Four days after al Qaeda attacked Spain, a Spanish plurality voted as the terrorists desired. Four days before Tawian holds national elections, the French and Chinese attempted to intimidate Taiwan by holding the largest-scale joint drill [ever] held by Chinese and foreign navies.

This is actually subtle for the Chinese. In 1996, the Chinese were even more blatant.

China, whose 2.5 million-strong military represents the world's largest standing armed forces, threatened Taiwan with missile tests and war games in the run-up to the island's first direct presidential elections in 1996 to try to dissuade voters from re-electing President Lee Teng-hui.

The move backfired and Lee won by a landslide.

Americans have much in common with the Taiwanese and I regret the US showed a lack of will in allowing Taiwan to be kicked out the UN in 1971 and replaced by mainland China. As we repeatedly fail to learn from history, allowing pragmatism to triumph over principle causes greater problems in the future. We should have stuck to our principles and make recognition of an independent Taiwan a requirement for mainland China's admittance to the UN.

Despite our reluctance to take a firm stand on this issue, the US has been a good friend to Taiwan and would most likely defend the Taiwanese in the face of a Chinese attack. The actions of both the Chinese and the Taiwanese are not surprising, both have been very open about their long term objectives. The Chinese hope to absorb Taiwan as they have done with Hong Kong (by treaty) and Tibet (by conquest). The Taiwanese hope to maintain their independence.

The involvement of the French is disappointing, but the only thing surprising about their involvement is that they are now openly helping China attempt to intimidate Taiwan. France is primarily interested in making money and instead of trying to do so with honest competition, their large corporations target markets that are forbidden to firms that reside in more principled countries. For example, the French were heavily involved in oil and weapons contracts with Iraq at a time when more principled countries refused to do business with Iraq (and France violated UN resolutions in doing so). Europe has an embargo on selling advanced arms to China. The French have been doing their best to overturn this ban. You may not be surprised to learn that Chancellor Schoreder also wants to remove the ban.

German Chancellor gerhard Schroeder and French President Jacques Chirac are proposing that Europe lift its arms embargo against China, imposed in 1989 after the crackdown on China's democracy movement at Tienanmen Square.

...the move seems to be prompted by political expediency and commercial opportunism. It would enable the sale of quiet German submarines and advanced French Mirage fighters to a weapons-hungry China, a country that is one of the major sources of tension in the East Asia region.

I hope and expect the Taiwanese people to stick to their principles and vote in favor of their referendum. I hope the European Community maintains their ban on selling advanced weapons to China. As an official Taiwanese spokesman explained, We don't want to see the situation where China is using French weapons to fight the Americans.

I remain guardedly optimistic that as China becomes more democratic, more Christian, and more interdependent on trade with the US, it will eventually become a much more stable and friendly country. French efforts to help stir up trouble are only in best interests of those who don't mind blood money so long as there is plenty of it.

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