*Project Progress*
I attended a conference on Monday, 24 September 2007. The topic was “Right-sizing the People’s Liberation Army.” Although it is mainly a military subject, I still learned quite a lot and I think the information will be useful for the China-Taiwan Dialogue. First of all, the project was a collaboration of think tanks, individuals, the military and the private sector. The private sector made it clear that the study was to estimate and evaluate the military expansion and capability of China, and this study is important to avoid the military misunderstanding and conflict between the US and China. Secondly, Taiwan-US relationship is the focus of the Chinese military because China sees Taiwan Strait as the most potential and imminent armed conflict in the future.
As to the networking, I am not very successful with the Japanese students at SAIS last week. I will need to find the Japanese Student Associations in Georgetown University and George Washington University. I am still working on the flyer and the detailed agenda.
*News about North East Asia*
Six Talks Postponed (09/18/2007)
China announced that the six-party talks will be postponed. The Chinese unofficially negotiated with North Korea to hold the talks, but Pyongyang has not informed Beijing about whether North Korea will attend the talks. Two weeks ago, experts from the US, China and Russia visited Pyongyang to talk about the dismantlement of the nuclear facilities.
Taiwan’s Bid in United Nations (09/19/2007)
The UN has rejected 14 previous bids to join the world body under its official name, Republic of China. President Chen proposed to hold a referendum on joining the UN under the name of Taiwan. The referendum will take place next March. Amid the anger from China and the disapproval of the US, the ruling party still held a march to back the UN bid on 15 September 2007. It seems like DPP, the ruling party, is trying to use this debate to boost its support in the forthcoming presidential election. However, the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said that Taiwan’s bid will not be accepted because in 1971 UN chose to recognize People’s Republic of China as the only legitimate representative of China to the UN.
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