USA-TAIWAN

WIRED: Bush Orders Taiwan to Forget about Freedom from China


Bush bluntly warned Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian against changing
the status quo with China in tough words delivered on Tuesday in a meeting
with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao.Bush's comments were a warning to Chen not
to hold a referendum on the island alongside a March presidential
election, plans for which have sparked anger and fear in China that Taiwan is
creeping toward independence. 'We oppose any unilateral decision by
either China or Taiwan to change the status quo, and 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, which we oppose,' Bush said,
seatedwith Wen in the Oval Office.


LA TIMES: Conservatives are 'Appalled' by Bush's Anti-Democracy Move on Taiwan

To conservatives, it was a shocking scene. Bush sat chatting chummily
in the Oval Office on Tuesday with the premier of communist China and
harshlyrebuked the democratically elected leader of the United States' old
friend and ally, Taiwan. 'The only word I can use is 'appalled'," said John
Tkacik, a China specialist at the conservative Heritage Foundation and
a staunch administration supporter. 'The spectacle of the American
president who just gave such an eloquent speech in Whitehall barely three weeks
ago, saying the global expansion of democracy is a pillar of American
foreign policy...' His voice trailed off in disbelief. 'This just simply belies
that.' Behind the jarring imagery, however, was a simple message. The
Bush administration believes that it cannot afford a political crisis that
could draw the United States into a war over Taiwan while it has its hands
more than full with Iraq, Afghanistan and North Korea [as well as the 2004
campaign].