Bau further suggested that Chen appoint Lee as vice-chairman of the NUC to downplay the issue of national unification as the only choice for Taiwan's future and coordinate the NUC with the cross-strait task force through Lee.
Nat Bellochi, former chairman of the American Institute in Taiwan, however, doesn't see China's reaction to this issue as a threat.
"By now, [China] probably has something bad to say regardless of what the decision is," Bellochi said, adding that whether Chen would take up the chairmanship would not be an earth-shattering event. "It might generate a lot of accusations over on the Beijing side, but I think primarily [Chen] has to look at the domestic political implications," he said.
Bellochi said that in his view, Washington would be interested in precisely how Chen reached his decision since it was recognized as a very delicate problem for him to solve.
Bellochi added, however, that Washington probably would not have any comment one way or the other.
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