Thursday, December 04, 2003

"Abyss of war"

Chinese military officials have warned Taiwan again that they are heading towards war. "Taiwan independence means war".

To say that this story is not getting much attention from the Irish media is an understatement. I've seen one mention of the threat against Taiwan in the Irish Times (Sat., Nov 29) (from Reuters). If the US or Israel's not involved, the Irish media doesn't seem to care. Is it any wonder that Irish people believe Israel is a greater threat to world peace? 62% of Irish people believe Israel presents a threat to world peace (60% believe the US presents such a threat), but only 37% see China as a threat to the peace of the world.

Parris Chang writes that China doesn't even understand democracy. They're using threats to try to coerce the Taiwanese people to vote a particular way. The Chinese do not want the current President returned and they don't want a new constitution for Taiwan.

A small island with a free society and democratic government is threatened with war if it dares to declare itself independent. Even thinking about independence seems to be enough to get the Chinese up in arms. Why does no one in Ireland care? Why is the media not even paying attention?