2. Related to forms of print as power: Japanese banning both Korean and English by the late 1930s. Ewha was forced to be part of the cultural and linguistic "Japanification" of Korea by Japanese order during the late 1930s-1945
3. This is a news story review of history of Korean 1930s and 1940s. It mentions Ewha Womans University and how it was brought into the orbit of Japanese official nationalism policies. It might give you a picture of how important a printed text can be to those in power and how core to national experience is language policy and printed language to create a shared experience of an 'imagined community.' Read the chapter about "official nationalisms" in the Anderson excerpt in the packet for more general information. This has more specific information from a Korean viewpoint.
Note as well the 'state gender' regime of Japanese education and the presumptions of inequality enforced and maintained in education--it goes with what we talked about this last session.
Men's high schools education was double while women's high schools were reduced by state order to two years. Women were without requirement to learn a second foreign language, though men had to do so.
-------------------------------
English Education under Japanese Rule (VI)
Japan’s desperate measures, which drove Korean young adults into battle lines and labor mobilization, left few educational opportunities for students in higher education, and the field of English language education suffered along with higher education in general.
This is the 17th in a series of articles about history of English education in Korea ― ED.
By Kim Eun-gyong Contributing Writer
In May 1938, the Japanese governor-general ``…flatly reject[ed] corrupt customs that are based on the abstract, individual European and American thoughts, which have nothing to do with our history and national body.’’ Accordingly, the government banned the importation of Western books, which it viewed unfit for its national policies and ideologies and the climate of Japanese imperialism; it also restricted the use of American and British authors’ works as textbooks. It banned the display of English language signs on school facilities and prohibited study in or travel to the United States and Europe.
In 1939, the government initiated a drastic reduction of the instructional hours of English in middle school and removed the subject from the higher-education entrance exams, a decision that had an especially negative impact on mission schools, which had concentrated on English language education.
The government declared English as an enemy language and fired all Britons and Americans from official positions.
Missionaries were removed from schools and forced to leave the country.
As Japan’s entanglement in the war deepened, foreign language instruction, as with the school curricula in general, underwent substantial changes. [THE JAPANESE GENDER DIFFERENTIAL BIT:] The ordinance for middle schools in January 1943 reduced the middle-school years to four and the years for girls’ high school to two, thus curtailing the general amount of foreign language instruction that secondary-school students received. In the revised curriculum of middle school, foreign language was reduced to an optional subject in the third and higher grades. The proportion of the weekly instructional hours of foreign language decreased from the previous 15 percent to 10.7 or 5.3 percent. In the curriculum of girls’ high school, foreign language was offered as an elective in all grades. Malay or another foreign language was added as a new choice. [another area the Japanese conquered during WWII.]
The curriculum of normal schools consisted of a five-year regular course and two-year practice course for men while women were offered [only a half of the male education of] a one-year practice course in addition to the regular course. Foreign language was a required subject in the regular course for males but offered as an elective for female students, a consistent practice continued from the previous curricula.
Previously, in the 1922 curriculum, English had been offered as the only choice of foreign language, but the new curriculum included Chinese, German and French as well. [other areas allied to Japan or occupied by Japan.]
English language instruction had been offered four to six hours per week for men, that is, 14.9 percent of the overall instructional hours, but with the elimination of English as the only required subject of foreign language, the instructional hours of foreign language were reduced by less than half, at 7.1 percent.
As Japan geared the colony to the needs of war against the English-speaking United States and especially Britain, English language education in higher-education institutions, most of which were run by American missionaries, endured a serious setback.
Mission schools became a target of the government’s harsh suppression and experienced a significant decline reducing the quality of English language education that these schools offered.
Furthermore, the government banned all student and research activities, including English-language activities such as English speech contests and the publication of English language works. The subject of English was removed from entrance exams, a blow to the missionary-run professional schools such as Yeonhi and Ewha that had emphasized English language education.
With the removal of English from the exams came a decrease in schools’ and students’ interest in English language education.
More significantly, Japan’s desperate measures, which drove Korean young adults into battle lines and labor mobilization, left few educational opportunities for students in higher education, and the field of English language education suffered along with higher education in general.
Here is a case of a professional school that had made significant contribution to the development of English-language education in Korea. At Ewha, the government-general gradually forced itself into the school’s management and academic affairs, resulting in the removal of a number of teachers whose educational background included studies in the United States or Europe and those who did not have Japanese language ability. English language activities, such as English-short story contests and the publication of English newspapers, were discontinued in 1938 and in 1940, respectively.
