Word: strait
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Sitting in the cafeteria of the National Taiwan University in Taipei last week, M.B.A. candidate Fan Po-yu is considering his future?150 km across the Taiwan Strait, in China. In classes, Fan, 23, is learning how to conduct business on the mainland. After-hours, more experienced friends tell him how to conduct himself once he gets there. (Don't talk politics; if someone asks about Taiwan's disputed status as a renegade Chinese province, shut up.) Regardless of the tricky politics, Fan's eyes are set firmly on China. "It's where the opportunities...
...only a small exaggeration to say that all of Taiwan was eyeing China last week, as a historic opportunity for better cross-strait relations played out. Lien Chan, chairman of the Kuomintang (KMT), the party that's been a longtime enemy of China's Communists, touched down on the mainland for a weeklong "Journey of Peace" that ultimately brought him to the Great Hall of the People in Beijing for a much anticipated handshake with President Hu Jintao. Lien, who unsuccessfully ran twice for Taiwan's presidency, hadn't been on the mainland since he left with his family...
...Lien's handshake was beamed across the world, but talk of "closure" or an end to the tension in the Taiwan Strait was irrationally exuberant. From the Taiwan side, in fact, the event largely highlighted the deep political divisions on the island?and Beijing's adroit efforts to exploit them. Lien was received like a visiting head of state, which he isn't. Taiwan's President is Chen Shui-bian, and he and his supporters want to stand up to China, not cozy up. Chen actually endorsed Lien's trip at the last minute. But the phoniness of that rapprochement...
...winds and ice-clogged waters can make any journey through the Northwest Passage an arduous one. But it is a frosty disagreement between the U.S. and Canada that has cast the greatest chill over the voyage of the Polar Sea, a U.S. Coast Guard icebreaker. The U.S. considers the strait an international route. The Coast Guard says the vessel is simply taking the quickest route home. The Canadians claim that the strait is an internal waterway, and they see the U.S. insistence on entering without permission as an insult to the country's sovereignty. "The Americans are abusing us," declares...
...peer competitor" - or give it space to emerge as a great power. Prime Minister Howard says correctly, but also hopefully, that competition between China and the U.S. need not necessarily lead to conflict. But it is easy enough to imagine circumstances in which it might: tension in the Taiwan Strait, mishandled territorial disputes between Japan and China, even access to Middle East oil supplies...