Word: referendums
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Taiwanese President Chen Shui-Bian is nothing if not determined. On the receiving end of a one-two punch from superpowers China and the U.S. last week, the 52-year-old President stood his ground, refusing to back away from a controversial plan to hold a referendum next year to demand that China dismantle almost 500 missiles it has aimed at Taiwan. "The people of Taiwan have the right to say loudly, 'We are against the missiles, we want democracy; we are against war, we want peace,'" Chen said last Wednesday...
...some wonder if the President's pluck may prove calamitous for this small island and its vibrant democracy. While China last week repeated comments that a referendum on the island is viewed as a dangerous step towards holding a formal independence vote?a step Beijing has long warned would spell war?of more immediate consequence to Taiwan was the reaction from its closest friend and biggest supplier of arms...
...Tuesday President George W. Bush, at a press conference to mark Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao's first visit to the White House, appeared to side with Beijing by issuing a rebuke to Chen, signaling that Taiwan's President should not move ahead with the referendum for fear it would upset the diplomatic ambiguity that allows Taiwan and China to remain at arm's length. "The comments and actions made by the leader of Taiwan indicate that he may be willing to make decisions unilaterally to change the status quo," a position, Bush said, that the U.S. "opposes...
...country ... no matter how it tries to scare or block us, can stop [us] from holding the referendum." Chen Shui-bian, Taiwan's President, rebuffing U.S. President George W. Bush's opposition to a possible plebiscite in Taiwan...
...Chen may be refraining from calling a referendum on sovereignty, but that's unlikely to appease China. Not lost on Beijing is the message implicit in Chen's Nov. 29 announcement to call a referendum: in the face of Chinese aggression, Taiwan?for the first time since it split with China in 1949?has the legal means by which to hold a nationwide vote on independence. "It's a powerful weapon for mustering emotional support from the international community should any threat be made by China to Taiwan's sovereignty," says a DPP official. "It's precisely the kind...