“Threatening neighbor”
Editor - While it is true that Taiwan has recently allowed Chinese tourists on the island, Robert Scheer's analysis in “Taiwan declares peace on China” (July 9) could not be further from the truth.
What is driving the detente is not consumerism or cultural bonds but Taiwan's recent economic downturn and the belief, just like here in the states, that the only way to compete globally is to outsource to countries with the cheapest labor and to sell to those with the largest markets.
Politically, China still leaves far too much to be desired. The crackdown in Tibet was shocking to the Taiwanese and the hundreds of Chinese missiles pointed at Taiwan have not been disarmed.
Rather than writing off Taiwan as just another Chinese satellite, the United States needs to help the Taiwanese make sure that economic interdependence does not result in forced political unification, especially between a thriving democracy and a country that still censors the Internet and persecutes its own people.
