AS a former citizen of Taiwan and someone who would like to see a peaceful reunification between Taiwan and China, I feel compelled to speak out in the aftermath of China's interpretation of Taiwan's legislative election, on December 2. I strongly urge China's military establishment to re-think the strategy of 'missile diplomacy'. Most people in Taiwan now have no doubt that China will resort to violence in order to re-unite with Taiwan. And voters' concern over this was clearly reflected in the December 2 results. However, I believe China must take this opportunity to adopt another approach, a kinder and gentler one. With this approach China would have everything to gain and nothing to lose. Let us just assume that Taiwan declared independence, China took over Taiwan militarily without intervention from the US (or any other country). China would be facing three things: A population which was in the likely position of winning international support. Consider this, not only do many Taiwanese citizens have families in the US, there are also many people working and living in Taiwan today who are foreign passport holders (including spouses of government officials). Many people have travelled or lived abroad for a long time and they have friends overseas, some of whom are quite influential. People in Taiwan are sophisticated. They know how Washington works and they have the money to hire lobbyists to speak on their behalf. A population which was willing to fight. Not all Taiwanese citizens would accept the kind of reunification China imposed on them, even though they might previously have been reunification supporters. Unlike the situation in Hong Kong where most people do not even bother to vote and have never had the opportunity to experience the pride of self-rule, a certain number of Taiwanese would take matters into their own hands to defend what most people consider 'their homeland'. Unfavourable international media attention. Unlike China, Taiwan's media is linked to the rest of the world. Once the images of the war were out, it would generate international concern. The reason the China/Taiwan reunification issue has yet to reach the Western media, is that it does not generate exciting, newsworthy pictures, such as you get with an actual war in progress, where people are being killed. So far all that is available is fairly boring footage of military exercises. Wars are usually the result of miscalculation. In this case, any degree of military action from China would only bring China fleeting satisfaction. Once the actual war began, all bets would be off. It's time for China to take positives steps to win the hearts and minds of the people of Taiwan. So far China has successfully shown the people of Taiwan the stick, now please have the courage to show them the carrot. NAME AND ADDRESS SUPPLIED
