- Economic policies of the United States must be studied thoroughly to find out their possible effects on the Republic of China's economy.
- The government has adopted the policy of developing sophisticated and precision industries so as to lay a solid foundation for foreign trade. Ways should be found to encourage and accelerate the development of such industries.
- Farmland consolidation must be accelerated to facilitate mechanization and increase agricultural production.
- To solve the housing problem, the government should not only carry out public housing projects on schedule but also help farmers improve their living conditions.
- Special attention should be directed to air and water pollution.
- Coal may replace oil as the major source of energy. Plans must be made for coal transportation and related facilities.
- Scholars and experts should be asked to study factors that may widen the gap between rich and poor in the course of national economic development so that precautionary measures can be taken.
- Government should try to maintain stable commodity prices. Factors that may cause sharp increases need to be determined with a view to controlling them.
The President wants a larger investment in science education. He issued a directive after a report on science and technology education in the last year. Education Minister Chu Hwei-sen reported to the Kuomintang Central Standing Committee meeting, of which the President is chairman.
He said the nation should try to attract more scientists and technicians, establish a science education system and nurture interest in science and technology from kindergarten on.
Science education needs up-to-date equipment, more money for research and more teachers and technicians. The Education Ministry was told to recommend plans.
The stress in science education should be on machinery, heavy and chemical industries, precision electronics and public engineering, the President said. He urged that research and invention be encouraged. Qualified teachers should be sent abroad for advanced training and more fellowships should be given to competent underprivileged students, he said.
President Chiang expressed belief that science and technology hold the key to the success or failure of economic development.
Premier Y.S. Sun told the Legislative Yuan that the Republic of China is a sovereign state and that foreign interference will not be brooked.
He made the comment in a written statement answering questions raised by Legislators Chou Hui-mo, Hsieh Kuo-cheng and Wang Pao-hsuan.
The lawmakers said foreigners had interfered in the legal proceedings of the Kaohsiung incident.
Highlights of Premier Sun's statement:
"1. The Republic of China is a constitutional state and the determination of the government to carry out democratic rule will never be affected by any factor.
"2. The Republic of China is governed by law, so the Kaohsiung incident will be handled in accordance with the principle of justice and the normal practices of law, in which no innocent person will be wrongly punished and no guilty person will go unpunished.
"3. The Republic of China is a sovereign state and the exercise of this sovereignty will absolutely not brook foreign interference.
"4. National security and individual freedom must be equally stressed. The Republic of China is in the period of mobilization for putting down Communist insurgency. For years, the Chinese Communists have endlessly engaged in subversive activities. Social security and political stability may be jeopardized at any time, justifying the government's imposition of martial law in Taiwan, Peng-hu, Kinmen and Matsu, the bastion for national recovery. I must emphasize that the martial law is intended to ensure the people's security and freedom and absolutely not designed to deprive them of their freedom. The government is always very careful in applying martial law. Provided national security is not jeopardized, all of the people's rights will be safeguarded in accordance with the normal practices of law."
Premier Sun urged government agencies to work out measures to protect consumers.
He made the call at a meeting to discuss a consumer protection proposal submitted by the Research, Development and Evaluation Commission.
The Ministries of Justice and Economic Affairs and the National Health Administration were urged to draft laws and regulations to protect consumers.
These guidelines were proposed by the RDEC:
- Strengthening of juridical protection for consumers.
- Drafting of a fair trade act and commodity labeling act as soon as possible.
- Revision of national standards for commodities so they be used as criteria for inspections. Standards for pharmaceuticals, cosmetics and foodstuffs will be given priority.
- Suppression of false and infringing trademarks and strengthening of protection for patents.
- Regulation of drug advertising.
- Continuation of one-price and public pricing campaigns.
- Strengthening of control and inspection of foodstuffs.
The Premier also called on government agencies to adopt measures to increase farm income. He said that in the current stage of Taiwan's economic development, agricultural development is as important as industrial development.
Problems hampering development of the agricultural sector should be quickly overcome, the Premier said. These problems include farm product distribution, irrigation, the supply of insecticides and housing.
