[TheBigB]

The Bone in Beijing's Throat

I saw that one. Starred Jenna Jameson and Holli Woods. Darn good.

[jjm2111]

Hmmm.....

[Cicero]

Pat Buchanan is jumping on the bandwagon here. What Bush actually said is that both sides should cool it. What the liberal press said he said is that Taiwan should cool it.

Considering that Pat Buchanan has always been an isolationist who has preached against American involvement in foreign entanglements, why is he now saying that we should act tough in Taiwan? Could it be that he is so eager to bash Bush that he is willing to bend his principles? It wouldn't be the first time.

[Tax Government]

If this country abandons Taiwan, it will have stopped being a country worth living in.

[Fee]

China ruled Taiwan since the Ming Dynasty. In fact the Ming Dynasty fell to the Manchurians in the early 1600's. Taiwan was the last Ming stronghold to surrender to the Manchus. The Manchurians lost Taiwan to Japan after the Sino-Japanese War in 1895. After World War 2, defeated Japan returned Taiwan back to China in 1945. To begin a statement that mainland China ruled Taiwan for only 4 years in the 20th Century is creating the wrong perception that Taiwan is only a brief territory of mainland China and her historical claims to the island is tenuous at best is wrong. Such a statement does a disservice to the reader because it gives the impression that the Chinese desire to reclaim the island is not steep in its national history. The danger of such mistatement is it will give the US reader the wrong calculation on how long a conflict between the US and PRC would be if we supported Taiwanese independence. I think the issue the US should present to mainland China, is how can you rule an island that the population do not desire to lose their political freedoms, and have their wealth taxed to the max to finance projects in the mainland? It should be pointed out to the mainland that taking the island by force will only create additional financial burdens, because they must rebuild the infrastructure they would destroy in an invasion and allocate resources to control an embittered population, plus risk a possible war with the US that will destroy all the economic progress of the last 25 years. The mainland should be asked if all this is worth placating historical nationalistic desires of the past or face the reality that after 58 years of "independence" from the mainland, Taiwanese people may no longer feel that they are politically Chinese. If China has mature 21st Century thinking leaders, they will find a face saving way to let Taiwan go, but dominate her thru economical means (half of Taiwan's hi tech production base is in mainland China). Time will tell.

[skraeling]

The game is to hold the status quo as long as possible. Time is working against China on this issue, and with Taiwan.

[KantianBurke]

With his axis-of-evil speech threatening Iran, Iraq and North Korea with war if they did not abandon all efforts to acquire weapons of mass destruction, Bush jolted Kim Jong-Il. Pyongyang quickly broke out of the nuclear nonproliferation treaty and began to ratchet up its program to build nuclear weapons.

Bunch of BS right there. North Korea had been cheating and developing WMD even before the ink was dry on Clinton's 94 treaty. Bush's speech had little to do with it. Schmuck.

[aruanan]

That bone helped kill the Soviet Empire. Now, the bone in Beijing's throat is Taiwan.

Choke, baby. Choke! And remember that the government on Taiwan has a history that is about 20 years longer than the PRC.

[kabar]

Another Carter legacy. We should never have closed down our embassy in Taiwan and set up the sham organization AIT. China is salavating over getting Taiwan, the 16th largest economy in the world. I can recall visiting the PRC and seeing a huge time clock they had near the Great Wall counting down the time when Macau would become part of the PRC. I think American policymakers underestimate the deep-seated feelings the PRC has about "taking back" Taiwan. We need to make it very clear (often and emphatic) that we will never accept a Taiwan takeover by force and that we will defend Taiwan against any such attempt.