the ceasefire Pakistan must also demilitarize extremist organizations US Secretary of State Rice held talks with Indian leaders in New Delhi with their discussion focusing on the issue of regional defense This is the first stop on her visit to six nations in Asia At a press conference jointly held with Indian Foreign Minister Natwar Singh Rice said the United States has no plans to sell US-made F16 fighter planes to Palestine Pakistan or India Pakistan expressed its need for F16 fighter planes to combat terrorists But New Delhi thinks Pakistan may use this type of fighter plane against India Rice also praised India and Pakistan for making progress in negotiations that were resumed a year ago Rice also reiterated US opposition to the proposed construction of an oil pipeline from Iran to India by way of Pakistan Rice will head for Pakistan later on Wednesday Her Asian tour also includes Afghanistan Japan South Korea and China Chairman Zhang Enzhao of the Board of Directors of the China Construction Bank resigned Media reports said he is under investigation on suspicion of corruption On Wednesday CCB said in a statement that Zhang Enzhao resigned due to personal reasons Financial analysts said the rumor of a corruption probe may hinder the bank's plan of going public CCB hopes to raise 5 to 10 billion US dollars of funds through issuing stocks CCB is the largest real estate lender in China Reports disclosed that CCB is investigating the disappearance of 8 million US dollars in a branch office in Jilin Province One or two directors of this branch office have disappeared In accordance with the requests by the United States and Lebanon's opposition party for the Syrian military occupation in Lebanon to end Syrian intelligence personnel continued to pull out from most areas of Lebanon Witnesses said Syrian intelligence personnel closed their headquarters in Beirut and left the city on Wednesday morning They said Syrian intelligence personnel in other areas of Lebanon also pulled out On Tuesday US President Bush called Syria's move proactive but reiterated that Syria must withdraw all military forces and intelligence personnel by the national parliamentary election in May Bush also said that although Lebanon's radical organization Hezbollah was connected with terrorism in the past it may also become part of the political mainstream in Lebanon However Bush said Hezbollah must disarm first and then support the peace process in the Middle East The legislature of Japan's Shimane Prefecture took legal measures to support Tokyo for its claim of sovereignty over a group of islands South Korea also asserted its claim of sovereignty over this group of islands On Wednesday the Shimane prefectural assembly set February 22 as Takeshima Day in celebration of Japan's sovereign claim over these islands and the rich fishing resources in the Sea of Japan off its coast South Korea calls this group of islands Dokdo Island Shimane Prefecture's move caused dissatisfaction in South Korea South Koreans still hold deep grudges against Japan for its colonial rule of South Korea from 1910 to the end of World War II On Monday while South Koreans were holding a demonstration in front of the Japanese embassy in Seoul regarding the dispute over this group of islands two South Koreans severed their fingers in a show of rage This VOA international news was brought to you by Tang Ximing Thank you for listening and watching I'd like to welcome you tuning in to the March 16 edition of Let's Talk about Current Events This is Yang Chen Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian made a speech asserting that change of the status quo in Taiwan can only be decided by the Taiwanese people He also called on China to resolve bilateral issues through dialogue instead of military threat Chen Shuibian also stressed that the European Union has no basis for lifting the arms embargo on China Next please stay tuned to the TV report from VOA correspondent for Let's Talk about Current Events These are the first comments from Chen Shui-bian since China passed the National Anti-Secession Law While meeting with representatives from overseas Taiwanese he said that the Republic of China is an independent sovereign country The sovereignty of the country belongs to the 23 million Taiwanese people The 23 million Taiwanese people alone have the right to decide any change in Taiwan's future Chen Shui-bian also called for both parties to resolve the issue through dialogue We should insist that both sides of the Straits should carry on the principle of democracy freedom and peace and eliminate differences of both parties through dialogue Any non-democratic and non-peaceful approach no matter under what pretext will not be accepted by the international community On another note Chen Shui-bian also expressed his view on the European Union's lifting planned lifting of the arms embargo on China We should seriously urge again that as long as the CPC fails to provide peace guarantees and abandon peace attempts the European Union has no reason to lift the arms embargo which is targeted at potential aggressors China greatly distrusts Chen Shui-bian and accuses him of secretly promoting independence which however is denied by Chen Shui-bian This has been a VOA TV report OK Next Zhi Yuan will host today's discussion and dialogue Zhi Yuan Good thanks Yang Chen In which areas can we see expressions of overall national power due to China's economic development over the past two decades and integration into the international community What position does China command on the current international stage Will China replace the United States as a leader in international affairs in the 21st century What impact will China's soft power and hard power have on the resolution of the Taiwan issue Today we have invited Huang Yanzhong associate professor at Seton Hall University in New Jersey of the United States to discuss with us such related issues Professor Huang Yanzhong has done notable in-depth research into the growth and impact of China's soft power over the past two decades He also published a special academic paper assessing China's soft power at the annual conference of the International Studies Association held in Hawaii at the beginning of this month During our discussion you are welcome to call the toll free number to participate You should dial 10810 or 108710 first then dial 8668375161 to join the discussion Now Professor Huang Yanzhong I'd like to first ask you to introduce the concept you have proposed that is soft power What is the concept of soft power How has it come about OK The concept of soft power was initially proposed um in the early 90s by Professor Joseph Knight who is currently at the Kennedy School of Harvard University Um this concept is that is to say according to Joseph Knight it is defined as a kind of power a nation has in persuading other nations to acknowledge and follow uh its own policy in order to achieve the desired outcome of its policy Its scope covers three main areas The first area is cultural appeal The second is the appeal of ideology and political values The third area is the style and connotation of diplomatic policies These three areas So compared with soft power what does hard power mainly refer to Hard power means but compared with soft power it mainly focuses on the three areas of military power economic development and advancement of science and technology It is so to speak ah compared with soft power in simpler terms it means a carrot and a stick That means the emphasis is on threat and reward unlike soft power which attracts the other party ah to acknowledge and follow this um its political values and ideology and such fields Ah or in clearer terms hard power these days refers to planes cannons tanks and US dollars while this soft power mainly manifests itself in things like McDonald's Mickey Mouse um also Hollywood movies um including Michael Jackson we are talking about Those are all embodiments of soft power Additionally that is to say hard power focuses more on direct approaches to change others' behavior while soft power comparatively focuses more on indirect approaches to change others' preferences It's like this for example a person gives his own wallet to a robber at gunpoint This that is a change of behavior but it does not represent a change of preference because his hope is still to keep the wallet to himself instead of giving it to the kidnapper But soft power focuses more on changing people's preferences That is to cause someone to do something willingly through their own desire Besides there is another point That is soft power depends more on what we call sensible reasonable and lawful approaches to solve problems Right So the two concepts are pretty complicated I think you've already done a very good job in explaining the profound in simple terms Now I'd like to ask whether you can describe very briefly what kind of position China has on the current international stage In other words does the status quo power you mentioned in your paper refer to a nation with strong actual power Then what kind of um actual power does China have now We what is mentioned in that paper of mine mainly means a that is um a nation that wants to maintain the status quo That is it means that now China's position on the international stage is controversial That means it is mainly unclear what China its that is policy its future goals and its preferences are namely whether it only wants to develop under the large current international system or hopes to break the restraints of the current international system and um to challenge for instance the leading position of the United States If it starts hoping to challenge the leading US position and hoping to break the current this international system then it is not a nation that maintains the status quo but a nation that hopes to change the status quo So judging from the current situation and based on my this research I found ah although China that is to say it has made some active moves in many fields and the diplomatic field er it is still fundamentally a nation maintaining the status quo There was initially put forth a slogan of the peaceful rise of China Then er it seems to be heard less and less lately So can you say that is since China is currently a nation that wants to maintain the status quo as you've just described why does it want to propose a such a slogan about its peaceful rise Oh the peaceful rise is mainly for some that is er nations and individuals who want to propose an an encompassing concept for the development of China It this peaceful rise itself means the development of China needs a peaceful external