Taiwan's Pro-Independence Parties Defeated

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) - Taiwan's pro-independence parties suffered an upset defeat in legislative elections Saturday, a result sure to please Chinese leaders who regard the island as part of the mainland. The coalition that included President Chen Shui-bian's party had been widely favored to win control of the legislature. But the opposition rallied, keeping its grip on parliament.

The opposition won 90 of the 176 seats that are directly elected by voters, while the president's group won 76 seats, the Central Election Commission said. The remaining 10 seats were still unconfirmed, the commission said.

Another 49 seats will be divided up by the parties according to the number of votes they won in the direct election.

An official with the Nationalist Party, the biggest opposition group, said his coalition won 116 seats. "We have exceeded more than half the total legislative seats. We thank the voters for their support," the official, Lin Feng-cheng, told reporters.

Cheng Wen-tsan, a spokesman for the president's party, conceded defeat. "We haven't reached our target," he said.

The president's Democratic Progressive Party promised voters it would rewrite the constitution and continue pushing for a new Taiwanese identity separate from China's. Both pledges angered Beijing, which views them as part of Chen's policy of "creeping independence."

I had to come back to this comment: "The Pacific vets are understandibly angry at the Japanese, but I think that anger is matched by ETO veterans once you bring the death camps issue up."

I don't think the ETO soldiers love the Nazis, but they don't viscerally hate Germans the way many Pacific vets and many Americans of that era hate the Japanese. The Germans weren't suicidal. They didn't sneak attack us. They didn't uniformly mistreat their prisoners. They didn't demand an apology for us bombing their country.

I agree that right now Japan is not a threat. But that is not to say that the same industrialists that were so gung-ho behind the war ever left power--we never cleaned that gang out. Should have been a lot of swinging going on, just like the Krupps should have danced on a rope, but we decided otherwise, foolishly, I think.

After viewing the Yasukuni shrine 'explanations' of the Rape of Nanking and Pearl Harbor, I wouldn't give Japan any more than they need to defend themselves, and nukes are way down on the list of things they NEED. They have a very high-tech defense force already. Let's help them defend themselves, but we must make sure the cultural superiority that remains ingrained doesn't sprout wings again militarily. And if you doubt that it is a culturally ingrained superiority, look how the country's people still treat Ainu, Koreans, and any non-pure-blood Japanese. It may be better than it was, but most of the country would still freak about a "Look Who's Coming To Dinner" situation.

They have obviously realized that capitalism is far superior to communism,

Just the opposite. You said yourself it's a Commie government, AND the economic power of the world - both. Give the 'greedy capitalists' the rope, and the Commie will hang them. I think it's an old Commie promise, er . . saying.

If they can't get a puppet government in Taiwan to voluntarily surrender sovereignty, they'll attack at some point. They'll go in, just like Saddam in Kuwait.

It's not like Taiwan gets any support from the UN (which has gotta go), or even the international Oly committee - with their pagan-tree ceremonies.

If they can't get a puppet government in Taiwan to voluntarily surrender sovereignty, they'll attack at some point. They'll go in, just like Saddam in Kuwait.

It is sad that so much of the world disavow's Taiwan's right to exist. If the PRC's attack is inevitable than the US should stop it and before the PRC modernizes enough to take on the US directly.

I just doubt that any Japanese PM or Diet leader would cripple his own political career in calling for rearmament.

To MacArthur's great credit, he did fundamentally reshape Japanese society and economy for the better, by getting rid of most(not all) of the industralist/militarists types after WWII.

Japan may be more of a problem in 2030, but I see China as more of a 2010 threat.

"It may be better than it was, but most of the country would still freak about a "Look Who's Coming To Dinner" situation."

Unfortunately, I think you could still see that in this country as well.

the PRC modernizes enough to take on the US directly.

That's what is inevitable. They will. Remember the Korean War. 40-50 years ago the Chicoms were considered so threatening that the US/UN literally stopped fighting a war out of fear - fear, the US was afraid of the 'yellow peril', of the numbers, and the nukes. That was half a century ago.

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