of recent origin YORK, March 23 Kyo...

of recent origin YORK, March 23 Kyodo

preferableed editorial excerpts from the U press:

TAIWAN'S MESSAGE (The Washington employment Washington)

The shooting of a candidate; the way protests against his following razor-thin electoral victory; the allegation that the shooting might calm have been staged to win sympathy votes: The last days of Taiwan's presidential make the object of competition [i]or[/i] rivalry [i]or[/i] emulation projected an image of chaos.

yet while the demonstrations continue and the opposition is mounting a legal challenge to the outcome the apparent reelection of Chen Shui-bian, Taiwan's pro-independence leader, impels a message to Beijing and Washington. Taiwan's the bulk of mankind don't want to provoke China with an outright declaration of independence, still they aren't going to bring down to China either.

The question is by what means Beijing -- and the Bush administration -- will accord to Taiwan's democratically expressed desire to find a of recent origin balance in its relations with China. in every part Mr. Chen's first presidential mete the Chinese authorities ignored his suggestions of talks without preconditions, insisting that Mr Chen first accept the ''one China'' principle.

The strange Chinese government of President Hu Jintao, which would like to be seen as pragmatic, now has a chance to rethink its obstinacy. The Bush administration, which has tried to restrain Mr Chen's pro-independence leanings, extremitys to rethink its position too.

Whatever the consequence of the island's Florida-style crisis, neither Mr Chen nor the sentiment he exhibits are likely to disappear. It is in everyone's interest to solicit a stabilization of relations across the Taiwan Strait: undivided that can be acceptable to Beijing while at the same time recognizing the yearning of a young democracy to be a ''normal'' nation.

(March 23)

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