Copyright 2008 The New York Sun Wed, 18 Jun 2008 16:40:00 -0400 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Kin-Ming Liu :: Stories from The New York Sun http://www.nysun.com/authors/Kin-Ming+Liu istoll@nysun.com (Ira Stoll) webmaster@nysun.com en-us KIN-MING LIU http://www.nysun.com/opinion/not-worth-joining/39591/ Wed, 13 Sep 2006 00:00:00 EST A day after John Bolton went to New York as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations in early August last year, I had a chance to visit Turtle Bay. Soon after I had set foot into the U.N. headquarters, I knew something's seriously wrong with the world body. A photo exhibition telling the U.N. story was staged at the lobby. It stated that 51 countries signed the U.N. Charter as founding members on June 26, 1945 in San Francisco and one of them was the "People's Republic of China"! This country... KIN-MING LIU http://www.nysun.com/opinion/taiwan-comes-to-blows/38947/ Fri, 1 Sep 2006 00:00:00 EST Young democracies are supposed to be messy. So when Taiwan's opposition parties launched one protest after another in the past few months, both inside and outside of the legislature, trying to force President Shui-bian out. But I have had a considerable amount of confidence that the island democracy would sail through the troubled waters coming out stronger. Until August 24, 2006. During a live TV debate on whether the embattled president should quit or not over allegations of corruption, the... KIN-MING LIU http://www.nysun.com/opinion/china-says-shut-up/38231/ Mon, 21 Aug 2006 00:00:00 EST Defense Secretary Rumsfeld can now stop pretending he didn't know the answer to the questions he himself asked in June 2005. "Since no nation threatens China, one must wonder: Why this growing investment? Why these continuing large and expanding arms purchases? Why these continuing robust deployments?" Mr. Rumsfeld asked at the Shangri-La Dialogue, an annual Asian-Pacific military conference that took place in Singapore and was organized by the London-based International Institute for Strategic... KIN-MING LIU http://www.nysun.com/opinion/koizumis-shrine-game/37828/ Mon, 14 Aug 2006 00:00:00 EST All Chinese eyes will be focused on Prime Minister Koizumi tomorrow. They're waiting to see whether the outgoing Japanese leader would dare to commit the ultimate offense before stepping down next month: paying a visit to the Yasukuni Shrine on the 61st anniversary of the end of World War II. The mouthpiece of the Chinese Communist Party, People's Daily, warned last Friday that Mr. Koizumi "could be forever spurned by Asian people, and be firmly nailed to the pole of historical shame" if he... KIN-MING LIU http://www.nysun.com/opinion/beijing-is-no-friend/37503/ Tue, 8 Aug 2006 00:00:00 EST "As for Israel, its Chinese customers are supplying Middle East dictators with missiles that can reach Israeli territory – if handshakes ever close into fists," A.M. Rosenthal wrote in October 1993. Sadly, recent events in Lebanon seem to have proven the late columnist correct. On July 14, the Israeli SAAR-5 class corvette Hanit suffered considerable damage and the loss of four crew members off the coast of Lebanon after being attacked by an anti-ship cruise missile, apparently fired by... KIN-MING LIU http://www.nysun.com/opinion/chilling-effect/37020/ Mon, 31 Jul 2006 00:00:00 EST If the fate of Zhao Yan, a researcher at the Beijing bureau of the New York Times, can provide any clue, then my friend Ching Cheong, Hong Kong-based correspondent of the Straits Times of Singapore, isn't likely to regain his freedom anytime soon. Mr. Zhao, arrested in September 2004 and accused of leaking state secrets, and Mr. Ching, arrested in April 2005 and accused of spying for Taiwan, share a few similarities besides sitting in a Chinese prison and facing possible long imprisonment... KIN-MING LIU http://www.nysun.com/opinion/drain-north-korea/36659/ Tue, 25 Jul 2006 00:00:00 EST It's hard to forget the anguished face of a 2-year-old North Korean girl. Kim Han-mi stood helplessly inside the gate of the Japanese consulate in the city of Shenyang watching her mother being restrained by two Chinese policemen from getting inside to join her. As a father of two young girls similar to the age of little Kim, nothing is more heartbreaking than this picture to me. I totally share the strong emotion of President Bush towards the North Korean dictator when he told Bob Woodward, "I... KIN-MING LIU http://www.nysun.com/opinion/true-believer-2006-07-12/35886/ Wed, 12 Jul 2006 00:00:00 EST Usually, I don't read the newspaper President Bush recently called "disgraceful." But when one of its columnists went to China last month and filed five columns from