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| China-Japan-Koreas |
| Taiwan's Chen scraps China unification body |
| 2006-02-27 |
| From the Dept. of In Case You Didn't Already Have Enough To Worry About This Morning: Taiwan's President Chen Shui-bian scrapped an advisory council on unifying the island with China, a move that Beijing has warned would set off a serious crisis in the region. The decision to shut down the National Unification Council (NUC) and to scrap symbolic guidelines on possible reunification with mainland China came despite pressure against the move from Taiwan's close ally Washington. "The National Unification Council will cease functioning and the budget no longer be appropriated," said the pro-independence Chen, an outspoken critic of Beijing's claim of sovereignty over the island. "The National Unification Guidelines will also cease to apply," Chen told reporters after a meeting of Taiwan's top security agency, the National Security Council. Chen said the decision had been prompted by "China's persistent military threat and its attempts to use non-peaceful means to unilaterally change the status quo in the Taiwan Strait." Opposition lawmakers Monday threatened to launch massive protests if Chen went ahead and scrapped the council. "This is a dangerous sign of the escalation of activities by Taiwan separatists," China's official Xinhua news agency quoted Chen Yunlin, director of the mainland's cabinet-level Taiwan Affairs Office, as saying last week. In a statement on its website, the office said that Chen's move "will certainly trigger a serious crisis across the Taiwan Straits and destroy peace and stability in the Asia Pacific region." It added: "We must sternly ask Chen Shui-bian to immediately stop his plan, which will bury the win-win prospects between the two sides of the (Taiwan) Strait." |
| Posted by:Seafarious |
| #7 Chen is building the global case for Taiwanese independence by giving the mainland two choices - mutually destructive war, even iff the PRC "wins"; or for the PRC to accept=consider de facto Taiwan independence. A war right now will divert funds the PRC badly needs for domestic modernization - PRC and PLA will not only have to tolerate likely prohibitive PLA casualties in taking the island, but also the effects on the mainland of any WMDS the Chicoms may use in their attempt to subdue Taiwan andor lower the PLA's likely rates of casualties. Taiwan is also one of the several Asian nations that have asked Dubya to participate in US-led GMD. Most US analysts accept that Chinese/Chicom ambitions for East Asian and Pacific hegemony will NOT succeed unless both Taiwan and Japan, etal Asian dmeocracies, are defeated and suborned. Any Inter-Chinese costly regional war will also likely delay or hold back the PRC's oft-reported timelines of 2025-30 or 2050, when the PRC believes it will match, iff not exceed, the USA in global power. towards the latter decades. THE CHICOMS WILL TAKE THE WHOLE OF THE PACRIM IFF THEY COULD - THEIR DEFENSE WHITE PAPER ALREADY DESCRIBES ONE-HALF, MORE OR LESS, LIKELY MORE, OF CONUS AS FUTURE CHINESE TERRITORY, AND THAT WAR AGS THE USA "MUST COME/OCCUR"!? |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2006-02-27 22:32 |
| #6 If I was the president I would recognize the Taiwanese government as the true government of all of China. I wonder what the commies would think of that? |
| Posted by: Bob 2006-02-27 16:59 |
| #5 I smell some Chinese naval and missle |
| Posted by: Xbalanke 2006-02-27 14:12 |
| #4 "Gee, guys, you have a repressive one-party dictatorship that runs over its dissidents with main battle tanks. You have a one-child-per-family policy that leads to forced abortion and infanticide. Your government's finances are a mess. And you want us to trade a prosperous multipart democracy for the chance to be your wholly-owned subsidiary. You're kidding, right? . . . You're being really, really ironic, eh? . . . You mean you're serious????" |
| Posted by: Mike 2006-02-27 13:50 |
| #3 Chen Shui-bian should be applauded for doing what no one in Washington D.C. has the stones or ovaries to do. Namely, tell China to piss up a rope. Is anyone here satisfied with the fate of Hong Kong? [crickets] Then why in he|| should any of us be happy with the pending rape of Taiwan? China's Mandarins must have wet dreams over absorbing all the sub-micron silicon foundries operated by the world's eighteenth largest economy. This must not be allowed to happen to one of Asia's few democratic governments. |
| Posted by: Zenster 2006-02-27 11:39 |
| #2 We should use Taiwan more effectively as a tool to irritate china. After all, that's what they're there for. |
| Posted by: bigjim-ky 2006-02-27 11:23 |
| #1 ...which will bury the win-win prospects between the two sides of the (Taiwan) Strait. How the fuck is thousands of missiles, hundreds of thousands of troops and the threat of being conquered a win for Taiwan? |
| Posted by: mmurray821 2006-02-27 10:56 |