Taiwan Opposition to Concede in Election-Sources

reuters ^ | mar 20 2004 | reuters

[zook]

Tell me about it! And my family and I have been invited to Beijing for the 2008 Olympics!

[trickyricky]

Bush will have to take strong action

I hope so, but I'm afraid the commies would back right down.
We ought to be fomenting revolution in communist China.
That would keep them busy.

[JustAnAmerican]

"Your forefathers didn't face the same kind of situation, the same culture, the same military technology, etc".

As the old saying goes "Apples and Oranges", replace 2004 with 1760 and you have the exact same thing. Fighting for independence from the "Motherland" is the same no matter the culture.

"But if your forefathers had not been taxed by the British, did not have British troops on their soil, had their own republican style government, etc., it is doubtful that there would have been a revolution at all.

Specualtion at best, the point is there was an American Revolution for independence from England. And since none of us currently have a time machine, well I guess we will have to abide by History.

[Chia]

I mean it's a machination. Sorry for my broken English.

Now the people who support Lien are very excited because Lien said the election is unfair and it doesn't work.

[JustAnAmerican]

"If Taiwan declares independence, President Bush will have an "out" in terms of enforcing the Taiwan Defense Act."

I would direct your attention to

United States Code

TITLE 22 - FOREIGN RELATIONS AND INTERCOURSE

CHAPTER 48 - TAIWAN RELATIONS

• Sec. 3301. Congressional findings and declaration of policy

(b) Policy
It is the policy of the United States -

• (1) to preserve and promote extensive, close, and friendly commercial, cultural, and other relations between the people of the United States and the people on Taiwan, as well as the people on the China mainland and all other peoples of the Western Pacific area;
• (2) to declare that peace and stability in the area are in the political, security, and economic interests of the United States, and are matters of international concern;
• (3) to make clear that the United States decision to establish diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China rests upon the expectation that the future of Taiwan will be determined by peaceful means;
• (4) to consider any effort to determine the future of Taiwan by other than peaceful means, including by boycotts or embargoes, a threat to the peace and security of the Western Pacific area and of grave concern to the United States;

[NZerFromHK]

Not only that, I would say the whole shooting saga looks suspicious to say the least. (Speaking as someone whose parents are very well informed about Taiwan, the KMT, and the DDP)

[NZerFromHK]

I'm reading RTHK's web news service (of Hong Kong http://www.rthk.org.hk which is the only government-owned "public service" TV in the world that is like Fox) and the Central Electoral Commission has returned the results: Chen Shui-bian won by barely 30,000 votes, AND there are approx 330,000 "invalid" ballots. Picture terms like "chad", "pregnant chads", "recount", "voter intent" again in your mind)

[elfman2]

"I mean it's a machination. Sorry for my broken English. Now the people who support Lien are very excited because Lien said the election is unfair and it doesn't work."

No need to apologize for your English. I can barely speak a word of Mandarin.

Isn’t a candidate claiming conspiracies like this swinging a double edged sword? Perhaps it will energize his more radical supporters, but doesn’t it also compromise his credibility in the future with more mature candidates who might vote for his opposition.

After all, is there any president with a good chance of being reelected on his own who would have an expert marksman shoot at him and graze his stomach in order to gain sympathy? Would the odds of failure of such a plot would be too high to be worth the risk? Wouldn’t making such a conspiracy charge simply be viewed by many as an act of desperation ?

[twntaipan]

Those 330,000 invalid votes are gonna make for an interesting next few days in Taiwan.

[NZerFromHK]

Hard to say really, but this is possible if you happen to have someone who is very skillful in using arms. So skillful that he knows when and where to shoot so that the victim won't have serious injuries. If he had wanted Chen Shui-bian and Annette Lu dead, he could have shot them in the head (it seems the suspect's position enabled him to shoot both Chen and Lu in the head without any difficulty).

[OldFriend]

China elections make ours seem fraud free. Many folks on Taiwan have family on the mainland. Nothing is as it seems.

Some people get to the polls only to learn that they have already voted.........

[Avenger]

I'm sorry but this is nonsense - Chen did not have himself shot. But of course this is what all my friends from Mainland China are saying.

[trickyricky]

Nothing is as it seems.

I agree 100%. For example: Communism is NOT dead.
It's alive and well and getting stronger day by day, thanks to us.

And just as evil, Chinese Christians face imprisonment

Anything that weakens the Communists is good for America. Taiwanese independence would be good for everyone except Communist China.

[kabar]

If anyone is interested in learning about the history of our current policy towards Taiwan and the PRC, i.e., the One China Policy, please check out this link:

http://www.ncseonline.org/NLE/CRSreports/international/inter-71.cfm?&CFID=13077349&CFTOKEN=3689752

Make no mistake about it, this problem will not go away regardless of who governs in Taipei.

[OldFriend]

One important factor in this election is that the French joining China in military exercises off the coast of Taiwan, made very little difference.

[elfman2]

I think there are many things that are possible that are not realistic. Headshots are difficult on moving targets.

A shot to the gut can be very life threatening. A very athletic 20 year old neighbor of mine died from a single small caliber 22 round fired into his gut at close range.

I was an expert shot back when I was in the Marines, but I’m not aware of anyone that could shoot a person in a moving vehicle with any probability of only wounding him.

[elfman2]

FRANCE IS JOINING WITH CHINA in an effort to intimidate Taiwan:

Wow… I didn’t even know that, and had to look it up.

[OldFriend]

With all his so called foreign policy expertise, I would like a reporter to ask Kerry what his opinion is of France's involvement in the Taiwan election.

[JimRed]

The DPP is a social democrat style party that will turn its back on the US as surely as it wishes to turn its back on China.

That's fine; sell them what they need to defend themselves against China and let them fight their own fight. Alliances should only be maintained with pro-U.S. governments.

In other words, next time, the Germans get to keep France!

[tallhappy]

Zook is rather clearly a disinformationist and pro-ChCom.

We always get many of them.

He is a disruptor.