As Taiwan\'s Links With Mainland Grow, So Do Concerns

TAIPEI - The 188-second flurry of fireworks that shot out at midnight from Taipei 101, the world's second-tallest building, drew a large crowd of 800,000 and marked the start of 2013 on the island republic.

But another event last night, this one in Taipei's Liberty Square, next to the politically symbolic Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall, told a very different story: of deep-running fears here that the People's Republic of China, the Communist Party-run Chinese mainland, is slowly engulfing the Republic of China, or democratic Taiwan â€" indirectly, through ever-deepening economic integration and purchases of the island republic's free and vibrant media by Taiwanese businessmen with large financial stakes in China, who want to see unification happen soon.

So the demonstration, by the Anti Media Monster Youth Alliance, part of the Anti Media Monopoly Movement, w as significant, if far smaller than the crowd at the fireworks (accounts vary, but the protesters may have numbered up to 1,000, the China Post reported.)

At stake is nothing less than Taiwan's future, say the students, who have a Facebook page and whose symbol is a Tyrannosaurus dinosaur. Their slogan: “You're very big, but I'm not afraid” (in Chinese: “ 你好大, æˆ'不怕.”) There is also a slide show of the protest.

Under the circumstances, it was simply “boring and low-class” to celebrate New Year's Eve as normal, a student who took part in the protest told the Taipei Times, somewhat acidly.

“F reedom of speech is important for everybody and is a basic element of democracy,” said the political science graduate, surnamed Chou, the Taipei Times reported. “We may not have so much freedom of speech after 2013 if nobody pays attention to it. That would be tragic,”

At center stage in the drama roiling Taiwan, which may well color politics and society this year, is the controversial businessman Tsai Eng Meng, founder of Want Want Group, a snack and drinks conglomerate with major investments in China.

One of Taiwan's richest men, Mr. Tsai has steadily expanded his media empire through his Want Want China Times, which now includes newspapers and television and is run by his son, Tsai Shao-chung.

The students, and their supporters in larger society, accuse the Tsais of turning their media into “personal loudhailers” pushing China's interests in Taiwan and forcing journalists to write articles that contravene principles of fairness and free speech.

So the prospect that a group of investors including the Want Want China Times will buy Taiwan's Next Media group, which contains the biggest-selling Taiwan newspaper, Apple Daily, owned by the Hong Kong media owner Jimmy Lai, who has long been critical of the Communist Party-run mainland, is really alarming some. The deal, which is being scrutinized by Taiwan regulators, may go through as early as the end of February, according to Apple Daily sources. Critics warn it would give Mr. Tsai and his group a nearly 50 percent monopoly of Taiwan media.

Mr. Tsai has made no bones of his belief that democratic Taiwan needs to unify with authoritarian China.

“Whether you like it or not, unification is going to happen sooner or later,” he predicted in an interview last year with the Washington Post, arguing unification will only be good for Taiwan. M r. Tsai also appeared to deny the occurrence or severity of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre in Beijing.

What are the analysts saying?

“The stand-off in the 2012 Anti-Media Monopoly Movement involves on one side Taiwan's democracy activists who have been enabled by media pluralism and freedom of expression, and on the other by opportunistic Taiwanese anti-democratic corporate interests that may well be proxies for PRC authoritarianism and the Chinese party-state's territorial claims over Taiwan,” wrote Mark Harrison, a Taiwan specialist at the University of Tasmania, in an article published in The China Story.

While opinion polls show that only a tiny minority of people in Taiwan wa nt a swift merger with China, Mr. Tsai says he can't wait: “I really hope that I can see that,” he told the Washington Post.

Why does this all matter? Well, it matters a lot to some people in Taiwan, who treasure their freedom. To the world, which watches as China rises, it matters too â€" a unified China would be a behemoth with around $3.7 trillion in foreign exchange reserves.

As a video from Radio Free Asia shows, Asia last year was the site of some dramatic changes â€" and saw the growth of freedoms.

The student protestors gathered in Liberty Square last night as the firework show at Taipei 101, themed “Dance to the Future,” burst into color, want Taiwan to remain part of that trend.

As economic integration between Taiwan and China deepens through deals such as last week's U.S. $906 million purchase of China's First Sino Bank by Taiwan's Fubon Financial, which “caps a record year for cross-strait acquisitions as economic integration between Taiwan and the mainland deepens,” as Bloomberg Business reported, resisting mainland China-led change is getting harder and harder, the students feel.

Is China Retaliating Against Western Journalists?

The forced departure of a New York Times correspondent from mainland China on December 31, after authorities failed to issue him a visa, led the newspaper to publicly call on Beijing to issue the journalist a visa, as well as to issue long-delayed press credentials to its new Beijing bureau chief.

Chris Buckley, a 45-year-old Australian who has worked as a journalist in China since 2000, left Beijing with his partner and their daughter for Hong Kong on Monday, The Times reported.

