Hung Hsiu-chu elected KMT Chairwoman

Hung Hsiu-chu, the KMT’s presidential nominee until October 2015 (when she was ditched and replaced by Eric Chu), has been elected KMT chairwoman today. She replaces Eric Chu who resigned as KMT chairman in January, after suffering a heavy defeat as the KMT’s presidential candidate. According to this website, turnout was low.

A new leader will be elected in July 2017, a year and four months from now.

Will she stand for re-election then? And would she be re-elected?

Not necessarily. She hasn’t been quite the diplomat during her political career so far, and a successful KMT chairperson would need great skills to integrate the different tempers and political directions within the KMT.

Her position concerning relations with China were a factor in bringing her down as the KMT’s presidential nominee – she was deemed to close to Beijing. To become a long-term KMT chairperson, the least she would need to do is to move away from her “unification” position.

You may actually be quite “Chinese”, and still become Taiwan’s president. In a post for a University of Nottingham blog, Michael Cole describes how seemingly “pro-unification” parties may be vulnerable to movements that consider themselves Chinese on the one hand, but by no means “pro-Beijing”.

In May, Tsai Ing-wen will be sworn in as President of the Republic of China on Taiwan. And the main opposition leader will be Hung Hsiu-chu. Sounds like a fascinating constellation.

Maritime Powers – Argentina and Indonesia arrest Chinese Fishing Crews

1. China, Taiwan vs. Indonesia

Chinese fishing trawlers have been involved in two rather strongly publicized disputes this month.

One of the two disputes occurred on March 19 local time, in a location called a traditional Chinese fishing ground by the Chinese embassy in Jakarta. This was, reportedly, a bit south of the South China Sea, and well inside Indonesia’s exclusive economic zone, according to Susi Pudjiastuti, Indonesian minister of fisheries and maritime affairs (and, according to this announcement on “Facebook”, previously an entrepreneur in the seafood distribution and fisheries industry). The Indonesian coastguard reportedly arrested eight fishermen from a Chinese fishing ship before a Chinese coast guard ship intervened and rammed the fishing ship back into the South China Sea, according to the English-language Jakarta Globe. Beijing has since demanded the release of the eight fishermen, but Indonesia appears determined to prosecute them.

Chinese foreign-ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying, just as the Chinese embassy in Jakarta, referred to the incident location as “traditional Chinese fishing grounds”. She also said that Natuna Islands belong to Indonesia, and there is no objection from China on that. The Jakarta Globa quoted Pudjiastuti as saying that the incident occurred occurred just 4.34 kilometers off Indonesia’s Natuna islands, adding her conclusion that this was inside Indonesia’s exclusive economic zone. On another press conference two days later, Hua answered even more questions concerning the incident.

Two days (local time) after the arrests, two Taiwanese fishing boats were fired at by what they believed to be an official Indonesian vessel while in the Strait of Malacca, according to the English-language Taipei Times. According to the report, a spokesman for the Indonesian Navy Headquarters said that there had been no report by the Indonesian coast guard or navy vessels of chasing Taiwanese fishing boats, but on Thursday, the Straits Times quoted an Indonesian government taskforce against illegal fishing as saying that there had been an incident involving two Taiwanese tuna longliners, and that the shots had been fired in self-defense as the Taiwanese vessels had tried to ram it.

2. China vs. Argentina

On March 14, Argentina’s coast guard sunk a Chinese trawler off the Patagonian coast. The BBC’s Mandarin service reported in an online newsarticle quoted the Argentine coastguard as saying that

The Chinese trawler Luyan Yuanyu 010 was detected while conducting illegal activities in the [Argentine] economic exclusive zone on Monday (March 14). When trying to stop [the Chinese trawler], the coast guard was surprised by  a counter-attack and then sank this trawler.

来自中国的拖网渔船“鲁烟远渔010”周一（14日）被发现在其专属经济水域（EEZ）非法作业，警备队在阻挡时遭反击，随后击沉这艘渔船。

The speaker of the Chinese foreign ministry, Lu Kang, said on March 16 that the trawler in question had been “chased for several hours during its work in Argentine fishing grounds. The statement said nothing about “illegal fishing”, nor about whether or not the trawler had put up a counter attack [or counter attacks].

