Posted on 07/31/2004 2:45:09 PM PDT by wagglebee
TAIPEI - Proposed Chinese legislation that would give a mandate for the reunification of Taiwan with the mainland would provide a legal basis for an attack on the island, Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian has said.
Mr Chen, speaking for the first time on the mainland's proposal to adopt a reunification law, said he was very concerned about it.
'China is undertaking a legal battle. If Taiwan does not follow, it will undertake a military battle,' he was quoted by the United Daily News as saying during a visit to the southern county of Tainan late on Thursday.
'The reunification law is a bid to obtain a basis to attack Taiwan,' he said.
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao is considering a proposal made in May that parliament should draft and adopt a reunification law to prevent Taiwan from edging towards independence.
A reunification law would legally bind Chinese leaders to order the 2.5-million-strong People's Liberation Army to attack Taiwan if the island declared independence.
'I am very concerned,' Mr Chen said in Tainan.
Tension has been simmering between Taiwan and Beijing, rivals since a civil war that ended in 1949. Many security analysts see Taiwan as the most dangerous flashpoint in the Asia-Pacific region.
Both sides have been holding military exercises in the waters off Taiwan, leading some military analysts to conclude that the rising hostilities may have reached a critical juncture.
On Thursday, China for the first time denied that it had set a timetable to reunify Taiwan by force within the next 20 years.
'I have not seen any reports on this in the mainland's formal media, and internally I've also not heard of such a document,' Mr Wang Zaixi, vice-director of the Chinese Cabinet's Taiwan Affairs Office, told the media while attending a forum in Hangzhou, capital of southern Zhejiang province.
Mr Wang nevertheless stressed that Mr Chen risked war with the mainland if he pushed for a new Constitution by 2008.
The island's security lay not in building up an arsenal of missiles and submarines but in offering assurances that Taiwan was not planning to declare independence, Mr Wang said.
Beijing sees Mr Chen's goal of adopting a new Constitution by the end of his term in 2008 as a drive towards a formal declaration of independence and has been preparing for a possible military showdown.
'New tensions and even a serious crisis in the cross-strait situation may arise if Chen obstinately pursues his timetable,' Mr Wang said. -- AFP, Reuters, AP
By my authority as master of my own home I hereby declare that it would be illegal for my neighbor to own his own house without me controlling it. Since I have said this, I am now morally justified in breaking in and beating my neighbor to a pulp. Please do not interfere with my now legal moves, thank you.
Quite possibly so. It's not a situation that can be 'nuanced'.
It's also a situation that would be an enormous disaster for the US if Kerry was in office.
It is my opinion that the U.S. should form a coalition with Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea. If anyones attacks any of us, it is an attack on all of us. That would stop Red China's childish postering....maybe North Koreas also?
The term "Free Traitor" becomes ever more accurate!
If you want on or off my offshoring ping list, please FReepmail me!
We are not really in a position to deal with them.
It would take China's focus off of Taiwan.
North Korea is communist anyways, at least we know how to deal with the Chicoms.
My point exactly. When the time comes to make a decision, some wannabe POTUS's will be too busy trying to cover their a$$es with allies and resolutions to do anything, much less the right thing.
Not just for their growing industrial base, but for their population and increasing middle class consumer demands (air conditioning, etc.) China has an energy crunch. While the entire globe is competing for oil (which may becoming more scare) perhaps, in an odd way their industrialzed economy will end up wrecking their economy in the end.
We would do nothing. The risks are too great. I'm afraid Taiwan is on her own.
More of a disaster for Taiwan.
Don't fear it.
it is a certitude.
China actually intends to attack as soon as they think WE will blink. We won't.
Bush had them pegged as the center of the AXIS of evil. Draw a line from baghdad, to tehran, to North Korea's capital... and guess who sits in the center?
THEY are the center of the Axis of Evil.
They know it.
We know it. They know that we know it.
Everybody else darkly fears or suspects it.
But the PEOPLE in China may take out their leaders before we find it needful. China CAN be reunified... after they accept the Taiwanese democratic system as their own primary form of National government.
Possibly. On the other hand, the promise of greater affluence has been a key element in pacifying the population. If that promise fails, any government might be tempted to blame foreign enemies to turn anger outward - and that could lead to foreign military adventures.
On interpretation of North Korea's vehement anti-American militarism is that is a cover for protecting itself from the real enemy, China.
The last time someone tried to leave the US was thirteen states of the South. Every state houses passed succession and vied to leave the Union. The US leadership felt that a divided North America was not in American interest because foreign powers can play the US against the CSA and vice versa. Using the attack on Fort Sumter as a legitimate reason to attack the south (I think if Fort Sumter was never attacked, the US would have found another reason), the US crushed any aspiration for any state to opt for independence. Givened this historical US position on her own states, now we go overseas and lecture other nations (first Yugoslavian and now China) on how they cannot resolve succession movements with force and they must respect the aspirations desired by the breakaway regions or provinces? I don't know freepers. We have a full plate with the Islamic World in our WOT, we do not need to jump into another prolonged conflict with the most populated nation on earth.
I was thinking out loud about the free trade with China issue.
Regarding Taiwan, I have no doubt China wants to keep it within its fold.
Regarding other countries, I am under no illustion that China is sitting quietly on the sidelines and minding its own business. It is scheming no doubt just read Unrestricted Warfare for proof of that.
So let me get this straight, all we have to do is that Saudi Arabia, Iran, North Korea, and any other country is ours just because we want to take them out; and this makes it legal? Well, hot dog, lets get to it. If the commies can do it, so can we right? I mean the lefties can't say anything bad about it if their friends over there say it's OK, right?
The first WAR Kerry will declare will be on American gun owners...
He will use Homeland Security and the Patriot Act to accomplish his 3rd Way handler's
goals..
imo
Their catspaw North Korea will be the ones to handle that.
The real question is where India will come down in all of this. There is bad blood between the China and India, despite the recent rapprochement. My guess is India will take China's side in order to be on the side of who they guess will be the winner.
The Taiwan Relations Act allows us to come to the defense of Republic of China (Taiwan).
However, the Taiwan independence movement is to rewrite the constitution and dissolve Republic of China. Do we still have a legal obligation to help them?
The Bush administration has made it clear that they are not in support of Taiwan independence. What's Kerry's position on this issue?
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