Word: asia
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...WHEN MAO ZEDONG'S COMMUnist forces pushed Chiang Kai-shek's regime off mainland China and drove it to Taiwan, few expected the resource-poor province to thrive. Nevertheless, in its new home, the Republic of China has become one of East Asia's "economic miracles," with a per capita GNP today of $12,500. Even that transformation, though, is less startling than Taiwan's political revolution, culminating last Saturday in the presidential election. Voters ignored missile rattling from the mainland and gave current President Lee Teng-hui a strong mandate. He won 54% of the vote, more than twice...
...real sin in Beijing's eyes may have been to give the lie to the common assertion of Asia's authoritarian regimes that East Asian cultures and de-mocracy do not mix. The element of Lee's platform that most disturbed the mainland was the powerful campaign slogan telling voters, "You're the boss." Says an Asian diplomat in Beijing: "Mainlanders are bound to ask, 'If the Taiwanese could directly elect their leaders, why can't we?'" This fear of democratic contagion comes at a difficult time for the Chinese leadership. While the Taiwanese people elected their President directly, China...
...never had detailed intelligence on how much progress the Libyans had made with the tunneling before the drill bits wore out. Moreover, Gaddafi has skillfully found ways around Washington's roadblocks. When European sources for equipment dried up, Libya began prowling for suppliers in China, India and Southeast Asia, where export controls on chemical weapons-related equipment are loose. The State Department has found that Thai companies, operating behind their government's back, are still supplying construction workers for the plant. Westfalia-Becorit's managers say Gaddafi could even find bits from other companies. The CIA refuses to comment...
...policy toward Beijing would put stress on U.S. alliances in the region. "Not a single friend and ally would join us in such a strategy," suggests a ranking Administration official. "We'd be all alone, and that would cause severe strains with Japan, South Korea, Australia and in Southeast Asia." Singapore Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew, an astute analyst of the region, takes the point a step further: "The last thing Asia wants is containment. First, it will not succeed. Second, you will have absolutely no influence on how China and its attitudes develop: it will be hostile and xenophobic...
...engagement to work, however, the U.S. must maintain its military presence in Asia. The U.S. Pacific Command comprises 200 ships, 2,000 aircraft and 300,000 soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines, of whom 100,000 are "forward deployed" in South Korea, Japan and at sea. As long as there is a danger of war on the Korean peninsula, a drawdown of U.S. forces is unlikely; in the meantime, they help stabilize the entire region. The presence of 47,000 U.S. troops in Japan, for example, reassures not only Tokyo, which is carefully monitoring its great neighbor's rise to power...