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Timing is everything

Not withstanding the intense internal machinations that make a referendum on Taiwanese independence seem somewhat inevitable, please understand the atmosphere that US policy-makers and electorate face with regard to the current geopolitical climate.

With North Korea still unresolved and sitting close to the brink of confrontation with the US, with American forces stretched in the Middle East and lives being lost as we simultaneously try to rebuild two devastated countries (Afghanistan and Iraq) in a climate of armed resistance, with the Israeli-Palestinian situation no closer to resolution, with continued US pursuit of terror networks, let me briefly sum up where Taiwan sits on the radar for US citizens -- it doesn't.

This isn't former president Ronald Reagan's America that you've attached yourselves to and are trying to leverage off of China. This is a US under direct material threat, constantly being pulled into one crisis after another. A word of cautious reflection might help: It might not be wise at this juncture for Taiwan to add itself to this list.

If Taiwan needlessly pushes this referendum forward, and events with China begin to unravel as a result, the Taiwan-ese will have not made any friends here. Study your English again, and try to comprehend a key phrase that should apply here: "Timing is everything."

Fail to understand that (by pushing forward with this referendum now), and you will have badly overestimated your importance where US focus is concerned.

Andrew Mock
Seattle, Washington

Recognition the best policy

I agree with Alou Bo (Letters, Jan. 19, page 8) that the US has obligations to Taiwan. However I also believe that it doesn't need to sacrifice a single soldier's life in defending Taiwan.

The solution is extremely simple: regardless of how much China threatens, kicks and screams like a spoiled brat, Washington should extend full diplomatic recognition to Tai-wan. If this happens, most of the other Western countries will very likely follow suit, and it will effectively mark the end to China's diplomatic stranglehold on Taiwan and make China's design to swallow Taiwan much harder to realize.

It is an extremely simple step to take. By stubbornly clinging to the outdated "one China policy," which no rational excuse can justify, US President George W. Bush is not just making a mockery of his much publicized pledge to spread democracy worldwide: he is really asking for trouble.

Desmond Wilson
Llancarfan, Wales

Unhappy with Chirac

How does Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) "lead his country of 1.3 billion, resolutely down the track of democracy and of liberties?" With more arms sold by French ["Et tu, Chirac," Jan. 28, page 1]? Such lip service by French President Jacques Chirac is appalling.

Is China under threat of invasion by another country? Has a foreign nation pointed missiles at it to deny its citizens of human rights and liberties? How does China not destabilize the region by buying more French arms, while Taiwan -- which has already reached the kind of democracy and liberties for its people that Chirac can only hope to lead Hu into mak-ing -- destabilizes the region with a vote by its people?

Was Chirac charmed by a smiling face of China or driven by greed to sell arms, disregarding principles and France's soul? Which side is he on? More human rights for Chinese and Tibetans or more arms for communists, and more massacres in Tiananmen Square and the Tai-wan Strait?

Sure, China has played an important role in international politics. But is it responsible to threaten another nation? Compared to other EU leaders, who imposed arms embargo against China after the Tiananmen massacre and insist on maintaining such principles until China shows a commitment to the rights of its own people, Chirac is nothing but a clown.

Chen Ming-chung
Chicago, Illinois

"Old Europe" has gravitated even more towards the bizarre in an effort to get lucrative Chinese contracts, and appear independent from the US. For 40 years, France has cozied up to China in an effort to spearhead its presence in Asia, and to maintain a clique in the UN Security Council.

Now Chirac has declared the alliance between France and China is designed to help institute a "multi-polar world order" which is code for "let's counter everything the US wants, even if it's the right thing." It sounds as though France will do anything it can to ensure one "pole" in the world is France.

Now, in what must be an embarrassment to French notions of democracy and freedom, Chirac has warned Taiwan it will make a "grave mistake" by doing something as "provoca-tive" as holding a referendum. Could a vote be more provocative than the missiles?

Only in the world of market-driven diplomacy could Taiwan be viewed as "provocative" because it seeks to question China's right to aim 500 missiles at it. Only in such a world would the UN agree with China. But regimes like those of Hu and Castro decided long ago that only communists are entitled to be free -- to them, those in favor of democracy and human rights are obviously guilty of "sedition."

The remarkable thing is to find France so ardently supportive of Hu. Just how low has the value of the French liberte, egalite and fraternite sunk? Looking at the blood red Eiffel Tower, I would say pretty damn low.

Lee Long-hwa
New York
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