Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

Thoughts on the WikiLeaks furor

J. Michael Cole 寇謐將

Much has been made in the past week of the hundreds of diplomatic cables concerning Taiwan that were among those released by WikiLeaks on Aug. 30, sparking a war of sorts among newspapers and TV stations to see which one can report most on the subject. Media organizations have been busy sifting through the 80 or so pages listing the Taiwan-related diplomatic cables to identify those that have the most news value. And judging by the Web hit counts, those efforts are not unwarranted.

The diplomatic cables’ appeal with the public stems from one characteristic alone: The great majority of them are classified (standard classification levels in Western government agencies are “unclassified,” “classified,” “secret” and “top secret,” with various means of narrowing the distribution list, such as “Top Secret, NATO/ISAF” or, for example, “UMBRA/ORCON for highly sensitive signals intelligence).

Su Jia-chyuan tapped as Tsai’s VP mate

Taipei Times

Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) ended months-long speculation yesterday, announcing DPP Secretary-General Su Jia-chyuan (蘇嘉全) as her running mate for next year’s presidential election.

Su said he is ready to tackle the challenge with his political experience and the “excellent chemistry” he has with Tsai, as the pair had led the DPP’s recovery from a landslide loss in the 2008 presidential election.

The Tsai-Su ticket will challenge President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), who is running for re-election, in what public opinion polls show could be a neck-and-neck race. Ma of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) announced on June 19 that he would pair up with Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) for the January poll.

WIKILEAKS: China using ECFA to push unification

Taipei Times

Following repeated pledges by President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) that there would be no political ramifications to the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) with China, US diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks show that Beijing intends to use deepening economic relations with Taiwan as a means to start political negotiations.

In a cable dated Jan. 6 last year from the US embassy in Beijing, Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS) Vice Secretary-General Ma Xiaoguang (馬曉光), who had just concluded the fourth round of ECFA talks with the Straits Exchange Foundation in Taichung, said during a meeting with the US acting deputy chief of mission, Robert Goldberg, on Dec. 29, 2009, that deepening economic relations would “inevitably lead to more complicated political issues.”

Leaked cables cast doubt on president’s WHA claims

Taipei Times

Leaked US cables cast doubt on statements made by President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration that Taiwan’s presence at the World Health Assembly (WHA) was a result of direct communication with the WHO and that Taiwan’s designation as “Chinese Taipei” was acceptable and did not infringe on Taiwanese sovereignty.

Instead, the cables released by WikiLeaks suggest Beijing’s heavy involvement in the matter, with its insistence that Taiwan’s international participation be based on the “one China” principle.

For three consecutive years since 2009, Taiwan has taken part in the annual WHA meeting as an observer under the name “Chinese Taipei.” While Ma’s government has hailed the participation in the WHA as a major diplomatic achievement, it has been clouded by accusations that it has eroded Taiwan’s sovereignty.

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