there, I made an exception. I'm happy to report that the paper never fails to live up to its reputation as the nation's no. 1 left-wing broadsheet. Nicholas Kristof went to Beijing trying to cover the secret trial of his colleague Zhao Yan, a researcher at the Beijing bureau of the New York Times who was accused of revealing state... KIN-MING LIU http://www.nysun.com/opinion/two-questions/35581/ Fri, 7 Jul 2006 00:00:00 EST The result of a bidding war for Hong Kong's largest phone company may shed some light on two questions in coming weeks. The interesting question is: does Rupert Murdoch still carry any clout in Beijing? The important question is: is "one country, two systems" dead in Hong Kong? A few weeks ago, two western companies — Australia's Macquarie Bank and U.S.private equity firm Texas Pacific Group with its Asian affiliate Newbridge Capital Group — launched a bidding war for Hong Kong's dominant... KIN-MING LIU http://www.nysun.com/opinion/swan-song-2006-06-28/35219/ Wed, 28 Jun 2006 00:00:00 EST Six days before President Bush's 60th birthday on July 6, perhaps Japan's prime minister, Junichiro Koizumi, can give an encore to the song he sang at his good friend's birthday party last year: Elvis Presley's "I Want You, I Need You, I Love You." This time, the location couldn't be better - they will be at Graceland Mansion. Mr. Koizumi, who will step down in September, after more than five years in office, is going to say goodbye to Mr. Bush at the White House tomorrow. In return, Mr. Bush... KIN-MING LIU http://www.nysun.com/opinion/some-taiwan-duck/34760/ Tue, 20 Jun 2006 00:00:00 EST The American president's popularity is the envy of his Taiwan counterpart. If George W. Bush is considered a lame duck with a 40% approval rate, then Chen Shui-bian, who only received 17% support in one recent poll, should have been a dead duck. Far from it. When Taiwan's legislature next Tuesday votes on a possible recall referendum on the president, Mr. Chen should have no problem sailing through the storm safely. Undoubtedly, this is the most difficult time for Mr. Chen since he was elected... KIN-MING LIU http://www.nysun.com/opinion/most-dangerous-unknown-pact/34366/ Tue, 13 Jun 2006 00:00:00 EST The Shanghai Cooperative Organization is the "most dangerous organization that Americans have never heard of," according to the director of the Menges Hemispheric Security Project at the Center for Security Policy, Christopher Brown. The obscure international club, consisting of six country members with a quarter of the world's population, is set to attract more attention when it celebrates its fifth anniversary on Thursday because one of the guests will be the inflammatory leader of a... KIN-MING LIU http://www.nysun.com/opinion/finally-smelling-the-coffee/33961/ Tue, 6 Jun 2006 00:00:00 EST Zhao Yan should consider himself lucky. After being detained for 21 months without trial, the researcher at the Beijing bureau of The New York Times is expected to be sentenced Thursday, finally. Instead of rotting in jail indefinitely like many others, Mr. Zhao at least will have the privilege of going through a kangaroo court to find out the number of years he'll be deprived of freedom. Beijing doesn't send people to trial to acquit them; a trial means a guilty verdict. Mr. Zhao, a seasoned... KIN-MING LIU http://www.nysun.com/opinion/official-chinese-amnesia/33721/ Thu, 1 Jun 2006 00:00:00 EST Imagine this scenario unfolding in Germany. A German American, via a Berlin auction house, is trying to sell a rare portrait of Hitler. It sparks an outcry. The portrait shouldn't be sold, many people think, not because of the simple fact that Hitler was a murderous monster but because it's a national treasure. Newspapers reported some of the sentiment of the public: "the portrait is the most important memorabilia from a specific period in history," "we're young at the time and cherished a... KIN-MING LIU http://www.nysun.com/opinion/who-cares-about-taiwan/33204/ Tue, 23 May 2006 00:00:00 EST 'Who cares about Taiwan?' That's what the Chinese health minister had to say about the well-being of the island's 23 million people at the World Health Organization three years ago, when many panic-stricken people in East Asia were wearing a mask amid the explosion of SARS. The same sentiment is expected to be on display again in Geneva this week during the annual meeting of the World Health Assembly, the policy-making body of the WHO. For the past 34 years, after the People's Republic of China... KIN-MING LIU http://www.nysun.com/opinion/look-whos-talking/32834/ Tue, 16 May 2006 00:00:00 EST If one read only the China Daily, one would believe that one of the world's worst people is the