[Lake]

>>My personal belief is that as long as the stability of China is ensured, any type of government is tolerable.

The stability of China is in the interests of the US. The Taiwan issue is the key problem China has with the US and this problem could be very dangurous if not properly dealt with since it is linked to the most sensitive nerve of the Chinese people, nationalistic sentiments. When Chinese talk about "national humiliation", there is no room for "rationale". They will be talking about "blood" or "sacrifice". The only reason for the military confrontation between China and the US is Taiwan.

[borghead]

The only confrontation now. As China's economy expands it will obviously expand its sphere of influence as well, its already doing that in south and southeast asia. After Taiwan it will be something else, because the ultimate end of China's economic boom is off course to have east asia under its sphere of influence, the U.S will not willingly pull out of asia, so there will be conflict.