Regarded as an enemy language, English was banned in school, and all English language textbooks were burned.
In 1943 by the government’s coercion, the [Ewha] department of liberal arts, which had been considered as an English department, became the department of national (i.e., Japanese[!]) literature.
In December of the same year, the government renamed the school, ``Leadership Training Institute, Female Youth Development Institute, Gyeongseong Women’s Professional School.’’
The existing four departments were integrated into one, and without the distinction of school years, students were organized into groups and received three-month training before being assigned to ``female youth development institutes,’’ instituted by the government nationwide, and used as a vehicle to convert women in rural areas to part of the labor force.
Ewha Professional School had been one of the major engines leading the development of English language education in Korea, but the school was forced to desert the role until Korea’s liberation in 1945.
In sum, during the period between 1938 and 1945, Japan attempted to assimilate Koreans and convert the entire colony into a war supply base, hauling Korean youth for labor mobilization and battle lines. The colonial government strictly enforced a Japanese monolingual policy, compelling Koreans to use Japanese in daily activities outside school and in class.
Moreover, as Japan engaged in a war against the United States and the Allies, the colonial government declared English as the language of the enemy and created an environment that suppressed the use and learning of English. The Japanese government’s strict monolingual policy, exploitation of students for the purpose of war, and suppression of English use resulted in a serious decline in English language education in Korea. English instructional hours and school years were cut short. In higher education, liberal arts were discouraged while the government expanded science and engineering programs. Study in English-speaking countries and the use of American and British authors’ works were banned or restricted. Mission schools, which had served as the main source for quality English language education in Korea, withered under the anti-US government.
Missionaries were removed from the schools and eventually forced to leave the country. Moreover, Japan’s desperate measures that drove Korean students into battle lines and labor mobilization robbed them of educational opportunities. This was a truly adverse period for the field of English language education in Korea: English language education underwent the most profound decline since the Japanese annexation of Korea.
Kim Eun-gyong is an associate professor of applied linguistics and Associate Dean of the Center for International Affairs, Information and Communications University (ICU) in Daejeon. She can be reached at egkimrivera@icu.ac.kr.
2.The Hopes and Fears of N.Korean Students in the South
3. I also wanted to read article that also combines eudcation and politics like the story of Japanese issues related to Ewha Woman's university. According to this article it is said that 448 people of north koreans are attending 104 universities in south korea. They said that they are unfamiliar with the terminology that we use. And, say that they are interested in part time job. They also worry about their grade, and they were all normal students just like us. When I encountered this article I learned that north korea and south korea is always related in someway. Although it is divided, we share many things in lots of ways.I want to know what our governemnt can do to help these north korean students to have success in their academic life. Also, what can students like us can do to help them. ----------------------------- The Hopes and Fears of N.Korean Students in the South
The number of university students born in North Korea is rising as refugee numbers here increase to 13,000. According to Unification Ministry figures, 448 North Korean defectors are enrolled at 104 universities in the South. They could be seen as a sort of barometer determining how well North Korean defectors adjust to life in South Korea.
Their fears and anxieties are no different than those felt by their South Korean-born counterparts at college. The Weekly Chosun spoke to North Koreans at Sogang University about their most pressing worries, and 35 cited grades, English language proficiency and part-time jobs as their most pressing concerns. But they said the pressure they felt in those areas was far greater than for their South Korean counterparts.
Grades are the prime concern for the North Korean students, since they are often not as financially secure as students born here. If their grades do not meet a required level, then they are no longer eligible for support from the government and universities. But they said they found classes in the South to be difficult and full of “unfamiliar” terminology. One junior at Sogang University said there were many times during his freshman year that lectures were completely incomprehensible. Most of the situations in South Korea that dumbfound students from North Korea involve English. One graduate from Hanyang University said he was unable to understand half the foreign words his first girlfriend in the South used. He said repeated incidents like that eventually forced them to break up.
For North Korean defectors studying in South Korea, part-time jobs are the most interesting part about life in the South and something they keep up throughout their four years in college. For people who have lived most of their lives under a socialist system, getting paid for work is in itself a strange and challenging experience, but of course the main reason is that they need the money.
