Taiwan, Still Plucky

It speaks TRUCKLOADS that Taiwan was rejected from entering the UN. It says China is more powerful than ever, and that the US's worldwide influence is waning. Read between the lines people, China is going to kick everyone's ass.
Official backs Taiwan referendum
Staff and agencies27 July, 2007
By PETER ENAV, Associated Press Writer 10 minutes ago
TAIPEI, Taiwan - Brushing off threats from rival China, Taiwan‘s foreign minister said Friday a planned referendum on membership in the United Nations will go ahead because it reflects the "overwhelming sentiment" of the island‘s people.
Tension over the referendum has pushed relations between the longtime antagonists to their lowest level in more than a year, and raised concerns in Washington that the fragile status quo in the western Pacific — the enduring basis of American policy in the region — is at serious risk.
"It is the overwhelming sentiment of Taiwanese people to request their nation to become a U.N. member," he said.
The self-governing island was expelled from the U.N. in 1971 after its seat — which it held under the name Republic of China — was transferred to the Beijing-based government of the People‘s Republic of China.
The sides split amid civil war in 1949, and China has repeatedly threatened to attack if Taiwan ever moves to formalize the de facto independence that its exercises through issuing its own currency, governing its own territory, and maintaining its own armed forces.
"It is far from our intention to provoke the Chinese," he said. "We want peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait more than anyone else in the world."
"We should not stop doing anything because of rejection from the Chinese," he said.
The referendum idea was initially raised by Chen several months ago as campaigning for Taiwan‘s legislative and presidential elections — set for the first quarter of 2008 — began to heat up.
In his comments to the AP, Huang acknowledged that even if the referendum passed, it would have little practical effect.
Some Taiwanese analysts believe that a major reason for holding the referendum in tandem with either the legislative or presidential elections is Chen‘s desire to motivate the base of his pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party as the polls approach.
In contrast to the DPP, the main opposition Nationalists support eventual unification with China, and are fighting hard against DPP attempts to label them a Chinese rather than a Taiwanese political party.