environment but at the same time that China's development and progress that is to say can promote world peace This concept was initially proposed by Zheng Bijian former vice president of the Party School of the CPC Central Committee Later recently he has stopped mentioning it supposedly because ah it involves the Taiwan issue That is it will make people that is according to what I know some of them are worried it may cause a misunderstanding that is er only peaceful measures will be used to resolve the Taiwan issue OK Now we have quite a few listeners and viewers on the phone lines So let's find out what questions our listeners and viewers have Um we have a call from Mr Zhang from Jiangsu Mr Zhang from Jiangsu Hello me It's you Speak please I have a question I think soft power I think China should increase it Recently because um China needs a peaceful environment China's history has been one of humiliation for more than a century The Chinese people very much need a peaceful environment to develop themselves This soft power has recently been advanced Our country proposed for a um um establishing a harmonious society harmonious society Is this this issue also a step by Chinese leaders to achieve soft power Thanks OK Thank you Mr Zhang from Jiangsu Right Mr Zhang you asked a very good question Because this the soft power we just talked about includes three areas Um one of the important areas is its domestic political value and ideological appeal So talking about current China that is to say it has made much progresses in the course of development Of course there also exist many problems For instance corruption is becoming increasingly rampant Um this gap between the city and the countryside er and the disparity between the rich and the poor are er also getting larger in addition to the issue of unemployment and all other um social problems So I think this harmonious society proposed by Chinese leaders um the purpose is they hope er to adopt ah a series of policies and measures to promote ah the development of harmony among different forces in society er and reduce for instance social conflicts er er and contradictions ah So in other words in this sense it is also a manifestation of soft power because if China can successfully ah promote economic growth while er er bringing with it an increasing intensification of this kind of social contradiction then it offers a model of development as an example for the rest of the world In this sense that ah we can say it is a demonstration of soft power because other countries because if seeing this kind of development of China ah they will also er acknowledge and follow this model Good Let's find out what question Mr Wu from Anhui has Mr Wu from Anhui speak please Hello host and honorable guests What I want to bring up is if China's actual power is growing stronger and stronger whether it will cause the revival and comeback of international communism I will just ask this question Thank you Mr Wu from Anhui Oh this is a question I've not considered yet But our opinion is ah the answer should be negative because now society the mainstream is globalization mass information um and democratization Because in this sense development itself will not help for instance the spread of communism in the world All right Thanks Next let's see what question Mr Kong from Shandong has Mr Kong from Shandong speak please Mr Kong from Shandong OK Let's see what question Mr Lan from Jiangxi has Mr Lan from Jiangxi speak please I want to talk a little about my personal opinions and ideas about that National Anti-Secession Law like about Taiwan £¨£¨£©£© That is I think the National Anti-Secession Law is not a law of the CPC but a law of the Chinese nation It's mainland compatriots who need Taiwan to come back I think Chen Shui-bian Lee Teng-hui and other parties why can't you get united and return to the mainland to accomplish something You should rethink The Yan and Huang Emperors will also weep Descendants of the Yan and Huang Emperors are all over the world so even mankind will weep The loss will be more than the gain What China hopes for is a united Chinese nation building a beautiful tomorrow together Ok thank you Mr Lan from Jiangxi We basically got your point So Mr Lan is rather in favor of this National Anti-Secession Law The news we have in front of us also show um Taiwanese people and Taiwanese leaders all take a pretty strong dislike to this law Um how do you look at this issue As far as the content of this National Anti-Secession Law itself is concerned this is a say ah a demonstration of using hard power because it relies more on non-peaceful approaches to solve problems This involves a problem say of how we look at the relationship between hard power and soft power Um hard power that's a um the expansion of soft power needs the support of hard power But relying on hard power alone that is to say ah like what we see in Iraq won't help much in accomplishing the policies and goals of a country What I mean is that if say the current Chinese leaders can combine this hard power with soft power ah and focus more say on touching the hearts of Taiwanese people I think that will be more helpful All right Let's move on to take the call of Mr He from Anhui Mr He from Anhui speak please I want to ask whether Taiwan can possibly return to our mainland OK OK Thank you Let's see what question Mr Wang from Hubei has Mr Wang from Hubei speak please Hello Mr Wang from Hubei speak please Hello Speak please Hello me It's you Speak please Um OK thanks Um um I want to make a correction I'm calling from Hunan Um I think that that regarding this Taiwan um that is um that is the National Anti-Secession Law proposed at the two conferences um the bill of the National Anti-Secession Law I will talk about talk about my view from two perspectives That is to say first um I want to talk about it from the legal perspective that is to say from the perspective of the law per se I think at that time um when I saw the news of this law released by the Xinhua News Agency I felt somewhat strange First of all um this law that is to say in its literal sense is entirely targeted at um the subject of the independence of Taiwan Actually I think as a law it should not merely be that um according to according to the general sense of law this law cannot be established merely because Taiwan wants independence If say I want to imagine if other provinces of China are talking about some controversial places if they want independence will the government of mainland China issue another related national anti-secession law Um also I think that is to say this law when I read through it it didn't feel like a real law It's more like some CPC some regulatory document some notice something like that Um also I think say this law say to be interpreted in a political sense I think is more likely that the Chinese leadership wants to have a um a political test to test the response of Taiwan authorities and their ultimate bottom line I think this is more likely what it means All right As time is running out could you please stop here So from what Mr He and Mr Wang said it seems some listeners are very much concerned with the National Anti-Secession Law So just now you you also mentioned that is to say how China uses its soft power and hard power to resolve the Taiwan issue Do you think say like what this Mr He from Anhui is worried about um that this National Anti-Secession Law will lead China say to resolve the Taiwan issue through non-peaceful means So on this issue could you respond a little bit more to the questions raised by Mr Wang and Mr He Ur whether the National Anti-Secession Law will result in that is China's adoption of non-peaceful methods to resolve the issue um this will depend on the objective of this National Anti-Secession Law It aims solely at preventing Taiwan independence Um the objective um in this sense can be said to avoid as much as possible the use of non-peaceful means to resolve the issue But this say we need to look at another side of the problem Let's say we also need to look at the political ecosystem and the political development of Taiwan itself If er possible there may be two say directions of development One is say the Taiwan leadership gets the message that China's bottom line is like this If you go beyond this line it will lead um um China to use military force If that happens um in this sense it will prevent the leadership from progressing further toward independence In another sense it may take another direction In other words ah this National Anti-Secession Law is used by the Taiwan leadership that is to say to further work up that is to say um Taiwanese people's hostility toward the mainland Um that hostility will eventually be transformed into a kind this kind um um in the political environment of Taiwan er will be used by relevant political forces to further promote Taiwanese independence That is exactly what the National Anti-Secession Law is not meant for All right Now let's see um what question Mr He from Jiangxi Mr He from Jiangxi has Mr He from Jiangxi speak please Hello me Speak please Ah it's like this Let me see I'll talk about the National Anti-Secession Law Is that all right Actually I think the CPC leadership actually just has this kind of er idea to threaten That is to say if Taiwan really goes for independence it would be no good either to attack or not attack So they that is to say thought of making this National Anti-Secession Law so as to er win some time This is the first idea The second idea is that is to say that so-called harmonious society proposed by the CPC leadership um I think um is very hard to accomplish because they have failed to accomplish some um many of their policies Also I think I want to talk about that issue of China's economy For instance that economy of China take Suzhou for example That is to say the total amount of imports and exports of Suzhou last year was RMB 850 billion Its GDP total was um um RMB 345 billion With its a figure like that that is to say the economy is not very healthy 345 billion is a very bloated number Also I want to talk about the economy of Suzhou Um the city of Suzhou ranks third among regions and cities in um China That's considered pretty good Then at the same time local peasants in Suzhou who have lost their land are having a hard life When they grow to be er for instance older than 18 they will be given er a lump sum of 5000 yuan After that they will be on their own for the rest of their lives Then what can a peasant do if he has lost his land He couldn't possibly just go begging Um lazy urbanites because they have various kinds of basic guarantees If say