To: GST who wrote (145801 ) 9/16/2004 5:10:39 PM From: TimF Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 281500 Taiwan and Beijing can and do differ in their perspective of relative roles and authority within China, but they do not differ on the critical issue of "one China" to which Taiwan and Beijing both subscribe, as does the United States. Taiwan and the US primarily "subscribe" to this idea for diplomatic reasons. In any case what ideas they subscribe to doesn't change reality. There is only one China, not a fiction, not an assertion or a theory What do you mean by this? Either the words mean a different thing when they come from your mouth than when I use them or you are refusing to recognize obvious reality. If Taiwan tries to break away, Beijing will react as it see fit and Beijing will be perfectly within its rights to do so. Taiwan effectively broke away over 50 years ago (or to look at it another way all of China but Taiwan broke away). The government on the mainland is the government on the mainland because it had the power to take control and it used it. The question about wither the mainland has the power to take over Taiwan is uncertain but for Taiwan to be under the government in Beijing you need more that power and the theoretical willingness to use it. You need to actually use it and have the use succeed. Taiwan is one country and China is another for the simple reason that they are two different areas ruled by two different governments and that this situation has been stable for a couple of generations. If, only for the moment and only for the sake of argument only, it was assumed that the government in Beijing has a legitimate right to govern Taiwan, that still wouldn't change the fact that it doesn't govern Taiwan. There may be one China, in the same sense that there is one Korea. But that "one China", like the "one Korea", has two countries, with two governments. If you believe this is fiction go to Taipei and look around for the ruling apparatus that is subordinate to Beijing. You won't find any. Tim