G'day all - hi, stocksforme, I was talking to a taiwanese colleague of mine yesterday. Essentially, he think President Lee was indeed doing so in an attempt to alter the course of domestic politics. One plausible rumour is to undermine the current VP in favour of the former mayor of Taipei.
The trouble is that neither China nor the US have fully swallowed the bait. Yes, both have raise the noise level a notch or two higher, but not a whole lot beyond that - except for the neutron bomb bit, which is equally dumb. So what if China wiped out the population of Taiwan without destroying the chip fabs, not sure China had enough technicans to operate them! Worse, it seems that President Lee has miscalculated. With its stock market in tailspin, there is a good chance that Taiwan might catch the delayed version of the Asian Flu after all, while other tiger economies are poised to recovered. Considering they [HK, Taiwan, Singapore, S Korea & even to a lesser extent Malaysia] still vying for the title [I am excluding China and Japan,] this kind of misstep can have serious repercussion.
Beyond miscalculation, there is some truism in President Lee's statement though [nothing is straightly black or white for me <g>.] The reunification of China and Taiwan has to be at a higher level than that of China and HK. And looking at the current HK situation, it is reasonable for Taiwan to ask for a better term.
Just my 2c <G>
best, Bosco |