er peasants who have lost land are so carelessly dealt with how are they supposed to make a living These are the questions I wanted to talk about All right all right Thank you Mr He from Jiangxi So Mr He from Jiangxi actually just mentioned again the current social contradictions and social problems in China that you mentioned earlier for instance the gap between the rich and the poor and some workers getting unemployed and laid-off In addition we know it has also frequently been reported by the press that some coal mines in China have a high frequency of accidents with a relatively large death toll So in addition to such social contradictions and social problems in the current society of China we also have say er people sending petition letters to the Central Committee and also some er um some problems existing in certain classes of society For example in the remote mountain areas there are some like this kind of some ordinary people who have now barely anything to eat or wear um the disadvantaged group at the bottom of society What impact will the issue of these people have on the harmony of China um say on the growth of China's soft power and hard power we're talking about in today's program Er we also have to look at this issue from two aspects In one respect the economy of China over the course of 25 years has indeed achieved growth that has attracted worldwide attention This er this um internationally remarkable growth itself so to speak can be transformed into a kind of soft power based on um Joseph Knight's theory That is to other nations their development has provided a model of development that can serve as an example Um that is to say we have now indeed seen other countries such as Russia Brazil ah Vietnam ah even India ah they are all proposing to adopt China's model of development Ah in this sense that is to say er the economic development of China has indeed brought about its um um £¨£¨£©£© Beijing Consensus This Beijing Consensus it is er in contrast to the Washington Consensus The Washington Consensus has been basically criticized by many people because it has not been very successful in many Latin American countries Now I mean recently I read a news report that Brazil comparable even to Japan dispatching envoys to the Tang back then er in the Tang and Song Dynasties of the 7th and the 8th centuries sent a learning delegation to China to study China's model of development This is er an important sign of soft power And also I don't really um um think that much of this Beijing Consensus because ah it is essentially a development model of say ah ah a market economy but without including democracy It is very hard for this model to gain recognition by other countries with today's globalization mass information and democratization Actually say including what we call the Hu-Wen er Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao new administration itself wants to reduce some of the social repercussions and problems this development has incurred through a series of policies and measures policies and methods but this model itself is is clearly defined It is er hard to say that it will really solve China's social problems As a matter of fact some scholars even propose if China's social problems persist like this China's say economic development will likely become Latin Americanized Latin Americanization means the increasing intensification of social contradictions and widening of the gap between the rich and the poor In cities this kind all kinds and um this conflict among interest groups is becoming more and more intensified I think this problem cannot be ignored OK Since time is running out let's first take a look at another news report Now today the specialist in our live broadcasting studio is Huang Yanzhong associate professor from Seton Hall University in New Jersey of the United States Our topic is assessing China's soft power Now let's first ask Yang Chen to bring a news break Yang Chen All right Chairman Zhang Enzhao of the Board of Directors of the Central Construction Bank resigned According to Hong Kong media reports he is under investigation on suspicion of corruption but China's official Xinhua News Agency said Zhang Enzhao resigned due to personal reasons Coming up next please stay tuned for a report by Correspondent Ning Xin for Let's Talk about Current Events China Construction Bank is one of the four major state-owned banks in China It is also China's largest real estate lender The resignation of Chairman Zhang Enzhao of the Board of Directors of China Construction Bank has attracted widespread attention Some Hong Kong media reports say Zhang Enzhao is under investigation on charges of corruption but the Xinhua News Agency said he resigned due to personal reasons China Construction Bank has been planning to raise 5 to 10 billion US dollars of funds through issuing stocks in Hong Kong later this year Financial analysts said news of the corruption probe may hinder the bank's plans to go public because its management and risk control capabilities may be questioned A South China Morning Post report disclosed that China Construction Bank is now investigating the incident of its branch chief in Jilin Province fleeing abroad with money 8 million US dollars in the branch bank has disappeared This is Correspondent Ning Xin reporting for Let's Talk about Current Events All right Thanks Ning Xin Next Zhi Yuan will host today's discussion and dialogue Zhi Yuan OK Thanks Yang Chen Now you're tuning in to the live radio and television broadcast of the VOA program Events Forum Today's topic is assessing China's soft power Our honorable guest for the live show is Huang Yanzhong associate professor at Seton Hall University in New Jersey of the United States During our discussion you are welcome to dial the toll free number 10810 or 108710 then dial 8668375161 to join our discussion Now let's continue today's discussion While talking earlier about this soft power we also talked about a domestic issue You mentioned the concern that China's um economy or society may be Latin Americanized Worry about this kind of danger So this corruption of the governor namely the board chairman of China's CCB that was just reported in our news is also a sign that reflects this rampant er corruption throughout society in China That is to say China has now many social problems for instance corrupt government officials and trips aboard for gambling er How big is er the impact Let's say what is the relationship between these kinds of social problems and the growth of China's actual power There doesn't seem to be any The corruption in China has not affected the economic development of China Er in appearance the corruption you just mentioned does not seem to have affected the economic development of China but according to a study done by Chinese economists themselves in reality the economic loss caused by this corruption each year is er exceeds ah is equivalent to um 15% of China's GDP as I remember if I remember correctly That is to say that is to say if there had been no corruption the development of China would have been faster ah and better Er also this corruption really reflects a problem That is China has also something to do with soft power China lacks a competitive political value system Ah this is shown not only in its ah ah political system itself ah but also in its um um bureaucratic system That's what we mean Er although great progress has been made in having younger and more professional cadres since 1980 that um a series of substantial problems remain unresolved We mean petty arguments among government officials um and lack of accountability Ah overstaffing none of these problems have been completely resolved Yet if these problems cannot be completely resolved then in terms of a political value system China cannot provide a ah a system that can compete with the value of the Western system So in this sense we can say China's soft power is still very much ah lagging behind other say advanced um industrialized democratic countries Right So China has some existing problems in the area of soft power However in your article it seems you also mentioned some advantages for China In other words China still has some advantages in the area of soft power Er is this all a sign of China's growing soft power Also how is this soft power used to influence the needs of its international policy Er you've asked a very good question That is to say as I mentioned in my article this ah er soft power has three areas The first is cultural appeal the second is the appeal of the national er national um political and ideological values and the third is the style and essence of diplomatic policy From the cultural perspective China indeed has some advantages especially compared with Japan Chinese culture is more more open and tolerant This is ah greatly different from Japanese culture which is relatively closed ah and relatively exclusive Ah from ah this ah the perspective of development we um see uh great progress has occurred in Chinese culture including pop culture ah which is all an important embodiment of soft power We can see not only Chinese movies let's say Hero um Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon and also the recent House of Flying Daggers all made a big stir in um the United States Ah this actually is also a demonstration of soft power In addition we can see say from the perspective of language culture China has made great progress in this field Now that is to say ah every year there are ah more and more um foreigners going to China to learn the language Ah there are also more Chinese ah foreigners going to China for sightseeing I made a calculation From 1980 to 2004 ah the number of foreigners not including Chinese ah and overseas Chinese that is pure foreigners who go to China for sightseeing has increased by nearly 37 times from 1980 to 2004 from half a million to 17 million now This shows and indeed shows if China you if China does not have soft power does not have this appeal then why should foreigners want to go to China for sightseeing This that is ah from this perspective China's soft power has definitely increased a lot Also from um um um the perspective of diplomacy China has become less er obliging and spontaneous in its diplomacy ah and prefers ah to be more moderate and tactful and is often times more constructive This all adds more points to China's soft power Because I saw something very interesting that is to say a few days ago I saw BBC did a worldwide survey in 22 countries They found on average 48% ah of those surveyed considered the rise of China a positive factor to the peace and development of the world