-Caveat Lector- <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/"> </A> -Cui Bono?- from: http://www.aci.net/kalliste/ Click Here: <A HREF="http://www.aci.net/kalliste/">The Home Page of J. Orlin Grabbe</A> ----- Taiwan vs. China Taiwan's Stock Market Plunges on Pro-Freedom Win We didn't mind being slaves as long as stock prices were high. TAIWAN announced emergency measures yesterday to avert a stock market plunge and riot police fought with more than 1,000 Nationalists amid fears of tension with Beijing over the election of pro-independence Chen Shui-bian as president. Chen won a narrow victory on Saturday despite warnings from China that voters would "not get a second chance" if they backed him. International concern grew about the stability of the region, as Beijing said it was watching Mr Chen's every move. Mr Chen appealed for calm after protests by more than 1,000 Nationalists turned violent. Demonstrators demanded the immediate resignation of Mr Lee as party chairman, accusing him of covertly helping Mr Chen's victory to bring about a secret dream of Taiwanese independence. After the defeat, Mr Lee, who is famous for his stubbornness, said he would not step down from his party post. But, following the protests, a spokesman said that Mr Lee would resign in September with other senior members. The protests degenerated into violence after riot police charged the crowd, firing water cannon and lashing out with batons to beat it back from the Nationalist Party's headquarters. At least one demonstrator was injured. Massed ranks of riot police earlier sealed off the presidential palace, leaving flag-waving protesters free to surround the Nationalist headquarters, still bearing giant posters of the party's defeated candidate. Barbed wire barricades were dragged into position and police formed human walls around the gleaming, multi-storey building, once a symbol of the party's omnipotence. "Lee Teng-hui, step down," the protesters chanted, giving thumbs-down signs. Many party members called for the return of James Soong, the former top Nationalist who came a close second on Saturday after standing as an independent, relegating the official Nationalist candidate to a poor third place. One of them, Tammy Yang, said: "Lee Teng-hui has betrayed us." Protesters kicked and smashed the windows of limousines leaving the headquarters building. Protesters punched to the ground Hsu Li-teh, 68, a member of the Nationalists' Central Standing Committee, and beat him with wooden poles. Police rushed to his rescue. The election result also brought about financial turmoil, forcing the finance ministry to halve the maximum fall permitted on the stock market, from seven to 3.5 per cent, before suspending operations altogether. Last week the market experienced several days of near record losses. The Nationalists and China's prime minister, Zhu Rongji, seized on these as proof that even the possibility of a Chen victory brought instability. Chen Shui-bian, ousted a regime that has dominated every aspect of life in Taiwan for more than 50 years. The Nationalist party was founded by the Chinese revolutionary Sun Yat-sen and fled to Taiwan after the defeat of Chiang Kai-shek in 1949 by the Chinese Communists. Since then it has ruled uninterrupted. To many Taiwanese its headquarters now represent the corruption and money politics that led to the party's downfall. The committee decided to convene a party congress in September at which the leadership would step down. Some protesters said they felt no loyalty to the new president-elect, whom they called a "traitor". In a further blow to the Nationalists, Mr Soong, a populist conservative who has reinvented himself as a democrat in favour of cautious reform, announced yesterday that he was founding a new political party. Mr Chen already faces a Nationalist-dominated parliament. Mr Chen received 39.3 per cent of the votes. James Soong received 36.8 per cent and split the Nationalists' vote, ending their more than 50 years in power. The immediate task for Mr Chen is to reassure the international community. President Clinton congratulated him, while pushing Taiwan towards talks with Beijing. Beijing's reaction has been muted since Mr Chen's victory, in contrast with its sabre-rattling before the election. The Xinhua news agency said: "The election cannot change the fact that Taiwan is part of China." The London Telegraph, March 20, 2000 US vs. Iran Albright Sort of Apologizes to Iran Said she was sure sorry about helping Iraq kill all those Iranians. WASHINGTON - Secretary of State Madeleine Albright announced a major overture toward Iran on Friday, promising steps toward the return of assets frozen since Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution, lifting a ban on imports of Iranian luxury goods and making it easier for Iranian scholars and athletes to visit the United States. While stopping short of an apology, Mrs. Albright acknowledged past American meddling in Iran, including the coup - backed by the Central Intelligence Agency - that toppled Iran's leftist prime minister, Mohammed Mossadegh, and restored its monarchy in 1953. She also expressed regret for Washington's ''shortsighted'' support of Iraq during the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s, according