Sanders' 20-20 highlights Taiwan basketball league's opening day

Taipei, Jan. 9 (CNA) American Jonathan Sanders had a rare "20-20" -- 20 points and 21 rebounds -- on the opening day of the Super Basketball League's (SBL) new season, but it was not enough to propel his team to victory, as Pure Youth Construction lost 81-71 to the Yulon Luxgen.

The game, held in the central city of Miaoli, kicked off a 105-game regular season, which observers predicted will be dominated by foreign players, as all seven teams were allowed to hire foreign players this year for the first time in the league's seven-year history.

At the same time, several big-name local players have headed to China for bigger paychecks to play in its professional basketball league.

Sanders, who is playing for his third team in three years in Taiwan, helped Pure Youth to a 43-38 halftime lead with his all-around skill.

But three-time SBL champion Yulon, which lost top player Chen Hsin-an to the Dongguan franchise in the Chinese league and is the only SBL team without a foreign player on its roster, decided to prove that foreign reinforcements weren't necessary.

The team rallied in the second half with a strong attack from behind the three-point arc to turn the game around.

Chou Shih-yuan made four of six three-point tries and scored a game-high 22 points, while Yulon limited Pure Youth to 11 points in the third quarter and extended its lead to 10 with three minutes remaining.

Yulon center Tseng Wen-ting had 11 points, six rebounds and five blocked shots and teammate Lu Cheng-ju added 15.

The SBL, established in 2003, is Taiwan's top basketball competition. Currently there are seven teams in the league.

Two-party system back after legislative by-election: scholars

Taipei, Jan. 9 (CNA) A two-party system is back in Taiwan's legislature after the opposition swept three by-elections Saturday, scholars said in post-election comments, and they expected that the KMT will face more challenges in the future.

The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) won all three seats contested in Taoyuan, Taichung and Taitung counties to boost its seat total from 27 to 30. With more than one-quarter of the seats in the 113-member Legislative Yuan, the DPP caucus is capable to launch motions to amend the Constitution or recall the president.

Results of the by-election showed that the DPP has come out from under "the lingering shadow after former president Chen Shui-bian was involved in a series of graft charges, " and it further solidified Chairman Tsai Ing-wen's status within the party, said Chen Chao-jian, a political scientist at Ming Chuan University.

"The KMT can no longer do whatever it wants, " although it still has a strong majority in the legislature, Chen said.

Being shut out in the by-election will be definitely seen as a KMT setback, said Liao Da-chi, a professor of politics at National Sun Yet-sen University. From a broader perspective, however, it could be a good thing for the people of Taiwan, she suggested.

"I really don't see how the results will jeopardize the KMT, which still has more than 70 seats in the legislature. In a broader perspective, we now have more 'balance' and party competition in the legislature, which is good for the people and democracy, " Liao said.

The seats in Taichung and Taoyuan were "basically the DPP's for the taking" because those seats were vacated after the KMT electees were convicted of vote-buying," Chen said.

The DPP's Kuo Rung-tsung and Chien Chao-tung, who lost in the previous legislative elections in 2008, beat their opponents by large margins in electoral districts in Taoyuan and Taichung counties, respectively.

"All they had to do in the campaign was ask for justice, " Chen said.

The result was another blow for President Ma Ying-jeou, whose support rate has plummeted after the U.S. beef controversy and the administration's perceived mishandling of rescue and relief operations following Typhoon Morakot in August and the H1N1 vaccination campaign.

President Ma, who also serves as the KMT chairman, "will have to launch a new wave of party reforms and a cabinet reshuffle after the by-election if he wants to have good results in the upcoming elections," he said.

Four legislative by-elections will be held next month and five special municipality mayoral elections are scheduled for later this year.

Liao looked at the impact of the by-election loss in a different light, saying that "it was probably President Ma's price to pay for his effort to reform the KMT and stop the traditional vote-buying tactics of local factions." "And I think we have to give him credit for that if he's willing to take that risk, " she said.

The negative impact will not carry over to the by-elections next month, but the KMT does need to communicate better with the local factions, Liao noted, while Chen predicted another KMT loss.