This er this percentage is even better than for the United States So I think in this sense China's soft power has indeed achieved great progress Now um I'd like to again ask about the Taiwan issue that everybody is very much concerned with In addition Taiwan and mainland China are also competing with each other on establishing diplomatic relations Is this also some demonstration of soft power No that's not entirely so Because according to what Joseph Knight said that is if pure monetary payoff or politics is involved that is to say threat and reward that is applying hard power not soft power Because when those countries for instance that originally had diplomatic ties with Taiwan suddenly said they decided to sever ties with Taiwan and establish ties with China they were largely influenced by China's payoffs perhaps maybe the effect of China's monetary diplomacy or the fear of China's power um um this political power ah ah and other factors Most importantly it is still due to the effect of China's hard power They very likely er accepted say China's demand that they sever diplomatic ties with Taiwan not because say they acknowledged or followed China's um one-China policy but because China is indeed so overwhelmingly powerful in this field that they had to change um their choice of policy All right Now there are quite a few listeners and viewers waiting on the phone lines Let's now take the call of Mr Han from Hebei Mr Han from Hebei speak please Hello host because we know the CPC founded the People's Republic of China It couldn't say it was achieved without any popular support because after all it made outstanding contributions to China in these 50 years If say for the CPC to withdraw from the political arena unconditionally I don't think it is reasonable Um it is also impossible As for what Taiwan proposed that the United States says Taiwan is democratic and therefore will protect it in my opinion if China becomes democratic Taiwan um then will have no reason for independence If it is if it is indeed because of democracy that it separates itself from China's political power I think that is reasonable But if it is for other reasons I don't think it can be allowed I think we can first implement um some kind of practice like democratic elections which you consider better in one or several provinces in China Afterwards if everybody feels good about it they can be implemented in China nationwide After that Taiwan can return to China What do you think Good Thanks All right Thank you Mr Han from Hebei The idea of Mr Han from Hebei is very interesting Would you please make a brief comment Ah he Mr Han means Taiwan's um um democratic development is like in other words in a certain sense is the demonstration of Taiwan's soft power That is to say it has influenced the political development process of China Er indeed like that That is to say China's for instance China's political and economic development er over 25 years in a certain sense is linked to a substantial degree ah with ah the existence of Taiwan as a relative opposition front an entity because that is to say if there exists a country whose political system and political er economic system are different from yours its very existence entails a kind of competition When there is competition there is can possibly be progress Ah but it is a great regret that in many fields say ah ah in the very beginning we could say Taiwan um affected the development process of China to a large degree Now that is to say the series of problems it had in the development of democracy also undermined Taiwan's soft power That is to say Chinese leaders ah especially the radicals ah er could easily point out a series of problems in the development of democracy in Taiwan as proof that the development of democracy in Taiwan has no value as an example for China All right We're taking a call of Mr Wang from Shandong Mr Wang from Shandong Hello how do you do Hello host Hello honorable guests Um I think I'd like to express some of my opinions on the notion of China's peaceful rise that came up when the honorable guest earlier mentioned China's soft power Er I think er what Chinese leaders Chinese leaders are now advocating are now implementing that is to say are doing that is um achieving a peaceful rise while keeping the status quo in my own personal opinion is almost impossible Um say if China wants to achieve very great um development it must change the status quo before it is able to have major groundbreaking development Er that's all I wanted to say Thanks All right Thank you Mr Wang from Shandong Now let's see what opinion um Mr Huang from Jilin has I think ordinary mainland people sharing a common feelings of anger don't want the issuance of what is called anti- anti-secession law The CPC should release an anti-corruption law Secondly the Bian-Soong talks have already reached a 10-point consensus He has also eased up It is the CPC's anti-secession law that has stirred up a huge uproar This is the second point The third point is er the CPC has divulged state secrets Why did they have to go to Japan and the United States to give them notice before releasing the anti-secession law The fourth point is that I beg to differ from what the honorable guest just said It is through depleting natural resources polluting the environment and deteriorating the ecosystem that the CPC fostered these 25 years of development In particular let me tell you during the time of these two conferences a deputy from Urumqi mentioned the redundant construction in Urumqi While this shopping mall is built another shopping mall goes dead remaining vacant We it's the same case in my Jilin City over and over Living off our ancestors robbing their graves and cutting their food As international media you should keep investigating Construction quality how much of construction is a fa¡õade for prosperity How many partially constructed buildings are left vacant Tear it down then construct construct then tear it down wrong decisions etc All at the cost of huge environmental losses Do you know that Air pollution that's extremely severe can't even breathe All right Thank you Mr Huang from Jilin Mr Huang from Jilin raised some very sharp questions Could you please give a brief answer This is exactly like what I just said That is we need to look at it from two aspects In one respect the economy has achieved great progress On the other hand just as Mr Huang said it was ah ah achieved largely through sacrificing the environment er and ecosystem In this sense I I that's why I don't think that much of the Beijing Consensus because it has indeed brought much that is to say while economy is growing at a high speed ah many that is to say other aspects of development have been overlooked In this sense that is to say it cannot give the world a sustainable ah um and competitive model of development So according to some rationale in China that is what some economists say China's development has to be achieved at the cost of the environment For instance in the current initial stage of development there are some projects that cause relatively severe environmental pollution or some um er relatively labor-intensive products but they will cause great damage to the environment natural resources and the like But for the purpose of developing the economy they won't hesitate to make such sacrifice How do you look at this problem OK This from the historical perspective um um there was indeed such er ah case even the process of development in the United States is no exception That is in the beginning priorities were given to economic development and not much attention was paid to the environment until they realized a lot of effort a lot large amount of time would have to be spent on resolving this er ah this environment issue I think China also is£¨£¨£©£© ah at present repeating this model of development that the European countries the United States and industrialized countries had in the past the model of development first and fixing up later This model that is to say this ah this ah from the perspective of development it is not the best model because that is er if you ah pursue development at the cost of sacrificing the environment there won't be much benefit in terms of um sustainable development However that is to say it is what the current situation in China is because ah a series of reasons has led say local governments to put undue emphasis on er GDP ah at the cost of sacrificing the environment ah and the ecosystem This is the reality Um time is running out I'd like to ask all listeners and viewers to talk more briefly Um Tang Sheng from Anhui speak please Er hello host Hello honorable guests I I agree very much with the point of view of the honorable guest tonight because the honorable guest because the viewpoint of the honorable guest tonight it is relatively objective and fair unlike some other guests who talk nonsense The honorable guest tonight um I hope you £¨£¨£©£©will come back again Hello what question do you have Speak please Ah What question do you have All right Thank you Tang Sheng from Anhui We got your comment Next let's see what viewpoint Mr Kong from Shandong has Mr Kong from Shandong speak please Hello Hello host Hello honorable guests Hello Speak please I think this Comrade Honorable Guest today ah er um gave a very good talk but I have a little bit different view from yours First the old man of the political system is also an old man Although we dare not openly oppose the CPC it is after all an old man of the political system I am an old man too The old man won't give up his power and won't allow splitting the household He wants to have four generations living under the same roof However an old man is doomed to die He will after all die before young people The CPC no longer holds any hard power nor any soft power Of course I am very sympathetic to Saddam I was very sympathetic to him when the US soldier put a light to his teeth and checked them You see this old man But you Saddam has killed so many people Can we forgive you because we are sympathetic to you The CPC can we forgive you From Sichuan via the web I want to say China is saying like a robber Taiwan dividing the country is not allowed anywhere It is the Republic of China but the ROC still exists in Taiwan and he has not grabbed it yet It is nobody's business how another people's country is split Another country says who needs another country to have a say in that Hey the United States does the the United States have the final say in the sovereignty and independence of the United Kingdom Ah and also Um thank you Mr Yang from Sichuan As time is running out would you please stop here