(This post might be penance for my making a big deal out of planning to ignore the Olympics, yet then watching them after all.)
This Fareed Zakaria piece ("What Bush Got Right" - I read the print edition at an opportune time yesterday) has its moments, but he lost me at Taiwan.
"On the most important issue to Beijing—that of Taiwan—Bush not only sided with the Chinese but has done so in a more direct manner than any previous president. He made clear to the then Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian that were Taiwan to make any moves toward independence, the island would lose the support of the United States."
"make any moves toward"?!?
Correct me if I'm wrong, but who takes care of the garbage in Taiwan? Who hires the police force? And what are those periodic elections all about? The Communist Party of the PRC can fantasize all it wants about fictitious territorial bounds, but for all practical purposes, the only effect the PRC has on life in Taiwan is all those cruise missiles it has aimed there.
(And as we all know, aiming cruise missiles at a piece of land is exactly the right way to indicate that there's still somehow national unity. Just like all those missiles we point at Hawaii, right?)
Posted by Matt Bruce at August 18, 2008 12:27 PMFrom what I gather, the Bush Taiwan policy isn't really a whole lot different from our previous policy and if he has "done so in a more direct manner" it is because Taiwan has been more aggressive about making moves toward independence.
Of course, in a just world, the PRC would be told to just shove their claims of soverignty where the sun doesn't shine, but I imagine cruise missiles dont exist in said world.
Posted by: Kubi at August 18, 2008 07:29 PMMatt, I think you're just misunderstanding the diplomatic language. Remember that the government in Taiwan calls itself the Republic of China. Officially, it still claims sovereignty over the mainland (and this sovereignty was recognized by the U.S. and even the U.N. until the 1970s). The issue here is not de facto independence, but de jure independence. I know it sounds strange, but the PRC has made it clear that it would consider it a very threatening gesture if the Taiwanese government were to renounce its claim to the mainland and declare itself de jure independent. The rationale is that declaring independence would mean accepting that China is divisible.
Posted by: west coast dork at August 19, 2008 03:08 PMOnce word leaks out that a regime has gotten soft, other renegade provinces start disobeying you, and then it's nothing but work, work, work all the time.
Posted by: Richard at August 20, 2008 05:56 PM