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t is hard to imagine what China's leaders figured they had to gain by pushing through a law authorizing an attack on Taiwan if it moves toward formal independence. Beijing has been threatening such an attack for years, and the Communist Party's all-powerful leaders hardly need to get their toothless legislature's permission if they ever decide to plunge ahead with such lunacy.But it is easy enough to see what damage this gambit has already done to China's international reputation and objectives. By reminding the world that Beijing seriously thinks about launching a shooting war across the Taiwan Strait that could...

FOR TWELVE DAYS FOLLOWING THE death of former Chinese leader Zhao Ziyang, China's television and radio remained silent about his passing. A handful of newspapers mentioned it, in a government-approved two-sentence statement buried on inside pages. On the day of the cremation, January 29, China Central Television finally reported that Zhao had died.The Internet and foreign broadcasts are another story. They conveyed the news of Zhao's death within hours. China-based Internet bulletin boards filled with condolences and eulogies--soon removed by vigilant censors. Despite intensified government jamming, some foreign radio broadcasts got through.Zhao's views were very much out of favor with...

Ninety-five Chinese riot police, including 13 women, left Beijing for Haiti on Sunday, the first Chinese troops to be deployed to the Western Hemisphere.   Chinese peacekeepers wave goodbye as they leave Beijing for Haiti on Sunday, October 17, 2004 on a six-month UN mission. They will join another 30-member team which left one month ago. [Xinhua] A small advance team left China last month. "This is a very hard task but we are full of confidence to succeed in this mission," one woman officer told state television. The force has spent three months training and passed exams administered by the...

Illegals Face a Gauntlet of Doom: The Border Patrol Faces Dopers, Terrorists, and the Desperate Victims of Coyotes. The 2,100 mile southern border of the U.S., with its treacherous mountain ranges, canyons, rivers and deserts, has become an uncontrollable stretch of violence, death, rape and exploitation. Over a decade ago, SOF rode with Border Patrol Agents in Arizona when the situation already seemed out of hand. One of those agents, now retired, recently contacted SOF with a disturbing and frustrated update, reflecting the deterioration of the Mexico-United States border. "In my career, spanning three decades, many of my friends and...

While the war on terror rages, a new report reminds us that China's ascent to great power status continues apace.WHILE ALL EYES are focused on enemies who present clear and present dangers, such as those in Iraq, Afghanistan, and North Korea, another country whose military was a chief concern during the '90s has faded to the background.A recently released Pentagon report provides a stark reminder that America needs to keep an eye on developments in the far east. Though few in the news media paid heed to the 2004 report on Chinese military power, it offers an enlightening glimpse into...

RE-EXAMINATION: An academic at the Heritage Foundation says the US is studying the longstanding policy with an eye to debunking the myth that Taiwan is part of China By Charles Snyder STAFF REPORTER IN WASHINGTON Thursday, Jun 17, 2004,Page 1 The Bush administration is already conducting a secret review of its "one China" policy, although the review is fairly narrow and technical and will not necessarily result in a decision to support Taiwan's independence, a leading Washington Taiwan specialist says. John Tkacik, an academic at the Heritage Foundation, told the Taipei Times that the review aims to debunk the myth...

MEMORANDUM TO: OPINION LEADERS FROM: GARY SCHMITT SUBJECT: Backtracking on Proliferation? The People’s Republic of China is lobbying to join the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), a group of 40 nations that, according to the NSG’s guidelines, seek to “ensure that nuclear trade for peaceful purposes does not contribute to the proliferation of nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices.” The Bush Administration is supporting Beijing’s membership in the NSG because, as a State Department spokesman explained, China is “a significant nuclear supplier, [has] a good enough non-proliferation record, and [has] made significant improvements in export controls on nuclear and dual-use...

