Visit to President
As the New Year season approached, President Chiang Ching-kuo took time out from official duties for a special get-together with a unique group of 11 old friends.
The 11 had all met the President during his frequent visits around the island, engaged him in conversation and become special to him. They brought him a special gift to commemorate their friendship - a sculpted fiberglass relief showing themselves in conversation with the President.
President Chiang took the opportunity to bring himself up to date on career and family developments of the group. The 11 friends range from a seller of dried bean curd to a town magistrate, an orphanage manager and a taro-root "ice cream" shop proprietor.
The group had been invited to a special breakfast by the President in 1980 and has been very proud of it. They jointly contributed a fund for a special gift for him, and decided on the relief. With the geographical stone monument at Puli, Nantou County - Taiwan's geographical center- in the background, the relief shows the group surrounding the President.
Grassroots visits have been President Chiang's signature since his tenure of office as Premier. His amiability and a special touch with casual conversation usually make deep impressions on his constituents, who shower him with minor gifts (shrimp, straw mats, bamboo shoots) as warm, unpretentious and friendly as his characteristic handshakes and probing, personal conversations. When the President underwent medical treatment for his eyes recently, he was overwhelmed with get-well notes from the citizenry, notable especially for their "family-type" tone of concern.
"The President had light tea with us," said old friend Tai Jung Kuang, owner of a Hualien food store. "We talked about old times. He remembers every detail of how each of us met, and our work and families. He kept on saying he missed us and how happy he was to see us.”
PRESIDENT WELCOMES
Tech-accord
A new ROC-Japan science and technology cooperation agreement was welcomed by President Chiang Ching-kuo, who conveyed his appreciation to Japanese delegation leaders at the Presidential Office.
The delegation was led by Masao Maeda, and included members of the Japanese Diet.
The Republic of China and Japan signed the agreement, aimed at boosting bilateral scientific cooperation, at the conclusion of a two-day joint conference.
Signators were Chang Kwang-shih, chairman of the Asia and Pacific Council for Science and Technology, and chief of the Chinese delegation, and Maeda, chairman of the Japanese East Asian Association for Cooperation in Science and Technology, and head of the Japanese delegation.
Under the agreement, both sides agreed to strengthen cooperation in energy, industrial technology, medicine and hygiene, agricultural technology, scientific and technological education, scientific and technological research and development management, and to exchanges of information and publications on science and technology.
Other cooperation agreements between the two countries include the following special item:
• The Japanese association agreed to send automation experts to help the Chinese Productivity Center conduct a series of surveys on automation relevant to the garment, footwear, attaché case, hand tools, electronic, and electric appliance industries.
U.S. University Honors late President
To honor the memory of President Chiang Kai-shek, Pepperdine University in California will establish a permanent chair bearing the name of the late Chinese statesman.
Dr. George Chilingar, a member of the university's Committee on Honors, said that the Chiang Kai-shek Chair will be reserved for a Chinese professor who teaches courses related to education or culture.
A trust fund, in the amount of US$2 million, will be set up, Dr. Chilingar said. The interest generated from the fund will be used for the chair and scholarships for Chinese students.
He said Pepperdine will set aside US$1 million as a matching fund for contributions made by Chinese contributors, including the Tatung Institute of Technology in Taipei, and Fung Yim and Alex Lam in Hong Kong.
"Pepperdine has a great deal of respect for Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek," Dr. Chilingar said.
Pepperdine University, a private institute of higher learning, is located at Malibu Beach, Los Angeles. Its business school is among the top 10 the United States.
KUOMINTANG SWEEPS VOTE
In cross-Taiwan elections, the Kuomintang captured 682 of the 799 seats contested in balloting for 19 city and county councils.
Two elections were actually held simultaneously, one for members of the 19 city and county councils, and the other for town and village mayors. In the latter, the ruling party swept 299 out of 312 offices contested.
(Taipei and Kaohsiung Cities, both special municipalities under the jurisdiction of the Executive Yuan, held their elections for councilmen last November and were excluded from this round of elections. Their mayors are appointees).
Of 799 seats in the 19 city and county councils, 20 represent "plains" aborigines, and 30 "mountain" aborigines.
Two councilmen-elect are of the Young China Party, one of the two minority parties. The other minority party, the Democratic Socialists, entered no candidates in either of the two elections. The rest of the 115 are independents.
Among the newly-elected, 294 are incumbent, and 505 are freshmen. There were 8,160,000 eligible voters in the council member election. The turnout was 75.25 percent.
On last Nov. 16, the average turnout was 71.27 percent. Taipei City had 67.89 percent, or the lowest.
Of 312 town and village mayors elected, 214 are new faces: only 98 are incumbents. Of the mayors-elect, 299 are Kuomintang members, and 13 independents. For this election, there were less eligible voters, or 7,210,000. The turnout was higher, at 76.6 percent.
Among the mayors-elect, Liu Chu-chieh of Tienchung, Changhua, is the only mainlander. He is from Hunan. He threw his hat into the mayor's election, running against the incumbent mayor, Chiang Chao-chia, a native son. Liu collected 10,686 votes, beating Chiang by 885 votes.
At Chungli, Taoyuan, Lin Huan-fu, an independent, lost to the incumbent Kuomintang mayor, Lu Ho-ching, by only 16 votes. Lu collected 33,426 votes, against Lin's 33,410. In Linyuan, Kaohsiung, 5000 votes were declared null and void in the mayor's election. The 5000 were believed to be protest votes against Huang Ching-ching, a Kuomintang member, who was elected for the first time. He ran unopposed. When the campaigning began, he had an independent opponent, Liu Chen-ming. But Liu quit by moving his residence, leaving the field clear to Huang. Voters, at least 5000 of them, suspected horse-trading deals behind the scenes, and deliberately made their ballots void.
