Taiwan says China used Vanuatu issue to try to sway polls
TAIPEI : Taiwan accused rival China of trying to sway the outcome of Saturday's Taiwanese parliamentary election by pressuring Vanuatu's parliament to dismiss the Pacific nation's pro-Taipei prime minister.
Vanuatu's parliament passed a vote of no confidence early Saturday to oust Prime Minister Serge Vohor, who last month signed a communique establishing diplomatic relations with Taiwan despite his country's existing ties with Beijing.
"We strongly condemn such moves that are obviously aimed at influencing the outcome of Taiwan's parliamentary election," said foreign ministry spokesman Michel Lu.
Lu said he was "not optimistic" about Taiwan-Vanuatu ties with pro-Beijing deputy prime minister Ham Lini appointed as the new head of government.
"Our diplomats will remain in Port Vila until the last minute to communicate with the new government," he said, insisting the communique signed by Vohor should still be valid.
Lu alleged that China had offered 32 million US dollars in aid to Vanuatu to save its ties. "We refused to play the 'cash diplomacy' game," he said.
Vohor's trip here caught both his own government and Beijing off-guard and Port Vila later released a statement revoking the communique.
Vanuatu has become the latest flashpoint in China's long-running diplomatic war with Taiwan, which it sees as part of its territory awaiting reunification.
The two sides have tried to woo diplomatic allies away from each other with generous financial aid packages and business incentives.
Vanuatu has received millions of dollars in foreign aid, particularly from China but also from Taiwan in recent years.
Only 26 countries, excluding Vanuatu, recognize Taipei instead of Beijing as the legal government of all China.
In the parliamentary election a pro-independence coalition led by President Chen Shui-bian is trying to wrest control of the legislature from a coalition which favours warmer ties with China.
Australia to enforce 1,150 mile maritime security zone
Beyond boosting defenses against possible terrorist attacks on its soil and on offshore oil and gas facilities Australia has just appointed itself guardian over Vanuatu, an island who has recently been cozying up to China that looks to fall within the 1,150 miles limit and will be better able to observe and police Nauru an island with which China has recently strengthened bonds. #msg-4802681 #msg-4851593
Since Australia has gradually been changing its diplomatic strategy, shifting the focus from Europe to Asia and China ever since the mid-1990s the change in security zone could be at the behest of the United States.
Thus the 1,150 limit may be both defensive and offensive with varied possible consequences.
-Am
Australia to watch beyond its waters Neighboring New Zealand is worried by plan Associated Press
SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA - Australia plans to enforce a maritime security zone more than 1,100 miles out to sea, far beyond its territorial waters, to boost defenses against possible terrorist attacks on its soil and on offshore oil and gas facilities, the prime minister said Wednesday.
Under the plan — due to begin in March — all vessels that enter within 1,150 miles of Australia's shores will be required to present information to defense and customs authorities about the ship's identity, crew, location, speed and intended port of arrival, Prime Minister John Howard said.
"It's just a way of making doubly sure that you know who wants to come to this country and what their business is," Howard told a radio station in Perth.
The plan angered one of Australia's closest allies and neighbors, New Zealand, as the security zone would stretch into its waters.
New Zealand's Acting Transport Minister Harry Duynhoven said Thursday there had been no consultation or official approach from Australian authorities.
"I think there's been a massive slip-up in communication," Duynhoven said, adding that he was seeking clarification from Australian officials on whether they intend to intercept ships within New Zealand waters.
Australia's territorial waters extend about 230 miles off shore. "The protection of Australia's oil and gas facilities is a key focus of the Australian government's priorities to enhance offshore maritime security," Howard said in a statement.
Legal experts warned that Australia could be breaking international law if it tried to take further action against ships in the new security zone.
Note: Australia's behavior reminds one of unfriendly remarks made by Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer during his visit to Beijing in August, which seriously upset the Taiwanese public. In fact, Australia has gradually been changing its diplomatic strategy, shifting the focus from Europe to Asia ever since the mid-1990s. Apart from building relations with ASEAN, it also takes the improvement of Sino-Australian relations as an index, while China has become one of its major trade partners.
In light of the growing economic and trade relations between the two, as well as Canberra's status as an important US ally in the Asian region, Beijing can restrain the US-Australia alliance by luring over the latter and preventing it from interfering if a war breaks out in the Taiwan Strait.
Moreover, through Australia's influence over the countries of Oceania, China can prevent Taiwan from extending its reach in the region. Beijing purposely appointed Fu Ying -- a former director-general of the Department of Asian Affairs under the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs -- as ambassador to Australia in March. #msg-4769034
-Am
China takes 'peaceful rise' message abroad
Correspondents Report - Sunday, 29 May , 2005 Reporter: Graeme Dobell HAMISH ROBERTSON: China's top legislator, Wu Bangguo, was in Australia last week as part of a 15-day tour through the region, also visiting Malaysia, Singapore and New Zealand.
The visit by the head of the National People's Congress is another example of the visit diplomacy now being used by Beijing in Asia and the Pacific in support of what China calls its peaceful rise.