So sorry Mr Wang from Hunan Would you please um call in tomorrow Now in the last remaining time less than 30 seconds I'd like to ask you to talk about whether you think China will replace the United States as a leader in international affairs in the 21st century This is a very big question Ah let's see say still from the perspective of hard power and soft power If simply from the perspective of hard power there isn't too big a difference between China's power and that of the United States And its um if from the perspective of assessing its GDP and its purchasing power it already ranks second in the world Er this Japan the second strongest economic power in name is already importing more ah ah um products from China er er than er from the United States This er but from the perspective of hard soft power I found that is to say there is a difference in balancing hard power and soft power In this respect China is still not ah still lags far behind um the United States because relatively speaking the United States in spite of its many mistakes in its policy on Iraq it is still a country with a pretty good balance of soft and hard power But China lags far behind in this respect All right As time is running out let's ask Yang Chen to bring us a final news briefing Yang Chen Good Zhi Yuan let me now give a quick briefing on the news from Iraq The international coalition force that invaded Iraq and overthrew Saddam two years ago are composed of 36 nations However today this force has only 24 left Italy has announced it will withdraw its troops beginning September Ukraine and the Netherlands are also starting to withdraw troops in phases Yet even if the number of countries participating in the coalition force is dwindling especially as shown the majority of the international community is still going all out in supporting the efforts to stabilize and assist a democratic Iraq Next here is the report The solidarity and harmony of the coalition force in Iraq was challenged this month when a US troop killed an Italian intelligence agent and a Bulgarian soldier by accident In the nearly two years that have passed the coalition force has been hit by waves upon waves of attacks from terrorists and anti-government armed personnel Some local civilians find it hard to dismiss their distrust of the international troops Some even show downright hostility in certain circumstances Last week US President Bush expressed his respect for the coalition forces for the sacrifices they have made One reason we are safer is that Poland led a multi-national force composed of soldiers from 15 nations in Iraq and soldiers from 23 nations are in Afghanistan This is Zhao Shaokang welcoming you to the studio of Newshack This commentary is coming to you from Taipei Many things happened this week in Taiwan but throughout the week the KMT chairmanship election has attracted the most attention Now originally after Ma Ying-jeou made the announcement everyone thought he would sweep to victory with his charisma and popularity As it turned out unexpectedly Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng er also announced on Thursday that is on March 16 his 66th birthday that he would run for the KMT chairmanship Now when he made this announcement it was powerfully impressive Almost all of the KMT legislators in the Legislative Yuan stood behind him creating great momentum which seemed to enable this latecomer to achieve a come from behind victory So on March 16 which is his er the eve of his birthday ah er I was invited ah to attend a banquet Then when I arrived on the scene I saw inside er Li Huan er former Premier Li Huan of the Executive Yuan former President Chiu Chuang-huan of the Examination Yuan and former President Wang Tso-yung of the Control Yuan and also Wang Jin-pyng ha and Mr Wu Don-yih former Kaohsiung Mayor and other legislators totaling er six or seven people as well as former Legislator Chu Kao-cheng That that was prior to Wang Jin-pyng's announcement about his election bid So obviously his intention er was to mobilize forces and create a charged atmosphere for the election Let's watch a video clip to check out the background of the two candidates in the Wang-Ma competition The KMT decided at the Central Standing Committee meeting on the 16th to postpone the Party chairmanship election The date of election was postponed from May 28 to July 16 This is expected to help Wang Jin-pyng who is better at mobilizing the grassroots and to impact adversely on Ma Ying-jeou If things go forward both the postponement of the Party chairmanship election and the issue of paying Party membership dues may lead the public to make a connection to the possibility of raising Party membership which will tarnish the image of our Party Actually whether we as individuals win or lose is really not that important but the KMT cannot lose With respect to whether Party members can vote only when they have paid membership dues Lien Chan thinks this is a critical matter and cannot be decided in a rush So it has been decided that it will be discussed again in a week Only when there is growth there is hope Only when there is growth there is hope On the other hand Vice Chairman Wang Jin-pyng officially announced his bid for the Party chairmanship on the 17th his 64th birthday Jin-pyng would like to make a serious announcement to all that Jin-pyng has decided to participate in this KMT chairmanship election At this time I'll try to win the election of the Party chairmanship whose mission is to unite the entire Party and £¨£¨£©£© to seek popular support win back political power and take back the presidency After Wang Jin-pyng announced his bid for the Party chairmanship £¨£¨it was all set£©£© that there will be two strong candidates competing in the election Recently both have frequently been meeting Party members trying to win their support Now that we have finished watching this background video everybody should have more or less some um idea So now it is a real competition between Wang and Ma Er these two people strangely these two are actually we can almost say totally different persons That Wang Jin-pyng graduated from the department of mathematics of National Taiwan Normal University and has spent his entire career in the legislature the Legislative Yuan So Wang Jin-pyng is very good at personal relationships You see so you see he in my opinion perhaps the KMT Central Standing Committee KMT think tanks and KMT officials oh even Lien Chan may be inclined toward Wang Jin-pyng But Ma Ying-jeou er he has popularity He can count on his charisma his image oh so many um voters like him So the two actually to the KMT actually are both indispensable If it was only Wang Jin-pyng without Ma Ying-jeou I think Wang Jin-pyng oh would also have a hard election oh a hard time in the general election But if it was only Ma Ying-jeou without Wang Jin-pyng ah it wouldn't be an easy election either ah because nowadays elections are won or lost by just a few tens of thousands of votes If you take away Wang Jin-pyng and his constituency then the election surely wouldn't be easy for Ma Ying-jeou either So that is to say er Wang Jin-pyng he has the so-called grassroots base er he is popular He's got the central and southern areas and is a native Taiwanese Then Ma Ying-jeou has a good image oh and the support of all intellectual voters So this competition for the KMT chairmanship is the first in history In the past it was always a one-person election Er nobody would probably dare to compete with whoever was the candidate for um the Party chairmanship oh And also in the past basically it was not a direct election by Party members either This time it is a direct election by Party members Um not to mention the KMT even the DPP claiming to be democratic had a one-person election for the Party chairmanship recently When have we had a multi-person election You can take a look at Hsieh Chang-ting's election back then Right After Hsieh Chang-ting became the Party chairman Chen Shui-bian said I want to do it combining the Party with the government So Hsieh Chang-ting resigned and Chen Shui-bian took over Chen Shui-bian did it for a while then he didn't want to do it saying I don't want to do it anymore Then he appointed Su Tseng-chang You come do it Then Su Tseng-chang came on to take over Other DPP members originally wanted to vote for someone like Lin Chueng-mo but when they heard Su Tseng-chang was on the way they quickly backed off So it has always been a one-person election This time the KMT has both Wang Jin-pyng and Ma Ying-jeou It's actually a good thing oh That's why recently newspapers wow have tons of articles covering this If it were a one-person election if there were only one person running for the election today the media would not even bother paying any attention to it We wouldn't spend our time on this discussion either What would be the point of wasting so much time Oh so from now until the KMT Party chairmanship election um July 16 I think during this period of time all the media will surely make a big story of this two-person election just like the presidential primary elections in the United States going from state to state over an entire year gaining free publicity However while from the perspective of publicity and competition it is a good thing yet if ha it ended up splitting the KMT it would be a tragedy oh If the KMT actually my suggestion is that the two should have an agreement If Wang Jin-pyng is elected Party chairman then Ma Ying-jeou should be the first vice chairman If Ma Ying-jeou is elected chairman Wang Jin-pyng should be the first vice chairman When the general election is held in 2008 if Ma Ying-jeou is the candidate then Wang Jin-pyng should be his running mate If Wang Jin-pyng is the candidate then Ma Ying-jeou should be his running mate If that were the case I think it would be a more harmonious situation ha Now Ma Ying-jeou said he did not expect it Ma Ying-jeou called out four words it was totally unexpected That means Ma Ying-jeou truly didn't expect say when Wang Jin-pyng came out there would be so much momentum Wang Jin-pyng preferred to work under the radar Ma Ying-jeou of course originally thought er Ma Ying-jeou spoke very graciously last Friday saying competition was welcome ah competition was welcome The reason Ma Ying-jeou welcomed competition was probably because he thought if Wang Jin-pyng came out surely nobody would give him any fanfare As it turned out unexpectedly Wang Jin-pyng came out quite forcefully That's why Ma Ying-jeou looks rather moody this week However according to several polls Ma Ying-jeou would still win if the election was held tomorrow Ma