MAINLAND SUFFERING
New Terrorism wave
The following article, datelined Peiping, is by Michael Weisskopf of the Washington Post.
A disgruntled taxicab driver docked of her bonus after a dispute with her boss plowed her car at high speed into a crowd of Chinese tourists a week ago, killing several persons, according to informed Peiping sources.
Three to 10 persons were killed - the reports vary - and as many as a dozen were seriously injured, including the young driver who finally smashed into the marble bridge leading to the Forbidden City.
Known acts of terrorism have been rare in the tightly controlled Chinese society since the open warfare of the Cultural Revolution ended a decade ago. Although inner-family violence is not uncommon, public outbursts are considered unusual.
In the past 18 months, however, sporadic episodes of terrorism reportedly have caused hundreds of deaths and maimings. There has been a bombing in the Peiping train station and on a Fujian bus, a short-lived uprising in southern China and communal fighting in the northwest.
While these incidents are isolated, foreign observers regard them as symptoms of a larger, more pervasive social frustration caused by the clash of rising expectations and economic scarcity and by the sense of individual helplessness in an autocratic political system. Communist leaders who once inspired the nation to revolt now acknowledge this slow social boil and take every precaution to contain it.
Although many middle-aged and elderly Chinese are content in the quieter, more moderate China of Deng Xiaoping, the Communist Party deputy chairman, the society still crackles with resentment and cynicism from two groups that consider themselves the newly disenfranchised.
First are the hundreds of thousands of demobilized soldiers who cast their fortunes with what had once been a secure and prestigious job only to be sent back to their impoverished rural homes because of budget cuts that forced a reduction in China's huge standing army.
Perhaps more alienated is the so-called lost generation - millions of young people, now in their 20s and 30s, who sacrificed their educations and career ladders to participate in the Cultural Revolution.
The Peiping cabdriver falls into this age group. Said to be in her early 20s, she was working in the lowly service sector, like many of the Cultural Revolution refugees.
According to Chinese sources, she was told Jan. 10 that she would lose the next two months of bonuses because of an argument with her boss over wages.
As usual in cases of public security, officials refused comment. The Foreign Ministry, which takes questions of foreign reporters, would only say the matter was under investigation.
Fifteen months ago, a demobilized soldier from the countryside who had been denied permission to live in the same city as his girl-friend set off a huge explosive device at the main railway station of the Chinese capital. Eighty-one bystanders were hospitalized and nine died, including the young bomber.
In the coastal city of Fujian, a crowded bus was blown up last June, killing 50 passengers and injuring 150, according to Cheng Ming magazine, a journal based in Hong Kong. The writer, who claims to have been a witness, said that local authorities later discovered that one of the passengers had planted a bomb because he was depressed over marital or job problems.
Cheng Ming also reported that more than 3,000 former soldiers calling themselves the Disillusioned Brigade because they were unable to get jobs after demobilization staged a violent uprising in a small south China town last July, all but taking it over for three days before they were repulsed.
In China's sensitive northwest region that borders the Soviet Union, communal fighting and ethnic group demands for greater self-rule have shaken social stability in Xinjiang Province and prompted top party leadership changes.
The most recent incident took place last June when 200 of the largest minority group, the Uighurs, tried to storm a Chinese Army base near the city of Kashi, according to a Xinjiang source. The Uighurs were beaten back and their leaders arrested after intense fighting, the source said.
PROFESSOR URGES
'Taiwanize' mainland
Prof. Cheng Chu-yuan of Ball State University in Indiana, said mainland China must be "Taiwanized" in order to achieve the purpose of reunification of China.
Prof. Cheng is a professor of economics and a consultant to the U.S. National Science Foundation. He said that a unified or common political and economic system is the base for reunification.
His article was published in a monthly magazine produced by Chinese scholars and students in the Boston area.
He said mainland China must be Taiwanized because the political and economic systems in Taiwan have worked very successfully. The people in free China are now enjoying a free, prosperous and happy life, he said.
On the mainland, people have led stringent lives because the Communist system does not work in China. There is little hope for improvement of living conditions on the mainland if the Communist system is not replaced, he stressed.
Prof. Cheng noted that mainland China is much larger in size than Taiwan, possesses huge deposits of minerals and other resources and has more man-power, yet the standard of living is very low. He described mainland China under Communist rule as a beggar with a gold bowl in his hand.
The Taiwan experience can help people on the mainland, he said.
Cheng urged leaders of the Peiping regime to give up Communism and implement measures that have worked successfully in Taiwan. By doing so, they would also be paving the way for the reunification of China, he added.
GERMAN MINISTER OPENS
Exhibition on Sun
Dr. Sun Yat-sen has no peer among world philosophers in making the most relevant spiritual and political synthesis of the cultures of East and West, according to Prof. Hans Maier. He made the statement at the opening of the first Dr. Sun exhibit ever held in Germany.
Dr. Maier is Education and Cultural Minister of the German State of Bavaria. He praised the founding father of the Republic of China as a great visionary and for planning the spiritual, political and economic renewal of the Chinese nation.
Prof. Gottfriedkarl Kindermann, director of the Center for International Politics of Munich University, organized the exhibit of more than 200 rare photographs and 70 books on and about Dr. Sun.
The 44-day exhibit is in the stately Bayerischen Staatsbibliothek (Bavaria State Library) in Munich.
In 1979, a seminar and exhibit built around Dr. Sun was organized in Salzburg, Austria, also by Prof. Kindermann, one of Europe's leading scholars on Dr. Sun and contemporary Chinese history.