Taiwan basketball league to open new season in Miaoli

Taipei, Jan. 7 (CNA) Taiwan's semi-professional basketball league will open its new season Sunday in the central city of Miaoli, looking to retain fans' interest in the absence of several big-name players who have opted to play in China.

The Super Basketball League (SBL) , Taiwan's top basketball grouping, will begin its 2010 season with hopes of minimizing the negative impact of losing five players to the Chinese league across the Taiwan Strait, among whom are Chen Hsin-an and Lin Chih-chieh, who were two of the league's most popular players.

"The league will suffer if we keep losing top players to China. Hopefully our government and the basketball authorities can do something about it, " said Taiwan Beer forward Ho Shou-cheng in a pre-season press conference.

In order to fill the starless void, the league decided to allow all seven teams to hire import players this year to improve the competition. In the past, only three non-playoff teams were allowed to sign foreigners.

More foreigners means a bigger challenge, said Byron Allen, a 200cm forward/center whose stellar play helped Dacin Tigers beat Taiwan Beer four games to three in a thrilling best-of-seven championship series last year.

"It will be a fun year. Let's see, " Allen said, adding that he feels Dacin players have been more focused this year and have shown great determination to defend their title.

The absence of Chen and Lin and the hiring of more imports has also created parity in the league, which is not necessarily a bad thing, said Wang Jen-da, president of the Chinese Taipei Basketball Association (CTBA), Taiwan's basketball governing body.

"The suspense of not knowing the winner until the last minute... that is the beauty of sports, " said Wang, who is also Dacin's owner.

Yulon and Taiwan Beer have been dominating the league, which was established in 2003 with seven teams, with Yulon winning the first three titles from 2004-2006 and Taiwan Beer following with a repeat.

While the league receives moderate attention among high school students, the SBL always trails the Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) , Taiwan's top baseball competition, in terms of fan support, averaging slightly more than 1,000 spectators per game.

Lack of quality venues in the downtown Taipei area forces the league to move its games around the island. The 105-game regular season this year will be played in Miaoli, Hsinchu, Yilan, Xinjuang and Taipei City before staging the entire playoff series in Xinjuang.

The regular season games will be played every Friday, Saturday and Sunday with top four teams advancing to the crossover best-of-five semifinal round. The 2010 SBL champion will be crowned in mid-May after a best-of-seven championship series.

U.S. office confirms PAC-3 missiles sale to Taiwan

Taipei, Jan. 7 (CNA) The United States' de facto embassy here - the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) - confirmed Thursday that the U.S. government has awarded contracts to defense manufacturers to build Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) missiles for Taiwan, which were part of an arms package Washington agreed to sell to Taipei in 2008.

AIT spokesman Christopher Kavanagh said the PAC-3 missiles, which can shoot down oncoming missiles, is part of the US$6.5 billion package of arms that the former administration of President George W.

Bush had agreed to sell to Taiwan in October 2008.

The U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) announced Wednesday that the contract for the missiles has been granted to Lockheed-Martin Corp.

According to the DOD Web site, Lockheed Martin Corp. was awarded on Dec. 30, 2009, a $968,727,585 firm-fixed-price contract, which included the PAC-3 air defense missile system.

U.S. dismay over Taiwan's partial beef ban widespread

Taipei, Jan. 6 (CNA) The United States government and its meat industry expressed their disappointment Wednesday over Taiwan's decision to restore a partial ban on U.S. beef imports and use American beef producers as a "political football."

The U.S. State Department, U.S. Trade Representative Office (USTR) , U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) , the National Cattlemen's Beef Association (NCBA), the U.S. Meat Export Federation (MEF) and the American Meat Institute (AMI) all expressed their disappointment over the legislature's decision to amend the Act Governing Food Sanitation.

Taiwan and the United States signed a protocol in October to allow the entry of bone-in beef and other beef products, including ground beef and offal, that had previously been banned out of concern over bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or mad cow disease.

The amendment, which cleared the legislature on Tuesday, effectively bars U.S. ground beef, beef offal and other beef parts such as the skull, eyes and intestines from access to Taiwan's market.

