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Pan-Blue on May 6, 2004 ……

Sands of time shift under pan-blues

While the pan-blue camp is still engaging in its final struggle against the results of the presidential election, Singapore's Straits Times has reported that Li Jiaquan, former director of the Institute of Taiwan Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and an important consultant to the Zhongnanhai leadership, has said that Beijing is ready to admit to the fact that Taiwan is a separate entity. Meanwhile, Washington is preparing to send a delegation to President Chen Shui-bian's inauguration, possibly headed by a member of Congress.

Washington and Beijing play the most decisive roles in the cross-strait relationship. They both have accepted that Chen was the legitimate winner of the presidential election. Yet the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the People First Party (PFP) are still reluctant to concede defeat.

The KMT-PFP alliance has persistently questioned the legitimacy of Chen's victory and mobilized their supporters to deny the legitimacy of Chen's reelection. Ironically, it is the legitimacy of the pan-blues' protests that have been most doubted. Even the international media has conceded that they have yet to put forward concrete evidence to support their vote-rigging claims.

Since the two parties initiated their series of lawsuits, they have provided no evidence, relying instead on paid advertisements calling upon their supporters to come up with some evidence. While more gullible members of the public may believe the old adage that "where's there's smoke, there's fire," the nation's judges are not impressed.

The Taiwan High Court yesterday held its first hearing of the KMT-PFP lawsuit requesting the election be invalidated. Presiding Judge Cheng Ya-ping bluntly said that the alliance's complaint was weak. She also complained that its arguments were not clear and that its attorneys failed to provide sufficient evidence to prove their argument. In the end, Cheng bluntly told the pan-blue lawyers: "You demand that I'm fair, but you should also make demands on yourselves and prepare better for such an important case." Cheng's meaning was clear -- the lawsuit is a case of suing just for the sake of suing.

In Beijing, Zhongnanhai's Taiwan strategies have always been rigid, disregarding changes in Taiwan's political situation. Li told the Straits Times that, under the "one China" principle, China is prepared to accept the existence of and interact with the Republic of China. He also said that Zhongnanhai regretted the inflexibility of its past cross-strait policies.

Even if Li's comments do not represent the Chinese government's stance, it is interesting that he was willing to admit that China's rigid policy on cross-strait relations has been a major mistake. Unfortunately for the people of Taiwan, neither the KMT and the PFP appear to be aware of or willing to face changes in public opinion, much less admit that they made mistakes in the past.

It is hard to believe that the two parties' ability to adapt to their environment is inferior to that of an advisor to the Chinese leadership. They repeatedly claim to represent the people of Taiwan and to be supported by half of the electorate. How could they lose the presidential election with such support?

The nation is eagerly awaiting the results of the recount. The people really want to know if the Central Election Commission made mistakes when counting the votes. How else could the shameless and shiftless KMT and PFP lose the election by such a narrow margin?

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On May 6, 2004 ……

Police say suspect admits to making threatening calls

"He told us that he committed the crime because he hates the Chen administration as he lost a lot of money on the stock market." --- Hou You-yi, Criminal Investigation Bureau commissioner

By Jimmy Chuang, STAFF REPORTER

A former China Times employee was hauled in for questioning yesterday for allegedly calling seven foreign representative offices and threatening their diplomats on April 16, warning them not to attend President Chen Shui-bian's inauguration on May 20.

Hsieh Hung-yi, 42, had been a proofreader for the Chinese-language newspaper but was laid off last December, the National Police Administration's Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) said yesterday.

He was arrested at his Panchiao residence on Tuesday afternoon and was released last night.

The police said he initially denied the allegations but admitted to the crime yesterday morning.

"Hsieh is an educated man who graduated from National Taiwan University's History Department. He told us that he committed the crime because he hates the Chen administration as he lost a lot of money on the stock market," CIB Commissioner Hou You-yi said.

When approached by reporters at the CIB, Hsieh was still denying allegations he threatened the diplomats.

"I did not blackmail them," Hsieh said. "I simply hoped that they would not join the inauguration."

Police are investigating whether Hsieh was acting on orders from Beijing.

Hsieh married a Chinese woman a few years ago but the marriage ended in divorce.

He married another Chinese woman last year. The police investigation showed that he came back from China on April 7.

Hsieh allegedly called the American Institute in Taiwan as well as six embassies -- those of Panama, Dominica, Nicaragua, Honduras, Costa Rica and El Salvador -- and threatened embassy employees, telling them their ambassadors would be assassinated if they attend Chen's inauguration.

The embassies reported the calls to police and said their diplomats will join the inauguration as planned.

The CIB spotted Hsieh's name by reviewing phone records, discovering that he made calls to the embassies from the Hsinpu and Hsimen MRT stations.

"With the help of community security video systems, we finally located him near Wenhua Road in Panchiao, Taipei County," said Chen Che-wen, the captain of the CIB's Third Division.

Police transferred Hsieh to the Taipei District Prosecutors' Office after a short interrogation at the CIB.

Prosecutors applied to the Taipei District Court to detain Hsieh, but the court said the case was a matter for the High Court to decide

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Hsieh Hung-yi, accused of threatening staff at the American Institute in Taiwan and six embassies, is arrested by police yesterday. Hsieh allegedly told the staff that their representatives would be killed if they attended President Chen Shui-bian's inauguration.

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