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Former DPP chairman leaves party

Influential former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) chairman Lin Yi-hsiung (ªL¸q¶¯) unexpectedly said he would quit the DPP yesterday, citing his disappointment with the current political situation.

The move came as another public blow to a party still reeling from corruption scandals, factional infighting and an embarrassing defeat in last December's local government election.

Lin yesterday morning issued a public letter announcing his abrupt decision. In the letter, Lin said that he feels sorry to see the nation made increasingly unstable by ongoing fighting between political camps.

"Each election deepens cleav-ages between ethnic groups and social classes, and nourishes hatreds more than ever," Lin said. "Since I have no intention of engaging in party affairs and am not willing to campaign for any public office representing any political party, it does not make sense for me to be a member of the DPP."

"Therefore, I am choosing to ... never belong to any particular political party," Lin said.

`Divine leader'

Lin joined the DPP in 1994 and served as the party's chief counselor in 1996. In 1998, Lin was elected as the eighth DPP chairman and served as the party's campaign manager during its successful presidential campaign in 2000.

Lin has been viewed as the "divine leader" of the DPP because of his political faith. But the source of Lin's influence goes back to a notorious incident during the White Terror that came to be know as "the Lin Family Murder." Lin's seven-year-old twin daughters and his elderly mother were stabbed to death by unknown intruders in Lin's house, which was then on an alley off Xinyi Road.

The murders were widely believed to be politically motivated, since Lin had challenged the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) regime and was jailed for his participation in the 1979 Kaohsiung Incident.

Stunned party

In response to Lin's announcement, a shocked and puzzled DPP reacted by saying it would do all it can to persuade Lin to stay in the party.

"Former Chairman Lin's personality, patriotism and contribution to Taiwan's democracy have been recognized and praised by the public and all DPP members. Although the DPP is surprised at his decision, it will do its best to persuade him to stay," DPP secretary-general Lee Yi-yang (§õ¶h¬v) said in a press release.

Acting Chairwoman Annette Lu (§f¨q½¬) yesterday said that she will propose a motion in the DPP's central standing committee meeting, to be held this afternoon, to urge Lin not to leave the party.

During the DPP chairpersonship by-election campaign, Lin several times openly criticized newly-elected DPP chairperson Yu Shyi-kun in letters and remarks. He blamed Yu for setting a bad example in democratic politics by running for the party chairpersonship when he should have taken responsibility for the DPP's thumping defeat in the Dec. 3 local government elections.

Late in the day, Yu issued a statement in reaction to Lin's withdrawal from the party. Yu said that Lin's choice indicates that the DPP has to strive to recapture the party's founding spirit and faith, and that he will seek Lin's advice on leading the DPP and improving the nation's development if he has a chance to visit Lin.

"No one wants former chairman Lin to leave, and we hope he can stay with us to tackle the party's reconstruction," Yu said. "But I understand that Lin is a man with a strong will and he will not change the decisions he makes."

"We will respect his thinking and decision, and will be more united than ever so that we will not fall short of Lin's expectations," Yu added.

part 1 of Nine Commentaries TO cHINA AND CCP

China's growth harms people and rivers, experts say

Commissioned by the Mainland Affairs Council, the group of specialists recently released their research reports after conducting a risk assessment of China's living environment.

Wang Hsin-hsien (¤ý«H½å), an associate professor of National Taipei University, said that the water pollution crisis is the most pressing problem in China.

"It was estimated that about two-thirds of China's major cities are short of clean water and some 700 million, accounting for 53 percent of its population, have been supplied with unsafe drinking water contaminated by waste products," he said.

According to Wang, serious environmental disasters similar to last month's Songhua River in-cident -- in which the river was polluted with benzene and four million people were left without public water services -- are common throughout China.

"River-pollution problems have been on the rise. The polluted areas, in terms of the length of the rivers, increased from 22.1 percent in 1980 to 51.7 percent in the early 21st century -- 10.6 percent of which is seriously polluted," he said.

Wang said that the pollution has turned many Chinese villages into "cancer clusters," even most of the villages located along the Huai River -- the water system on which Beijing has spent the most money to help manage water conservancy.

"In the eight villages along the Hong River, the second-biggest branch of the Huar River, the death rate went up from 9.7 percent in 1994 to 12.2 percent last year. This is much higher than China's average annual death rate of 5 percent," Wang said.

He added that lung cancer, liver cancer and pancreatic cancers were the main causes of death in China.

The overuse of its natural resources which has recently caused large-scale landscape changes in China made it even harder for the government to solve its environmental problems, said Hsu Chih-chia (³\§Ó¹Å), an assistant professor of Ming Chuan University.

"The Chinese government's policy to reclaim land from lakes between the 1950s and the 1980s has caused lake areas to shrink by 243 million square meters, or one-third of original areas," Hsu said.

As a result, flood-prone areas have expanded, the frequency of flood occurrences has increased and the global climate has been changed as well, he said.

While the Chinese government is aware of the consequences of the policy, the new problems lying ahead -- eg, how to relocate the numerous farmers who have been earning their living on the reclaimed land -- hindered the government from moving on this issue, Hsu said.

Meanwhile, with regard to China's air-pollution problem, Chen Chung-cheng (³¯­«¦¨), an associate professor of Yu Da College of Bus-iness, said that China is one of the chief producers of acid rain in the world.

"About one-third of China's territory suffers from acid rain pollution, making China one of the world's three biggest acid-rain areas," Chen said.

As 75 percent of China's energy is produced from coal which emits about 19 million to 20 million tonnes of carbon dioxide annually and accounts for one-seventh of global emissions, China has become the second biggest producer of carbon dioxide leading to global warming, second only to the US, he said.
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US Senate drops Taiwan measures

The measures were the victims of a last-minute rush by Congress to adjourn this year's session before Christmas in the face of a large number of contentious "must-pass" bills still on the House and Senate agendas.

In May, the House had adopted the measures as part of an omnibus bill that authorizes programs for the US armed forces for next year. But the Senate last month rejected the House bill and substituted its own version, which lacked the measures.

Early on Monday, toward the end of an all-night session to rush through legislation, the House agreed to abandon the China and Taiwan provisions, and accepted the Senate bill.

The Senate was scheduled to vote on the bill yesterday.

One scuttled provision would have created a program for top-level military exchanges between Taiwan and the US aimed at improving Taiwan's defenses against China, especially against potential submarine and missile attacks. Such meetings would be held in both Washington and Taipei, and would break the taboo against high-level US military and civilian Pentagon officials visiting Taiwan.

Another provision would have included Taipei on the list of foreign sites that newly promoted senior military officers visit as part of an educational exchange program.

A third measure would have imposed sanctions against foreign companies and countries supplying sensitive arms to China by prohibiting them from selling weapons or military services to the US for five years.

However, the Senate did insert a provision, which the House went along with, that calls on US President George W. Bush to establish a comprehensive plan to deal with China's emerging strength, including its increasing ability to both attack Taiwan and to prevent the US military from coming to Taiwan's aid in case of military action.

That provision is expected to be in the final bill that gets to the president's desk.

Taiwan supporters were not surprised by the House's decision to accept the Senate's version of the bill. The action follows the pattern of recent years, in which the House has inserted pro-Taiwan provisions that the Senate has thrown out.
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