Lo said Beijing's deciding on North Korea and Vietnam as stops preceding Taiwan was also no accident: by arranging for the torch to pass through communist countries before reaching Taiwan, China was pegging Taiwan as falling under its sphere of influence.
"It's also easier for Beijing to control the situation with its communist allies preceding Taiwan, followed by Hong Kong," he said.
"Any problems would be much harder to troubleshoot if we were sandwiched between Japan and South Korea," he said.
Emotions at the forum boiled over when political columnist Paul Lin (林保華) slammed the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) -- whose former chairman, Lien Chan (連戰), was shown on television consorting with Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) yesterday -- for its criticism of the Taiwanese government's rejection of the Olympic torch's route.
Lien and Hu began a cross-strait trade-enhancement forum between the KMT and Chinese Communist Party in Beijing yesterday.
KMT politicians had billed the relay as an opportunity to garner international attention and have demanded a separation of politics from sports.
"Taiwan could forgive those who would swindle it once or twice!" Lin screamed. "But for those who insist on singing the communists' unification song -- they are the commies' running dogs, the commies' slaves!"
"They are Taiwan's treasonous lot -- our nation's betrayers!" Lin added.
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