to an administration official who read her speech before it was delivered to the American-Iranian Council, a private group that seeks to foster better relations. These initiatives are the boldest attempt yet by the Clinton administration to capitalize on the movement toward moderation in Tehran that began with the 1997 election of President Mohammed Khatami. The trend was accelerated in voting last month, when reformers loyal to Mr. Khatami won control of Parliament. ''I call on Iran to join in writing a new chapter in our shared history,'' Mrs. Albright said in her speech. ''Let us be open about our differences and strive to overcome them. Let us acknowledge our common interests and strive to advance them.'' American officials have long expressed willingness to begin a dialogue with Tehran. So far, however, Iranian officials have demurred, insisting that Washington first address some of their grievances, with frozen assets topping the list. With the offer Friday, the United States is heeding Iran's request, according to the administration official. ''It's the first time that we have decided to respond directly to a political development inside Iran'' with specific measures, this official said. ''They've said, 'Where are the concrete steps?' and these are the concrete steps.'' Lifting the import ban on four of Iran's main non-oil products - carpets, caviar, pistachios and dried fruit - will bring immediate if modest benefits to Iran's struggling economy. In 1985, two years before President Ronald Reagan banned all non-oil imports from Iran, the country earned $85 million selling such goods to the United States. The carpet industry alone provides jobs for an estimated 5 million people. The initiatives will not affect the main U.S. sanctions barring American investment in Iran's oil sector, which provides Iran with an annual $16 billion, 85 percent of its foreign exchange. U.S. officials remain deeply concerned about Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons and efforts to disrupt the Middle East peace through terrorism. These efforts reflect the influence of hard-liners loyal to Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Sayed Ali Khamenei, who from all indications remains firmly in control of the country's security services. In her speech Friday, Mrs. Albright reiterated these concerns, suggesting that it was ''too early to know'' whether the reformers' victory would translate into real changes in the government's attitude toward the United States. But she also emphasized the Clinton administration's strong desire for a ''more normal and mutually productive relationship'' with Tehran. ''We're essentially doing what some have said we should have done, which is take a stand on the side of the reformers,'' the official said. ''We're giving them some arguments internally but all the while protecting the national security components by making sure that the steps don't go too far.'' The issue of frozen Iranian assets is especially sensitive for the Iranian government. After the 1979 seizure of the American Embassy in Tehran, the United States froze about $12 billion in Iranian assets, including bank deposits, gold and other properties. According to U.S. officials, most of those assets were released in 1981 as part of the deal for the return of U.S. hostages taken in the embassy seizure. But some assets - Iranian officials say $10 billion, U.S. officials say much less - remain frozen pending resolution of legal claims arising from the revolution. For many years, those claims have been considered on a case-by-case basis by the Iran-U.S. Claims Tribunal at The Hague, but Iranian officials have argued for resolving them as part of a single, comprehensive settlement. Mrs. Albright took a step Friday toward meeting that demand, promising to ''increase efforts'' toward a ''global settlement.'' The U.S. overture also included encouragement for ''people-to-people'' exchanges that began after Mr. Khatami's election in 1997. Because Iran remains on the State Department's list of terrorist states, Iranian scholars, athletes and journalists have been subjected to humiliating searches and fingerprinting on their arrival in the United States. Mrs. Albright declared an end to such ''unnecessary impediments.'' The most symbolically powerful aspect of Mrs. Albright's speech, however, concerned the history of American-Iranian relations. The 1953 coup, which restored power to Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, is regarded by many Iranians as a symbol of American perfidy. Mrs. Albright acknowledged that the United States played a ''significant role'' in the coup and that the shah went on to ''brutally repress'' political dissent. In a similar vein, Mrs. Albright expressed regret for the American tilt during the 1980s toward the government of President Saddam Hussein of Iraq, a posture that Washington came to regret when Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990. International Herald Tribune, March 20, 2000 ----- Aloha, He'Ping, Om, Shalom, Salaam. Em Hotep, Peace Be, All My Relations. Omnia Bona Bonis, Adieu, Adios, Aloha. Amen. Roads End <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance�not soap-boxing! 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