Responding to a reporter's question, Philip Crowley, assistant secretary of the Bureau of Public Affairs at the U.S. State Department, said in a briefing Wednesday that the U.S. was "very disappointed" with Taiwan's decision to ban certain cuts of U.S. beef in violation of the bilateral agreement, but the U.S. remains committed to further developing its broad-ranging and positive relationship with the people of Taiwan.

Crowley noted that the U.S., as stipulated in the Taiwan Relations Act, will "continue to make available to Taiwan defense articles and services needed for Taiwan's self-defense." In a joint statement, the USTR and USDA reiterated that Taiwan's decision does not "have a basis in science and constitutes a unilateral violation of a bilateral agreement." "The decision by Taiwan authorities to place domestic politics over science raises serious concerns," the joint statement said.

NCBA chief economist Gregg Doud also attacked the politicization of the issue.

"This is a purely domestic political issue in Taiwan. U.S. beef producers are sick and tired of being used as a political football, " Doud said.

"In our view, the issues expressed by politicians in Taiwan have absolutely no basis in scientific fact and fly in the face of Taiwan's own risk assessment. To suggest that there are any safety concerns related to U.S. beef is outrageous, " Doud said.

The NCBA urged the Obama Administration to explore every available option to rectify this situation as soon as possible.

U.S. Meat Export Federation President and CEO Philip Seng also expressed dismay over the decision, saying that Taiwan's best scientists had determined the safety of U.S. beef through a thorough and extensive risk assessment, but the effort had been largely cast aside.

Seng acknowledged a positive development, however, saying that the recent addition of under-30-month bone-in cuts "has allowed us to grow this market to some degree." In the first 10 months of 2009, Taiwan imported US$114.3 million worth of U.S. beef, six percent more than the year-earlier period, making it the sixth biggest export market for U.S. beef.

When year-end totals are available, exports to Taiwan are expected to surpass the record of US$128 million, set in 2008, according to the U.S Meat Export Federation.

In reinstating the partial ban, Taiwan failed to live up to its obligation as a trade partner, said AMI President J. Patrick Boyle.

"It is time for the government of Taiwan to maintain trade policies that are based upon the facts surrounding U.S. beef safety and consistent with its WTO obligations, " Boyle said.

In order to to minimize the impact of the legislation, Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou called a press conference hours after the announcement of its passage and downplayed the controversy as "an agricultural trade dispute." Ma expressed hope that "the impact of this dispute will be restricted to trade and will not spread to other areas, " saying that the high level of mutual trust built between Taiwan and the U.S. on security and political matters was "hard-earned" in the 19 months since he took office.

Taiwanese American Lin draws raves for U.S. college basketball play

Most sports fans would think it a joke if they were told that a Taiwanese American basketball player has led his college team to its best start in school history and become one of the most talked-about players in United States college basketball circles.

But it's no joke.

Senior guard Jeremy Lin is averaging 17.4 points, 5.0 rebounds and 4.7 assists in pacing Harvard University to an 11-3 record so far this season, the best start in the Ivy League school's basketball history, and his play is finally drawing the attention of U.S. media, which often treat Ivy League basketball as an afterthought.

Two months into the basketball season, Lin was featured on ESPN and in Time magazine, and he has been mentioned as a legitimate Ivy League Player of the Year candidate and a possible NBA draft pick next June.

He was also among 30 players on the mid-season candidate list for the prestigious John Wooden Award, whose recipient is regarded as the national player of the year.

Unaccustomed to the sudden fame and media exposure, Lin and his family have preferred to stay as low-profile as possible, Lin's father, Gie-ming Lin, told the Central News Agency in a telephone interview from his Palo Alto, California, home.

The son is living a basketball dream for the father, a basketball junkie who left Taiwan for the U.S. in 1977 and received a doctorate in computer engineering at Purdue University before settling down on the U.S. West Coast.

The elder Lin said basketball was his way to release stress after work. He played basketball with his three sons after they finished their homework and had dinner every Monday, Wednesday and Sunday.

