Word: taiwan
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Even in China, autocratic state capitalism has an uncertain future. The story of Asia's economic boom tells us that democracies tend to follow wealth. Asians have demanded more political rights with their expanded economic opportunity. That's what happened in Taiwan, South Korea and Indonesia, all dictatorships turned stable democracies. China believes it can build a full-fledged market economy while leaving its politics unchanged. So far it has. But as China gets richer, can its ruling class survive the forces that undermined autocratic regimes elsewhere in Asia...
Beijing has fervently denounced U.S. President Barack Obama's plan to sell more arms to Taiwan, and loudly demanded that he break his coming date with the Dalai Lama. Is this proof that China-U.S. relations have entered a radically new and deeply worrisome phase...
...Washington and Beijing. But as foolish as it would be to ignore this, it's equally foolish to see too much novelty in headline-grabbing stories that fit neatly within established patterns. Chinese officials have expressed outrage before about meetings between foreign leaders and the Dalai Lama. And the Taiwan arms tale follows an even more familiar script. There's nothing new about a U.S. Administration announcing, as Obama's just did, that it's going to sell military hardware to Taiwan. Nor is there anything new about Beijing treating this announcement as proof that the U.S. lacks respect...
...domestic (to a large extent). China's dramatic growth may have increased its ability to be less deferential toward the U.S. But when officials loudly proclaim that foreign leaders should steer clear of the Dalai Lama, lash out against Clinton's "information imperialism" or stoke popular indignation about Taiwan, their motivation is largely a desire to play the nationalism card as effectively as possible at home, and it is as much a sign of insecurity as it is one of bravado. They see a value in deflecting criticism of the government over issues like corruption, as well as distracting...
...Beijing's determination to keep its growth rate high and its military up to date limits its ability to alienate other world powers. A boycott, say, of U.S. weapons suppliers over Taiwan (as Beijing has threatened) would simply mean China buying more from European competitors. As satisfying to Chinese jingoists as talk of future military action against Taiwan may be, the flow of Taiwan investment into China is crucial to the mainland's economic health. As, of course, is trade between China and the U.S., which also have a body of water between them and economies growing ever closer...