|
|
 |
|
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
|
|
WASHINGTON TIMES July 18, 2004 "An ominous shadow" For years, the Chinese have been stockpiling short-range ballistic missiles on their Fukien coast, directly facing Taiwan, with the sole purpose of threatening Taiwan. China increases this arsenal at a rate of 75 a year. Bill Gertz reported that Condoleezza Rice was met with strong protests from the Chinese when she informed the Beijing leadership last week that the United States would continue to sell defensive weapons to Taiwan ("Chinese told U.S. arms sales to Taiwan to proceed," Nation, Wednesday). The Chinese response evinces that they refuse to recognize the reality in the Taiwan Strait: that Taiwan is not China's "renegade province," but a sovereign de facto independent state. (Taiwan fulfills all conditions of statehood as established in the 1933 Montevideo Convention on the Rights and Duties of States.) China continues to cast its ominous shadow over the Strait to intimidate the bastion of democracy so close to its doorstep, but Beijing should understand that Taiwan's people will never be subjugated by an authoritarian regime. The Chinese people are suffering under Beijing's rule, but the Taiwanese people, of course, do not want to share that fate, or the fate of Hong Kong's people who are experiencing the agony of China's "one country, two systems" policy. Only when the world says no to China's threats and yes to self-determination for Taiwan's people can democracy flourish in the region and peace and stability settle in the Taiwan Strait. Nobody but the people of Taiwan has the right to determine the future of Taiwan. MING-CHI WU President Formosan Association for Public Affairs Washington
|
||||||||
 |
|
 |
