[quote] A profit-driven Taiwanese businessmen, given $100 to invest, would be foolish to put his money in Taiwan. The Taiwanese market itself is tiny, flying his engineers/managers to mainland China will take 5-6 hours, shipping products back and forth is a logistic nightmare. Any capital that goes into Taiwan today could, very possibly, be prevented from flowing to mainland China when he wants to expand production there. The alternative? He’ll set up a company in Hong Kong (with its 15% flat corporate taxes), get Western-quality banking/legal services, while still having immediate access to the mainland. He gets the best of all worlds.
Why would any objective, profit-driven international businessmen invest significantly in Taiwan today?[/quote]
PRECISELY cctang! You said it all there
Now let me add former US AIT director and US Ambassdor to Beijing James Lilley’s comments of Taiwanese. He has said quote, “They like freedom and democracy…but they love money more…” It’s one of the most SPOT-ON observations made of Taiwan in recent time, a statement made many years ago in fact and as prescient and on target one could ask of the overall psychology of the people here…The fact is, this point isnt really deeply understood back there and how serious it is. The overall depth of how TRUE it is and yet so obvious it remains in the overall situation of life here. If Americans were to truly understand how deep this belief were, they’d give ample due pause and challenge before committing themselves to a disastrous war out here. Americans would demand far more in terms of education on this back there and accountability from the professional con-artists that they {stupidly} elect as their “leaders” is a motion quite needed. Particularly so before they commit more of our young to march off and die in yet another bloody and terrible war without end. I suspect as the Iraq Debacle and potential Iran Debacle unfolds, the old “blank cheque” granted before is now becoming with-held. Thankfully so!
The Taiwanese understand it. They have prepared themselves and have already accepted it. The Americans have yet to understand it one iota though. One of the most tortuous facts of life I’ve asked the Missus is: Has she ever considered life under the 5 Star Flag? Could she accept it. She’s told me that many in her generation already have, and if it means trading freedom for prosperity, then -so be it!- That’s exactly how it boils down with this people. She’s personally prepared for it. Yet this type of locally well known yet little reported fact contrasts -VASTLY- with what is popularly reported in Western Media. The reality is, EVEN people {of money} in Taiwan as well as many of the “average Joes” appear quite ready to accept this as long as they can attain some level of prosperity. That’s a shocker. There is willing acceptance of a tradeoff on the issue of “personal rights” and “freedom” as long as it translates to prosperity. Compromising upon these seems feasable as long as stability and prosperity is attained. That shift is VERY real.
Yet, these key points are NOT reported upon in Western media. This is strange. Worse, it’s swept under the rug and ignored. Pardon me while I expand on this thought but it begs to compare it with another sage quote that contrasts all of this:
“Those whom ride on the back of a tiger, usually wind up inside!”
How anyone can lose sight of that in this message?
And so, my kudos and my congratulations to your side {and those on this side of course} who’ve worked for so long to get their side to prevail. To prove without any shred of a doubt of this coming to pass, a fate that will be complete and absolute! As we’re seeing what happens in the US, with a people so sedated and comfortable in getting a government they voted for and fully deserve, the same script plays out -here- in our 'little corner of the world. Taiwan is getting exactly what it deserves.
Taiwan will become {like it or not} the next reclaimed province of the People’s Republic of China.
Add this story to it and it yields yet more contrast to the picture. The proverbial “GAME OVER” sign will alight quite soon. A clear point as the days drag on. All of this is vitally important for Americans to read and understand, well before their next elected leader drags them into a war they have little understanding about in totality:
news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060413/pl_ … n_usa_dc_1
Book argues US must stay out of China-Taiwan spat
Thu Apr 13, 5:52 PM ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States should renounce military commitments to Taiwan to avoid a potentially costly conflict if the island declares independence from China, said the author of book which warns of a U.S.-China war within the next decade.
Defending Taiwan from the attack China threatens to unleash in the event of an independence declaration is “a bridge too far” for the United States, said Ted Galen Carpenter, vice president for defense and foreign policy studies at the Cato Institute, a libertarian Washington think tank.
Rather than promising to defend Taiwan, Carpenter said, Washington should step up arms shipments to help the old U.S. friend defend itself.
His book, “America’s Coming War with China : A Collision Course over Taiwan,” says the United States stands between two inexorably opposed forces an unfinished Chinese civil war.
“There may not be a way to avoid a collision between Taiwan and China, unless one side or another blinks,” Carpenter told Reuters in an interview. “What the United States needs to do is to get out of the middle of that quarrel.”
A war between the United States and China could erupt by about 2013, the estimated date China would be militarily capable of seizing Taiwan, Carpenter says in the book. An attack on Taiwan could draw in the United States because it has given defense assurances to the island.
“At some point either Taiwan provokes Beijing beyond endurance or Beijing decides the time is right to settle this issue on Chinese terms,” Carpenter, a frequent author on military issues, said in the interview.
“Given the trends on Taiwan and the mainland, I think a collision is very likely at some point within the next decade,” he said.
Chinese President
Hu Jintao will visit the United States next week and is expected to press
President George W. Bush to do more to rein in Taiwan, which has angered Beijing by taking symbolic steps to play down the island’s ties to the mainland.
“President Hu is likely to be disappointed if he expects a forceful statement from the United States,” said Carpenter.
Taiwan has been divided from China since 1949, when fleeing Nationalist forces turned the island into a stronghold against the mainland’s new Communist rulers.
China says it will use military force if Taiwan declares independence. The United States accepts Beijing’s “one China” policy, but provides arms to help defend Taiwan.
Carpenter’s book argues that U.S. policy sends mixed signals by courting China for business opportunities and diplomatic support while offering protection to Taiwan, a democracy with many friends in the U.S. Congress.
Withdrawing the U.S. defense commitment “will be a very hard sell politically,” Carpenter acknowledges. But he says more robust arms sales to Taiwan might provide cover for Washington to back away from a pledge of direct involvement.