This has been coming to a head for quite a while.
Quote:
Wen indicated that Beijing would "pay any price" to safeguard national unity, and that the U.S. "must be crystal clear" in opposing President Chen's separatist agenda.
A Beijing source familiar with China's Taiwan policy said given the gap between the military strength of China and that of the U.S. -- and China's dependence on the U.S. market -- a showdown over Taiwan was not yet imminent.
Beijing has continued to resist the theory, first propounded during the 1999 Kosovo crisis, that globally shared principles such as the defense of democracy and humanitarianism override national boundaries.
In London last week, Bush cited one version of this principle to justify American action in Iraq.
While discussing the cross-Straits crisis, however, Tsinghua University judicial expert Li Zhaojie insisted that "according to international law, a country has the right to safeguard its territorial integrity according to international law" -- and that no other country can interfere with this prerogative. |
Sadly, with the war on Iraq, the US has lost ALL moral high ground as regards this issue - China can declare that Tiawan is a potential terrorist threat (as they do not recognize their independence anyway) to their national security, and perform a unilateral offensive to change that situation. Sound familiar?
Quote:
On the diplomatic level, Chinese overseas embassies have been instructed to brief their host governments in the near future on Beijing's determination to use whatever means to combat Taiwan separatism.
In light of widespread reports that if re-elected next March, Chen may take advantage of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing to declare formal independence, the Chinese diplomats are expected to stress that fear of an international boycott of the Games would not hold China back.
As Beijing-based Taiwan expert Xu Bodong pointed out last week, Beijing "will not swallow the bitter fruit [of Taiwan independence] just because of the Olympics."
Diplomatic sources said Beijing had a special message for Asian countries who are U.S. allies: that they should not provide bases for US aircraft and naval vessels that may be used to "interfere" with China's crusade against the "splittists."
Yet potentially the most destabilizing action taken by Beijing concerns military means to prevent the U.S. from helping Taiwan in case the latter was attacked by the mainland.
The People's Liberation Army has been flexing its muscles in extraordinary moves the past weeks.
For example, a Ming-class submarine was dispatched to keep an eye on recent U.S.-Japan naval exercises in the Sea of Japan.
There are also reports that the PLA has added two more missile brigades to bases close to the Taiwan Strait -- and that the missiles are capable of hitting American aircraft carriers that might be dispatched to the region.
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Not good; not good at all.
I doubt that REAL war would erupt because of this, but all it takes is one bad move - say, if the US sends a carrier and a Chinese missile sinks it - to escalate an already-tense situation to disastrous proportions.
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