No wonder that Beijing has been emboldened to continue its hard line against Taipei. On Sunday, President Jiang Zemin even went as far as to spell out to Mr. Clinton that he doesn't rule out the use of force against Taiwan. All this for Taipei simply expressing a desire for a little more of the respect fully due its economy and political institution. Against all this, it's time Washington gave more concrete support for Taiwan democracy, rather than asking it to tone things down. More, Mr. Clinton needs to be reminded in future to avoid even the appearance of coddling dictators, lest expediency tempts him again.
Words can be mischievous or true.
Beijing has shown that here in Asia, tyrants attend to every one of them. The Chinese and the WTO F or a clue on why China's inclusion in the World Trade Organization is important, look closer at Beijing's new rules on foreign wholesaling, announced earlier this month. While the rules benefit foreign companies, they more significantly empower Chinese. And there's more to this than simply widening the range of bargains. Until now, foreign companies with multiple factories in China needed a distribution network for each factory.