Editorials: September 2008 Archives

Sin Chew Jit Poh (Malaysia) | MYsinchew.com
September 24, 2008

About the same time last year, I wrote an article titled "Souring of 'Made In China' Products" in this column to slam the poor safety of Chinese manufactured products. Despite the fact that my article was later greeted with a called-in condemnation from a reader claiming to be from China, I felt I had not done anything wrong. Based on the conscience and moral standarads a news commentator was supposed to have, I still had to pen the article although I knew it might infuriate some people, with the hope that readers would be suitably warned against dangerous products.

In just about a year, the toxic milk scandal happens in China, and has raised alarms in places from Hong Kong, Taiwan, Europe, America, to much of Asia. As the saying goes, a tiny spark could torch the entire forest. The scandal may have already dented the reputation and integrity China has worked so hard to establish during the recent Beijing Olympics.

In China, dangerous food products are by no means a novelty, with plenty of products not meeting the most fundamental hygiene requirements. Having said that, it is an utter shock to the world that toxic melamine has been immorally added to milk powder, almost the only food consumed by infants, putting millions of innocent little lives under serious threat.

Not one, but at least 22 companies have included melamine in their milk powder, while many other brands of dairy products have also been found to contain banned ingredients which could pose serious dangers to our body.

The vast variety of toxic foods, the intensity of their harms to infants, and the extent of influences they have on affected companies, have shocked the Chinese people worldwide. The moral depravation and a serious dearth of business ethics have also put the global Chinese community in deep embarrassment.

Since China introduced the open-door policy in the 1980s, "Made In China" products have found ready markets across the world. Chinese products are found in almost every store in the world, from mass produced poor quality products to luxurious outlets in the West, showing that faith in Chinese made products has been established in oversea markets.

Nonetheless, the foundation of such a great wall of faith is beginning to become shaky with news of flawed products continue to be reported in the media worldwide in recent years. And the most recent toxic milk scandal has dealt a further blow, perhaps a major one, on the already shaky faith in products with "Made In China" tags.

The Malaysian health ministry has also instructed to ban the import of all dairy products from China, including many that adults today loved when they were little kids. Before 22 September, many children were still munching the famous "Big Rabbit" milk candy imported from China.

The health ministry has sent enforcement personnel to confiscate "Big Rabbit" milk candy and other related products while issuing a ban on their imports, after Singapore has found melamine in the candy.

In other words, before this scandal is made public, "Big Rabbit" milk candy and other dairy products from China containing the toxic ingredient melamine have been selling in the local market "safely."

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By Graham Bowley | The New York Times
September 13, 2008

As part of an incentive package to persuade Costa Rica to shift its diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to China last year, China used the muscle of its enormous foreign exchange reserves, agreeing to buy $300 million of Costa Rican bonds, documents released in Costa Rica this week revealed.

The deal shows that China is using its $1.8 trillion in foreign exchange reserves, the world's largest such cache of foreign currency, to further its political goals, despite promises that it would not do so.

As China's economic might has risen in recent years, so has concern about its international reach, particularly in the United States. China is thought to be the largest foreign holder of United States government-backed debt, and bankers estimate that $1 trillion of China's total foreign exchange reserves are in American securities.

The terms of the agreement were meant to be kept secret, according to La Nación, a Costa Rican newspaper, but the government was forced by the constitutional court to publish the memorandum of understanding signed by both countries, as well as other documents. The court considered the information to be in the public's interest.

The memorandum, posted on the Web site of Costa Rica's Foreign Ministry, is dated June 1, 2007, the month that China and Costa Rica established diplomatic relations, and it is co-signed by Yang Jiechi, China's foreign minister.

The memorandum states that in return for Costa Rica's shutting its embassy in Taiwan and expelling Taiwanese diplomats, China agreed to buy $300 million in bonds.

It also agreed to give $130 million in aid to Costa Rica, as well as other incentives, including 20 scholarships each year for Costa Ricans to study in China.