Before long, Jeremy showed he had the skill and passion for the game, Gie-ming said, not only outplaying brothers Joshua and Joseph and his father but also "westerners" as well.

The young Lin led Palo Alto High School to a 32-1 record and the California state championship in his senior year in high school and ended up garnering virtually every player of the year award in northern California.

But Lin also had to endure racial discrimination against Asians on and off the basketball court and the stereotype that "Asians can't play," his father said.

That was probably why big-time basketball schools such as Stanford, located within arm's reach of Lin's house, and UCLA showed interest but never offered him a scholarship, his father believes.

Jeremy finally enrolled at Harvard, a school that has never been known for its athletic prowess, figuring that he could play Division I basketball and focus on academics at the same time in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Lin's father said he never had to worry about Jeremy's ability to balance basketball and academics because his son always showed maturity in devoting enough time to both.

Lin played in relative anonymity his first three years at Harvard. He saw limited success as a freshman, averaging 4.8 points, and then improved dramatically in his sophomore year, recording 12.6 points, 4.8 rebounds and 3.6 assists.

His breakout year came last year, when he averaged 17.8 points, 5.5 rebounds and 4.3 assists per game and was the only player in the U.S. to rank among the top 10 players in his conference in scoring, rebounding, assists, steals, blocks, field goal percentage, free throw percentage and three-point field goal percentage.

But Harvard's 14-14 record in the 2008-2009 season kept Lin under the radar. Now, with his team having gone 11-3 to start the season against non-conference opponents, including a victory over Big East school Boston College, Lin is getting noticed by outsiders.

"Some folks who haven't seen him play are probably wowed by some of the things he can do, but we aren't. That's probably the best compliment I can give him, " Harvard coach Tommy Amaker said after Lin scored 30 points, including 22 in the second half, in a 79-73 loss to Big East powerhouse UConn in December.

After the season, Jeremy will sit down with his parents and discuss the future. There will be many options and opportunities for him: playing in the NBA, playing overseas or enrolling in Harvard's MBA program.

The younger Lin will not rule out playing ball in Taiwan or representing Taiwan in international competition, but he will take his time to review his options.

"Jeremy understands Mandarin very well and took Chinese at Harvard. He speaks a little Mandarin but I believe he will pick it up quickly if he puts his mind into it, " Lin's father said.

If Lin helps Harvard win the Ivy League this year, the school will play in the NCAA Tournament in March for the first time in 64 years.

If that happens, however, he will not be able to return to Taiwan to visit his grandmother in Taipei on a planned trip with his family.

That's one trip Gie-ming would be glad to have his son miss.

U.S. 'deeply regrets' legislature's move on beef

Taipei, Jan. 5 (CNA) The United States "deeply regrets" the Legislative Yuan's move to impose restrictions on U.S. beef products and urged the island to abide by the protocol on beef signed two months ago, a spokesman for the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) said Tuesday.

"The United States deeply regrets the Legislative Yuan's decision to restrict U.S. beef imports and the legislature's decision to abrogate the bilateral protocol being negotiated in good faith disregard both science-based standards as well as the findings of Taiwan's own risk assessment, " AIT spokesman Christopher Kavanagh told the Central News Agency.

The legislature earlier in the day passed a controversial amendment to the Act Governing Food Sanitation that will ban imports of specific beef products from countries with documented mad cow disease cases over the past decade.

The legislation will effectively bar U.S. ground beef, beef offal and other beef parts such as the skull, eyes and intestines from access to Taiwan's market, in contravention of a bilateral beef trade protocol signed by the two countries in October.

"This action also undermines Taiwan's credibility as a responsible trading partner and will make it more difficult for us to conclude future agreements to expand and strengthen bilateral trade and economic ties going forward," Kavanagh said.

The spokesman described passage of the amendment as "particularly disappointing" because the United States has long been one of Taiwan's most important trade and investment partners and a strong supporter of Taiwan's participation in the global trading system, including its membership in the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum.

"In light of this legacy and the continuing importance of our bilateral economic relationship, we urge Taiwan to honor its commitment and to implement the beef protocol as negotiated, " Kavanagh said.