The Premier designated the council for Agricultural Planning and Development as coordinator of the program.
The new Haitian ambassador, Reymond Mathieu (left), presents his credentials to Foreign Minister Chu Fu-sung. (File photo)
Foreign Minister Chu Fu-sung reiterated the government policy of no compromise with the Chinese Communists in closed door testimony before the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Legislative Yuan.
The government will remain in the democratic camp, reject compromise with the Chinese Communists and make no deals with other Communist countries, Chu said.
While the government has strengthened its diplomatic relations with friendly countries, it also has sought to improve "substantive" relations with other free countries. "We are always on our toes, ready to react to the changing world," he told legislators.
Chu said Japan has elevated the status of Chinese representatives in Japan and approved opening of an Association of East Asian Relations office in Yokohama. The office handles visa applications.
In Thailand, the Chinese representatives' office has been renamed the Far East Trade Service. The Australian government has waived a demand for guarantees of visa applications by Republic of China citizens.
The government has opened offices in Switzerland and the Netherlands. Greece, Belgium and France have opened trade and cultural centers in Taipei.
In the past year, relations between the Republic of China and the United States have improved substantially, Minister Chu said. Chinese representatives in the United States and U.S. representatives in the Republic of China have established a modus vivendi after some initial groupings. The two sides have reached broad agreement on privileges to be given to American personnel in the Republic of China and Chinese personnel in the United States.
Except for the 1954 Mutual Defense Treaty, which was nullified at the end of 1979, treaties and agreements between the two countries remain in force and some are being revised, Chu said.
The United States resumed selling arms to the Republic of China early this year. Trade between the two reached US$9,028,900,000 last year, up by 24 per cent over 1978. Science and technology cooperation is in progress.
Korea and Saudi Arabia are important allies. Relations with Korea have always been close. Those with Saudi Arabia were augmented with Premier Y.S. Sun's visit last year. Relations with southern African countries were cemented with Premier Sun's visit to four of them.
Some Central and South American countries experienced instability and even coups in the last year, but relations with these countries remain intact except for Colombia, which severed ties with the ROC, Chu said.
Dr. Wei Yung, chairman of the Research, Development and Evaluation Commission of the Executive Yuan, said the United States should take a positive attitude toward regional cooperation among the Republic of China, South Korea and Japan.
Dr. Wei, an international relations scholar, expressed his views at the 22nd convention of the International Studies Association.
Participating in a panel discussion on "American Foreign Policy in Asia," Dr. Wei said that al though the United States has been talking about "multipolar systems" in its policy toward Asia, American interests and security depend heavily on the three countries in Northeast Asia.
"The small trilateral relationship among the Republic of China, the Republic of Korea and Japan is the foundation of a larger trilateral relationship among the United States, Europe and Japan," he said.
Dr. Wei said the United States should adopt a positive attitude toward cooperation among the three Northeast Asian countries in such matters as arms sales and economic collaboration.
The panel was chaired by Dr. Wenberg Chai, vice president of the University of South Dakota. The consensus of the scholars was that the United States, facing Soviet challenges, should reassess its role in Asia. It should demonstrate strength and will to use its strength to implement a credible policy instead of rhetoric, they agreed.
Senator Barry Goldwater described as "McCarthyism" an onesided statement by Senator Edward Kennedy on the sedition charges against eight defendants in the Kaohsiung incident.
In a statement to the Senate, Goldwater said he has never accepted the term "McCarthyism. But if such a thing exists, it has been carried to its heights in the written statement of the Senator from Massachusetts. "
Kennedy's statement was printed in the Congressional Record of March 5.
"That statement," Senator Goldwater said, "contains some of the most onesided arguments I have ever seen, and I doubt whether the Senator from Massachusetts would have made such serious charges, by innuendo, if he had been present to read it."
Goldwater said he investigated the Kaohsiung case of December 10 carefully with many sources who have first-hand information.
"Frankly," he said "I believe the government on Taiwan has shown unusual restraint in the face of extreme provocation."
He described the Kaohsiung incident and said there is "irrefutable on-the-site evidence that the police exercised great restraint. The police were under strict orders not to use force and did not carry firearms," he added.