Ying-jeou can probably get more than 50% of support whether from inside or outside the Party while Wang Jin-pyng so far only has somewhere between 20% to 25% So Wang Jin-pyng still lags far behind Ma Ying-jeou So I also think in the end Ma Ying-jeou has a greater chance of winning ah because it is an election by Party members after all and the number of Party members is quite large and Ma Ying-jeou has a better image But er Ma Ying-jeou surely can also learn from this competition I think it is a good thing for Ma Ying-jeou to learn a few things That is to say oftentimes you can't rely on charisma and popularity alone It is also pretty important to be on good terms with people Even if you yourself oh have a good image you cannot then underestimate oh your um comrades and your friends in the Party for instance James Soong I think Ma Ying-jeou um offended James Soong recently James Soong recently made quite a few remarks in a very serious tone you know Actually there was no need for Ma Ying-jeou to offend James Soong Even if Ma Ying-jeou wants to run for the election he can also be reasonable to James Soong Oh you have now driven James Soong to Chen Shui-bian James Soong felt since there was no future for me with you I'd just um um make up with Chen Shui-bian He was actually driven to it It shouldn't have been necessary It was the same with Wang Jin-pyng If there had been better communication beforehand between Ma Ying-jeou and Wang Jin-pyng perhaps oh Wang Jin-pyng wouldn't necessarily have come out for the election It's like saying I don't care about you it makes no difference to me either with or without you Anyway I am super popular and I've got lots of votes Then other people may have to fight it out with you for their own existence and growth So if Ma Ying-jeou gets such experience from this election and learns oh that it is still very important to be on good terms with people to have so-called favorable climate geography and relationships then it will help him in the general election in 2008 If he still fails to understand this and causes the KMT to be divided then the KMT may be denounced as the governor of a mainland province because Wang Jin-pyng is a native Taiwanese in the south ah or the Party of old folks because the majority of people who pay membership dues are old folks There will surely need to be an explanation to the general public At the meeting of the Central Standing Committee last week that is last Wednesday two critical matters were passed neither of which was good for Ma Ying-jeou One was to postpone the Party chairmanship election originally scheduled for May 24 to July 16 Based on my observation Ma Ying-jeou would win the election if it was held tomorrow However a delay of two to three months will allow Wang Jin-pyng to gain strength because he counts on grassroots campaigning which means a longer delay of course will benefit Wang Jin-pyng Then why did the KMT make such decision Why did the Central Standing Committee why did £¨£¨the think tank£©£© why did Party Chairman Lien Chan all want to postpone the date Oh you should think about it why Oh then the second is the Party membership dues Of 108 or 109 million KMT members 380000 pay their membership dues Among those paying members half are over 65 years of age because according to KMT rules those aged between 65 to 75 need only to pay half of the membership dues and those over 75 years of age have free membership So the remaining 700000 Party members do not pay membership dues Oh it is a common belief that those non-dues paying Party members are less likely to be mainlanders Therefore Ma Ying-jeou's advantage may not necessarily be so great But I think KMT members generally speaking have better qualifications and higher levels of education So even among those 700000 non-dues paying members I don't think Ma Ying-jeou would get a low percentage of votes Oh I don't think Ma Ying-jeou will get a low percentage only that he may not get a support rating as high as from the 300000 plus dues-paying Party members All right that's why the China Times headline is entitled Under attack from all directions Ma Ying-jeou faces unprecedented crisis You see Ma Ying-jeou he said it was totally unexpected How could he suddenly have voices of opposition against him from within the Party Almost everybody within the Party opposed him and the Central Standing Committee also opposed him What was going on Oh so it's said the two camps came to a fierce fight at the Central Standing Committee Then there has also been a recent rumor oh saying um James Soong became extremely disappointed in Ma Ying-jeou after March 20 last year that is after the general election James Soong said um this Ma Ying-jeou is too narrow-minded for tolerance and too cowardly for competition oh blah blah blah So we can see to Lien and Soong the election the March 20 election the general election was extremely important but Ma Ying-jeou at that time obviously wanted Lien Chan to concede To Lien Chan this is the pain in his heart that he can never forget So anyway an eye for a tooth an eye for an eye a tooth for a tooth Elections are just like that Things tracing back to your ancestors even whether you cheated on a test as a child will all be dug out So when now is the time for the Party chairmanship election all these things just come out Can Ma Ying-jeou survive Oh if he can survive it will represent a metamorphosis for Ma Ying-jeou ah like a phoenix rising from flames Then he will have a much better chance of winning in 2008 If Ma Ying-jeou is incapable of dealing with these issues then it will be very difficult for him to win the election in 2008 We'll be back after a short break This is Zhao Shaokang welcome you back to the studio of Newshack Now we have Ms Yin Naijin as our honorable guest at the studio Yin Naijin has been er our guest on this program several times Um she is an important um personnel manager for several literary um newspapers and TV media in Taiwan And now she also hosts two very popular hot hot TV programs in Taiwan Welcome here Naijin How on earth could Wang Jin-pyng compete with Ma Ying-jeou But unexpectedly when Wang Jin-pyng came out it turned out he had more momentum than anyone anticipated Um Oh so Ma Ying-jeou has become a little bit nervous lately Ah what do you think will be the final outcome of the competition But I think this um er competition will be a very good crash course for Ma Ying-jeou It may have never occurred to Ma Ying-jeou say that he could be so unpopular In other words his actually his formality and style I think all have something to do with his personality For instance he is a person obsessed with cleanness Oh on many things er interpersonal relations or things like making promises to others he is obsessed with cleanness For instance like this time I basically did not have the feeling that Wang Jin-pyng at the very beginning was completely serious about running for election or sticking around till the end Right absolutely Also another point is that to others actually there are quite a few people who had wanted to help Ma Ying-jeou but eventually they all shifted to the side of Wang Jin-pyng But to Ma Ying-jeou first Ma Ying-jeou was already surrounded by some people oh leaving no room for you people in the first place Um I don't know how to say this to Ma Ying-jeou nor can I be sure whether I will be able to get the positions I ask for So the situation was very obvious during the Bian-Chan elections Then another important thing I feel is that is to say actually to Ma Ying-jeou he must understand that the election within the KMT is very much the same as um the general election the general election outside Although you still need to rely on Party affiliations and experts to campaign for the general elections outside your personal image oh by launching a publicity war and image war you can still win over many voters But for the election within the KMT ah you first must find a way to get people to vote Oh these people who usually don't even pay membership dues how can you drag them out one by one from their homes to vote He will have to rely on the organization system As for this part Wang Jin-pyng is much better positioned But these are all some very good experiences for Ma Ying-jeou oh Um Perhaps he won't win but he will try not to lose too miserably Right Oh it's like he is saying I Wang Jin-pyng might beat you Ma Ying-jeou I think actually to both Wang Jin-pyng and Ma Ying-jeou they both know very well they actually do not have the capital to make a split oh Right um I hear that each time Ma Ma Ying-jeou gave a speech um female reporters were smitten all of them They didn't even know how to speak ill of him But when he speaks usually when Ma Ying-jeou is about to get on the stage everybody chants Ma Ying-jeou Ma Ying-jeou Ma Ying-jeou So by the time he speaks everybody has calmed down Also when Ma Ying-jeou leaves the stage Ma Ying-jeou Ma Ying-jeou Ma Ying-jeou His um his personal charisma surpasses his speech ah Um But just a single remark by Hsieh Chang-ting brought the market down That's why people say it's as if we are scaring ourselves So here just one remark from Premier Hsieh Taiwan stocks go on a slide He of course felt somewhat embarrassed OK now the problem is March 26 There are two demonstration marches planned already One is er what took place just today That was the March 19 um KMT demonstration march A mass demonstration march ah The mass demonstration march um is for er the investigation of the two shootings at Chen Shui-bian Everybody knows um Then the second is that is March 26 Then Su Tseng-chang said Chen Shui-bian would march in the streets Su Tseng-chang repeatedly said he would but also said it may depend on circumstances oh Then Chen Shui-bian should come out himself oh but he wants a million people to come out Of course this is strange Chen Shui-bian tells everybody to come out but when asked whether you Chen Shui-bian will come out or not I will see how things go Whether Chen Shui-bian should come out or not If Chen Shui-bian does not come out people will call him a coward Um Um James Soong would surely be very much embarrassed I think one needs to look at the power relationship among these people Su Tseng-chang Chen Shui-bian Hsieh Chang-ting and Lu Hsiu-lien As a matter of fact when this Su Tseng-chang announced for the first time among the DPP er at the DPP Central Committee that half a million people would come I I had the feeling I think Chen Shui-bian at that moment did not know that Su Tseng-chang would put him on the spot so he said that he would come oh However based on current sentiments this Su Tseng-chang he has now actually