Finally Catching On To China's Threat

My local paper, The San Diego Union-Tribune, appears finally to be catching on to the threat to peace posed by China's passage of the anti-secession law. The paper's editorial (click here) criticizes China's actions. Strangely, the editorial frames the law as a kind of response to President's Bush's declaration of military support for Taiwan.

"The Taiwan Relations Act pledges the United States to sell Taiwan defensive arms and, somewhat more vaguely, to assist Taiwan if it is attacked. When China threatened Taiwan militarily in the mid-1990s, then-President Clinton setn a Navy carrier battle group as a pointed reminder of America's commitment. President Bush upped the ante by declaring flatly that the United States would defend Taiwan if China attacks

"Now China has upped its ante. ... What was once only a declared threat is now established, unequivocal law."

It's hard to see how China has upped its ante. China has long threatened to use military force to take Taiwan if Taiwan were to go too far down the road to independence. The law doesn't change that fact.

The editorial then discusses the tragedy that would ensue if China made good on her threat and concludes that China's actions might be self-defeating.

"Ironically for Beijing, this bullying may already have backfired. The European Union had been poised to lift its arms embargo against China but is reconsidering."

Apparently the editors are not paying attention to news from Europe regarding the embargo. As this blog has written about twice before, Europe's only put lifting the embargo on hold until the controversy dies down a bit (click here) and France, at least, is not only as committed as ever to lifting the embargo, France fully supports the anti-secession law (click here).

-tdr