Friends are often what these students need most, but they say it is not easy forming close relationships with South Korean students. Most of the North Koreans who took part in the interviews admitted that their South Korean counterparts tended to treat them as people from another country rather than as fellow Koreans. ----------------- http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200811/200811150001.html
3. This is a news about Taiwan's former leader Chen Shui-bian being arrested. In my opinion, this is a news relates to something about 'nationalism'. Not the news itself but the background story behind the news.
As we all know, Taiwan and mainland China never cease the struggle between independence and unification. But there is one thing interesting: neither of them wants to get rid of the Chinese culture. Even in the Taiwan's constitution law, it states that: mainland China is always a territory of Taiwan and mainland constitution law states that Taiwan is a part of china's territory. The Taiwanese always face a embrassed situation, they deny to be a national of Republic of China, but they claim themselves as a national of China. Sometimes, they are more reserved with the Chinese culture, they still use the traditional complicated Chinese characters and celebrate some tradition festival which are forgotten or ignored by the people in mainland. They are never shameful of the Chinese culture. I think this is a very interesting phenominon of nationalism. Taiwanese insist of nationalism of China instead of the Republic of China. The core elements of china nationalism are different becasue of political, historical, international elements as time pass by. They used to be one and then divided into several ones.
------------------------------- Chen's 'rumor' dismissed by Beijing(China Daily) Updated: 2008-11-13 07:27
Taiwan's former leader Chen Shui-bian fabricated rumors that he was being "sacrificed" to the mainland at a time of warming cross-Straits relations, the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council said on Wednesday.
Chen, who was Wednesday formally arrested on suspicion of money laundering, said on Tuesday that Ma Ying-jeou, his successor as the Taiwan leader, wanted him in jail to appease the mainland.
However, Taiwan Affairs Office spokeswoman Fan Liqing said the allegation was "a sheer fabrication".
"This is nothing but rumor mongering by Chen Shui-bian," she told a regular press conference on Wednesday, "I believe everybody can see the motives behind his clumsy trick."
Fan said the mainland had "noted" Chen's arrest, but she refused to make any further comments.
Li Jiaquan, a researcher with the Institute of Taiwan Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told China Daily Wednesday that Chen was trying to divert the public's attention away from his corruption by fanning the flames of anti-mainland sentiment.
His case has nothing to do with placating the mainland," he said, "It is a case of bringing a corrupt leader to justice."
Chen, 57, "president" of Taiwan from 2000 until May of this year, was detained on Tuesday, and arrested after a 21-hour court hearing.
The hearing was interrupted for several hours after the former leader complained he had been injured while being transported to the court building. He was returned to the court after doctors found he had sustained only a minor muscle tear, court spokesman Huang Chun-ming said.
Chen was arrested on suspicion of graft, bribery, forgery, money laundering and illegal possession of public assets, the Taipei District Court said in a statement.
"After questioning the suspect, the court believes his crimes to be severe, and there are enough facts to believe there is buried evidence, fabrication, altered evidence and conspiracy among suspects or witnesses," it said.
Although Chen has not been formally charged, he can be held for four months, most likely in a jail in Taipei.
He has denied any wrongdoing.
Chen's arrest - the first of a former Taiwan "president" - and the suspicion surrounding others in the case has cast a shadow over his pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party, which is now the main opposition party after its landslide defeat in the "legislative" and "presidential" elections in May.
Chen has cast himself as a victim in the case, saying the aggressive investigation is the result of behind-the-scenes pressure from the ruling Kuomintang, which favors closer ties with the mainland.
The list of suspected crimes merges two cases, one involving misuse of a confidential "State" affairs fund and the other related to money laundering, a prosecutor's spokesman said.
1. Ji-A RYU 2. title: could it be possible change of the dynamics of the world-system? 3. When I read this news article, the world-system theory came into my head. World-system theorists argue that when the chance comes, the country which seizes the chance can go to upper level within three different levels of world-system. I think the chance could come when the world-system bumps into some difficulties such as this financial crisis even though the leaders stresses the importance of cooperation together. When chaos appears, the dynamics of the world would change more easily than ever. We Korean say "crisis is a chance". I am really interested the dynamics of the world really could change in this economic crisis as Wallerstein said and if so, how it could be.
--------------------------------------------------------------- 4. S. Korea to help forge global financial oversight improvement plan: official
South Korea will work with other countries to help forge a financial oversight improvement plan designed to prevent recurrence of the current global crisis, a government official was quoted as saying by Yonhap News Agency on Sunday.
