Word: islanded
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...just as jaundiced and one-dimensional: a renegade province led and populated by disloyal subjects bent on denying China's Party-given right to rule them. Put the two together and you have the mainland's worst "splittist" nightmare. As the Dalai Lama sat down with all the island's then top political figures, Beijing practically tossed every invective across the narrow Strait of Taiwan short of declaring war. (Read "Why Taiwan's President Allowed the Dalai Lama Visit...
...Fast-forward to today. On Aug. 30 the Dalai Lama landed in Taiwan to comfort and bless victims of Typhoon Morakot, one of the deadliest storms to strike the island. The Chinese leadership's reaction to the Dalai Lama's presence? Simply that it "resolutely opposes this." Beijing canceled or downgraded some bilateral events, but these were not deal breakers. For Beijing, which has fired missiles toward Taiwan in the past, the action was akin to throwing a snowball. In fact, on the Dalai Lama's first full day in Taiwan, the two sides, once the most implacable of foes...
...genuinely transformative factor is that China now gets Taiwan. The island is a more complex place for Beijing to decipher than Hong Kong and Macau, former British and Portuguese colonies whose governments could make no moral argument against the return of the two territories to Chinese sovereignty. Taiwan is different. Since 1987, when the ruling Kuomintang (KMT) lifted martial law, the island has gradually become a thriving, if somewhat rambunctious, democracy. Its 23 million people determine its future, not Beijing or London or Lisbon. A sizeable portion of the population - some estimates put it at as high as a third...
...power. As for those in Taiwan who still believe they can live apart from China - well, they need to get real. In today's world, no place can flourish without having a meaningful relationship with China, least of all Taiwan. In today's world, no economy can be an island...
...accident on the bridge to Chappaquiddick, an unexplained crash that claimed the life of a young worker on his brother Bobby's campaign, Mary Jo Kopechne - and forever tainted his political career: "That night on Chappaquiddick Island ended in a horrible tragedy that haunts me every day of my life. I had suffered sudden and violent loss far too many times, but this night was different. This night I was responsible. It was an accident, but I was responsible...