It is clear, he said, that a small minority of the demonstrators at Kaohsiung had decided on deliberate confrontation with the government.
The critics of the Republic of China are using human rights as an issue that the ordinary citizen in Taiwan does not need to think about and is not troubled by, but which if blown out of all proportion can "weaken the stability of authority and orderly society," Senator Goldwater said.
"I would caution critics of Taiwan to check the evidence before conferring the legitimacy of publication in the Congressional Record of the wildest possible accusations," Goldwater said. "I sincerely believe that if anyone would check the charges of so-called harsh conditions reported in the statement by the Senator from Massachusetts with officials at the American Institute in Taiwan, or the Department of State, or any other sources that cannot be said to be linked either with the Taiwan government or Taiwanese radical groups, he will find the charges to be without foundation."
Senator Goldwater said he could not understand how anyone could suggest that the government was in any way responsible for the death of the mother and two daughters of a defendant.
He said the Kennedy statement's innuendo is that the killing took place in retaliation. "I cannot believe that anyone connected with the governing authorities on Taiwan had anything to do with the savage killing of this family," he said.
"In my opinion, it does a disservice to truth and to the reputation of a still valuable friend of our country to make or report accusations of this extreme nature without having any evidence to support them."
The Coalition for Asian Peace and Security, a citizen's group established to monitor threats to peace in the Asian and Pacific region, has reiterated its support for adequate arms sales to the Republic of China to ensure peace and security.
The organization said in its March newsletter that there is a need "to ensure Taiwan's security and Western Pacific security by making additional items available for sale, including harpoon missiles, modern tanks, armored personnel carriers and more advanced jet fighters."
It pointed out that since the lead-time on many of these items may be as long as four or five years, decisions made by the Carter administration now will affect security conditions in the mid-to-late 1980s.
Full implementation of the security provisions of the Taiwan Relations Act is hindered by an obsessive fear within the administration that Peiping might be offended, the newsletter said.
"The Coalition, along with other groups, will continue to impress upon Congress and the administration the necessity of adequate arms sales programs for Taiwan and other Western allies in Asia."
Dr. Han Lih-wu, secretary general of the Asian People's Anti-Communist League, warned the United States, Britain and Japan against selling military equipment to mainland China.
In a message to President Jimmy Carter, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and Prime Minister Masayoshi Ohira, Han said such sales would bring greater disaster to the non-Communist countries than U.S. military sales to the Soviet Union. "Red China," Han said, "represents no serious counter-balance to the Soviet Union and is not a friend to the West."
He called on the non-Communist nations to heed the warning of Russian author Alexander Solzhenitsyn against giving the Chinese Communists technology and investment.
Han doubted that moral values and human rights considerations had been included in Peiping's new policies.
In his capacity as chairman of the Chinese Association for Human Rights, Dr. Han criticized publication of the 1976 report on human rights in the Republic of China by Amnesty International is a move aimed at influencing the Kaohsiung incident trial. He denied any abuse of prisoners and pointed to the Kaohsiung case and trial as an example of ROC justice and fairness.
There are no purge victims and political prisoners, he said, adding:
"Ours is not a Communist country and there have never been political purges. Where do these alleged political victims come from? Our country has never had a problem with ethnic or religious minorities. I don't know what the report is talking about."
Han noted there have been only a few cases in which the death penalty was carried out.
Aviation officials and experts have expressed reserved satisfaction with the newly signed Air Transport Agreement between the Coordination Council for North American Affairs and American Institute in Taiwan.
The agreement succeeds the ROC-U.S. Air Transport Agreement signed at Nanking in 1946.
Officials of the Civil Aeronautics Administration expect the accord to help strengthen bilateral aviation relations. The agreement will allow China Airlines, the national flag carrier, or other a pointed airlines to fly to four more U.S. destinations: Guam, Seattle, Dallas and New York. The present three are San Francisco, Los Angeles and Honolulu.
The ROC airlines also are authorized to extend flights from the U.S. to Europe and Latin America.
Flags and symbols used by CAL will not be changed despite the protests of the Chinese Communists.
