The following is a brief roundup of selected local newspaper editorials Wednesday: UNITED DAILY NEWS: Should portrait of Deng Xiaoping hang on Tiananmen Square gate? As China marked its 60th founding anniversary, most worth celebrating was its good fortune that the Communist Party of China (CPC) has been transformed from Mao Zedong's communism to Deng Xiaoping's communism. After over 30 years of openness and reforms spearheaded by Deng, the present CPC has in fact dismissed Mao, even though it still upholds Marxism and Maoism and hangs Mao's portrait on the Tiananmen Square gate. That's because if Chinese leaders openly criticize Mao, the party's legitimacy could be questioned. Yet though Mao's portrait still hangs in Tiananmen, China is in practice moving away from and rejecting Mao's thought. There is a long way to go for China's transformation. The day the portrait of Mao is removed from the gate, it may be the day when its transformation is nearly complete. LIBERTY TIMES: People will not sit idly by as entertainers ingratiate China and officials sell out Taiwan One entertainer said in his blog recently that China will definitely become powerful, while another expressed his congratulations on the birthday of the great motherland. These entertainers, eying the potential market in China, are despicable because of their ingratiating manners. But what's more abominable is the blatant tilt toward China by Taiwan's political and business leaders. President Ma Ying-jeou accepts the so-called 'one China' consensus to denigrate Taiwan into a region under China. Even though he claims 'no unification, ' he is following the approach of pursuing closer cross-strait economic ties to promote unification. When China resorts to canceling the visits of Chinese tourists to Kaohsiung to pressure it not to screen a documentary on a Tibetan political activist, Premier Wu Den-yih was in league with China when he said 'you want me to shop more in your place, but you do things that make me uncomfortable, then I'd better not shop there.' These officials are abominable as well as horrible. President Ma is counting on the sugar-coated drug of China for a better economy, which will lead to the eventual swallowing of Taiwan by China. These political and business leaders who sell out Taiwan may lead a prosperous life because their pay from China, but the future generations will suffer and lead miserable lives. CHINA TIMES: Time to solve the overdue health insurance payment problem Over the past six months, the pro-DPP media has doggedly pursued the issue of the Taipei City government owing billions in back health insurance premiums. The reason, of course, is that the issue involves President Ma Ying-jeou from his time as Taipei mayor. As mayor, Ma filed suit against making the overdue payments and asked for a constitutional interpretation because he believed it was unreasonable for Taipei to contribute to the premiums of those who worked but did not reside in the city. Even though the administrative court and the grand justices ruled that the Taipei City government should pay, this problem is still not solved. Local governments around Taiwan owe more than NT$60 billion in health insurance premium payments. The government has already borrowed over NT$90 billion from the banks to tide over the health insurance system's difficulties, so the actual book loss is only around NT$30 billion. If the Department of Health (DOH) wants to raise health insurance premiums mainly because of financial shortfalls caused by the large sums owed by local governments, then it will be hard to convince the public that health insurance premiums have to be hiked. A total of nine cities and counties owe back health insurance premiums. The biggest debtor is Taipei City, which owes approximately NT$36.7 billion, followed by Kaohsiung City, which owes around NT$18.7 billion. At the same time that the government considers raising premiums, it must also resolve the local government debt problem rather than focusing on the NT$30 billion deficit. But to solve the problem, President Ma must make his views on the issue clear. Otherwise, nobody in the Cabinet will dare deal with Taipei's debts. APPLE DAILY: (A) Bureau of Military Intelligence only good at internal strife The bitter internal strife within the Bureau of Military Intelligence and its involvement in corruption cases has led to indictments and personnel changes. The bureau is the most secretive within the intelligence community and has strong factions. In recent years, it has been infiltrated by China, seriously debilitating its counter-intelligence capability. This, coupled with warmer cross-strait relations, has left the unit with nothing to do but to engage in internal strife. It is worrisome because the unit is responsible for gathering military information from the enemy. If it is demoralized, it will be at the mercy of the enemy, damaging national interests. (B) A buck-passing government The fickle attitude of the Yilan County government has drawn the ire of its residents, as the government changed its mind several times on whether or not to close schools and offices because of Typhoon Parma. Premier Wu Den-yih was right when he said that the matter should be left for local governments to decide because it is more aware of the situation on the frontline. During Typhoon Morakot, both the central and local governments were criticized. That's why this time, the officials thought of only passing the buck to evade their responsibility. This shows how blurred the lines of responsibility are and how weak-minded these officials can be. 