Taiwan Today

More than 250,000 people from all walks of life, including overseas Chinese and members of the diplomatic corps, rallied at the Presidential square in Taipei to celebrate the National Day.

Nien Wen-ya, president of the Legislative Yuan and chairman of the National Day celebration preparatory committee, presided. A joint declaration pledged loyalty to and support of the government of the Republic of China and President Chiang Kai-shek.

Thousands of balloons were released to symbolize peace and prosperity.

After the ceremony participants divided into several groups to parade through the streets of Taipei.

Vice President C.K. Yen presided over a ceremony attended by more than 500 government officials, civic leaders and overseas Chinese delegates. President Chiang Kai-shek's message was read.

More than 30,000 attended a rally at the Taipei Stadium in the afternoon. Fireworks were set off over the Tamsui River as some 100,000 joined in a lantern procession.

The day was the 80th anniversary of the establishment of Chinese National Revolution Army. An exhibition of martial arts by the Army, Navy and Air Force attracted many spectators.

Taiwan-made jet fighters were displayed at an air base. Army barracks were open to visitors.

The National Day was celebrated in overseas Chinese communities.

In Los Angeles, Maoist terrorists tragically stabbed to death a Chinese student and wounded three others at a National Day ball.

Yuan Pao-shan, the victim, was a graduate student at the University of Southern California.

Premier Chiang Ching-kuo disclosed that his administration is planning to build three additional east-west cross-island highways to help develop mountainous areas.

He said construction of the highways will start immediately after the present 10 basic construction projects are completed in 1979.

Premier Chiang said the existing three east-west highways in northern, central and southern Taiwan "are not enough to accelerate the development of the mountainous districts, which occupy about two-thirds of the total area of Taiwan."

The Central Range runs 270 kilometers from north to south. It has 62 peaks with elevations above 3,000 meters.

Premier Chiang revealed plans for the development of Taitung and Nantou counties. Nantou will have an industrial zone for the processing of agricultural products.

Taipei is surrounded by mountains and does not have good prospects for further development, Premier Chiang said. Prospects for Chiayi and Tainan "are much better," he added. The Provincial Government is planning to develop the Anping Port at Tainan.

The Premier declined donations for basic construction projects. While expressing appreciation for gifts of money, the Premier said the Cabinet had returned donations and advised the donors to buy government bonds or stocks of government enterprises.

The China Steel Corp. has issued stocks for sale by banks and investment companies. The China Shipbuilding Co. will follow suit.

Legislator Huang Hsin-chieh criticized the administration for stressing economic development. He said other projects were neglected.

Premier Chiang replied that the 10 construction projects will improve the people's living standard.

The Premier said the press enjoys complete freedom in Taiwan. There is no censorship. But the government must keep an eye on foreign publications to make sure they do not import Communist propaganda.

The Premier told legislators the administration will try to electrify aborigine settlements and build mountain roads. Nine-year free education is being examined with a view to improvements.

Senator Hiram L. Fong of Hawaii visited Taiwan and exchanged views with Premier Chiang.

Fong, who is of Chinese ancestry, took note of Taiwan's progress and said the United States will honor its commitments.

Before leaving for Taiwan, Senator Fong said in Washington that it might be a century before the United States recognized the Chinese communist regime. "The quality of life on the mainland is far behind that in the United States and Taiwan," he said after a visit to the mainland.

Despite some diplomatic setbacks, the Republic of China has greatly strengthened its position in the international community in the last few years.

That is the view of Col. Harold Riegelman, legal adviser to the Chinese Embassy in Washington. Visiting Taiwan, he said free China's diplomatic setbacks have been "overridden by its rapid economic progress."

"Diplomacy is no longer so important as it was in the old days," Riegelman said.

"Trade ties are much more important than diplomatic relations," he said. "With or without diplomatic ties, nations of today have to exchange goods.

"For instance, free China and Canada have not had diplomatic relations since 1970, but the two-way trade between the two countries has more than tripled during the last few years.

