Taiwan Update: Recount Almost FInished (!), Pan-blues Pout, and Beijing is Growly
Here's the latest!
FYI: For more commentary (especially on the PRC business, check out my blog pal Durian Nation here and here.)
Believe it nor not! But a good-sized chunk of the recount's done, and more on the way. Still, it won't be completely finished before the inauguration on May 20, this Thursday. The recount has turned up some questionable ballots, but:
The opposition said the recount had unearthed 34,000 disputed votes. Analysts said this was unlikely to be enough to overturn the result. |
Chen Opponents to Protest During Inauguration
No surprise there. But I have to say, this is getting almost...embarrassing. Anyhoo, the pan-blues are hoping to round up 50,000 to head back out:
| The KMT plans to draw 50,000 people to Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall, about five kilometers from the site of Chen's inauguration. The Nationalist Party won a permit from the central government to stage a demonstration at the memorial after saying it may protest at the inauguration. |
Lots of fiery rhetoric from the mainland. See why a great many Taiwanese aren't all enthused about joining Beijing and turning into a second Hong Kong? No? Here's a little hint:
| BEIJING: China is piling more pressure on Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian days before his inauguration for another term, warning peace on the island could not last unless he abandoned his calls for independence. Describing cross-Straits ties as in "serious crisis", the official Xinhua news agency said Chen was clearly paving the way for a future referendum on independence for the island. "It is clear that Chen is using his power to alter the current situation that both the mainland and Taiwan belong to one and the same China," Xinhua said in a commentary. "If the Taiwan authorities stubbornly adhere to the 'Taiwan independence' separatist stance and refuse to admit the one-China principle, peace and stability will not last." Xinhua's rhetoric followed a joint statement by the Communist Party's Office for Taiwan Affairs and the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council Monday vowing to "crush" Taiwanese independence moves "at any cost". |
Somehow talk like that does NOT inspire any warm fuzzy feelings toward Beijing. But maybe that's just me.
For more, here's the People's Daily from China, which reprints the entire statement from that Taiwan Affairs office. More fiery rhetoric, including this charming opening blurb:
| The statement warned that Taiwan leaders are at a crossroad and must choose between two routes: To embrace one China or meet their own destruction. |
Infuriating. I don't like being bullied! And the ending paragraph of the statement is pretty much just like the beginning:
The Taiwan leaders have before them two roads: one is to pull back immediately from their dangerous lurch towards independence, recognizing that both sides of the Taiwan Straits belong to the one and same China and dedicating their efforts to closer cross-Straits relations. The other is to keep following their separatist agenda to cut Taiwan from the rest of China and, in the end, meet their own destruction by playing with fire. The Taiwan leaders must choose between such two roads. The Chinese people are not afraid of ghosts, nor will they be intimidated by brutal force. To the Chinese people, nothing is more important and more sacred than safeguarding the sovereignty and territorial integrity of their country. We will do our utmost with the maximum sincerity to strive for the prospect of peaceful reunification of the motherland. However, if Taiwan leaders should move recklessly to provoke major incidents of "Taiwan independence", the Chinese people will crush their schemes firmly and thoroughly at any cost. |