The Times' Beijing bureau chief, Philip P. Pan, has been awaiting credentials since March. Normally both the visa and the credential process takes weeks or months.

Beijing's failure to provide Mr. Buckley a visa in time for the year-end deadline raised worries that Chinese authorities were continuing a cold war against news organizations that had published re ports that displeased Community Party leaders.

As our colleague Mark McDonald reported last week in his article on tightening Web censorship in China, since the day The Times published a investigation into the riches of the family of Prime Minister Wen Jiabao both its English-language Web site and its Chinese-language site have been blocked in China.

“The visa troubles come amid government pressure on the foreign news media over investigations into the finances of senior Chinese leaders, a delicate subject. Corruption is widely reported in China, but top leaders are considered off limits,” The Times reported.

The Sydney Morning Herald reported that Mr. Buckley had been “expelled” from China, but in an interview with the South China Post as he landed in Hong Kong, Mr. Buckley said he did not use that word.

Many companies, not just news organizations but also technology giants like Google, have faced the challenge of how to work in China without getting on the wrong side of Chinese authorities.

Do you think the actions against the journalists are retaliation for reporting Chinese authorities found unpalatable? What options do Western media have to cover China accurately?

Letter From the American West: Gun Debate Misses the Mark

TUCSON, Arizona - In the Philippines, as in most places, gun violence has some definition to it; you can calculate odds in any given situation. In Manila and Mindanao, just recently, my street-smarts alarm barely buzzed.Then I came home to Arizona.

As the NRA says, guns don't kill people - people kill people. And with so many unbalanced individuals packing heat, you never know what to expect.

Two Januarys ago here, an assassin in a Safeway grocery store parking lot shot Congresswoman Gabby Giffords in the head and killed six others. Millions were raised for a National Institute for Civil Discourse. Bill Clinton and the elder George Bush, honorary chairmen, flew to Tucson for the speeches.

Discourse is no more civil today, but assault weapons sell more briskly than ever. The NRA wants not only to post rent-a-cop commandos at schools but also to arm tea chers.

Rosanne Thompson pierced the lunacy in a letter to the Arizona Daily Star: “I am a teacher â€" and I consistently misplace my keys, glasses, book bag, paper, pens. And you want me to carry a gun?”

What about Salpointe, the Catholic high school here? Guns for nuns?

No one is likely to ban guns in what used to be the Wild West, with so much flying lead deep in its culture. But you'd think a little sense would apply.

Sure, respect the Second Amendment. People should have all the muskets and muzzle-loaders they want. But in 1791 the point was to keep militiamen ready to beat back the British. Anyone who now thinks he can overthrow government with a personal armory (as attractive as that sometimes sounds) probably should be limited to peashooters.

The French, to name one example, bear plenty of arms. I'm careful d uring wild boar season not to snuffle under my olive trees in a brown fur coat. Otherwise, I don't worry. In France, you can't drop in to a gun show and buy a jeep-mounted sniper cannon that turns deer into pink slime.

European kids are taught at a young age to respect weaponry, and laws limit anyone's ability to pump automatic fire into a crowd. Yet, still, tragedies happen.

The gun debate in America seems to miss reality. Being armed may help on occasion but seldom protects against serious threat. As a reporter, I've happened upon hostile soldiers, terrorists and bandits. In no situation could I have shot myself to safety. On the contrary, with a gun on my hip I could hardly pass as a peaceable noncombatant.

After the Giffords shooting, one sensible witness said he had a gun, with a clear shot at the killer. But, he added, had he drawn it in the confusion, security people would likely have blasted him on the spot.

If an upstate New York psychopath t argets firemen, armed guards are not likely to save them. Weapons on fire trucks or, worse, where kids go to school only further sicken a society.

If authorities can't screen out all the crazies, at least they can limit their firepower. In an America plagued by unstable psyches and overstocked armories, it is as the NRA says. People, not guns, kill. That's the problem.

Bringing Sunlight to Africa, and Western Investors

Solar power use in the United States is booming, as we reported a few weeks ago.

In parts of the world where access to any kind of electricity â€" let alone the green kind â€" is scarce, however, the news is not as bright, at least not yet.

Many people in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia still rely on kerosene lamps, torches or candles to see at night, solutions that are polluting, expensive, noxious and, crucially, rarely emit good quality light.

That's where two business students at Stanford University taking a course on extreme affordability saw a sustainable business opportunity.

“It is actually possible to make an economically viable alternative to kerosene,” said Ned Tozun, co-founder of d.light, a company that is bringing rechargeable solar lamps to market in developing countrie s.

The company has been operational for five years and in recent months has manufactured between 200,000 and 300,000 lamps each month, with roughly 98 percent of those going to developing countries, according to Mr. Tozun, who is also the company's president.

Like the CleanStar Mozambique, the project that is bringing clean-burning bio fuel stoves to the kitchens of Maputo, the story of d.light highlights growing investor interest in the junction between development work, renewable energy and profit-driven business.

