Neither Rabble Rousing Nor Saber-rattling
Posted by tiffany613 on March 12, 2007
Taiwanese president, Chen Shuibian sure knows how to bait China. On March 4, he once again taunted the Middle Kingdom over Taiwan’s independence.
“Taiwan wants independence, Taiwan wants rectification, Taiwan wants a new constitution,” he said on a day the annual National People’s Congress (NPC) opened in Beijing.
Expectedly, the response from Beijing was swift and firm. “Whoever wants to split away will become a criminal in history,” warned Li Zhaoxing, China’s Foreign Minister.
It is a measure of the sensitive nature of the fragile China-Taiwan relations that Chen’s declaration immediately impacted on his country’s capital market.
A report in the Financial Times indicated an immediate fall in Taiwan’s stock market and a subsequent weakening of the Taiwan dollar against the US dollar. “Taipei’s stock market slid 3.7 percent today, the largest one-day points decline in nearly three years,” the paper reported.
The reasons for the scare are obvious. China insists the issue of “One China” is non-negotiable, vowing it will not brook Taiwan’s recalcitrance. The country’s economic ascendancy affords it the political muscle to pursue its strategic interests in the global arena.
But it is not relying solely on its rising economic profile; it is also flexing military muscle. It is instructive that a day after Chen made his speech; China announced it would increase its military spending by 17.8 percent this year.
It is also noteworthy that the US has not given any official response to the renewed tension in the Asia-Pacific region.
But there is need for restraint on both sides because neither Taipei’s rabble rousing nor Beijing’s saber-rattling is the solution to the sensitive issue.
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References
1 – the Financial Times, 5 March, 2007