Some observers expressed regret that the Republic of China negotiators failed to sign an agreement in the Chinese language because of differences over the translation of a number of the terms. They feared the setting of a precedent for other accords.
According to the agreement, restrictions are removed on types of airplanes, flights and fares. This sets the stage for intense competition between big American airlines and smaller CAL or other domestic airlines.
CAL will inaugurate weekly service between Taipei and Johannesburg, probably in July, according to the Ministry of Communications.
South Africa's airline will open the Taipei route this month, extending its flights from Hongkong.
CAL will use a new Boeing 747-SP on the Johannesburg route.
Public functionaries and the military will get a sizable pay raise in fiscal 1981. The Central Government has budgeted NT$10 billion for the purpose.
The National Security Council, which acts in an advisory capacity to the administration, examined the proposed budget for fiscal 1981. It is balanced at NT$250 billion, an increase of NT$60 billion over the current fiscal year ending June 30.
President Chiang called the budget appropriate. But he said government officials should be reminded to spend money carefully and sparingly. He seeks tighter controls and stressed the importance of price stability.
Government employees are expected to get a pay raise of around 20 per cent compared with 13.8 per cent last July.
President Chiang directed that science, technology and cultural projects receive increased shares of the budget. He wants the gap between rich and poor to be further reduced.
Tax receipts will make up a large part of fiscal 1981 revenues, followed by monopoly revenues and proceeds from government enterprises.
National defense and international relations get the biggest share of spending, followed by economic and transportation projects, science and technology, culture and social welfare.
Passenger and cargo volume showed substantial growth at the Chiang Kai-shek International Airport serving northern Taiwan, the Civil Aeronautics Administration said.
A total of 3,480,000 passengers passed through the airport in its first year of operation, 14.86 per cent more than at Sungshan in Taipei the year before.
The airport handled some 125,000 metric tons of air cargo, a gain of 16.75 per cent.
Business income in the second half of last year was NT$670 million.
The airport was opened February 26, 1979.
Two more expansions are scheduled. When completed, CCK will have three terminal buildings to serve traffic needs into the 21st century.
Chinese Petroleum Corporation drilled 31 wells with mixed results in a 12-month period ended last January, Economic Minister Chang Kwang-shih reported.
Eighteen wells were drilled on land in Taiwan. Ten of these have a combined daily yield of 623,000 cubic meters of natural gas and 59 kiloliters of crude.
At sea, CPC completed nine wells and is drilling two more. Five wells off the Hsinchu coast produce 550 kiloliters of crude and 620,000 cubic meters of natural gas daily.
CPC drilled one well each in the Philippines and Colombia with striking oil or gas.
Minister Chang reported the energy supply of the Republic of China amounted to the equivalent of 30 million kiloliters of crude oil last year broken down into coal, 12 per cent; petroleum, 72 per cent; natural gas, 6 per cent; nuclear power, 6 per cent; and hydroelectric power, 4 per cent.
Due to the skyrocketing of price of oil and the shortage of Taiwan energy resources, the government has revised its energy policy to reduce consumption and diversify sources of supply.
Chang said under the 10-year economic development plan, coal and nuclear power will replace part of crude oil imports.
Coal is sought from Australia, South Africa, Canada and the United States on a long-term basis.
Government efforts to develop defense technology, replace weapons, mobilize logistics and strengthen combat capability have made tremendous progress in the last few years, Defense Minister Kao Kuei-yuan said.
Reporting to the Legislative Yuan, Kao said that the first priority of military strategy has been placed on the concept of consolidating offense and defense into an integral whole to control the Taiwan Straits. This will safeguard the bastion of Taiwan or support a counteroffensive against the Chinese Communists.
To assure overwhelming control of the Taiwan Straits, the government has given priority to strengthening the combat capability of the Air Force and Navy.
The Air Force has completed a number of improvement programs, including replacement of old fighter planes, automation of air defense, deployment of low-flying missiles and development of the aviation industry, Kao said.
To build up the Navy, the government has installed radar-controlled missiles and an anti-submarine system.
