From the National Review Online: Tense Straits — Washington signals timidity toward Chinese bellicosity.
As world attention has focused in the past weeks on continuing violence in Iraq and disaster relief in southeast Asia, decisions made in Beijing and Washington have quietly pushed both countries closer toward a confrontation in the Taiwan Strait. Avoiding military conflict over Taiwan has always required a strong deterrent posture from Washington so the People’s Republic understands the costs of any precipitous action. Instead, while Beijing has been laying a pseudo-legal justification for war against Taipei, Washington has been signaling timidity.
On December 17, Beijing announced that it would “pass” an “anti-secession” law squarely aimed at Taiwan in a transparent move to lay the predicate for military attack. Of course, the Chinese government does not “pass” anything ” it dictates. The puppet parliament obligingly scheduled the proposed law for final action in its March session.