中国外交部发言人陆慷周三（16日）表示，有关渔船“在阿根廷渔场作业时，被阿海警船追赶数小时”。声明并未提及任何关于“非法捕鱼”的字句，也没有提及中方渔船有否反抗。

Lu Kang emphasized that all 32 crew members had been saved, that the Chinese side had made urgent representations to the Argentine side, that it had demanded an investigation and a report as well as safeguarding the safety and legal rights of the crew, as well as avoiding similar incidents from happening in the future.

陆慷指出，32名船员全部获救，中方已和阿方展开紧急交涉，要求阿根廷彻查详情并向中国报告，保障中国船员的安全及合法权益，避免类似事件再发生。

The official news agency Xinhua said that while a debate about whether one side had trespassed or whether the other had acted out of proportions while enforcing the law, the Chinese embassy in Argentina had reminded the Chinese fishing companies busy in the South Atlantic to pay attention to safety.

The BBC report reproduces the Argentine coast guards account as saying that the Chinese trawler, after its detection, had tried to escape into international waters. In the process, it had rammed the coast guard vessel several times, thus putting not only the Chinese crewmen at risk, but the Argentinians, too. While 28 crew members were apparently saved by another Chinese vessel, four were picked from the water by the Argentine coast guard and will reportedly be prosecuted in Argentina.

According to the online trade publication SeafoodSource.com, the Luyan Yuanyu 010 trawler was operated by Shandong Yantai Marine Fisheries Co., […] a subsidiary of the China National Fisheries Corporation (CNFC), which ultimately, across some shareholding, makes this a state-owned operation.

A possibly similar incident, but in politically-charged waters, occured four and a half years ago, in the vicinity of the Senkaku Islands which are controlled by Japan, and considered Chinese by Beijing and Taipei. Japan released the crew and the captain of the Chinese fishing vessel about a fortnight after his arrest, and China gave the captain, Zhan Qixiong, a hero’s welcome.

During the two weeks of the crisis, China, according to the Economist,

apparently suspended its export of rare-earth minerals, which are vital to making electronics components used in everything from handheld gadgets to cars. On September 23rd China emphatically denied that it is blocking exports. And this may be true: there probably isn’t a formal directive. But in a country where informal rules abound, exporters know that it can pay to withhold shipments—in solidarity with a government that is angry at its neighbour.

The Japanese government in office at the time was largely seen as roundly defeated by Beijing, and efforts have since been made to make Japan less dependent on business with China in general, and on “rare earth minerals” in particular.

Probably, neither Argentina nor China are interested in escalating the conflict, and the Ji Lu Evening Post (齐鲁晚报) from Jinan, Shandong Province, quoted Xinhua as, in turn, quoting the Argentinian foreign minister Susana Malcorra as saying in a televised interview on March 18 that Argentina hoped the sinking of the trawler wouldn’t greatly affect the bilateral relations with Beijing.

The Chinese service of Argentina’s foreign broadcaster Radiodifusión Argentina al Exterior (RAE) quoted Malcorra correspondingly.

____________

Related

» No bit of Humanity, July 22, 2012

____________

Radio Cairo Podcasts

Radio Cairo‘s modulation on shortwave remains bad, but there are currently podcasts available, containing the Egyptian foreign broadcaster’s North American service programs.

This letter,containing a valid QSL card, came in only 72 days after I sent a reception report, early in 2015

Downloads available →there, on Radio 360, a media website. Still no great audio as far as Cairo is concerned, but much better than what most of us are probably used to.

Be prepared for a distorted calibration tone during the first two minutes and 35 seconds on the “Monday, 14.03.2016” recording, which actually contains the Sunday program (March 13, 2016).

Tai De’s Landlust: Guns and Beauties

OK. The lad here is having fun with a lady who (I seem to understand) supports the wrong party and the wrong contender for the Republican presidential nomination (not a democrat, and besides, a right-wing goofball named Ted Cruz.

