Taiwan's People Seek 'One China'
Special to New Federalist
Dec. 21 (EIRNS)The victory of Taiwan's opposition Nationalist Party and its allies in the Dec. 11 parliamentary election, in which the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DDP) of President Chen Shui-bian not only failed to win a majority, but lost even more seats to the opposition, provides powerful evidence that the people of Taiwan will not support President Chen's provocative plan to declare independence from China.
"Ties with Beijing won the parliamentary elections Dec. 11 on Taiwan," political analyst Wu Chih-chung of Dongwu University told the Dec. 11 New York Times. "It will be much more difficult" for President Chen Shui-bian's program to split China, he said. Chen's increasingly forceful calls for Taiwanese independence from mainland China in the weeks preceeding the election have angered the population, who acted through the ballot box, said Prof. Wu, and now, "tensions between Taiwan and China will be reduced." Chen's DPP and its coalition partners dropped to 101 seats, while the "one China" Nationalists (Kuomintang) and their allied parties won 114 seats, increasing their small parliamentary majority.
The Nationalists have vowed to block Chen's plan to introduce a Constitution which declares independence for the island, and other actions which Beijing views as justification for military action to preserve national unity. Trade and investment in the mainland is the backbone of the Taiwan economy, making the one-China policy very popular in the business sector.
The Kuomintang-dominated Parliament is now refusing to approve President Chen's request for an $18.8-billion arms purchase from the U.S., which includes 384 Patriot Advanced Capability-3 Missiles, 12 P-3C maritime patrol aircraft, and eight diesel submarines. They question the size of the program and suggest that such large anti-missile systems won't be needed, because relations with Beijing should simply be improved. As of Dec. 15, the Parliament has rejected the bill, but has agreed to reconsider it if at least $3 billion is cut from the proposal. The opposition has proposed that the submarines, in particular, could be constructed locally.
Meanwhile, the neo-cons in the Bush Administration are escalating their anti-China policies, announcing today, Dec. 21, that the U.S. will, for the first time in 25 years, send a military liaison to Taiwan, rather than the normal civilian defense contractors. China's Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianzhao responded, calling on the U.S. to stop expanding its military relations with Taiwan, calling such expansion an infringement of the Sino-U.S. Joint Communiqués which have guided relations between the two nations since the 1979 estabishment of diplomatic ties.
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