SO TRY AND DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT:

China Accuses U.S. and Japan of Interfering on Taiwan: China criticized a joint statement in which Japan and the U.S. declared a peaceful Taiwan Strait as a strategic objective. (JIM YARDLEY and KEITH BRADSHER, 2/21/05, NY Times)

China accused Japan and the United States on Sunday of meddling in its internal affairs, and criticized a new joint security statement in which the two countries declared a peaceful Taiwan Strait as among their "common strategic objectives."

The mention of Taiwan in the statement issued Saturday by senior American and Japanese officials drew a firm response from China, which considers Taiwan a breakaway province and is acutely sensitive to what it regards as outside interference. By contrast, Taiwan's foreign minister cautiously welcomed the statement.

In Beijing, the official New China News Agency described the statement as "unprecedented" and quoted China's Foreign Ministry as saying that the country "resolutely opposes the United States and Japan in issuing any bilateral document concerning China's Taiwan, which meddles in the internal affairs of China, and hurts China's sovereignty."

It's never a good idea for a dictatorship to call attention to its own weakness.

Posted by Orrin Judd at February 21, 2005 6:40 AM