Does it surprise anyone that during the US-Chinese defense consultative talks on Monday that China did not again propose linking reduction of its missile deployment against Taiwan with a reduction in US arms sales to Taipei? After all, before the meeting the talk on the street was that Washington was prepared to consider stopping missile technology transfer to Taipei if the Chinese side formally raised the issue. So China could have picked up where President Jiang Zemin (
Monday's talks were a prime opportunity for the Chinese side to pitch the proposition. They were the first high-level military talks between the two countries since Bush took office. The US was represented by Douglas Feith, the undersecretary of defense for policy, while China was represented by General Xiong Guangkai (
The Chinese have reported raised the issue twice -- first by Jiang and a second time when Vice Premier Qian Qichen (錢其琛) met with former US defense secretary William Perry last month. Bush administration officials, however, have indicated that Jiang did not raise the issue as a formal proposal. This means that the Chinese side has never officially spelled out a proposition and nothing has ever been formally said in that regard. So everything remains at a murky and dipping-a-toe-in-the-water stage.
The fact that all the informal and ambiguous hints and suggestions by the Chinese side have been sufficient to get headline coverage from the international media gives a glimpse of Beijing's true motives. Having attained a high level of economic prosperity and influence in the international community, China now wants to upgrade or elevate itself into the real VIP class of the community. It cannot accomplish that kind of prestige and respect unless it can somehow lessen the number of condemning fingers pointing at it for all its bullying actions, missile deployment being just one of them.
By having some anonymous Chinese official tell Western news media that Jiang was sincere about the idea and pro-China scholars depicting the US' behavior -- after it was caught off guard by Jiang's move -- as suggesting a lack of interest, China has pulled off a great publicity stunt. It has successfully created a smoke screen and an illusion that the US is the one being uncooperative about reducing military tension in the Taiwan Strait.
The sad thing is that too many people and mem-bers of the Western media are buying into this latest deception by Beijing.
Saudi Arabian largesse is flooding Egypt’s cultural scene, but the reception is mixed. Some welcome new “cooperation” between two regional powerhouses, while others fear a hostile takeover by Riyadh. In Cairo, historically the cultural capital of the Arab world, Egyptian Minister of Culture Nevine al-Kilany recently hosted Saudi Arabian General Entertainment Authority chairman Turki al-Sheikh. The deep-pocketed al-Sheikh has emerged as a Medici-like patron for Egypt’s cultural elite, courted by Cairo’s top talent to produce a slew of forthcoming films. A new three-way agreement between al-Sheikh, Kilany and United Media Services — a multi-media conglomerate linked to state intelligence that owns much of
The US and other countries should take concrete steps to confront the threats from Beijing to avoid war, US Representative Mario Diaz-Balart said in an interview with Voice of America on March 13. The US should use “every diplomatic economic tool at our disposal to treat China as what it is... to avoid war,” Diaz-Balart said. Giving an example of what the US could do, he said that it has to be more aggressive in its military sales to Taiwan. Actions by cross-party US lawmakers in the past few years such as meeting with Taiwanese officials in Washington and Taipei, and
Denmark’s “one China” policy more and more resembles Beijing’s “one China” principle. At least, this is how things appear. In recent interactions with the Danish state, such as applying for residency permits, a Taiwanese’s nationality would be listed as “China.” That designation occurs for a Taiwanese student coming to Denmark or a Danish citizen arriving in Denmark with, for example, their Taiwanese partner. Details of this were published on Sunday in an article in the Danish daily Berlingske written by Alexander Sjoberg and Tobias Reinwald. The pretext for this new practice is that Denmark does not recognize Taiwan as a state under
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