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) will issue a joint statement on the issue later, according to the AIT.

U.S. senator expresses "strong disappointment" over beef issue

Taipei, Jan. 4 (CNA) In a letter to President Ma Ying-jeou, a United States senator has expressed his "strong disappointment" over Taiwan's failure to implement a U.S.-Taiwan agreement on imported U.S. bone-in beef and warned that Taiwan's credibility would suffer.

Max Baucus, chairman of the U.S. Senate's Finance Committee, said he was "frustrated" by the Legislative Yuan's plan to pass an amendment to the Act Governing Food Sanitation that would block the importation of certain U.S. beef products.

"It would unjustifiably bar certain U.S. beef products and would abrogate the import protocol," Baucus contended.

"There appears to be a continuation of a trend in Taiwan to obstruct U.S. agricultural imports, " he wrote, stating that this "calls into question Taiwan's credibility as a responsible trading partner." The Presidential Office responded that it would continue to work with Washington to mitigate the fallout from the dispute.

"As Taiwan-U.S. relations constitutes one of the most important parts of Taiwan's foreign relations, the government will do its best to communicate with the U.S. in order to lessen the impact, " said Presidential Office spokeman Wang Yu-chi.

Traditionally, many of Taiwan's supporters in the U.S. Congress came from agricultural states, Wang said, and he noted that the government had expected the current scenario once the legislature decided to put the amendment to a vote.

President Ma has reviewed the letter, a foreign affairs official was cited as saying.

The amendment is expected to be seen by the U.S. as a violation of the beef protocol Taiwan and the U.S. signed on Oct. 22, 2009, in which Taipei agreed to lift a ban on beef products including bone-in beef, beef offal and ground beef.

Reversing the protocol, lawmakers from Taiwan's ruling and opposition parties reached a consensus on Dec. 29 on the amendment that would ban the import of beef offal and ground beef along with other cattle parts from areas affected by mad cow disease within the previous 10 years, including the United States.

The bill will be put to a final vote on Tuesday. Baucus's letter came six days after the United States Trade Representative (USTR) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) accused Taiwan of "unilaterally abrogating" the protocol, and the senator reiterated Washington's expectations.

"Taiwan's own risk assessment, the World Animal Health Organization (OIE) , and numerous other studies have concluded that all U.S. beef is safe -- including ground beef, offal, and processed products," Baucus wrote.

"It is simply unacceptable that Taiwanese authorities continue to take actions that imply otherwise. I expect Taiwan to implement the import protocol in full." The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said Baucus is a longtime friend and supporter of Taiwan and said his letter will be taken very seriously.

Taiwan's representative office in Washington will also continue to communicate with the committee chairman on the government's efforts to resolve the issue, the ministry said.

Taiwan's main opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has blamed the diplomatic dispute on the government's mishandling of the protocol negotiations.

"We would not have been in this situation (with the U.S.) if Ma and National Security Council Secretary-General Su Chi had not failed to respect public sentiment," said DPP spokesman Tsai Chi-chang.

Tsai also urged the U.S. to respect Taiwan's democratic system, calling the amendment the result of a long and thorough legislative process which reflected the will of the Taiwanese people.

No instant solutions to U.S. beef controversy: scholars

Taipei, Jan. 4 (CNA) There will be no instant solutions to the controversy over Taiwan's efforts to restore a partial ban on U.S. beef, and both Taiwan and the U.S. will have to "cool down" to work things out, scholars said Monday.

"Both sides should cool down a little bit, " said Alexander Huang, a professor at Tamkang University familiar with Taiwan-U.S. affairs, while commenting on the Legislative Yuan's plan to pass an amendment to the Food Sanitation Act that would bar certain U.S. beef products and would abrogate an import protocol signed by Taiwan and the U.S. in late Octoberr.

Ruling and opposition legislators reached consensus Dec. 29 to amend the act to ban the import of beef products considered at risk of spreading bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) , or mad cow disease.