That rise, of course, is drawing a whole range of responses throughout the Asia Pacific region. Here to look at some of those responses, from Japan, the United States and Australia, is our Foreign Affairs Correspondent Graeme Dobell.
GRAEME DOBELL: In a conference room in Washington the other day, the Australian Foreign Minister and the US Secretary of State nailed another piece to a growing structure – what the academic gurus call "the emerging architecture of East Asia".
Condoleezza Rice and Alexander Downer announced that the tri-lateral security dialogue between the US, Australian and Japan, currently conducted by senior officials, will be lifted to their level.
That is, the creation of a regular, three-way strategic dialogue between the foreign ministers of Japan and Australia and the US Secretary of State, probably held on the sidelines at other, bigger annual gatherings, such as APEC, ASEAN or at the United Nations.
The tri-lateral dialogue puts in the third leg of the triangle between two bi-lateral alliances in East Asia, with Japan and Australia. When the then US Secretary of State Colin Powell first floated the tri-lateral idea in July 2001, Alexander Downer leaped in to say it'd be and informal dialogue, not the creation of an East Asian NATO.
That denial of any NATO style alliance was perhaps the most interesting element in the birth of the Japan-Australia-US dialogue. In diplomacy, denials are interesting currency.
Bearing in mind eye of stone's dictum about governments – believe nothing until it's been officially denied. Or Henry Kissinger's dictum, that when a country denies its intention to do something, it is telling other countries that it does have the capacity to do that thing if it so decides.
The invisible participant in this new bit of regional architecture is of course, China. When it's being polite, China calls the US alliance system in Asia, old thinking. When it's being rude, China talks about Japan and Australia as the north and south claws of the US containment strategy.
While stating the obvious that the rise of China is reshaping our world, Canberra is also becoming quite explicit about its special regard for Japan as, quote, "a strategic partner". Unlike Beijing, vehement in its opposition, Canberra is a staunch supporter of the idea that Japan should have a permanent seat in the UN Security Council.
And the Prime Minister John Howard talks about the US, Japan and Australia as the three great Pacific democracies, with the tri-lateral security dialogue adding a new dimension to the value the three countries place on their alliance relationships.
This adds a distinctly different element to the line unveiled by the Foreign Minister in Beijing last August, when Alexander Downer argued that under the ANZUS alliance with the US, Australia is not bound automatically to enter any hypothetical conflict between China and the US over Taiwan.
The formal alliance obligation, of course, is to consult. And increasingly it seems, that consultation will be more than just Washington-Canberra – but with that third Tokyo league. It's about the rise and rise of China, but it's also about the way that Japan seeks to reinvent itself – to use its own term – as "a normal country".
For much of the last 50 years when Australia was talking about China, often it was really talking about the United States. The biggest example of this – Australia's refusal to give diplomatic recognition to the People's Republic of China from 1949 to 1972. As the official documents of the period make clear, this non-recognition was more about Australia's alliance with the United States than it was about China.
The reverse of this increasingly, is that now when Australia talks to the US or Japan, often it's really talking about China. And with luck, this dynamic will stretch far into the future, the longer the better, with plenty of questions, and we hope, only the vaguest final answers.
HAMISH ROBERTSON: That report by our Foreign Affairs Correspondent Graeme Dobell.
Students quit over anti-US slurs By Ainsley Pavey 26jun05
AMERICAN students are quitting Queensland universities in the face of hate attacks by Australians angry at US President George W. Bush and the war in Iraq.
One university has launched an investigation into claims an American student returned to the US after suffering six months of abuse at a residential college in Brisbane.
American students have told The Sunday Mail the verbal attacks are unbearable and threatening to escalate into physical violence.
Griffith University student Ian Wanner, 19, from Oregon, said abusive Australian students had repeatedly called him a "sepo" – short for septic tank. "It is so disrespectful. It's not exactly the most welcoming atmosphere here," he said.
The Queensland Anti-Discrimination Commission has described the abuse as "horrible" and says it could be classed as racial vilification.
The abuse problem is so prevalent that US students are being given formal briefings before leaving home on how to cope with abusive Australians.
Mr Wanner said even female Australian students were verbally abusive. He warned the problem could "escalate into a very large brawl".
"There has already been confrontations between people," he said.
A female American student from Griffith, who wished to remain unnamed, said she had met some "exceptional" people in Australia – but was leaving this month in shock over her treatment.
She said she was desperate to go home after the slurs, which also spilled over at pubs in central Brisbane.
"They basically picked on me," she said. "At first, I thought it was a joke. Then I just had it out with them and told them I came here to be treated respectfully.
"I have had a few incidents in bars. I had a guy and he heard my accent and he said: 'I hate your president. I hate your country.' "
Another Griffith student has already returned to the US after enduring six months of abuse at the university's residential college in Brisbane.
All the students received counselling before arriving and were warned of the backlash against the US.
They said they were advised not to carry any items that would identify their nationality.
A postgraduate American student at the University of Queensland's St Lucia campus, in Brisbane's west, has also complained to the Australian-American Association of being "persecuted" and subjected to "name-calling" by Australian students.