Choi Jong-ku, head of the finance ministry's international finance bureau, told reporters that the decision by Group of 20 leaders to strengthen regulatory regimes of financial institutions in the wake of the Lehman Brothers debacle opens new opportunities for Seoul.
The leaders who met in Washington over the weekend assigned their finance ministers to "initiate processes and a timeline" for concrete proposals for enhanced oversight and regulatory regimes by the end of March. They also called for another round of meetings in Europe by April 30 "to review the implementation of the principles and decisions agreed today."
"The burden of helping formulate such processes has fallen on the shoulders of the three co-chairs of the endeavor that include South Korea, Britain and Brazil," the official said. Brazil is the current chair of the G20, with the group to be chaired by Britain next year and South Korea taking the helm in 2010.
He added that all efforts will be centered on helping to forge an action plan that is acceptable to all countries.
"The greatest lesson learned in the current financial crisis is the importance of international cooperation," he said.
He said that the gathering in Washington made clear that the Group of 20 has emerged as the center of global economic policymaking but argued that this did not mean that it would replace the International Monetary Fund.
"The G20 leaders concurred that measures should be taken to better reflect the voices of developing countries," he said.
On South Korea's role as co-chair, the official said the country will do its best to reflect the voices of developing economies while at the same time help contain unprecedented levels of uncertainty that have rocked the country's financial institutions.
Seoul has been trying to alleviate liquidity fears that have threatened banks and manufacturers alike.
"There had been considerable debate inside the government on accepting the co-chair position, but while the task will be difficult, it could hold great opportunities for the country," he said.
The G20 consists of South Korea, the U.S., Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, the European Union, and EU members Britain, France, Germany and Italy.
A very down to earth* kind of guy. I'm an environmental sociologist interested in establishing material and organizational sustainability worldwide. I'm always looking for interesting materials/technologies, inspiring ideas, or institutional examples of sustainability to inspire others to recognize their choices now. To be fatalistic about an unsustainable world is a sign of a captive mind, given all our options.
*(If "earth" is defined in a planetary sense, concerning comparative historical knowledge and interest in the past 10,000 years or so anywhere...) See both blogs.
4 comments:
1. Mark Whitaker
2. Related to forms of print as power: Japanese banning both Korean and English by the late 1930s. Ewha was forced to be part of the cultural and linguistic "Japanification" of Korea by Japanese order during the late 1930s-1945
3. This is a news story review of history of Korean 1930s and 1940s. It mentions Ewha Womans University and how it was brought into the orbit of Japanese official nationalism policies. It might give you a picture of how important a printed text can be to those in power and how core to national experience is language policy and printed language to create a shared experience of an 'imagined community.' Read the chapter about "official nationalisms" in the Anderson excerpt in the packet for more general information. This has more specific information from a Korean viewpoint.
Note as well the 'state gender' regime of Japanese education and the presumptions of inequality enforced and maintained in education--it goes with what we talked about this last session.
Men's high schools education was double while women's high schools were reduced by state order to two years. Women were without requirement to learn a second foreign language, though men had to do so.
-------------------------------
English Education under Japanese Rule (VI)
Japan’s desperate measures, which drove Korean young adults into battle lines and labor mobilization, left few educational opportunities for students in higher education, and the field of English language education suffered along with higher education in general.
This is the 17th in a series of articles about history of English education in Korea ― ED.
By Kim Eun-gyong
Contributing Writer
In May 1938, the Japanese governor-general ``…flatly reject[ed] corrupt customs that are based on the abstract, individual European and American thoughts, which have nothing to do with our history and national body.’’ Accordingly, the government banned the importation of Western books, which it viewed unfit for its national policies and ideologies and the climate of Japanese imperialism; it also restricted the use of American and British authors’ works as textbooks. It banned the display of English language signs on school facilities and prohibited study in or travel to the United States and Europe.
In 1939, the government initiated a drastic reduction of the instructional hours of English in middle school and removed the subject from the higher-education entrance exams, a decision that had an especially negative impact on mission schools, which had concentrated on English language education.
The government declared English as an enemy language and fired all Britons and Americans from official positions.
Missionaries were removed from schools and forced to leave the country.
