If Ma pushes for a Taiwanese surrender unification, he would have to be the dumbest person alive. In that circumstance, the best he could hope for would be to become just another puppet provincial governor dangling on Communist Party strings, just like his Hong Kong counterpart.

Lien (former head of KMT) and Soong (former KMT high ranking cadre and head of PFP) tried that way, and lose election after election until commie-bashing Ma came to be the chairman of KMT. Ma's policy proposes direct flight and direct shipping, and though these are also US policy toward Taiwan, that will not happen. The only way ROC government can talk with commies is under condition of surrender. Everybody knows that, and that is not going to happen without war. Our former president Lee Teng-Hui was an self-assimilated Japanese, then a commie, then a KMT cadre and now a staunch "splittist." He tried first to reconciliate with commies in early 1990s, but later was felt suckered by them. So he turned the other way. Both Ma and Lee received their SJD and PhD in the US, and both of Ma's daughters are in the US (one can even vote for POTUS). Japanese are mostly worried about Ma, because he stands traditional KMT statue which isn't very friendly to Japan compared to DPP. Ma's father was a loyal KMT cadre.

So, whatever Ma supports, it is not surrendering to commies. And whoever doesn't succumb to commies, are enemies of commies.

NE Asian people don't talk what they believe or will do, they lie or talk irrelevant stuff to hide their true intend. However, true intention was rarely hidden if you watch carefully what people has done.

Demilitarization is all talk and no substantial progress will be made. Commies will increase missiles and will never give up annihilating ROC, while ROC will buy more weapons and continue military transformation.

Japan will suck up whatever they deserve, since Ma only needs to deal with them fair and square. Consider that they don't have better options (two Korea, Russia and especially PRC), they'd still be supportive to Taiwan as long as we are not going to surrender.

I didn't I have so many enemies...

Gladly "Level 1 Alert" across Nanjing MR has just been called off...

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On March 3, the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) released its annual report to Congress on the Military Power of the People?s Republic of China. Its key finding, ?China?s expanding and improving military capabilities are changing East Asian military balances; improvements in China?s strategic capabilities have implications beyond the Asia-Pacific region.?

The OSD report devotes considerable space to Chinese weapons development, including a new generation of nuclear missiles capable of targeting the United States; advanced short- and medium-range ballistic missiles; attack and ballistic missile submarines; precision weaponry; fighter development; the integration of Russian guided missile destroyers into the fleet; and long-range, mobile air defense systems. Cyber warfare, the development of ballistic missiles capable of attacking aircraft carriers; and anti-satellite weapons are also covered.

Though published by the OSD, the report includes the State Department?s standard diplomatic mantra, ?The United States welcomes the rise of a stable, peaceful, and prosperous China.? As a practical matter, Beijing?s rising influence has been unwelcome in places like Sudan, Iran and Venezuela, where China?s quest for oil has aligned it with radical and anti-American regimes. Indeed, in virtually all the world?s trouble spots, Washington and Beijing are on opposite sides, as would be expected since Beijing sees itself as a revisionist power struggling to overturn American ?hegemony.

The report sees Taiwan as China?s near-term military focus, but long-term trends suggest China is building forces for more distant operations. Geography dictates this sequence of events. Taiwan is part of a line of islands that runs from the southern tip of Russian Kamchatka through Japan to Taiwan, then on to the Philippines and Indonesia, leading to the choke point at the Strait of Malacca. Chinese military thinkers understand that Beijing needs to control Taiwan to move its maritime perimeter eastward to get beyond these barrier islands. General Wen Zongren, Political Commissar of the elite People?s Liberation Army (PLA) Academy of Military Science, was quoted in the 2005 OSD report as saying that taking control of Taiwan is of ?far reaching significance to breaking international forces? blockade against China?s maritime security. . . . Only when we break this blockade shall we be able to talk about China?s rise. . . . [T]o rise suddenly, China must pass through oceans and go out of the oceans in its future development.?

Chinese strategists want a ?String of Pearls", a network of ports and airfields, special diplomatic relationships, and blue water naval forces which could project Beijing?s influence from the South China Sea through the Strait of Malacca, across the Indian Ocean, and on to the Persian Gulf. Taiwan is central to creating or cutting this string.

The 2008 OSD report, like its predecessors, examines the military balance between mainland China and Taiwan and reiterates that it is U.S. policy under the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act to oppose any use of force to change the current status quo. Taiwan is a vibrant democracy sitting astride strategic sealanes. It is not in the interest of the United States to see Taiwan conquered by the Beijing dictatorship. But the island?s true fate is in the hands of those who live there.

The Republic of China on Taiwan held its presidential election March 22. Kuomintang (KMT) presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou, the Harvard-educated former mayor of Taipei, won, ending eight years of rule by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) under term-limited President Chen Shui-bian. In January, the KMT had won 81 of the 113 seats in the Legislative Yuan.

The DPP has favored formal independence for Taiwan. The PRC has threatened war if the island declares such de jure freedom. The KMT, as the party of Chiang Kai-shek who fled to Taiwan at the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949, still embraces the Republic of China (ROC) heritage. It favors closer economic ties with the mainland, but does not want to give up the island?s de facto independence from Beijing?s communist regime. There is very little support among Taiwanese for unification with the mainland. A November poll taken for the Straits Exchange Foundation found 45 percent favored independence, 22 percent endorsed the status quo, and only 18 percent wanted unification with China. The People?s First Party, which favors a union with the mainland, won only one legislative seat in the January elections.

I have seen for myself the strong sense of identity the Taiwanese exhibit. They are justly proud of having built the world?s 16th largest economy with a per capita GDP over $29,000. The enthusiasm they display during election campaigns would not be welcome in Beijing. Ma laid out his vision