Originally posted by GigaShadow
Major blunder? You have to be kidding. Powell\'s major blunder would be considered his statement on Iraqi WMD\'s at the UN.
Taiwan comment? Isn\'t even on the radar. Also China > Taiwan when it comes to diplomatic and economic relations with the US.
I agree the UN presentation was worse than a blunder. I remember you talking up all the great "evidence" he presented, and me saying how it was not evidence at all... but that\'s another story.
I think our relationship with Taiwan and China is a little too complicated to be reduced to "China > Taiwan." All those years when we proclaimed China to be the great evil during the cold war, we supported Taiwan because they were the democratic refugees from a seething flood of communism.... or however they described it back then. In the decades that followed, Taiwan built up a world class electronics manufacturing industry, and a labor pool that is used to great benefit by american corporations. They are an important business partner to the United States, no matter what their UN status is.
Now I guess we don\'t give a shit about them anymore because money talks, and mainland China is simply a bigger market? To me that\'s bullshit. If China ever takes over Taiwan, they will walk in with a very long execution list. I promise you, it will be VERY ugly. It will not be like the absorbstion of Hong Kong. Many of the original enemies of PROC\'s communist revolution are still living there, and the party has a long memory. We owe Taiwan at least the respect to stay neutral on this issue, as we have been doing. Powell said Taiwan was not a sovereign nation, and should unify with China. That is not our place to say.