As Japan’s entanglement in the war deepened, foreign language instruction, as with the school curricula in general, underwent substantial changes. [THE JAPANESE GENDER DIFFERENTIAL BIT:] The ordinance for middle schools in January 1943 reduced the middle-school years to four and the years for girls’ high school to two, thus curtailing the general amount of foreign language instruction that secondary-school students received. In the revised curriculum of middle school, foreign language was reduced to an optional subject in the third and higher grades. The proportion of the weekly instructional hours of foreign language decreased from the previous 15 percent to 10.7 or 5.3 percent. In the curriculum of girls’ high school, foreign language was offered as an elective in all grades. Malay or another foreign language was added as a new choice. [another area the Japanese conquered during WWII.]
The curriculum of normal schools consisted of a five-year regular course and two-year practice course for men while women were offered [only a half of the male education of] a one-year practice course in addition to the regular course. Foreign language was a required subject in the regular course for males but offered as an elective for female students, a consistent practice continued from the previous curricula.
Previously, in the 1922 curriculum, English had been offered as the only choice of foreign language, but the new curriculum included Chinese, German and French as well. [other areas allied to Japan or occupied by Japan.]
English language instruction had been offered four to six hours per week for men, that is, 14.9 percent of the overall instructional hours, but with the elimination of English as the only required subject of foreign language, the instructional hours of foreign language were reduced by less than half, at 7.1 percent.
As Japan geared the colony to the needs of war against the English-speaking United States and especially Britain, English language education in higher-education institutions, most of which were run by American missionaries, endured a serious setback.
Mission schools became a target of the government’s harsh suppression and experienced a significant decline reducing the quality of English language education that these schools offered.
Furthermore, the government banned all student and research activities, including English-language activities such as English speech contests and the publication of English language works. The subject of English was removed from entrance exams, a blow to the missionary-run professional schools such as Yeonhi and Ewha that had emphasized English language education.
With the removal of English from the exams came a decrease in schools’ and students’ interest in English language education.
More significantly, Japan’s desperate measures, which drove Korean young adults into battle lines and labor mobilization, left few educational opportunities for students in higher education, and the field of English language education suffered along with higher education in general.
Here is a case of a professional school that had made significant contribution to the development of English-language education in Korea. At Ewha, the government-general gradually forced itself into the school’s management and academic affairs, resulting in the removal of a number of teachers whose educational background included studies in the United States or Europe and those who did not have Japanese language ability. English language activities, such as English-short story contests and the publication of English newspapers, were discontinued in 1938 and in 1940, respectively.
Regarded as an enemy language, English was banned in school, and all English language textbooks were burned.
In 1943 by the government’s coercion, the [Ewha] department of liberal arts, which had been considered as an English department, became the department of national (i.e., Japanese[!]) literature.
In December of the same year, the government renamed the school, ``Leadership Training Institute, Female Youth Development Institute, Gyeongseong Women’s Professional School.’’
The existing four departments were integrated into one, and without the distinction of school years, students were organized into groups and received three-month training before being assigned to ``female youth development institutes,’’ instituted by the government nationwide, and used as a vehicle to convert women in rural areas to part of the labor force.
Ewha Professional School had been one of the major engines leading the development of English language education in Korea, but the school was forced to desert the role until Korea’s liberation in 1945.
In sum, during the period between 1938 and 1945, Japan attempted to assimilate Koreans and convert the entire colony into a war supply base, hauling Korean youth for labor mobilization and battle lines. The colonial government strictly enforced a Japanese monolingual policy, compelling Koreans to use Japanese in daily activities outside school and in class.
Moreover, as Japan engaged in a war against the United States and the Allies, the colonial government declared English as the language of the enemy and created an environment that suppressed the use and learning of English. The Japanese government’s strict monolingual policy, exploitation of students for the purpose of war, and suppression of English use resulted in a serious decline in English language education in Korea. English instructional hours and school years were cut short. In higher education, liberal arts were discouraged while the government expanded science and engineering programs. Study in English-speaking countries and the use of American and British authors’ works were banned or restricted. Mission schools, which had served as the main source for quality English language education in Korea, withered under the anti-US government.
Missionaries were removed from the schools and eventually forced to leave the country. Moreover, Japan’s desperate measures that drove Korean students into battle lines and labor mobilization robbed them of educational opportunities. This was a truly adverse period for the field of English language education in Korea: English language education underwent the most profound decline since the Japanese annexation of Korea.
