Sat, May 16, 2009 page8

• Things that we need to pass on to Krugman

  • By Lin Chih-hung 林志宏
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  Taiwan’s independence supporters must tell US economist Paul Krugman about tomorrow’s protest and why they will be taking to the streets.

  Krugman, who won the Nobel Prize for economics, was in China before arriving in Taiwan on Thursday. He is expected to stay in Taiwan for three days.

  Krugman has international influence. If he knew that tomorrow’s demonstration is being held to show how unhappy Taiwanese are about the pro-China policies of President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) government, he might mention the issue in his column in the New York Times. This would give the Taiwanese public more of a chance to stop Ma’s “democratic dictatorship” and block his goal of unification with China.

  I earnestly hope that senior pro-independence figures, English media outlets who care about Taiwan and academics and other experts who write in English will take advantage of this opportunity to let him hear the true voices of the Taiwanese public, perhaps by making contributions to Krugman’s blog.

  Every extra influential friend Taiwan has in the international community gives us an extra chance to work our way out of the current troubles.

  A few years ago, Krugman praised Taiwan’s health insurance system, which was initiated and realized by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). In Beijing on Monday, Krugman said — straight out — that China’s huge trade surplus was the result of government interference and that there was no way the world could continue to accept this situation.

  Krugman also said that the yuan would not become an international currency in our lifetime because China lacks a solid bond market.

  Taiwan’s pro-unification media will not highlight such comments, and may not even report them. These outlets, which view China as the mother country, will only give space to material such as China and the US being dubbed as the “G2.” They could twist Krugman’s statement that he knew nothing about the mooted economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) into making him sound as if he supports an ECFA and that it would be good for both sides of the Taiwan Strait.

  Taiwanese media outlets are, after all, brainwashing readers into thinking that relying on China is the only way to save the economy.

  We must remind Krugman that Taiwan is facing a grave threat to its democracy. We must tell him that Taiwan has a minority of “high-class Mainlanders” whose fathers gained privileges through bloody, totalitarian rule and that this minority is now using its inherited privileges to control the media and the judiciary to manipulate the Hoklo and Hakka ethnic groups that make up the majority of the population.

  We need to let Krugman know about the deal that the KMT has with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to allow the latter to take over Taiwan.

  Krugman once warned the world that economic development will not decrease military conflict. Meanwhile, China has warned us of seven circumstances or “red lines” that, if crossed, will result in China taking military action against Taiwan — even as our professional student of a president runs around pinning Taiwan’s hope on Chinese goodwill.

  Krugman once said about trade with China: “They give us poisoned products, we give them worthless paper.” He also opposed a Chinese buyout of major US petroleum explorer and marketer Unocal for strategic reasons.

  I believe he will listen to the Taiwanese public and I would implore the leaders of pro-Taiwan media outlets to make good use of this opportunity.

  Lin Chih-hung is a political commentator.

  TRANSLATED BY DREW CAMERON
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