Andrew Arniotes Pr. 9 3/5/08
‘Taiwan independence’ doomed to fail - Hu
(Xinhua)
20008-03-04
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2008npc/2008-03/04/content_6507094.htm
Taiwan independence at this point seems impossible. Chinese President, secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and chairman of the Central Military Commission Hu Jintao feels that Taiwan Independence is “the greatest menace to China’s national sovereignty and territorial integrity.” He is saying that Taiwan poses a threat towards cross-Strait relations. Supposedly Taiwan’s strive for independence is doomed to fail. Hu feels that ‘Taiwan independence’ activities run opposite of China’s ideas to preserve and safeguard national unity. Hu Jintao says that he wishes to promote peaceful relations, and reunify the motherland. China is ready to speak with the political parties of Taiwan and make a peaceful negotiation, if Taiwan recognizes that both sides of the Taiwan Straits belong to China.
Jiang Enzhu, a spokesman for the First Session of the 11th National People’s Congress agrees with Jintao in that Chen Shui-bian and Taiwan authorities are destined for failure if they seek ‘Taiwan Independence’. Jiang also said that Chinese mainland and Taiwan belong to China, and these issues involving China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity need to be decided by 1.3 billion people from China and Taiwan. These disputes and conflicts between the two sides of the straits should be resolved with peaceful cross-strait relations, but none have been made thus far. China believes in the principle of “peaceful reunification” to create relations with Taiwan Straits, but keep China’s supreme authority and territorial power.
The AP World History Theme this article relates to is State-Building, expansion and conflict. This AP theme relates to this article because Taiwan wants independence from China. Taiwan is an island in East Asia Taiwan is starting to have a feeling of nationalism where the government wants to break away from China. The Chinese on the other hand feels Taiwan should remain a part of China, in order to keep peace. They think that Taiwan Independence would cause more problems and is a threat to Chinas sovereignty. For many years now Taiwan has wanted to be its own country and union. They people of Taiwan want full freedom and want to run their own country without China holding them back. The Taiwan Strait between Taiwan and China is a major shipping lane in North East Asia. Taiwan's own port of Kaohsiung is the second largest shipping port in the world. Taiwan is considered a free and democratic nation that has elections, and has a very successful economy. It is more profitable than any province that the People's Republic of China has control of. The People's Republic of China has blocked Taiwan from having official ties with most of the countries in the world.
This article is written from an outside journalist. I assume that it is written by a male/female Chinese journalist. I doubt that they had direct contact with the president of China, but they seem to have gotten many direct quotes from him. I feel that this person is more supporting towards China because of the way he/she presents their story. Seeing that they always put ‘Taiwan Independence’ in quotes may signal that they don’t believe it is a worthwhile thing. There is also not much information about Taiwan’s side of the story. Therefore I feel that this journalist is leaning in favor of China’s beliefs. The point of view that is missing from this article is the ideas of a Taiwan political official. This article presents many ideas of Hu Jintao China’s president, but we never hear from a political official from Taiwan. I am sure his ideas would differ on this matter. I feel that Taiwan does deserve independence, and their cause is worth fighting for. I think China does not have the right to keep holding control over Taiwan. I also think that China may fear letting go of Taiwan, maybe they think that Taiwan will become powerful and hold a grudge towards them.
Thanks for reading leave a comment if you are interested.
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
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3 comments:
For a previous current events I used an article on the same topic. I notice that in your article, like mine, the author says Taiwan Independence in quotes like that, as if it would never exist. Somehow it seems that China only wants Taiwan because they would suffer a huge economic loss if they gained independence. I don't think its that they're afraid of Taiwanese power, Taiwan is relatively small. I bet if you searched the internet you couldn't find a Taiwanese article on this topic. The Chinese government is probably controlling any sort of oppositions from Taiwan.
I was interested in this article because I also read an article on this for my first current events. As I read the article, I noticed the same thing that Eric did about Taiwan Independence being in quotations. Another thing I realized was the harsh word choice used throughout this article such as, "get nowhere," "doomed to fail," "menace," "obstacle" and "threat." All of these words were used to describe the Taiwan independence activities. President Hu Jintao contradicts himself when he says that China is willing to compromise with Taiwan as long as they understand that they still belong to China. I believe he said this to make China seem like they are very kind to Taiwan, as they did in the previous article I read. I agree with Andrew's ideas on the point of view and AP World History Theme. Good article!
This article interested me because of the fact that it seemed very bias just by the title alone. I agree that Taiwan should have independence, even though they have little chance of getting it due to the fact that China would easily reconquer them. China has no reason to allow Taiwan to gain independence though, and will try any method possible to make sure Taiwan doesn't gain independence. They need Taiwan in their country and may go to war if they have serious opposition.
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