The move sparked a series of reactions from the U.S., including a joint statement by the U.S. Trade Representatives and the Department of Agriculture (DOA) last Dec. 29 and speculation that the U.S. might retaliate against Taiwan's "unilateral abrogation" of the protocol.

Continuous communication on the matter will be needed from Taiwan's representative to the U.S., Huang said, adding that Taiwan should explain clearly that the amendment targets only ground beef and bovine offal, which account for only 2 percent of all U.S. beef products exported to Taiwan.

The case will not be closed after a Jan. 5 legislative vote on the amendment as it will make its political impact felt across Taiwan politics, said Hsu Yung-ming, a professor of politics at Soochow University.

The burden will fall on President Ma Ying-jeou's shoulders, Hsu said, as Ma is being "sandwiched" between the legislature and the United States.

"The key man will be President Ma. He does not want to abrogate the protocol, and he wouldn't request for reopening the negotiation. It seems to me that the case is going nowhere. There is no quick solution in sight, " Hsu said.

One thing the government could probably do but has not is to send opposition rather than government officials to the U.S." to explain the situation, Huang noted, adding that the U.S. could also try to do a better job convincing Taiwanese customers of the safety of the products.

Meanwhile, the U.S. should think twice if it is considering retaliatory measures against Taiwan, Hsu said, because the U.S. does not want to arouse anti-U.S. sentiment in Taiwan.

"The last thing the U.S. wants to see is Taiwan becoming `the next Japan, ' which would mean Taiwan is no longer one of America's closest allies in the international community, " according to Hsu.

Huang said it is difficult to find fault with the U.S. in the controversy, because "it is obvious that Taiwan's administration mishandled the issue." "The people of Taiwan are not anti-America and Taiwan has no intention of going against the U.S. On top of that, Taiwan-U.S. relations are multi-faceted, including trade, military cooperation, security and culture, so I do not think there will be any U.S. retaliation, " he said.

"I do not think the U.S. will deal Ma a hard blow because Beijing would be very happy to see that, " he said, adding that the interests of the U.S. Department of Defense and the DOA are not the same, so that the beef issue will not interfere with U.S. arms sales to Taiwan.

Agriculture issues not on ECFA agenda: COA

Taipei, Jan. 4 (CNA) Agriculture issues will not be included in negotiations between Taiwan and China on a proposed trade pact that seeks closer bilateral economic relations, Council of Agriculture (COA) Chairman Chen Wu-hsiung reiterated Monday.

"Here I can openly tell everyone that agriculture issues will not be included in the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) negotiations, " Chen said in a session of the Legislative Yuan's Economics Committee.

"Since the issues will not be discussed, the ECFA will have no impact on Taiwanese farmers at all, " he said.

Agriculture issues are among the most-discussed topics relating to the controversial trade pact, as local agriculture workers and farmers are concerned that once the trade pact takes effect, the further opening of Taiwan to cheaper Chinese agricultural products will allow such products to dominate local market share.

Responding to a question from main opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Su Cheng-ching on how long the ministry can keep the agriculture issue off the negotiating table to safeguard Taiwanese farmers' interests, Chen said it is "a question no-one can answer." But he said Taiwan will not further open its market to Chinese agricultural products. "At least not in my term, " he said.

A total of 1,415 Chinese agricultural products have been allowed access to Taiwan since the country's accession to the World Trade Organization in 2002, while 830 products are still banned.

The government pledged earlier that the ban on those 830 items will not be lifted. Officials said the upcoming ECFA talks will not touch upon agriculture issues, but did not say they would not ever be discussed.

Earlier in the session, ruling Kuomintang (KMT) Legislator Hsiao Ching-tien expressed doubt about the ECFA impact on Taiwanese agriculture, citing statistics that show Taiwan's imports of Chinese fruit are 2.4 times those of exports to China, while imports of Chinese vegetables are 14.8 times those of exports.

Chen reiterated three preconditions of the ECFA negotiations that Premier Wu Den-yih stated in a Dec. 29 interview -- the trade pact must be consistent with the country's needs, must be favored by public opinion and must be subject to the supervision of the Legislative Yuan.