China's foreign minister has urged the US, Taiwan's biggest arms provider, to take "concrete measures" against any Taiwanese bids for independence.
Li Zhaoxing, speaking on the sidelines of China's annual parliament session, said Taiwan was the most important issue facing China-US relations.
Chinese President Hu Jintao is due to visit Washington next month.
Beijing has been angered by Taiwan's recent decision to scrap a council on reunification with the mainland.
"We hope that the US side... recognises the dangerous nature of Taiwan independence secessionist forces and takes concrete measures to oppose Taiwan independence forces," Mr Li told journalists.
It is interesting how the international media simply let comments like this pass. This reporter should have mentioned that "the danger of Taiwan independence" is that China will start a war over it. Independence itself is not dangerous at all. China's attitude is like that of the abuser husband who finds out that his wife is leaving him, and then warns that it would be "dangerous" for her and anyone who helps her.
I am still thinking that China is laying the groundwork for something serious, by first giving the appearance that they have exhausted all avenues. They have now driven a truck through the line that Taiwan is an "internal affair" of China that everyone else should stay out of, and for what advantage? You don't give up thirty years of hard-won control of world perceptions so you can whine about Taiwan independence radicals to the UN and announce that you are increasing military spending.
When China launched its punitive assault on Vietnam, it did so on the anniversary of the expiration of a treaty. The 111th anniversary of the Treaty of Shimonoseki, under which the Qing Dynasty ceded Taiwan to Japan in perpetuity, comes up on April 17.
The Beeb also writes:
China and Taiwan have been governed separately since a civil war ended in 1949, but China still sees Taiwan as its territory and has threatened to use force if the island moves towards declaring independence.
This is a new twist on the "Taiwan and China split in 1949" propaganda bit; instead, it is "governed separately." The use of the term "governed" is a nice bit of weaseling that avoids making clear that Taiwan had been administrated by the government of the Republic of China for only 4 years in 1949, and had been an imperial possession of Japan prior to that. "Governed" also gives the Beeb a way to avoid saying who Taiwan belongs to. Sweet.
[Taiwan] [China] [media]
3 comments:
Hold on a minute, since when is Japen cares what's right in the world or democracy? It's a fake-democratic country itself. And it has 2nd highest military budget in the world. Sure it can say no to China because it has more military power than China.
i've been thinking about this one for awhile. Michael, you are correct: the Chinese are up to something. what they have been doing is subtle: slowly building a false reputation for being "tolerant" and "reasonable." i wonder if those with the capacity for such research could find media examples of this over the past 2 years or so. one good example is this bullshit about the pandas. that was part of their plan to make Taiwan look "uncooperative" when China knows damn well that Taiwan couldn't possible accept them on the basis upon which they were offered.
this kind of crap goes on daily, even in Taiwan. how many times has a "friendly" Taiwanese offered you a cigarette, knowing full well that you don't smoke, just so he can make a joke about you among his idiot friends? i'll never forget the time i was sitting at a restaurant with an American customer when a nearby local customer had the waitress bring us a pitcher of blood from a freshly killed turtle, with 2 glasses (even though Hui-Chen was with us).
China is doing the same thing basically, but on a much grander scale, and with perfect execution, and, sad to say, the international media is eating it up.
Michael, you should present such examples along with your theory in a press conference to warn the Taiwanese of an impending Chinese conquest.
oh yeah, one phrase that boils my blood: "China passed an anti-secession law last year. That created a legal basis for attacking if the island declares independence." what f-ing legal basis would that be? does Taiwan have an anti-annexation law?
Well, I really don't want to denfend China. But the truth is the seamen DID invade China and most of Asia and even U.S. And the seamen is recouping to do it again. Its fleet is far more advanced than the rest (China, Korea, Taiwan) combined. It's under nuke protection of U.S.
In short, never has, and never will, Japan stand up for freedom or democracy simply it believes the opposite.
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