Talk #289

Tibet is a part of China.
According to my education received In Pui Ching, I learned that Tibet has been a part of China for a long time. I also believe that Tibet should be a part of CHINA for now and for the future. There is no reason to let it go. Do we still remember that many "strong countries" want to break up China and each of them will take control of certain areas? We learned those historical facts in our history classroom more than forty years ago and it (the intention of breaking up China) could be happening in future too.

James Koo mentioned that he was short of being called a "traitor" (see Koo's article dated Feb 20, 2000), I would like to emphasize the fact that I would not call anyone a traitor if he or she believes Tibet does not belong to China. I have been living in Canada for 37 years; and I strongly believe that we are allowed to have different opinions on various subjects and we can not (or should not) call anyone "a traitor" just because he or she has a different view on certain subjects. Only politicians name other people "traitors" for their own political gains.

Mainland China and Taiwan will not have a war.
We all know that Taiwan is a part of China and it is no advantage to anyone in Taiwan or China to have a war in the near future. It is my belief that China will start a war, if and only if, Taiwan proclaims its independence. Political leaders in Taiwan know that and they are smart enough that they will not declare Taiwan independent. ( Is it true that the president-elect has not talked about independence since his victory ?) As for political leaders in Beijing, they do not want to impose a war on Taiwan (Is it true that Taiwan's investment in China is only second to Hong Kong's since China had its open door policy ?); however, they have to let their generals to show off their military power and at the same time give a warning to Taiwan. There will be people saying that it is good to divide-up China into small countries, or saying that Taiwan should become one state of America, or saying that Tui Yue Tai belongs to Japan…etc. These are just drama or wishful thoughts. My conclusion is that If Taiwan does not declare independence, political leaders in china will NOT start a war.

The U.S.A will intervene if there is a war between China and Taiwan.

Both Bob Chen and Shun Kai believe that the USA and Japan are unlikely to take any action if there is a war. I have a different opinion. The USA consider itself as the police force of the World and this was the main reason NATO bombed Yugoslavia. Taiwan has been a good friend and trading partner of the USA for the last fifty years or so; The USA will not let China "liberate" Taiwan and does nothing. (If they did, they would lose their pride as NO. 1 military power in the world and this is not allowed.) According to Shun Kai's item 2, the war may take about two weeks - It is a field commander's forecast ; and I think it is his optimistic "day dream". I believe that the "war" would last much longer than two weeks and before it ends, the USA would intervene and then we may have World War III. This is why I concluded that Taiwan will not declare independence and China, therefore, will not start a war.

Finally, I would like to take the opportunity to say that we are all close to "sixty", the golden age, please DON'T forget to smell the roses along our paths.