Since Yiwu the Murderous mentioned it <Taiwan will make nice with mainland> one should bear in mind that it's up to the bully to make nice. The bully's victim can grin and appease, cry and beg, all they like and Islamic Jihad will still hack their head off, live and then dead, as seen on tv.
It's true that the little guy can bait the thug into aggression, but that's usually unnecessary. Bullies find a good reason to attack, no matter what. Saddam gave the USA cheek and challenge and King George II had all the reason he needed. Heck, Saddam was a really nasty piece of work. So was Uday. Good enough reason to attack. WMDs, AlQ, 911 and all that was just icing on the cake.
Same with Taiwan. Except that Taiwan is a LOT tougher than Saddam. China would find the going tougher and more expensive. A big hole in the 3 Gorges dam would be annoying for a start.
Similarly, the USA would find China not easy to militarily defeat. There would be major economic dislocations making the whole idea untenable. I suppose you have noticed that the USA doesn't harangue China about human rights much these days, what with the USA being confused about what a human is and how many rights, if any, they should enjoy and how much torture, discomfort, uncertainty and sheer terror they should have inflicted on them when held as "enemy combatants", without trial, no habeas corpus, no evidence, no human rights - not like those of real humans, aka Americans.
Taiwan is making nice with China. You don't see them demanding to take over the mainland.
Of course the whole thing could be resolved by holding a China-Taiwan referendum:
Do you want China to be taken over by Taiwan so they become one country? Do you want Hu Jintao and his laws, or Chen Shui-bian and his laws, to be President?
Hey presto, problem solved. No need to have soldiers shooting. If both China and Taiwan say "Yes" to the first question, the second question would decide the constitution.
Meanwhile, South Korea's ex-president visits Taiwan and tells China where to stick it. taipeitimes.com I suppose Koreans suffered enough at the hands of China trying to force South Korea into the fold and be like North Korea.
I'm sure a Chen would make a good politician in Beijing.
Mqurice |