The good news is: the fun-having lad there respects peoples’ right to bear arms. The bad news is: the lady he’s joking about, named Jamie Gilt, who “jacks up her four-year-old” for some unforgettable drills at an 0.22 was reportedly shot in (or rather through her seat, her back and her complete torso by that four-year-old, from the back seat. No, not with that 0.22, but with a 0.45. So it wasn’t exactly the gun he was meant to operate.

But the irony, you know. The little story has an irresistable moral, or so thinks the Breakfast Club:

The poor child couldn’t make a choice, they say.

Oh well, you know … when I was a four-year-old child, I was forced to eat chemical extra food, because at the time, the industry in Germany who produced it even sold it, and my chemicals-lovin mom bought that.

I think it’s perfectly OK to train a four-year-old on a cute little 0.22, as long as he wears adequate earplugs and knows how to use chopsticks. And when an accident happens, an accident happens. If an aggreessive idiot overtakes me on the country lane with 150 mph and crashes into a deer and ends up in a ditch, I will do my best to get him out of the water and to keep him from drowning.

And that would be that. No funny news, no appearance in the >>Donkey of the Day<<, provided that the police keep their mouths shut about the event, too.

Let’s sum it up: Jamie Gilt looks good, she loves guns, she loves her spoilt brat who – surprise, surprise! – was toying around with even bigger guns than she’d let him have in the back seat, and shit happens.

And she looks good. That’s even worse. A woman who smells like a tea partisan and who’s looking good. And possibly loaded. I mean, people without much money could hardly afford to be in the nutrition supplement trade, a trade that hardly supports you for one week a month. Looks more like a hobby to me.

So people don’t like her. And therefore, they make a big fuss about her.

And I’m making a nice little fuss about her, too, because I find her likeable.

If I was twenty years younger and if she had watched out four years ago, I’d propose to her.

But anyway, Ms Gilt – how about a nice holiday? We can spend ours in Venice, and little Gilt can spend his in Sandhurst. On a shooting range.

Let’s hope it isn’t THAT bad

On the Eve of NPC Session: a Public Opinion Workforce that puts the Party’s Mind at Ease

The “two sessions” season is upon Beijing: both the “Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference” (CPPCC) and the “National People’s Congress” (NPC, China’s “parliament”) are holding plenary sessions this month. The CPPCC opened on Thursday, and the NPC is scheduled to begin tomorrow.

The Herald, a paper from Zimbabwe, published an online article today that reads as if it had come from the CCP central office by fax and had been published without any changes made to it.

China’s press and broadcasting services will be full of opium info smoothies for the people anyway: Xi Jinping made sure of that in February, inspecting the “People’s Daily”, Xinhua newsagency, and CCTV. And not only CCTV – who had actually been visited by Xi -, but China Radio International (CRI) staff, too, did what good journalists or reporters in the land of socialism with Chinese characteristics have to do: they held meetings, summarizing the spirit of the important talk given by Xi on a party conference concerning news and public opinion work, and drafting roadmaps for their own work.

Indeed, propaganda for audiences abroad appear to matter more than during the Hu Jintao era – or maybe it’s simply that propaganda in general matters more than during the pre-Xi decade. Xi, as quoted by a SARFT online article, republished by Xinhua on February 25:

Under the new historical circumstances, it is the duty and obligation of the party’s news and public opinion work to uphold the banner, to keep to a hopeful lookout, to revolve around the center, to serve the general situation,to unite the people, to encourage the morale and to strengthen moral attitude, to strengthen cohesion and integration, to clarify errors, to discern right and wrong, to link China and the world abroad, and to connect the world.

在新的时代条件下，党的新闻舆论工作的职责和使命是：高举旗帜、引领导向，围绕中心、服务大局，团结人民、鼓舞士气，成风化人、凝心聚力，澄清谬误、明辨是非，联接中外、沟通世界。

[…]

The key for competition among the media is the competition of talents, and at the core of media superiority is the superiority of talents. With greater acceleration [than so far], a workforce for news and public opinion work must be trained whose political determination, routine and methodology can put the party’s and the people’s mind at ease.

媒体竞争关键是人才竞争，媒体优势核心是人才优势。要加快培养造就一支政治坚定、业务精湛、作风优良、党和人民放心的新闻舆论工作队伍。

Beautiful tomorrow. What could possibly go wrong under such auspicious arrangements?