Democratic Taiwan fends off Beijing and placates Washington.TaipeiON THURSDAY, Taiwan's president Chen Shui-bian delivered his much anticipated second inaugural address to an audience of 200,000 huddled against the rain on the grounds of the presidential palace. The speech capped months of tension between Washington and Taipei and Beijing. For nearly a year, Beijing's relentless demands that Washington abandon Taiwan had dominated U.S.-China relations, spilling over into other issues like efforts to curb North Korea's nuclear threat and Beijing's subversion of democracy in Hong Kong. China even scored an American rebuke of President Chen in the midst of his presidential election...

<p>BEIJING — Beijing issued a stinging report Monday blasting blasted the United States for what it termed government crimes and racism at home and "military aggression around the world."</p> <p>Responding to U.S. criticism of China's human rights record (search), the 61-page document complained that Washington "acted as 'the world human rights police"' and distorted conditions in its annual State Department world survey of human rights issued last week.</p>

At dawn in the Dengchi Valley, deep in the wild mountains of south-west China, local farmers have already been walking for hours through the darkness, bundled up in padded cotton jackets and woollen caps. They have come to meet at the Dengchi Valley Cathedral, an old wooden church built over 150 years ago by French Jesuit missionaries in the province of Sichuan, and home to a flock of more than 1000 Chinese Catholics. Father Benedict Yang is the cathedral's energetic young priest. He has just graduated from a seminary in the city, where he learnt what would shock Catholics in...

MEMORANDUM TO: OPINION LEADERS FROM: WILLIAM KRISTOL, ROBERT KAGAN & GARY SCHMITT SUBJECT: U.S.-China-Taiwan Policy U.S.-China-Taiwan policy contains a host of formulations, complications, and nuances, all of which (at least most of which!) we are happy to discuss. But let’s not lose sight of the forest for the trees. Here is what has happened over the last month: The government of Taiwan proceeded about its democratic business in a legal and appropriate manner that threatened no one. The government of China decided to throw a fit to see if it could take advantage of U.S. preoccupation with Iraq and North...

Wen will also seek to defuse tensions over trade The Chinese prime minister has again warned Taiwan not to use democratic aspirations as a cover for separatism. Wen Jiabao was speaking after talks with UN Secretary General Kofi Annan at the start of a visit to the US. Mr Wen, who is due to see President Bush on Tuesday, wants an unequivocal statement from the US of its opposition to Taiwanese independence. The trip comes at an awkward time in Sino-US relations, with not only Taiwan but trade and North Korea key issues. Provocative The BBC's Adam Brooks in...

BEIJING, Dec. 3 — Chinese military officers said today that Taiwan's leadership had pushed the island toward the "abyss of war" with its independence drive, making clear that China would consider a popular vote on Taiwan's political status as cause for war. In lengthy interviews carried prominently by the official New China News Agency and other news outlets, the military officials also said that China would prevent Taiwan from formally declaring independence even if that meant pushing the mainland economy into a recession or destroying its plans to be host to the 2008 Olympics. Advertisement "Chen has reached the mainland's...

A suburban Seattle printing-press signed an $11 million deal with China's Communist Party organ, the People's Daily newspaper. The agreement was touted by Washington governor Gary Locke, who spoke to reporters via teleconference from Beijing Monday where he was concluding his third trade trip to China since 1997, reported the Olympian newspaper in the state's capital. Banner from China's People's Daily newspaper online, English edition The trip yielded potential deals for more export of Washington potatoes and Boeing airplanes, but the biggest catch was WebPress Corp.'s agreement with China's most-read newspaper to sell printing materials. Greg Palmer, president of the...

Iran Urges Chinese Intervention in ME Conflict By Ali Akbar Dareini, The Associated Press TEHRAN, Iran - President Mohammad Khatami urged his Chinese counterpart, Jiang Zemin, to intervene in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict Saturday and stop the "crimes," Iranian state radio reported. The appeal came during Khatami's meeting with Jiang, who is making the first visit to Iran by a Chinese head of state since the Islamic Revolution of 1979. "A tragedy is taking place in the occupied (Palestinian) territories," Tehran radio quoted Khatami as saying about Israel's military offensive on the West Bank. "China ... can play a leading role...