"I am sure the same is true of other countries with which free China does not have formal ties."

Riegelman, 82, has been legal adviser to the Chinese Embassy in Washington since 1938.

"I see every prospect of continued goodwill and cooperation between free China and the United States and a growing realization by world opinion of free China's spiritual and material strength and resources and its humanitarian and democratic objectives," he said.

Twenty-eight countries sent 285 delegates to the sixth World Dredging Conference in Taipei. The theme was "Dredging in the Far East."

Yen Hsiao-chang, director of the Retser Engineering Agency, who presided, said there were many ambitious dredging programs under way or to be undertaken in the' Far East.

"In this country," he said, "the dredging work at Taichung Harbor amounts to 100 million cubic meters."

A Pacific Basin committee was formed with members from Australia, Hongkong, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, South Korea, Singapore, South Vietnam and the Republic of China.

Ichiro Ofuji and Masao Katoh of Japan were honored for their joint report on Studies on Design Standards for Safety of Cutter Suction Dredges.

M.J. Richardson, executive secretary, praised the achievements of the Retser Engineering Agency in developing the ROC dredging industry.

More than 2,000 Chinese Christians, including some 200 from abroad, met in Taipei.

President Chiang Kai-shek urged Chinese Christians throughout the world to support the anti Communist cause.

In a message, President Chiang said the anti-Communist movement is identical with the crusade of Christianity against tyranny and slavery.

Christians must recognize God's love and the role they play in saving millions of people from tyranny and slavery, the President said, adding that truth would be their sword, freedom their armor and benevolence their shield.

Vice President C.K. Yen told the Christians that justice will triumph over evil. The meeting was significant, he added, to combat worldwide appeasement.

Some 30 women trade unionists met in the Asian Regional Seminar on Union Community Services sponsored by the Asian-American Free Labor Institute. They came from Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Philippines, the Republic of China, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand and South Vietnam.

Minister of the Interior Lin Chin-sheng said:

"Since trade unions are the indispensable instrument for free workers to improve their standard of living, my government has encouraged workers to organize.

"Labor participation in joint councils is common and collective bargaining has been carried out in many of our industries.

"At the end of 1973, we had 1,071 trade unions with membership of 674,066.

"Women workers have played an essential role in the economic and social development of the Republic of China during last decade.

"Traditionally, Chinese women have been daughters, wives and mothers. However, economic development has required fuller utilization of female labor."

Vice President C.K. Yen urged Kwangtung province natives living all over the world to unite overseas Chinese and make contributions to society and the country.

Some 1,000 Kwangtung-born delegates attended the three-day meeting. Hsueh Yueh, chairman of the Planning Committee for the Recovery of the Mainland, presided.

Delegates came from the United States, Canada, Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, South Vietnam, Laos, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Hongkong, Macao and Taiwan.

Taiwan Governor Hsieh Tung-ming said the standard of living has improved rapidly because of progress made in the years since the end of Taiwan's 50 years of Japanese occupation.

The Kwangtung natives gave NT$50 million (US$1,431,000) for welfare and relief.

Taipei will introduce a computer-controlled signal system next year to improve traffic order.

Hsiao Tsang-wen, head of the Department of New Construction, said the system would be installed at 27 intersections and later be extended to the whole city.

The computer will vary signal times according to the flow of traffic.

Bids include two from the United States, three from Japan and four from Europe. A contract will be let before the end of the year and installation completed in the first half of 1975.

Hongkong, Singapore and Bangkok will also computerize traffic.

The number of vehicles in Taipei has increased 200 per cent since 1968. There are 30,000 cars but only 8,000 parking places.

An average household in Taipei spent NT$9,018.60 (US$237) a month during the first half of this year, according to figures of the Accounting and Statistics Department of the City Government.

Food accounted for 42.9 per cent of spending, housing and water for 21.51 per cent, education and recreation for 7.83 per cent, clothing for 5.72 per cent and fuel and lighting for 3.77 per cent.

The average size of households was 5.3 persons and 1.6 persons were employed.

