China vs. Taiwan

As an avid fan of international relations, the China vs. Taiwan issue is bubbling to the surface again. I was reading the New York Times and there was an article that I found very interesting.

China's leaders introduced a bill on Tuesday that would effectively pre-authorize military action if Taiwan took concrete steps toward formal independence, a move American officials have said they fear could increase prospects for cross-strait conflict.

The legislation specifies that any changes in Taiwan's Constitution seeking to legalize the island's de facto independent status could be a trigger for military action. It is a direct challenge to President Chen Shui-bian of Taiwan, who had made changing the Constitution a paramount goal of his second term in office.

The bill, which is expected to be passed by the National People's Congress next Monday, does not compel China's leaders to initiate military action. It allocates powers to them that they have long been assumed to have and puts the leadership in a position to judge if and when Taiwan has ventured too far toward formal independence.

Yet it also amounts to a political commitment by China's new leadership under Hu Jintao, the Communist Party and military chief, to act decisively were Taiwan to try to solidify its existing separateness in legal terms - for example, by changing the formal name of the country to Taiwan from Republic of China.

The United States, which is Taiwan's only major ally and weapons supplier, roundly criticized the legislation in advance of its presentation as a "hardening of positions" that could raise the temperature in cross-strait relations. American officials did not comment on the actual text after its release on Monday night, Washington time.

The Bush administration has pledged to protect Taiwan against an attack from mainland China, though it has also bluntly warned Mr. Chen to refrain from moves that would legalize Taiwan's independence or otherwise upset the status quo in relations with China.

Oh boy.