China, for its part, has to realize it can never force re-unification; on the contrary, it has to woo Taiwan, to accept that the island must always have a high degree of autonomy, indeed much more autonomy than does Hong Kong.
There can never be any turning back of the clock on fully-fledged democracy and thus Taiwan's sovereignty.
It means that, unlike Hong Kong, there will be no Beijing-appointed chief executive, Basic Law or diktats to the courts.
Taiwan, too, must also be allowed to keep command over its own defense forces, at least for a decade or two. Indeed, a date on the winding down of military independence has probably to be fudged.
China, moreover, has to realize that an essential part of the wooing process is progress at home on the mainland in improving its respect for human rights and furthering the practice of democracy, which it has already pioneered at the local level, if not always successfully.
It is win-win politics of this kind that all sides are in urgent need of. The fact that Bush turned down the AEGIS request suggests that this new administration is keeping its options open for more creative diplomacy.It should move on without more ado.
Jonathan Power is a freelance columnist based in London.
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