One in every 5.8 households has a color television set and one in every 1.2 households a black and white TV set.

There is a telephone for every 2.6 households, a refrigerator for every 1.2, a motorcycle for every 5.6, a camera for every 2.5, a sewing machine for every 2.1 and a newspaper for every 1.2.

Tehchi Dam and its 234,000-kilowatt power plant in the mountains of central Taiwan were completed after nearly five years at a cost of NT$5,100 million (US$128 million).

The double-curvature concrete arch dam is 180 meters tall, the highest in the Far East. It has a crest length of 185 meters and concrete volume of 430,000 cubic meters.

The dam impounds a reservoir with effective storage capacity of 175,000,000 cubic meters.

Located on the upper stream of the Tachia River, the reservoir has a drainage area of 592 square kilometers.

The power station, 200 meters underground, has three units of 79,000-kilowatt capacity.

Water from Tehchi will turn power generators at four other power stations downstream. The entire system will supply 853,500 kilowatts of electricity.

A 120-kilometer ultra high-tension power trans mission line from Tienlun in central Taiwan to Panchiao in northern Taiwan also has been completed. The section from Tienlun to Kaohsiung is nearly complete. Transmission losses will be reduced by the line, which cost about NT$2,200 million (US$57,890,000). Construction began in 1969.

The current power transmission trunk line of 161,000 volts was built 40 years ago. Although it has been expanded and improved, its capacity cannot meet the needs of industrial development.

Expansion of Hualien Harbor will be carried out ahead of schedule.

Construction of an outer port is planned after completion of the third phase of inner port expansion in 1976 or 1977.

The outer port work will take five years and includes extension of the breakwater by 300 meters and construction of a new 500-meter break water and a 770-meter wharf.

Hualien will be able to accommodate three ships of 30,000 to 50,000 tons when the outer port is operational.

Expansion of nine fishing ports has been completed. They are at Nanfangao, Huangkang, Shenao, Yungan, Nanliao, Potzuliao, Houpihu, Lutao and Chialan.

Construction of fishing boats is on schedule. Since January of this year, 107 oceangoing fishing vessels of 23,368 tons have been built. Coastal boats numbering 228 and totaling 228 tons have been built or rebuilt.

Exports of fish are down. In the first half of 1974, 68,817 metric tons was exported, 1,615 metric tons less than in the corresponding period of 1973. Value was up US$6,380,000 to US$91,700,000.

More than 2,500,000 tons of rice will be harvested this year, an agricultural official predicted.

He said the yield of the first crop totaled 1,290,700 tons, an increase of 15 per cent. Per hectare production was 3,738 kilograms, an in crease of 8 per cent.

Farmers are interested in growing rice now that the government guarantees prices.

Gas prospecting of the Chinese Petroleum Corp. is being stepped up with a view to increasing daily production to 7,600,000 cubic meters by the end of 1975.

The corporation now has 74 producing wells. Production is 5,400,000 cubic meters daily.

Most natural gas is for industrial use. Only a small percentage goes to households.

Industry consumed 53.38 per cent for fuel. Principal users are cement, glass, pottery and electrical machinery plants. Another 25.68 per cent was consumed as raw material in making urea, liquid ammonium, methanol and ethylene.

Power stations consumed 16.63 per cent and households 4.31 per cent.

Instant noodles have been developed but people of Taiwan still prefer rice. So three scientists of the Food Industry Research Institute have developed an instant rice congee.

Dr. Li Chin-feng, leader of the team, said the congee can be stored for a long time without loss of flavor.

Dr. Li invited guests to sample the product. All gave it high marks.

The instant congee is made of dehydrated pre-cooked rice mixed with dehydrated meat, shrimp, mushroom, etc.

The institute will give details of the process to interested food processing plants upon request.

Free China has a merchant marine fleet of 176 vessels totaling 2,091,473 dwt, Communications Minister Henry Kao reported.

Within this year, 25 new ships totaling 141,421 dwt have joined the fleet and 29 old vessels totaling 183,206 dwt have been retired, Kao told the Communications Committee of the Legislative Yuan.