Another American studying at UQ said attitudes towards him were "scary".
"It's unbelievable," he said. "It's been war. People are scared. It is hard to be an American in Australia at the moment, it is really hard. It varies with different people, but you have to be quiet and try not to draw attention to yourself."
Australian-American Association state president Marylou Badeaux said anti-American sentiment had reached a climax over the war in Iraq.
She said attacks from the general public were mostly sedate – but had grown into open hostility at several Queensland universities. In some cases, US students and academics were being "persecuted" for merely having an American accent.
"They are taking it out on people who may or may not agree but just because they have an American accent, they are being persecuted," she said.
Ms Badeaux said long-time US residents in Australia noticed attitudes towards them fluctuated with US Government policy. "It all depends on what the policies of the US government are at the time," she said.
Queensland Anti-Discrimination deputy commissioner Neroli Holmes said the alleged labelling of students as "sepos" could be classed as racial vilification under anti-discrimination laws.
Racial vilification included public comment which incited hatred, serious contempt or severe ridicule of a person or group based on race or nationality. "It sounds quite horrible," Ms Holmes said.
Griffith University spokeswoman Nicola Collier-Jackson said an investigation had been launched into the American abuse claims.
She said the university had a zero-tolerance policy to harassment.
"We don't accept it at all. We will investigate it. We need to get to the bottom of it," she said.
The Colorado-based Australearn organisation – which teaches "cultural adjustment" to US students before they come to Australia – started warning in January of attitudes towards Americans over Iraq.
Australearn's Australian director, Shelia Houston, said the briefings aimed to give American students "coping strategies" in the face of an attack.
She said some students suffered culture shock because of the belief that everyone loved Americans. "We are giving them the heads up that it is a bit more heated because of the war in Iraq," Ms Houston said.
By Janaki Kremmer / Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor
SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA - Australian Prime Minister John Howard arrives in Washington Friday, beginning a five-day US swing with a visit to one of his closet allies, President Bush. The trip comes at a time when Australia's ever-closer relationship with China is causing no small discomfort at the White House.
Australia has recently inked multibillion dollar gas and coal deals with the Asian giant, and negotiations for a free-trade deal are under way. Experts say the warming ties could compromise Australia's foreign-policy decisions - especially in matters relating to Taiwan's independence from China.
This concern was first borne out in 2004, when Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer commented at a press briefing in Beijing regarding the Taiwan situation. He said that under the ANZUS treaty, an alliance between the US and Australia that determines when each country would go to war on behalf of the other, Australia was obliged to invoke the treaty only if there was a direct attack on either member's soil.
This statement was countered in Washington by a US State Department aide who clarified that according to the treaty, an armed attack on either of the treaty partners ships in the Pacific would obligate them act against the common danger. So, for example, if US ships were under assault while defending Taiwan, Australia must come to America's defense. Mr. Downer immediately retreated from his statement.
In March, when China passed its anti-secession law allowing for an armed attack on Taiwan, Downer once again sat on the fence when he was quoted as saying that the ANZUS treaty could be invoked if war broke out, "But that's very different from saying we would make a decision to go to war."
This is a sharp shift in diplomacy since 1996, when Australia supported the dispatch of two US carrier groups to the Taiwan Straits in response to Chinese missile tests near the Taiwanese shore.
"China is an extraordinary market for Australia, but it's also Howard's biggest nightmare," says Michael McKinley, professor of social sciences at the Australian National University in Canberra. "For Australia to have to make a choice between the US and Beijing over Taiwan is something that Canberra hopes will never happen ... and Howard will make the point with Bush that there is no contradiction between Australia's economic security being tied to China and its military security being linked to the US."
There are other divisive issues that have recently come to the surface. While the US and Japan oppose the European Union's decision to resume arms sales to China, Australia is not against the decision if it does not upset the balance of power in the region.
And then there's the free-trade agreement. Malcolm Cook, a China watcher at the Lowy Institute, a strategic think tank in Sydney, says the move to increase trade between the two countries was inevitable.
"New Zealand has been crowing for some time about how advanced their [free-trade] negotiations are with Beijing compared with Canberra, which was one of the last movers on this in the region. Canberra was in danger of being left out," Mr. Cook says.
One issue that will be off the table is that of Chinese defector Chen Yonglin, who left his job at the Chinese consulate six weeks ago and was granted asylum July 8. Initially his visa request was denied, and Mr. Howard was criticized for kowtowing to Beijing's pressure to return Mr. Chen to China.
Some experts here say that the friction with Washington over China stems from a lack of understanding on the part of officials in Australia about America's complex relationship with China. Mr. McKinley says that the US looks at China the way it used to look at the Soviet Union - "as a strategic rival," and a "genuine regional superpower" that is making demands on the world's energy markets and buying US treasury bonds. But it is also providing US companies like Wal-Mart 80 percent of its foreign goods.
If there is confusion in Canberra, another expert says, it's really the fault of Washington.
"They speak in too many voices and don't make it clear what they want of the relationship with China," says Aldo Borgu, director at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute in Canberra.
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