Word: straitness
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...Chinese "antisecession" law authorizing war if Taiwan edges towards independence, which drew hundreds of thousands of protesters onto the streets of Taipei late last week; and intense pressure from Washington-which fears it might one day be on the receiving end of high-tech weapons in the Taiwan Strait-led several E.U. members to sidle away from a deal to lift the embargo by June...
...Chinese "antisecession" law authorizing war if Taiwan edges towards independence, which drew hundreds of thousands of protesters onto the streets of Taipei late last week; and intense pressure from Washington - which fears it might one day be on the receiving end of high-tech weapons in the Taiwan Strait - led several E.U. members to sidle away from a deal to lift the embargo by June. Shen Dingli, a professor of international affairs at Shanghai's Fudan University, thinks Beijing "didn't expect this reaction" to the antisecession law, even though a top aide to E.U. foreign-policy czar Javier Solana...
...million-member People's Liberation Army (P.L.A.), the largest force in the world, holds an overwhelming advantage over tiny Taiwan. But the island has tougher coastal defenses than Normandy did, and China's relatively anemic navy is incapable of a full-scale invasion across the 160-km Taiwan Strait. Instead, the P.L.A. has been building up its arsenal in new ways, betting it could force Taiwan to capitulate quickly without a bloody invasion?though that option isn't off the table. An estimated 600 ballistic missiles have been amassed within range of Taiwan. To impose a blockade of the island...
...real figure is likely double that via off-the-books spending, according to an estimate by the U.S.'s Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Said CIA Director Porter Goss in Washington last month: "Beijing's military modernization and military buildup could tilt the balance of power in the Taiwan Strait. Improved Chinese capabilities threaten U.S. forces." The U.S. fears that the proposed lifting of the European Union's embargo on arms sales to China could further speed modernization of the P.L.A. and destabilize the region...
...because it is emblematic of a larger point. Though Europeans seem blithely unaware of it, the strategic balance in East Asia is extraordinarily fragile. Political relations between China and Japan are frosty. Japan has, for the first time, just agreed with the U.S. that peace in the Taiwan Strait is one of its security objectives. North Korea could yet collapse into chaos, unify with the South, and leave China without a buffer state between itself and the U.S.'s allies. Many of the tensions in the region would be resolved if China were to develop into a democratic society that...