prime minister of Japan, Junichiro Koizumi. The semi-official paper says that Mr. Koizumi's repeated visits to the Yasukuni Shrine have "hurt the feelings of Chinese people and damaged the political foundation of Sino-Japanese relations." So much so that for months, Beijing has practically stopped talking to Tokyo. So when Japan's vice minster for foreign affairs, Shotaro Yachi, met with his Chinese... KIN-MING LIU http://www.nysun.com/opinion/no-more-kowtow-for-japan/32416/ Tue, 9 May 2006 00:00:00 EST If China is hoping that Japan, after Junichiro Koizumi stepping down as prime minister in September, will once again become a more subservient neighbor, it better thinks twice. After listening to Taro Aso, Japan's foreign minister and a likely candidate to succeed Mr. Koizumi, in Washington last week, it's plain clear to me that Japan is not likely to return to its old mode of knee-jerk kowtowing to the Middle Kingdom. In his speech delivered at the Center for Strategic and International... KIN-MING LIU http://www.nysun.com/opinion/this-simple-decent-fact/31773/ Thu, 27 Apr 2006 00:00:00 EST When President Bush received the Chinese Communist Party leader, Hu Jintao, at the White House, the Taiwan Haters Club was hoping that history would repeat itself, and that Mr. Bush would make remarks similar to those he did when he appeared with China's premier, Wen Jiabao, on December 9, 2003. Back then, when Mr. Bush was asked about a referendum that was planned to coincide with Taiwan's presidential election on March 20, 2004, Mr. Bush recounted what he told Mr. Wen on the issue: "We oppose... KIN-MING LIU http://www.nysun.com/opinion/hedging-against-hu/31352/ Thu, 20 Apr 2006 00:00:00 EST For once, I agree with Harry Reid. In a letter to President Bush, the Senate minority leader wrote Monday, "More than five years into your presidency, your Administration regrettably still has no coherent strategy for managing this nation's relationship with China." With the Chinese Communist Party secretary general, Hu Jintao, finally visiting the White House today, Mr. Reid undoubtedly was using the occasion as another excuse to criticize Mr. Bush. The Democrats, in fact, don't enjoy any... KIN-MING LIU http://www.nysun.com/foreign/leaders-campaign-to-break-away-from-china/28444/ Thu, 2 Mar 2006 00:00:00 EST When Chen Shui-bian gets into his campaign mode, the brilliant election machine listens to neither his foes nor friends. After severe warnings from both Beijing and, regrettably, Washington not to abolish the Unification Council and the Guidelines for National Unification in the past month, the president of Taiwan announced practically just that on Monday, the eve of the 59th anniversary of the 228 Incident - the bloody crackdown by the Chinese Kuomintang on a Taiwanese rebellion on the island... KIN-MING LIU http://www.nysun.com/opinion/what-status-quo-means-in-taiwan/27334/ Thu, 9 Feb 2006 00:00:00 EST My disdain for the State Department is something I've tried hard to remove. But I must concede defeat. Every time I take a fresh look at Foggy Bottom, my vision's fogged by the mistreatment of Taiwan by American diplomacy. Old habits die hard. On the first day of the Year of the Dog, Taiwan's democratically elected president, Chen Shui-bian, mentioned that three things are under consideration: (1) Whether to abolish the Guidelines for National Unification and the National Unification Council... KIN-MING LIU http://www.nysun.com/opinion/other-sides-best-friend/26397/ Tue, 24 Jan 2006 00:00:00 EST Kim Jong Il reminds me of Mao Zedong. The Chinese dictator, when he was alive, lived behind an impenetrable wall of secrecy, so that very few knew anything about his life and his world, including where he lived or where he was. When Mao flew, every other plane in China was grounded. When his special train moved, the country's railway system was thrown into chaos as other trains were not allowed to be anywhere near his. "Throughout his reign, he lived in his own country as if in a war zone,"... KIN-MING LIU http://www.nysun.com/opinion/panda-huggers-on-alert/25936/ Mon, 16 Jan 2006 00:00:00 EST Panda huggers, I must confess, are correct on one thing: China is not the Soviet Union. Yes, there's a major difference between the former communist empire and the current communist giant. The Soviet Union was bankrupted to death, both ideologically and financially. China, on the other hand, is being enriched by the world. Let me bore you, first, with some newly released statistics that are staggering: China's trade surplus with the rest of the world tripled to $102 billion in 2005 from $32... KIN-MING LIU http://www.nysun.com/opinion/panda-diplomacy/25777/ Thu, 12 Jan 2006 00:00:00 