Posted on 12/15/2005 11:19:07 PM PST by State-of-Taiwan
Japanese mainstream media warned that China is on its way to build its hegemony status in Asia, by subjugating Taiwan, relegating Japan to sideline, and rejecting U.S. presence in this area.
To secure our interests in the Asia-Pacific, we have to adopt the concept of the "American Pacific Empire," reactivated and promoted by David Chou, the founder of the Formosan Statehood Movement.
ping
Do you have a link for this?
Betel nut blue truck drivers union?
Don't want to get in their way. :)
Two sentences of material that you wrote doesn't qualify as a "news article."
Please visit
http://home.kimo.com.tw/fsmdavid/index.htm
Countdown to Taiwan's co-optation
By ROBYN LIM
The resounding defeat of Taiwan's ruling party in recent local elections means that China may soon be able to take Taiwan by a combination of enticement and threat. That could occur after Taiwan's March 2008 presidential elections, in the leadup to the Beijing Olympics.
The "peaceful return" of Taiwan, and the outpouring of Chinese nationalism that it fostered, would do much to strengthen the Chinese Communist Party's grip on power in the face of rising discontent. No doubt, Beijing comprehends how Hitler used the 1936 Berlin Olympics to entrench himself in power.
Thus China probably hopes to checkmate the United States. If China brings Taiwan back into the fold by "peaceful" means, America can do nothing. And China will be able to plant its foot more firmly on Japan's sea lanes.
In Taiwan's Dec. 3 elections, the opposition Nationalist Party, also known as the KMT (Kuomintang), gained control of 14 of 23 local governments, reducing the ruling DPP (Peoples' Progressive Party) to six constituencies (down from 10) in its southern heartland. The DPP even lost its stronghold in Taipei County. Three constituencies went to KMT allies and an independent candidate close to the opposition. Moreover, the KMT now has an attractive new leader, Harvard-educated Ma Ying-jeou.
President Chen Shui-bian has been unable to run a clean and effective government. It seems unlikely that he can recover lost ground by 2008, though in politics nothing can be ruled out.
Moreover, some Americans unwisely encouraged Chen to think that America would support Taiwan whatever it did because Taiwan is the first Chinese democracy. That undermined support for Taiwan in the Bush administration, hitherto the most pro-Taiwan administration Chen could have hoped for. America will not allow any government on Taiwan, however democratic, to determine whether the U.S. goes to war with nuclear-armed China.
While the DPP has been naive, the KMT, true to its Leninist origins, has been blatantly opportunistic. It was reluctant to accept the outcome of the March 2004 presidential election, when Chen won re-election by a whisker after a failed assassination attempt. Moreover, the KMT has blocked legislature to fund a large defensive arms deal that the Bush administration offered -- even though the KMT, when in power, had clamored to be allowed to buy these weapons.
Until now the KMT has been not quite able to decide whether its main adversary is the government in Beijing or Chen's government in Taipei. Now the KMT seems to have concluded that the DPP is the main enemy. Moreover, the KMT is playing the anti-Japan card against the DPP and its ally, the Taiwan Solidarity Union, which is led by pro-Japanese former KMT President Lee Teng-hui. A large photograph of an anti-Japanese war hero is displayed outside KMT party headquarters.
With Koizumi isolated in East Asia because of his continued visits to the Yasukuni Shrine, Japan is playing into China's hands across the board.
In Beijing, the government is no longer communist, but remains Leninist. To exploit the advantages of the global marketplace, Beijing is using capitalism as a weapon. One consequence is that more than 1 million Taiwanese (out of 23 million) opt to live in China. That is in sharp contrast to the Cold War, when the communists built the Berlin Wall to keep people in. And it makes it hard to get political support in the U.S. for the idea that America, with so many other security problems on its plate, should be willing to risk war to keep Taiwan out of Beijing's grasp.
Toward Taiwan, China has followed a "marry me or I will kill you" strategy. In relation to the KMT, whose then leader visited China last year, Beijing has pursued "united front" tactics designed to attract support on Taiwan, while further isolating Chen.
At the same time, China's buildup of ballistic missiles threatening Taiwan has reached some 700, more than enough to swamp any missile defense employed by Taipei. China has also pursued an anti-access strategy designed to deter America from intervening in a Taiwan Strait crisis. This includes targeting U.S. aircraft carriers operating near these confined waters.
Chen has few attractive options. If he moves in a more radical direction in asserting Taiwan's "independence," and moves closer to Lee, he will succeed only in further alienating support in America and on Taiwan itself. So if Ma is elected in 2008, China could well offer an attractive deal (including no doubt the removal of missiles threatening Taiwan).
America will be relegated to the sidelines if China succeeds in regaining control of Taiwan by ostensibly peaceful means. And Japan will be more or less back to where it started, when strategic pressure from the Western maritime powers and Russia led Japan into the 1894-95 naval war with China, of which Taiwan was a spoil.
The difference now is that a "rising" Middle Kingdom, bent on redressing past grievances, sees Japan as the worst of all those who preyed upon China when it was weak.
Robyn Lim is professor of international relations at Nanzan University, Nagoya and the author of "The Geopolitics of East Asia."
The Japan Times: Dec. 14, 2005
Reports and Comments are in Japanese.
The link earlier in the postings indicated there is some feeling in Taiwan for genuine American statehood, ie the 51st state. I have never heard that before. Won't happen but it points out the strong fear the population of Taiwan has as China grows larger and larger on the horizon.
If you want to see a rearmed and more aggressive Japan, just let Chian swallow Taiwan. That would set off an arms race across Asia, with China, Korea and Japan the major players. Not a good scenario.
We have to decide whether to let the dragon take Formosa (Taiwan) or commit to defend it. It would be helpful to unite with Japan and Australia.
Taiwan, seek ties with Australia and India as well.
In the Japanese Diet months ago, a Democratic Party congressmen asked Liberal Democratic Party leader (and PM) Koizumi Junichiro if he was aware and knew about China's political strategies (covert operations) to isolate Japan from America. I think PM Koizumi Junichiro answered he was aware of this. In fact, this already was China's strategy from decades ago. China attempt to contact with Japanese congressmen, media, and publishers to transform Japan into a leftist country. This strategy was also attempted in Australia, which the defector revealed about this covert operations months ago.
I will predict that LDP and JDP of Japan may slightly turn away from China, and seek relations with others. As a result, there will be no more chance for China to gain back the relations as in the past. In recent polls by Yomiuri Times, the majority of Japanese distrusted the Chinese, worse than ever. Anti-Chinese motivations are growing stronger, and the whole country is shifting awat from China. Taiwan should promote even more for Japan to cut off relations from China and engage relationship with both Japan and US.
"Taiwan, seek ties with Australia and India as well."
That's right!
"We have to decide whether to let the dragon take Formosa (Taiwan) or commit to defend it."
We, of course, have to commit to defending Taiwan.
America and Japan will be big losers if China swallows up Taiwan.
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