Taiwan, China, and the UN
Dignified Rant reports -- to nobody's surprise, unfortunately -- that the United Nations is mostly oblivious, largely negligent, and utterly useless regarding the China-Taiwan dilemma.
Notice too that China says that whatever force it may use against Taiwan is none of the UN's business, because the conflict would be a purely internal matter. The UN, useless as ever, is likely too happy to sit by.
*snort of derision and contempt*
On the other hand, do go look at this news story: "Taiwan allies accuse China of expansion." (and also of specific anti-Taiwan action, such as increasing the missiles pointing at the island. Current count is nearly 800.)
The story notes that the allies, in fine multinational, multilateral fashion, urged the UN to step in and increase peaceful dialogue between China and Taiwan. At this point, China more or less said it wasn't interested and that the UN could take a long walk off a short pier. Multilateral international community-focused diplomacy in action, I tell you!
Still, here is an interesting quote by Gambia's UN ambassador:
Gambia's U.N. Ambassador Crispin Grey-Johnson said his government believes the United Nations has the responsibility to intervene to prevent the eruption of conflicts "regardless of whether they are within or between states."
. . ."It is unfortunate that none other than the People's Republic of China, a respected member of the Security Council, the custodian of international peace and security, is itself engaged in threats to international peace and security by expanding its already huge military arsenal in readiness for an invasion of Taiwan," Grey-Johnson said.
"Every year for the past several years, China has trained about 100 additional missiles on Taiwan, reaching a total of 800 missiles this year," he said. "And China has openly stated that it is prepared to settle the Taiwan question through `non-peaceful means and other necessary measures.'"
Honestly, if anything should happen, Taiwan is far better off calling on Japan and the US . . . but it better build up its own self-defense capabilities first, dang it.