Kim Eun-gyong is an associate professor of applied linguistics and Associate Dean of the Center for International Affairs, Information and Communications University (ICU) in Daejeon. She can be reached at egkimrivera@icu.ac.kr.
---
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/special/2008/11/139_34300.html
1.so hyun chun
2.The Hopes and Fears of N.Korean Students in the South
3. I also wanted to read article
that also combines eudcation and
politics like the story of Japanese
issues related to Ewha Woman's
university. According to this
article it is said that 448
people of north koreans are attending 104 universities in
south korea. They said that
they are unfamiliar with the terminology that we use. And,
say that they are interested in part time job. They also worry about their grade, and they
were all normal students just
like us. When I encountered this
article I learned that north korea
and south korea is always related
in someway. Although it is divided,
we share many things in lots of ways.I want to know what our governemnt can do to help these
north korean students to have
success in their academic life.
Also, what can students like us
can do to help them.
-----------------------------
The Hopes and Fears of N.Korean Students in the South
The number of university students born in North Korea is rising as refugee numbers here increase to 13,000. According to Unification Ministry figures, 448 North Korean defectors are enrolled at 104 universities in the South.
They could be seen as a sort of barometer determining how well North Korean defectors adjust to life in South Korea.
Their fears and anxieties are no different than those felt by their South Korean-born counterparts at college. The Weekly Chosun spoke to North Koreans at Sogang University about their most pressing worries, and 35 cited grades, English language proficiency and part-time jobs as their most pressing concerns. But they said the pressure they felt in those areas was far greater than for their South Korean counterparts.
Grades are the prime concern for the North Korean students, since they are often not as financially secure as students born here. If their grades do not meet a required level, then they are no longer eligible for support from the government and universities. But they said they found classes in the South to be difficult and full of “unfamiliar” terminology. One junior at Sogang University said there were many times during his freshman year that lectures were completely incomprehensible.
Most of the situations in South Korea that dumbfound students from North Korea involve English. One graduate from Hanyang University said he was unable to understand half the foreign words his first girlfriend in the South used. He said repeated incidents like that eventually forced them to break up.
For North Korean defectors studying in South Korea, part-time jobs are the most interesting part about life in the South and something they keep up throughout their four years in college. For people who have lived most of their lives under a socialist system, getting paid for work is in itself a strange and challenging experience, but of course the main reason is that they need the money.
Friends are often what these students need most, but they say it is not easy forming close relationships with South Korean students. Most of the North Koreans who took part in the interviews admitted that their South Korean counterparts tended to treat them as people from another country rather than as fellow Koreans.
-----------------
http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200811/200811150001.html
1. Yao Lu
2. Chen's 'rumor' dismissed by Beijing
3. This is a news about Taiwan's former leader Chen Shui-bian being arrested. In my opinion, this is a news relates to something about 'nationalism'. Not the news itself but the background story behind the news.
As we all know, Taiwan and mainland China never cease the struggle between independence and unification. But there is one thing interesting: neither of them wants to get rid of the Chinese culture. Even in the Taiwan's constitution law, it states that: mainland China is always a territory of Taiwan and mainland constitution law states that Taiwan is a part of china's territory.
The Taiwanese always face a embrassed situation, they deny to be a national of Republic of China, but they claim themselves as a national of China. Sometimes, they are more reserved with the Chinese culture, they still use the traditional complicated Chinese characters and celebrate some tradition festival which are forgotten or ignored by the people in mainland. They are never shameful of the Chinese culture. I think this is a very interesting phenominon of nationalism. Taiwanese insist of nationalism of China instead of the Republic of China.
The core elements of china nationalism are different becasue of political, historical, international elements as time pass by. They used to be one and then divided into several ones.
-------------------------------
Chen's 'rumor' dismissed by Beijing(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-11-13 07:27
Taiwan's former leader Chen Shui-bian fabricated rumors that he was being "sacrificed" to the mainland at a time of warming cross-Straits relations, the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council said on Wednesday.
Chen, who was Wednesday formally arrested on suspicion of money laundering, said on Tuesday that Ma Ying-jeou, his successor as the Taiwan leader, wanted him in jail to appease the mainland.
However, Taiwan Affairs Office spokeswoman Fan Liqing said the allegation was "a sheer fabrication".