Between January and September, Chinese freighters carried 7,360,762 tons of goods, or 32.69 per cent of Taiwan's total.

Air traffic volume for the nine months showed increases of 14 per cent (more than 4,000,000 persons) for passengers and 4 per cent (77,685 tons) for freight.

Minister Kao disclosed a private company will inaugurate helicopter tourist service along the Taichun-Lishan-Taichung-Sun Moon Lake-Taipei route. Landing pads and navigational facilities are being installed.

The railway network carried more than 6,240,000 passengers and 12,671,695 tons of cargo in the January-September period for increases of 3.55 and 1.13 per cent, respectively.

Engineers and technicians of the Retser Engineering Agency are building a highway in the rugged mountains of Western Sumatra in the Republic of Indonesia.

Some 200 RSEA engineers and mechanics and 1,400 Indonesian workers are working on the road from Padang, port city in the west, to Palembang in the south.

RSEA is building the rust and second sections of the Sawahtamband-Muarabungo-Lubuklinggu stretch of 500 kilometers. The first section covers a distance of 50.9 kilometers between Sawahtambang and Bukitsebelah and the second section from Bukitsebelah to Kotabaru is of 78.44 kilometers.

Construction of the first section got under way in August, 1972, and has been completed. The second section will be completed next June. The entire 1,200-meter highway will cost 7.7 billion Indonesia rupiahs, equivalent to US$1,872 million.

RSEA invested US$6 million in heavy engineering equipment: bulldozers, tractors, scrapers, motor graders, plate compactors, heavy rollers, loaders, wagon drills and jack-hammers. There are two batching plants, two crushing plants and one asphalt mixing plant.

"We have experienced extreme construction difficulties, including long and heavy rainfall," said Yiu Lang-hsing, chief engineer and general manager of the RSEA Indonesia branch.

"We had to bring in some experienced mechanics, operators and foremen from Taiwan and Thailand to reinforce our staff make-up during the early stage of construction. Now a number of Indonesian workers have been trained and are doing well."

Yiu, nicknamed "Mountain King," supervised RSEA highway construction in Thailand.

Governor Hsieh Tung-ming made an oral administrative report to the fourth session of the Fifth Taiwan Provincial Assembly.

He reviewed transportation, rural and urban development projects and the well-to-do program.

By the end of August, Taichung Harbor was 20.74 per cent complete and progress was being made on the Suao-Hualien Railway, preparations for electrification of the western trunk railway and construction of Suao Harbor.

One hundred and six of 266 rural development projects have been completed. Rice production is up.

In cities markets are being built and water supplies improved. The well-to-do program has cut the number of poor families from 750,000 in 1971 to 430,000 in 1974. The number of poor people decreased from 391,000 in 1971 to 196,000 in 1974.

A 10-year community development plan is under way. Schools will be made into centers for social improvement by:

- Opening libraries, auditoriums and play grounds to residents.
- Sponsoring of sports and holiday events.
- Urging teachers to provide community leadership.
- Dispatching Boy Scouts to help maintain traffic order, improve the environment and publicize the need for family planning.

Clinics of villages and townships will be placed under control of the public health bureaus of county governments. The Taiwan Provincial Government will send doctors to 46 clinics. Military doctors will serve the people in remote areas.

Six members of the secessionist ''Taiwan Independence" movement renounced their cause and returned to Taipei.

They were Lin Lu-huan, 43, of Taichung, information minister of the "Taiwan Association;" Huang Lai-wang, 67, of Taipei, member of the "Taiwan Association;" Lu Cheng-tu. 41, of Keelung, member of the "Provisional Assembly of the Formosa Republic;" Yang Tzu-hu, 63, of Taipei, member of the "Taiwan Democratic Independence Party;" Yang Hsin-chi, 57, of Pingtung. member of the "Taiwan Democratic Independence Party:" and Chan Tung-kuang, 50, of Miaoli, member of the "Taiwan Freedom Independence Party."

