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| China-Japan-Koreas |
| Time: Beijing's Joy at Taiwan's Democracy |
| 2008-01-14 |
| There is certainly no love lost between the rulers of the People's Republic of China and President Chen Shui-bian over on Taiwan, the island Beijing considers a breakaway province. Again and again, the Communist regime has been infuriated by Chen's efforts to push the island closer to independence, completing its transformation from an exiled regime - the Republic of China, with its pretensions of ruling the mainland - into an entity completely separate from China, a fully sovereign nation called Taiwan. And so, on Saturday, one could almost hear the cheering in China after Chen's Democratic Progressive Party suffered a humiliating loss in Taiwan's legislative elections. Just almost. The Chinese have learned to keep their feelings to themselves over Taiwan. The Communists have learned that trying too hard to influence political affairs on the raucously democratic island only backfires. The Kuomintang (KMT), which favors closer ties with China, won 81 of Legislative Yuan's 113 seats, soundly defeating Chen's independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), which took 27. The win also gives momentum to KMT presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou over DPP rival Frank Hsieh in the March 22 vote. Chen Shui-bian called it the worst setback in the history of the DPP, and took responsibility by resigning as the party's chairman. In 1996, when Taiwan held its first direct presidential election, China fired missiles into the strait that separates the island from the mainland in an attempt to bully voters into not supporting the independence-leaning candidate Lee Teng-hui. The act had the opposite effect and instead helped boost support for Lee; he won by a large margin. Since then Beijing has slowly been learning its lesson. "Whenever Taiwan has a big election, if Beijing makes a remark about local politics in Taiwan [it] will have a counterproductive effect," says Andrew Yang, secretary general of the Chinese Council of Advanced Policy Studies, a Taipei-based think tank. |
| Posted by:gorb |
| #1 WAFF.com > OPPOSITION WIN MAY BRING TAIWAN CLOSER TO CHINA. Beijing may also be glad at the news from STRATEGYPAGE > THE SUB THAT COULDN'T SHOOT STRAIGHT. India is unhappy wid Russia over the performance of the SS-N-27/3M54 KLUB CMS bought from Russ - KLUB failed six test firings from KILO subs in joint INDIAN-RUSS TESTEX in Russ waters under joint Indian-Russ observation. * THATS A TASERIN'. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2008-01-14 20:32 |