"This is nothing but rumor mongering by Chen Shui-bian," she told a regular press conference on Wednesday, "I believe everybody can see the motives behind his clumsy trick."
Fan said the mainland had "noted" Chen's arrest, but she refused to make any further comments.
Li Jiaquan, a researcher with the Institute of Taiwan Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told China Daily Wednesday that Chen was trying to divert the public's attention away from his corruption by fanning the flames of anti-mainland sentiment.
His case has nothing to do with placating the mainland," he said, "It is a case of bringing a corrupt leader to justice."
Chen, 57, "president" of Taiwan from 2000 until May of this year, was detained on Tuesday, and arrested after a 21-hour court hearing.
The hearing was interrupted for several hours after the former leader complained he had been injured while being transported to the court building. He was returned to the court after doctors found he had sustained only a minor muscle tear, court spokesman Huang Chun-ming said.
Chen was arrested on suspicion of graft, bribery, forgery, money laundering and illegal possession of public assets, the Taipei District Court said in a statement.
"After questioning the suspect, the court believes his crimes to be severe, and there are enough facts to believe there is buried evidence, fabrication, altered evidence and conspiracy among suspects or witnesses," it said.
Although Chen has not been formally charged, he can be held for four months, most likely in a jail in Taipei.
He has denied any wrongdoing.
Chen's arrest - the first of a former Taiwan "president" - and the suspicion surrounding others in the case has cast a shadow over his pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party, which is now the main opposition party after its landslide defeat in the "legislative" and "presidential" elections in May.
Chen has cast himself as a victim in the case, saying the aggressive investigation is the result of behind-the-scenes pressure from the ruling Kuomintang, which favors closer ties with the mainland.
The list of suspected crimes merges two cases, one involving misuse of a confidential "State" affairs fund and the other related to money laundering, a prosecutor's spokesman said.
-------------------
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2008-11/13/content_7199292.htm
1. Ji-A RYU
2. title: could it be possible change of the dynamics of the world-system?
3. When I read this news article, the world-system theory came into my head. World-system theorists argue that when the chance comes, the country which seizes the chance can go to upper level within three different levels of world-system. I think the chance could come when the world-system bumps into some difficulties such as this financial crisis even though the leaders stresses the importance of cooperation together. When chaos appears, the dynamics of the world would change more easily than ever. We Korean say "crisis is a chance". I am really interested the dynamics of the world really could change in this economic crisis as Wallerstein said and if so, how it could be.
---------------------------------------------------------------
4. S. Korea to help forge global financial oversight improvement plan: official
South Korea will work with other countries to help forge a financial oversight improvement plan designed to prevent recurrence of the current global crisis, a government official was quoted as saying by Yonhap News Agency on Sunday.
Choi Jong-ku, head of the finance ministry's international finance bureau, told reporters that the decision by Group of 20 leaders to strengthen regulatory regimes of financial institutions in the wake of the Lehman Brothers debacle opens new opportunities for Seoul.
The leaders who met in Washington over the weekend assigned their finance ministers to "initiate processes and a timeline" for concrete proposals for enhanced oversight and regulatory regimes by the end of March. They also called for another round of meetings in Europe by April 30 "to review the implementation of the principles and decisions agreed today."
"The burden of helping formulate such processes has fallen on the shoulders of the three co-chairs of the endeavor that include South Korea, Britain and Brazil," the official said. Brazil is the current chair of the G20, with the group to be chaired by Britain next year and South Korea taking the helm in 2010.
He added that all efforts will be centered on helping to forge an action plan that is acceptable to all countries.
"The greatest lesson learned in the current financial crisis is the importance of international cooperation," he said.
He said that the gathering in Washington made clear that the Group of 20 has emerged as the center of global economic policymaking but argued that this did not mean that it would replace the International Monetary Fund.
"The G20 leaders concurred that measures should be taken to better reflect the voices of developing countries," he said.
On South Korea's role as co-chair, the official said the country will do its best to reflect the voices of developing economies while at the same time help contain unprecedented levels of uncertainty that have rocked the country's financial institutions.
Seoul has been trying to alleviate liquidity fears that have threatened banks and manufacturers alike.
"There had been considerable debate inside the government on accepting the co-chair position, but while the task will be difficult, it could hold great opportunities for the country," he said.
The G20 consists of South Korea, the U.S., Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, the European Union, and EU members Britain, France, Germany and Italy.
2008.11.16
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