In a written statement released upon arrival. the six said they had engaged in the secessionist movement in the Osaka area of Japan because they were "misled by some traitorous elements." Once aware of the progress and prosperity achieved under the Chinese government, they decided to rejoin their compatriots on Taiwan for the reconstruction of the island.

All had been away from Taiwan for 20 to 30 years. The 57-year-old Yang Hsin-chi was reunited with a daughter from whom he had been separated for 34 years.

Yang was drafted into the Japanese army during the war. His wife was 24 and their daughter was barely a year old. After the war, Yang went to Japan and has a restaurant in Nishinomiya, Osaka. His wife remarried after waiting for him for years. Yang married a Japanese.

The secessionist movement, once active in Japan and the United States, is virtually defunct.

The collapse began with return to Taiwan of Thomas Liao in 1965. Liao was "president of the Formosan Republic" with headquarters in Tokyo. He is now vice chairman of Tsengwen Dam Construction Commission.

In 1966, Cheng Wang-fu, "chairman of the Taiwan Democratic Government Party," came back to Taiwan. Others followed. All were allowed to return to Japan to continue their businesses.

A spokesman for the Republic of China expressed indignation at the removal of a marble plaque of Confucian sayings from the United Nations and condemned it as "a wanton act."

"I should like to sound a note of warning," said Rear Adm. Liu Hoh-tu, spokesman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, "that if the removal of the Confucius plaque is a trend to be tolerated, we are afraid that it will not be long before the United Nations follows the fate of the League of Nations."

The marble plaque, a gift from the Republic of China, was taken from the U.N. building recently on order of Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim.

This, Adm. Liu said, "was due to the persistent pressure which the Chinese Communist regime had exerted upon the United Nations Secretary General since last year.

"The Chinese Communist regime has brought the notorious anti-Confucius campaign into the world organization. The Chinese Communist regime is determined to see that the U.N. dances to its tune," he continued.

"A very grave situation" has arisen from the removal of the plaque. It has set "a dangerous precedent, which, if unchallenged, is bound further to shake the foundation of the United Nations."

By following this precedent, the spokesman said, "the Chinese Communist regime may be emboldened to undo what the United Nations has done in the past."

"For instance," he added, "the regime may soon ask for the removal from the official record of the United Nations a resolution adopted in 1951 by the General Assembly condemning it as an aggressor in the Korean War."

In the quotation on the plaque, Confucius urged the creation of a society in which "mutual confidence is promoted and good neighborliness cultivated," - a society of "The Great Harmony" in line with the principles embodied in the Charter of the United Nations.

This incident brought criticism from President Chiang Kai-shek.

The President said removal of the plaque was another indication of the Chinese Communists' fear of the pervasive influence of the Sage's teachings.

President Chiang's remarks were included in his message to the Confucius-Mencius Society, which held its annual convention in Taipei.

The anti-Confucius campaign shows the Chinese Communists fear Dr. Sun Yat-sen's Three Principles of the People, which embodies Confucian teachings, the chief executive said. The ideals are deeply ingrained in Chinese culture. Any anti-Confucian drive, said the President, opposes the essence of Chinese culture and is doomed to fail.

The teachings of Confucius, President Chiang continued, are everlasting and irrepressible. They are always new and fresh. Light and justice will in the long run prevail over darkness and dictatorship.

Twenty-three refugees who reached Kinmen after drifting in a small boat for three days were brought to Taipei.

Their first impression was of "paradise on earth." After a visit to the Far Eastern Department Store, they said they had never seen such an abundance of goods.

"Life here is better than our dreams," one of them said.

Lin Sao-han, 61, eldest of the group, said seven families of Jaoping county, Kwangtung, agreed to escape.

They got hold of a boat but could take little besides kitchen utensils.

They drifted to Little Kinmen, where they were welcomed by the garrison.

Lin was a major with government forces before the Chinese Communist takeover.

The refugees were clad in rags. They got new clothes and resettlement aid from the Free China Relief Association.