“What we sold those guys is that fundamentally it is a huge market,” said Mr. Tozun about winning over the first investors for his venture â€" most, but not all of whom, were social impact funds. (Earlier this month, our colleague Stephanie Strom at  DealBook mentioned d.light as one of those for-profits companies that non-profit funds invest in.)

The company designs, manufactures and sells rugged lanterns that can be recharged under the sun during the day, to produce a steady bright light when the sun is down.

Based on the newest battery technology and energy efficient LED bulbs, the lamps are designed and built to withstand years of everyday use (a claim that the company plans to back in 2013 with a two year guarantee on their products). These lanterns can be sold inexpensively enough - in the long-term - to be cheaper than the coal, kerosene or candles that they replace, explained Mr. Tozun in a telephone interview from California.

“If you can put it into the market, it's very scalable and much more sustainable,” said Mr. Tozun.

The market was ready for the rechargeable solar lantern, explained Mr. Tozun, who estimates that renewable energy lighting technology makes up only about 2 percent of the market today.

The company did not make production costs available. However, since the pilot stages of the program, the lamps have always been priced to reflect the eventual large-scale production, explained Mr. Tozun.

Depending on the location, the cheapest lantern sells for as little as $7, while more advanced models, like those that also have a cell phone charging port, can cost up to $30.

“Our customers are very risk averse,” said Mr. Tozun who said that the price of the lamp often represents the cost of several months of kerosene or coal.

The company works with local distributors to convince customers that the investment in the solar lantern is worth it in the long run.

Today, 1.4 billion people live without any access to electricity according, to the World Bank. Another 1.3 billion make do without access to r eliable electricity, meaning that a third of the world's population cannot rely on artificial light.

According to the World Bank studies, it would take $35-$40 billion of new money each year until 2030 to get universal access to electricity.

Unlike some other forms of renewable energy, solar power can easily be harvested off-grid, making it much more readily adaptable for areas with no distribution infrastructure. Since the chargers, the lanterns and the batteries are all one unit, end users invest just once, with no need for upkeep or supplies for several years, according to the company.

The bright, steady lights have many benefits, from more active family households to improved safety.

Last month the company celebrated “10 million lives improved” by its solar lamps, a milestone based on its calculati on of several members of a household benefiting from one lamp.The company says that the lanterns have impacted more than 2.5 million school-age children who can now study at home at night.

“It's not just marketing speak, they really transform peoples lives,” said Mr. Tozun.

What do you think? Do for-profit companies have a role in development work? Are they the most efficient way to get renewable energy to those who need it?

IHT Quick Read: Dec. 31

NEWS Indian women poured their anger into public demonstrations last week, reacting to news of the gang rape of a young woman who had moved to the city from a small village, with a new life in front of her. Many women in India say they are still subject to regular harassment and assault during the day and are fearful of leaving their homes alone after dark. Now they are demanding that the government, and a police force that they say offers women little or no protection, do something about it. Heather Timmons and Sruthi Gottipati report from New Delhi.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees on Sunday distributed emergency cold-weather supplies to families in a refugee camp where two days earlier a 3-year-old died of exposure to the freezing temperatures. But camp leaders and Afghan government officials criticized t he aid delivery as inadequate to protect residents from the weather and to prevent more deaths. Last winter, more than 100 children died of the cold in refugee camps around Kabul. Rod Nordland reports from Kabul, Afghanistan.

Say what you will about the euro zone's quarreling policy makers. They can claim at least one achievement during 2012: Their common currency still has a heartbeat. On the threshold of 2013, the debate is less about whether the euro will exist and more about how long it will take for the euro zone economy to recover and what must be changed to avoid future crises. Jack Ewing writes from Frankfurt.

A year ago, many people seriously doubted whether the euro would still exist by now. On the thresh old of 2013, the debate is more about how long it will take for the euro zone economy to recover and what must be changed to avoid future crises.

In Germany, the Social Democrats' candidate for chancellor, Peer Steinbrück, finds himself facing questions about speaking fees and a comment that Angela Merkel has the advantage of a “women's bonus.” Nicholas Kulish reports from Berlin.

EDUCATION A ratings system that gives lesser-known universities the chance to highlight their qualities by paying a fee creates potential for conflicts of interest, detractors say. D.D. Guttenplan writes from London.

ARTS The year ahead: Experiments in rapidly evolving areas of design for personal use, l ike 3-D printing and other digital production technologies, could eventually benefit millions of people. Alice Rawsthorn on design.

SPORTS Tony Greig, who died Saturday at age 66, did enough as a player to have been the most notable death in the cricket world in 2012.Yet his greater significance lay in the birth of World Series Cricket. Huw Richards writes from Bridgnorth, England.

When Thierry Henry was at Arsenal, he displayed almost feline speed of movement with impeccable ball skills. Theo Walcott is hoping to evolve into his successor. Rob Hughes on soccer.