The documents show that the Chinese State Administration of Foreign Exchange, the secretive organization that is the steward of China's foreign exchange reserves, agreed to buy $150 million in state bonds, with a term of 12 years and carrying an interest rate of 2 percent per year, in January of this year and a further $150 million in January 2009.

La Nación reported that the Costa Rican finance minister, Guillermo Zúñiga, had warned this week that the decision to make the details of the agreement public could jeopardize the purchase of the second set of bonds by China. It quoted the Chinese ambassador to Costa Rica, Wang Xiaoyu, as saying that China was now assessing the impact on relations between the countries.

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By Esteban Mata | LA NACION, Costa Rica
13 de septiembre de 2008

El presidente de la República, Óscar Arias Sánchez, reconoció ayer que el Gobierno mintió sobre los detalles que mediaron en el inicio de las relaciones diplomáticas con la República Popular China.

"Aquí no ha habido ninguna mentira. La única mentira es cuando me preguntaron: '¿Es cierto que van a romper con Taiwán?', y yo dije que no", recordó el Presidente en una improvisada conferencia de prensa en su residencia en Rohrmoser

El mandatario se excusó de su falta a la verdad señalando que tanto Costa Rica como China tenían planeado anunciar el inicio de relaciones diplomáticas de forma simultánea.

Asimismo, Arias manifestó: "La inteligencia de Taipéi nos pilló en la mentira".

El Presidente habló del tema menos de dos horas después de haber vuelto al país ayer en la tarde, luego de una gira de dos semanas por Europa.

Arias se refirió a su viaje y después se ocupó de contestar las preguntas de la prensa sobre el secretismo y las mentiras a las que el Gobierno recurrió en el proceso de establecimiento de relaciones con China.

A destiempo. El anuncio sobre el inicio del vínculo diplomático con China -y, en consecuencia, la ruptura con Taiwán- se dio el 6 de junio del 2007, cinco días después de que los cancilleres de ambas naciones firmaron el lazo diplomático en Pekín.

Para llegar a este punto, los cancilleres Bruno Stagno y Yang Jiechi firmaron un "memorando de entendimiento", en el cual China prometió una cooperación económica al país por un monto de $430 millones.

A cambio, China pidió el silencio de Costa Rica sobre las condiciones de la ayuda económica y el cese inmediato de relaciones diplomáticas con Taiwán.

Esta situación fue alertada por el servicio secreto taiwanés en Taipéi días antes de que se hiciera público el anuncio, pero en suelo tico tanto Arias como el canciller Stagno señalaron que eran especulaciones de la prensa.

Más de un año después, Arias reconoce que el servicio secreto de Taipéi "nos pilló que era cierto que íbamos a romper con Taiwán".

En secreto. Esta información se mantuvo en secreto porque, de acuerdo con el propio Arias, así lo pidió el Gobierno chino.

Posteriormente, tras un recurso de amparo presentado por La Nación , un fallo de la Sala Constitucional obligó al Gobierno a revelar los datos.

"Yo estaba esperando ese fallo desde hace mucho tiempo, y lo dije: que ojalá la Sala nos obligara a decir a los costarricenses lo único que faltaba de decirles, que era el tipo de interés, que es del 2%", manifestó Arias.

En el paquete de ayuda económica, en el que se incluyó la compra de bonos de deuda pública costarricense por $300 millones, a un plazo de 12 años y con un interés del 2%, también se contempla una donación de $130 millones en ayuda social y la construcción del nuevo Estadio Nacional.

Ayer, a su vuelta de la gira de dos semanas por Europa, Arias insistió en que no hubo ninguna irregularidad en la venta de bonos de deuda pública a China por $300 millones.

"No hubo intermediarios y nadie se ganó una comisión, porque eso es lo que con toda mala fe quiso insinuar alguna gente", comentó.

La compra de bonos de deuda pública fue uno de los compromisos que adquirió el Gobierno chino para que Costa Rica rompiera una relación de 63 años con Taiwán, y está especificado en el memorando de entendimiento que firmaron los cancilleres de ambos países el 1.° de junio del 2007.

