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March 17, 2004

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Gunboat diplomacy

Taiwan's President wins the stating the bleeding obvious award with this statement:

Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian lashed out at China and France, saying their first joint naval exercises just days before the island's presidential election were aimed at influencing the outcome of the cliff-hanger vote.

Beijing has dismissed suggestions of a link between the timing of the unprecedented joint exercises -- launched on Tuesday about 1,250 km (780 miles) from Taiwan's northernmost point -- and the presidential election on Saturday. [They would say that, wouldn't they - Ed.]

Chen described Paris as "evil hearted" for siding with the island's arch-foe in exchange for its own commercial interests

The fearsome French navy being used as a political tool, again. That'll show those meddling Taiwanese voters and win a few nice juicy contracts for some French companies down the track.

Let's have a look at Chinese public opinion on the Taiwan issue. From Reuters

Some 43 percent of mainland Chinese think Taiwan should be reclaimed by force, an independent mainland polling agency said on Tuesday in a survey just days before a presidential election on the self-governed island. About 55 percent of respondents to the telephone and Internet poll by the Social Survey Institute of China said they believed Taiwan should be brought back to the fold peacefully, the poll showed...If Taiwan declares independence, 32.6 percent of respondents said they would blame it on the decisions of the Communist Party's elite Central Committee, while 57.5 percent said the Taiwan authorities would be at fault.

Most Chinese polled said they thought Nationalist challenger Lien Chan would beat independence-leaning President Chen Shui-bian on Saturday. Only 10.7 percent said Chen they thought would win, while 53.5 percent thought Lien would emerge the victor.

Well, why don't we see what the voters in Taiwan's democracy say first. Nice to see 1/3 of the Chinese public will blame the CCP if Taiwan declares independence. But wait for it, here's the punch line.
However, only 6.5 percent of respondents thought Taiwan independence would become a reality if the current situation of "no war, no peace" continued, the poll showed.
In other words, most of China is happy with the status quo. I can't vouch for the accuracy of the poll but that almost half of the Chinese public thinks it is OK to re-take Taiwan by force shows the CCP leadership is playing to the gallery rather than being belligerent for the sake of it.

Or that the propaganda machine is working well in China.

 posted by Simon on 03.17.04 at 10:37 AM in the




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