Free Republic

DURING HIS RECENT TRIP TO Japan, South Korea, China, and Mongolia, President Bush extolled the region's wave of democratization as "one of the greatest stories in human history" and lamented the holdouts who are "out of step with their neighbors and isolated from the world." The president also made it clear that democratic Taiwan, though itself isolated internationally, is as important to the United States as Japan and South Korea. He pointedly held Taiwan out to China as an example of a "free and democratic Chinese society."Such praise of Taiwan--delivered in Kyoto shortly before the president arrived in Beijing--contrasts sharply...

MEMORANDUM TO: OPINION LEADERSFROM: ELLEN BORK, Deputy DirectorSUBJECT: Human Rights and the EU Arms EmbargoFrom numerous accounts, it appears that the European Union will postpone plans to lift the arms embargo it imposed on Beijing in response to the Tiananmen Square massacre of 1989. According to the same accounts, Beijing’s enactment last week of a “law” authorizing the use of force against Taiwan tipped the scale against lifting the embargo before summer. Actions taken to exert even greater control over the Beijing-appointed leadership in Hong Kong reportedly also played a role, especially in London.Neither China’s intentions toward Taiwan, nor its...

As citizens of the Euro-Atlantic community of democracies, we wish to express our sympathy and solidarity with the people of the Russian Federation in their struggle against terrorism. The mass murderers who seized School No. 1 in Beslan committed a heinous act of terrorism for which there can be no rationale or excuse. While other mass murderers have killed children and unarmed civilians, the calculated targeting of so many innocent children at school is an unprecedented act of barbarism that violates the values and norms of our community and which all civilized nations must condemn.At the same time, we are...

Ellen BorkNew York SunJune 4, 2004 Today is the 15th anniversary of the Communist Chinese government's massacre of democracy protesters. Every year, the anniversary causes anxiety for the regime. Security is tightened around the square at Tiananmen, the focal point of the 1989 demonstrations. Dissidents are rounded up or sequestered. Among these, apparently, is Jiang Yanyong, the retired doctor who exposed government deceit about SARS and urged Chinese leaders to reverse official policy that the murdered protesters were counterrevolutionaries. Authorities have also issued a warning to Ding Zilin - the mother of a 17-year-old who was shot in the heart...

Democratic Taiwan fends off Beijing and placates Washington.TaipeiON THURSDAY, Taiwan's president Chen Shui-bian delivered his much anticipated second inaugural address to an audience of 200,000 huddled against the rain on the grounds of the presidential palace. The speech capped months of tension between Washington and Taipei and Beijing. For nearly a year, Beijing's relentless demands that Washington abandon Taiwan had dominated U.S.-China relations, spilling over into other issues like efforts to curb North Korea's nuclear threat and Beijing's subversion of democracy in Hong Kong. China even scored an American rebuke of President Chen in the midst of his presidential election...

MEMORANDUM TO: OPINION LEADERS FROM: ELLEN BORK, Deputy Director SUBJECT: Taiwan’s Bid to Join the WHO Think back to this time last year. The epidemic of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), the mysterious virus that eventually caused hundreds of deaths in 2003 was just beginning to ease. For months, the disease, which originated in southern China, had confounded health authorities who did not know how it spread or at first, just what kind of a virus it was. Amid this highly charged atmosphere, Taiwan’s bid to join the World Health Organization (WHO) as an observer failed because even countries that...

Trouble ahead in the U.S.-China relationship. "WE HAVE good relations with China, the best relations we've had with China in 30 years," Secretary of State Colin Powell has been saying recently. Whether you agree with that assessment or not, the odds are several areas of conflict will soon make U.S.-China relations a lot rockier. Here are six issues that will cause Washington-Beijing ties to fray.TAIWAN. Despite Bush administration hopes, the March 20 presidential election will not relieve tensions in the Taiwan strait or alleviate Beijing's pressure on Washington to lessen its support for Taiwan. The administration has very nearly chosen...

MEMORANDUM TO: OPINION LEADERSFROM: WILLIAM KRISTOL & ELLEN BORKSUBJECT: The Bush Administration, Taiwan & ChinaLast Friday, Richard Lawless, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense, told a congressional commission that Taiwan faces a significant military threat from China, and that Taiwan consequently needs to improve its defenses. Regarding the referendum that will be held on March 20 on whether Taiwan should acquire more advanced anti-missile systems, Mr. Lawless commented that Taiwan needed to achieve a consensus on defense spending and military reform. "There clearly is a requirement for this nation to find a common will and to bring itself together…. It is...