A pesar de eso, el presidente Arias dijo el 26 de octubre de ese año, en entrevista con este medio en un vuelo entre Pekín y Shanghái, que esa transacción era "una posibilidad", aunque sabía que desde el 1.° de junio era un hecho.

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By Andreas Lorenz | Der Spiegel (Germany)
September 03, 2008

Bao Tong, a former member of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, fell out of favor and wound up in prison. Now he lives under house arrest in Beijing, watched by the government because he continues to push for more democratic freedom.

Nowadays, it isn't easy to visit the old man who, less than 20 years ago, was one of China's most influential politicians. His former friends and colleagues now try to prevent him from meeting foreigners. They also try to keep him from talking to Chinese journalists and historians. Not even his friend, philosopher Liu Xiaobo, is permitted to see Bao Tong, who is considered a threat.

An army of agents from the Chinese Ministry of State Security forms a highly visible presence around the 24-story building where Bao Tong lives. They ask for identification, and a uniformed officer records the names of visitors in a notebook. He is polite and asks visitors to take a seat in the lobby. Electronic devices are assembled on his desk, an array of cameras hangs on the wall and a woman in a blue-and-white polo shirt runs the elevator.

A thin man with large glasses and wearing a blue shirt opens the door to apartment six, on the sixth floor. Bao Tong, 76, was a member of the Central Committee. In the 1980s he was in charge of the day-to-day affairs of the Chinese State Council, a position similar to that of the head of the German Chancellery. Bao wrote speeches for party chief Zhao Ziyang, who trusted him. The Communist Party leadership also asked him to think about ways to reform the political system. Bao's basic concept was that the party should withdraw from the business of governing and give up its omnipresent control. If Bao Tong's ideas had been accepted, the totalitarian communist system would have become more liberalized. Unfortunately, they were not.

When students, who favored such ideas, took to the streets of Beijing in the spring of 1989 to stage protests against corruption and demanded more democracy in sit-ins and rallies, Bao and Zhao begged the party's aging leaders not to use the army against the young idealists.

Instead of listening to Bao, patriarch Deng Xiaoping and his associates remembered Mao's famous statement that "political power grows out of the barrel of a gun." The tanks from the People's Liberation Army wheeled up to a position not far from Bao Tong's current apartment, and the soldiers were ordered to shoot into the crowd. Hundreds, if not thousands, of civilians -- most of them students -- died in those first few days of June 1989.

Zhao was held responsible for the "counterrevolution" and lost all his positions. He was placed under house arrest until his death in January 2005.

Bao Tong, accused of "betraying state secrets and spreading counterrevolutionary propaganda," spent seven years in solitary confinement at Qincheng Prison outside Beijing. After his release, he was periodically placed under house arrest and was, of course, under constant surveillance.

But none of this kept him from voicing his opinions. In August 2007, he was one of 42 intellectuals to write an open letter to the Communist Party leadership demanding the observance of "universal human rights" and public scrutiny of funding for the Beijing Olympics.

Today he lives in a bright, orderly apartment, the walls decorated with watercolor paintings and a family photograph with his granddaughter. The old Jingxi Hotel, the meeting place of the Central Committee, to which he once belonged, is around the corner.

"I would like to see the Olympic spirit of fair play spread into Chinese society," Bao says elaborately. China's market economy, he adds, is "not real, because it is still controlled by the government." And while China may call itself a "people's republic," says Bao, it has no "democratic elections of freedom of opinion." Bao believes that if the country turns into a "true republic" and a real "market economy," then "the Olympic Games in our country will not have been for nothing."

But the aging Marxist is not very optimistic. In his view, the country's new middle class, which is satisfied with condominiums, cars and laptops and is unwilling to challenge one-party rule, is "short-sighted." This, says Bao, is because the stability that these people seek and that the Communist Party wishes to guarantee them, cannot be preserved "if the rights of ordinary people are constantly being violated." According to Bao, the police are quick to clamp down as soon as anyone demands his rights. "I too favor stability, but it should be stability on the basis of fairness and the constitution."

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