EST Six months after the arrival of a panda cub, Tai Shan, at the National Zoo, my fellow Washingtonians are still overjoyed. The demand to see the cute black-and-white creature has been overwhelming. All cub viewing tickets for January have been taken. Pandas, arguably, are China's most successful, disarming charm-offensive against the world. So when Taiwan reacted angrily to China's recent offer to send two pandas to the island, people were understandably puzzled. How could the Taiwanese reject... KIN-MING LIU http://www.nysun.com/opinion/america-down-but-not-out/24656/ Mon, 19 Dec 2005 00:00:00 EST The inaugural East Asia Summit, hosted by Malaysia in its capital city of Kuala Lumpur last Wednesday, could easily have been one of the most pointless diplomatic events that has ever taken place. Leaders from 16 countries with different visions and identities gathered together for one day to try to achieve the impossible objective of "One vision, one identity, one community," as the slogan of the summit suggested. For any multinational grouping to work, it must possess a clear common purpose... KIN-MING LIU http://www.nysun.com/opinion/one-taiwan-policy/24447/ Wed, 14 Dec 2005 00:00:00 EST If only Attorney General Alberto Gonzales were in charge of this country's policy towards China. Donald Keyser, former principal deputy assistant secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific affairs, pleaded guilty on Tuesday in the Eastern District of Virginia to unlawfully removing classified documents from the Department of State and to two counts of making false official statements. A court document states that "on September 7, 2003, upon his return to the United States from overseas... KIN-MING LIU http://www.nysun.com/opinion/democracy-in-my-lifetime/24099/ Wed, 7 Dec 2005 00:00:00 EST The dictators in Beijing can hide no more. They either have to stay out of the way and let Hong Kong march towards democracy as they promised, or they have to come out and crush Hong Kong people's aspiration and show the world China is determined in going against history. On Sunday, Hong Kong had its third huge demonstration in two years. Organizers claimed the turnout was 250,000, while the police said it was 63,000. The key lies not in the exact numbers but the fact that it was way beyond... KIN-MING LIU http://www.nysun.com/opinion/ulan-bator-and-hong-kong/23608/ Mon, 28 Nov 2005 00:00:00 EST To me, the most touching moment of President Bush's recent trip to Asia was his final stopover in Mongolia. Fifteen years ago, the descendants of Genghis Khan drove the communist leadership from power. Within months, free elections were held, and a free Mongolia was born. Mongolia has made the transition from communism to freedom and established a vibrant democracy and opened up the economy. Mr. Bush rightly told his courageous hosts: "You're an example of success for this region and for the... KIN-MING LIU http://www.nysun.com/opinion/freedom-is-an-asian-value/23182/ Thu, 17 Nov 2005 00:00:00 EST When the White House tried to downplay democracy and human rights while emphasizing trade and economic issues before President Bush's current trip to Asia, I almost lost faith with the president. The trip has already brought the president to Japan, and South Korea, and he will be headed to China and Mongolia this weekend. Speaking to Asian journalists, Mr. Bush highlighted currency, intellectual property rights, trade deficits, and avian flu as the issues he would raise with his Chinese hosts... KIN-MING LIU http://www.nysun.com/opinion/support-democratic-reforms/22866/ Thu, 10 Nov 2005 00:00:00 EST Don't be surprised if the Dalai Lama, who is touring Washington, will be invited to visit China in the near future. Beijing, under President Hu Jintao's leadership, has surprised many this year with a more sophisticated approach of dealing with what it considers as "domestic problems" - Taiwan and Hong Kong. The Tibetan leader may become the next target. But then, don't expect Tibet shall be set free soon either. After the mishap of passing the "Anti-Secession Law" aimed at Taiwan last March... KIN-MING LIU http://www.nysun.com/opinion/simple-china-policy/19965/ Tue, 13 Sep 2005 00:00:00 EST Hurricane Katrina unexpectedly took a toll on the Chinese president. Hu Jintao was denied the much sought-after 21-gun salute at the White House last week as his meeting with the American president was postponed. Instead, Mr. Hu will now join 175 or so heads of state in New York this week and see Mr. Bush on the sidelines at the United Nations 60th anniversary celebration. In fact, Mr. Hu should feel relieved that the visit didn't take place. Coming from a land where symbolism often trumps...