Voting for the future, not the past - TW

[dArKeR]

Many people may be unaware that Hong Kong and Chinese intellectuals are now describing the presidential election as one in which voters will decide whether to elect their own president or to elect a "chief executive" who answers to Beijing. Beijing has long made it clear that it opposes any form of referendum or a new constitution in Taiwan. It is also against the idea that there is one country on each side of the Taiwan Strait. If voters elect leaders who meet China's demands, then future presidents will be like the chief executives of Hong Kong and Macau -- at Beijing's beck and call.

When this country held its first ever presidential election in 1996, China fired missiles into the sea off Taiwan's coast. Voters reacted by electing Lee Teng-hui (???), who angered Beijing with his advocacy of a "special state-to-state" policy for cross-strait relations. In 2000, voters once again used their ballots to shatter the threats made by former Chinese vice premier Qian Qichen (???), who warned that to opt for Chen Shui-bian (???) was to opt for war.

Beijing is now ganging up with unscrupulous politicians in a number of other countries -- including some in Paris, Tokyo and Washington -- to try to put enormous pressure on Chen's referendum -- a democratic mechanism that Beijing is most fearful of. Should the electorate choose to give in?

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/edit/archives/2004/02/25/2003100091