already lost this um battle in 2008 to Hsieh Chang-ting in terms of his position within the Party So to Su Tseng-chang it is imperative that the anti-secession law be opposed Right but so far Hsieh Chang-ting's stance is really somewhat um he started to make this comparison I think he is smarter He is observing that is to say whether Chen Shui-bian will march in the streets in the end If Chen Shui-bian will march in the streets I can follow him ah Then another interesting one is Lu Hsiu-lien Shouting out from afar So to a certain degree actually Lu Hsiu-lien and Hsieh Chang-ting and his group have already formed a united front ah The chief enemy they want to deal with and attack first is Su Tseng-chang oh He on this issue I think Su Tseng-chang he is also testing some of his own capacities Will you Chen Shui-bian come and what stance will you take Now Chen Shui-bian is faced with some tough issues First Lee Teng-hui spoke ah Then from Chen Shui-bian's point of view if I don't march in the streets what I am facing is not only the challenge coming from pro-independence people I will have to face other people within the Party who will regard me as say ah I am not a real leader standing in front of the masses But he is faced as well with pressure coming from the United States ah The NPC passed the anti-secession law by a vote on the 14th which has attracted great attention in Taiwanese society The DPP will launch a massive demonstration march by Taiwanese citizens on the 26th to make their plea DPP Chairman Su Tseng-chang is lobbying everywhere for support Among them Lee Teng-hui's group and UFI Chairman Ng Chiao-tong all promised to participate However the two also said Chen Shui-bian did not need to participate in the demonstration march As for Premier Hsieh Chang-ting of the Executive Yuan it is not clear yet whether he will be present Personally I've got the impulse to participate but now since I am premier of the Executive Yuan and a representative of the government I will have to consider from a different perspective If this is a spontaneous act by the people the entire world will recognize it In addition Taiwan's Interior Minister Su Jia-chyuan has already made it clear that he will participate in this demonstration march on the 26th Ah this is really interesting So it is indeed absurd that Chen Shui-bian should be saying I don't know now Let's again take a quick look at a background video Two days after the NPC passed the anti-secession law that is the 16th Chen Shui-bian took the occasion while meeting with foreign guests to make his first response In this talk Chen Shui-bian did not mention any specific cross-Strait policy It was learned that prior to the large demonstration march on March 26 Taiwan authorities will not make any specific move regarding the direction of policy on cross-Strait exchange and the application of strategy On the other hand Taiwan's Premier Hsieh Chang-ting of the Executive Yuan in response to inquiries said on the 15th at the Legislative Yuan that the anti-secession law has caused some changes in the cross-Strait status quo The impact of this talk resulted in the same-day double drop of the stock exchange and foreign exchange markets in Taipei Hsieh Chang-ting pledged four no changes including no change in the determination to safeguard peace and stability on the Taiwan Strait and no change in the determination to create new measures for peace and security in Taiwan Hsieh Chang-ting also claimed that although the anti-secession law had indeed caused fluctuations in the Taipei stock market it was within reasonable limits I think actually as far as Chen Shui-bian is concerned currently he is finding it slightly difficult to back down because actually for March 26 a very important issue is what you are going to do after March 26 Do you still want to talk about the cargo charter flights oh still want to talk about the cross-Strait charter flights for um Qingming Festival Then do you still want to carry out that Bian-Soong 10-point agreement of yours after all I think this is actually a bigger challenge for him But then I think up till now to be honest Chen Shui-bian may be still waiting for the signal of big brother USA and finding out how Rice is doing in her talks with China If both parties reach a certain level of taciturn agreement or they have got the United States has got what they want they may hope you Taipei will be more obedient This is Zhao Shaokang Welcome back to the studio of Newshack The honorable guest in our studio now is Ms Yin Naijin ha Hello Qiang Qiang San Ren Xing We are Mr Xu Li Mochou and Dou Wentao I am not playing the role of Li Mochou today Aiya she said that she would would return to Yan Dang Mountain didn't she Xiang Mountain she is now on Xiang Mountain Why did you say that it was like hell I cannot say that it was like hell but it was uh because it was a long process and a really tough one It was just just harder than I had expected so what you played was unmelodic but you could not stop or go anywhere See when I went to Africa a Kenyan said that the pace of their life is slow If you asked this person to do something he could drive you nuts but he still would not hurry No worry no worry The urgency drives you crazy The Slow Movement seems to be initiated by a German in the beginning All of a sudden he questioned whether the pace of our life was too fast Yes There is nothing we can do about this too fast issue Let's say two television stations competed with each other and if you said that you would slow down if you said that you would slow down then you would be finished Thus he wanted to launch a movement to see whether we could urge the United the United Nations together to all slow down to slow down and not to drive us to depression Don't you know His equation is like this A person's sense of happiness equals your ability divided by your goal Ability divided by goal equals sense of happiness Uh Do you agree If I have raised my ability the figure I get from the division which is my happiness will be increased or at least if you feel unhappy you will become happy again However there is one more way indeed It is easy It is for you decrease the denominator at the bottom to lower your goal a little bit That's right Uh Then you will also be happy Yes Am I right In other words these are two different methods The third one is what I frequently used I do not raise my ability but I am unwilling to lower my goal either so in the end my sense of happiness this sense is decreased Then my brain keeps telling me that I cannot do this and I feel pressured and depressed I always feel that I have not fulfilled my duties in the world and have not done well If we continue to go down this way then do you think that we will suffer True Thus uh Do you get this this equation In the past I in the past just like everyone else I tried hard to expand my ability and then continuously raising my goal That's right My sense of happiness was still the same It was because you felt that you were getting more powerful and your goal was becoming higher That gave you a sense of happiness Therefore your frustration was growing Thus I have learned one thing which is to enjoy small happiness That is when your sense of happiness decreases you should enjoy the small happiness Ai see um many actors talked about this issue while we chatted What they said was aiya um depression or that they always wanted to do a better job to find ways to make a breakthrough in their acting skills and what they could could do However I told them later that it was worth congratulating Why did I congratulate them It meant that they dedicated themselves to their jobs and always wanted to improve Later an actress one of his friends the girl said a line that comforted him and me as well while I watched the movie It was because she the girl's line was that everything did not have to be not could not be perfect it was okay as long as it was as good as possible There is no such standard There is no standard of perfection Which is those around you um for instance what people you respected have achieved or what people you hated have done Basically your standard of perfection is to choose between the two Uh You cannot be worse than or lose to the person you hated You set this goal a long time ago Moreover you think that someone you respected has achieved um something and you feel that you should be like him or something If you all buy smaller houses then I do not have to carry so many debts Moreover why do so many people advocate this Slow Movement It is because er a complex problem arises when one rushes and haste makes waste See I feel this way toward the media now When I was in Malaysia last time I told someone who was in the media business that now um for example television stations have developed to such an extent that they can broadcast something that is happening live synchronous live broadcast Meanwhile um news news commentators will comment simultaneously However you have to consider that if reporting speed has all changed to such a high-speed competition then the commentator has to absorb a large amount of information in a flash because he has to be responsible for what he said Uh Do you agree Now my big worry is that I cannot bear to look back when I retire in the future How come I can admit to you that I had not seriously researched many things that I said Misleading the younger generation It is because our show runs every day I host six shows a week and have to discuss numerous seventy eighty ninety social problems I have to say that from your scholar's point of view I should research for a week for each social problem I have to read a lot before I dare to say something here Sometimes some viewers say that I don't express my opinions that I am smooth How can I say something irresponsible If you because you will always find out that aiya the statement that I made in last month's show now that I have come across some new information and I know that I had said something wrong said something wrong The probability of the media making a mistake is greater and greater because you you I give you No not because of this The reason I correct my mistakes I am not talking about myself alone The day when Michael Jackson went to court Zhou Yingqi asked me to go with him to do a live broadcast Afterwards he broadcast live there and asked me to comment right away only then did I find out how na¡õve I was I was thinking he just walked out how could you know so many things about Michael Jackson How could you make so many comments in an instant I really admire many professional broadcasters such as Dou Wentao Why It is because the workload is