Advanced weapons systems include rockets, missiles, planes, ships and chemical warfare, Kao said.
Admiral Soong Chang-chih, chief of the general staff, cautioned the nation against a false sense of security growing out of Western assessments that Peiping cannot acquire the military capability for large-scale amphibious operations for some years.
Speaking to local reporters, the admiral said some people have been misled by Peiping's peace offensive into believing the regime has no intention of attacking Taiwan militarily.
"For years the Chinese Communists have been clamoring for the 'liberation of Taiwan' and have included this in their constitution," Admiral Soong said. "They have adamantly refused to rule out a military solution even after the establishment of diplomatic relations with the United States."
He said the people should ask themselves whether they can repel a Communist invasion instead of guessing whether the Chinese Communists might invade Taiwan.
"If we are incapable of defending ourselves, the Communists may come across the Taiwan Straits at any minute," he said. "If we keep on increasing our defense capability and keep our power dry, the enemy will think twice before making any rash move against us."
He said the Republic of China has been beefing up its defense capability with intensification of training and modernization of weapons and equipment.
The Ministry of Communications gave its approval to the plan to reroute the proposed south bend railway following a three-hour review and discussion of the proposal submitted by the Taiwan Provincial Government.
Construction will start in July this year, take five years and cost NT$12 billion. The railway is one of the 12 new construction projects.
The new plan will lengthen the line to 97.9 kilometers compared with the original 86 kilometers. But the construction period will be shortened from eight years to five years.
From Fangliao station in Pingtung, the line will pass through Tawu, Fushan, Tashi, Chinlung, Tamali, Sanho, Chihpen and Kanglo to Peinan in Taitung.
The plan calls for construction of 22 kilometers of tunnels contrasted with 30 kilometers as originally contemplated.
Services and labor cost 13.8 per cent more in Taipei last year than in 1978, the Municipal Accounting & Statistics Department reported.
With 1976 as the base of 100, the services and labor index rose to 132.08 in 1979, up 13.8 per cent from the 116.06 of 1978.
Except for November, services and labor costs rose steadily throughout 1979. The highest rise of 7.6 per cent was registered in September. Municipal officials attributed this to the tuition increases at government and private schools.
Transportation and telephone costs rose by 11.12 per cent due to increases in taxi, bus and air fares.
Personal hygiene rose by 10.05 per cent, affecting haircuts for men and beauty shop services for women.
School expenses were up 19.83 per cent.
Entertainment gained 9.38 per cent, due mostly to increases in movie admission prices and tourist bus fares.
Miscellaneous expenses were up 25.62 per cent, the highest rise of all. This included repair of watches, motorcycles, cars and shoes, and the printing of invitations and name cards.
Monthly income of the average family in Taipei last year was NT$20,600 (about US$572), up 28 per cent compared with 1978.
The Taipei City Government said average monthly spending was NT$16,073 per family for savings of NT$4,527.
Food was the costliest item, accounting for NT$5,929 monthly, or 36.89 per cent.
Other major expenses included housing, NT$3,524; education and recreation, NT$1,386; clothing, NT$1,046; transportation and communications, NT$988: miscellaneous, NT$979; health care, NT$683; furniture and home fixtures, NT$480; household management, NT$298; beverages, NT$145; and tobacco, NT$72.
Another Taipei report said the city had 542,041 families as of the end of 1979. The population was 2,196,237, averaging 8,070 persons per square kilometer.
The population increase was 32,632 persons, or 1.497 per cent, lowest since Taipei became a Special Municipality over a decade ago.
More families moved to satellite cities than moved into Taipei City.
Visa services by the (Japanese) Interchange Association's Taipei Office began improving as office hours were extended from a half-day to a full day.
The long queue in front of the Interchange office on Tsinan Road in Taipei was no longer to be seen.
Because of the limited office hours, many people had to wait a long time. Each applicant could apply for only five visas. The Association was handling about 800 applications daily.
People and travel agencies complained about the short office hours and long lines. The Chinese government proposed improvements.
The Interchange Association handled more than 10,000 applications from Chinese tourists monthly last year and more than 160,000 Chinese visited Japan.