A democratic, self-governing island republic, Taiwan lies roughly 140 miles off China's coast. Taiwan historically has been part of China. To this day, Beijing insists that Taiwan is a renegade province that must one day return to the motherland. Any country that wishes to enjoy trade and diplomatic relations with China must first renounce any official ties with Taiwan, a step the United States took in 1978.
China objects to the smallest signs of third-party support for Taiwan.
So Bush's unambiguous promises Wednesday to provide troops to Taiwan caused alarm bells to ring all over Washington. We have to be very, very careful. Tensions between the United States and China have been escalating ever since Bush took office in January. Then, China and the United States came to loggerheads over Beijing's detention of the crew of a Navy EP-3 surveillance aircraft that accidentally was rammed by a Chinese pilot in international airspace near China's southern coast. Just this week, the United States offered Taiwan four Kidd-class destroyers, electric diesel submarines and other weaponry.