too heavy You cannot guarantee what you said is true Even though what we said now has evidence to support it however you will find out from today's media that you are wrong to base your report on this magazine However you have said it and once you do you have transmitted wrong information However how would you know You have a show every day how can you investigate So we say so we say see people generally claim that the media likes to talk about public trust You should believe that my my word is right Why would I precisely tell people on the show all the time not to believe what I said is always right always true It is really too shallow Thus there is nothing I can do In fact our show is to accompany people during their mealtime Ah It appears to be talking about our show but in fact it does not only involve our show I feel that after the rapid development of society and the high-speed competition of all professions you have to consider the possibility that other qualities cannot but to lose gradually See I have I have I watched an American movie producer a very well known movie producer who was invited to China spoke the other day He probably said this because of the one who called Dan no no the American news anchor who resigned recently Dan Rather Ai Dan Rather resigned because he had reported something wrong because he had quoted some wrong information He had to resign in the end I believe his thoughts came from this He said that no deliberation is too much for a journalist For instance sometimes when you say something very simple it is very simple to detest evil and act as a spokesman of the people However you should be accountable for your facts Am I right It is very easy to speak for the common people However how can you know that there are very complicated reasons within a matter that happens A journalist cannot act rashly On the surface I look at this report this incident aiya good this is what the common people love to hear What I said was whether you would be accountable for what you said However Wentao I think we should also speak for ourselves sometimes In other words in the United States someone resigns for because he quoted the wrong source You have to know that in the United States television production is very compared to our television production I have to say that they are extremely extremely scrupulous Their entire budget Their entire market is much bigger than ours The think tank behind David Letterman is made up of 50 people That's right Moreover when Dan Rather said er er when the news anchor said something wrong he has to be penalized but if Letterman makes a mistake then it is fine Yes Us He has 50 people to write his script alone You have the mass Remember a statement Katharine Hepburn made It does not have to be perfect but the best possible No no Now I have realized a truth I should believe that the mass is behind me Continue to um say something wrong and then keep correcting the mistakes Fortunately we have um BBS If you say something wrong people will tell you tell you So I still question whether the American movie producer has has made a sarcastic remark He said Look what has the news of the best and the most authoritative media in the world turned into It has reduced to a process of reporting wrong news every day and correcting it the next day Think about it Such is the case If it is wrong then the next day you will say that what was said the day before was not the case However compared to not making a correction even when something is reported wrong it is still progress Yes it is better for us to grow with our audience Am I right The audience is God They make a ruling on everything Aiya We'd better go to commercial Qiang Qiang San Ren Xing will see you after the commercials Ah happiness Where is happiness Sense of happiness ai Mr Xu The goal should be lower Am I right These are all their goals Then they compare with people around them they are all Am I right Everybody is speeding Cars are a a craze Nobody pays attention to the energy crisis Right Everybody is trying to own cars and houses Uh We know that during these years many levels of property prices have risen particularly around areas in Shanghai Nanjing Hangzhou Am I right Beijing as well also No matter which way they tried it still would not come down It seems Thus they are now deliberating upon another one which is I I I cannot remember the specifics However its general idea is that if you Guangmei purchase a house for 500000 It is worth 1 million today and you sell the house to Dou Wentao Originally you can earn 500000 After deducting a small amount of interest you can probably earn 400000 Now it seems that you have to pay tax for 20 to 60 percent of your 500000 That is to say it is still still under deliberation The more expensive it is the more one pays That means supposedly you can in fact keep only 100000 to 200000 from the 500000 that you earned Well from what I hear this seems to be a 'kill the rich and give to the poor' principle At least try However some experts had studied it later This policy has not been formally written It will be gradually released People can pay attention to these issues Nevertheless some people also analyzed this by saying that in fact the real estate undertaking should originally be paid for by the developers Thus in the end it benefits the developers and not the house buyers Therefore in this case isn't it harm the deficiency to benefit the surplus as well Thus after I saw the news I I It seems that many people are debating about this issue However according to my knowledge a new regulation has come out recently in regards to the real estate in Shanghai It is very similar to the one you said which is if I buy this house for 500000 within a year if it is less than a year if I resell it within a year after the issuance of my property certificate er I have to pay 5 percent of my total profits but only 5 percent Ah Right This is to put a check on the speculative atmosphere of the speculators In fact this thing is to curb the speculative atmosphere I think this is excellent It is because you have to consider who will suffer if you continue to increase the interest and tax It is the common people who suffer Only the sense of happiness of the common people will be reduced It is because a house that he bought 10 years ago may carry a 20-year mortgage In the beginning he only had to make a small loan payment and now the loan has increased Whom can he go ask Uh uh My friends in Shanghai generally complain about not being able to afford afford an ordinary house even though they have worked hard all their life Nonetheless the property prices keep on going up I have a a Taiwanese friend what is that thing called What is the name of the building The one beside the Oriental Pearl Tower the really tall one Jingmao I then called him on the phone we talked on the phone a while ago I dumped cold water on him and asked him why he was so happy Aren't people talking about the crisis in the Taiwan Straits Aren't people saying that they will will attack the Oriental Pearl Tower If it falls then isn't it going to fall on top of your building He was not worried at all Hai Not a problem Taiwanese are very optimistic about the situation on the two sides of the Straits Aiya I was just saying it How could it be possible It is impossible for Taiwan Peninsula to reach such a level The Oriental Pearl Tower is so small No matter how Taiwan goes around it it still will not be able to get it However this time I heard when we talked on the phone he said that he was really worried Aiya this policy was more dangerous than the missile He he feels that it is cheaper than the area around 101 much less expensive Therefore he feels that but judging from the section of the area Shanghai like the best areas in China is indeed as good as the best areas in Taipei Thus he thinks that it is worth investing and things like that Thus now in the final analysis what I I think is that it boils down to you set your goal too high you know that those you know that many people are now with negative assets May people in Hong Kong are with negative assets and they all take it out on Tung Chee-hua In fact the matter of so-called 'negative assets' is that your goal is too high and your ability cannot catch up with it Am I right At first the money that you had would be perfectly fine if you bought a house and paid for half of it then you would be very stable In fact this is the one at the bottom of the equation The term at the bottom is too big and the one on top is too small After the division what sense of happiness will it be All of that will be worries Mr Xu this equation is interesting I have to copy it down at my bedside Qiang Qiang San Ren Xing will see you after the commercials Good Guangmei the powerless common people want you to show some concern over them Right It should be As for me in fact I have a small house in Shanghai If you ask whether its value has gone up Yes it has Its value has gone up 20 to 30 percent on the book on the book Will you be able to sell it if you want to It's hard to say However the entire speculative atmosphere in Shanghai has already caused the so-called 'living standard' to rise to an extremely extremely high level People who suffer are those who really live there People who really need to buy a house will suffer However I I have to go back to what I said earlier Enjoy your small happiness It is because Chinese people are indeed very strange It is extremely important for them to have a house If you do not own a house in your whole life you are a representative of failure You are a loser And the most important thing is one of our very practical points of view I know that Wentao does not like figures however in recent days in order to uh raise my sense of happiness I decided to lower my goal In reality I I said it in the beginning I indeed own some so-called 'properties' What kind of properties The house I mortgaged it is not called my um that is the house of the Bank of China It is not my house Even if your hair all turns grey and your blood pressure rises what do you own Uh On the mainland about 60 to 70 percent of the people have their own houses in name However However only 40 percent of the Japanese have houses The United States is lower and Europe is even lower That means the more developed a country is the lower the ratio of people owning houses instead Not that they don't want it They can't afford it I think we should put it this way Europeans are unwilling to own houses because if you do it becomes your burden Right right right Thus I I rent from people I am unhappy you come next door is prettier next door is less expensive