No such thing as a mistake?

Powell Comments Upset Taiwan By Edward Cody

Secretary of State Colin L. Powell was in China less than 24 hours this week, but that was enough to stir up a diplomatic tempest with some unorthodox and apparently unintended remarks about U.S. policy on Taiwan.

Powell, in a pair of television interviews Monday in Beijing, said the United States holds there is only one China and that Taiwan is not an independent nation. He went on to suggest that Taiwanese and Americans as well as Chinese are seeking to bring about the island's reunification with the mainland.

Phew! So much for diplomacy!

Some analysts suggested Powell's comments may have been intended as an expression of dissatisfaction with Chen's government, whose officials last month issued a series of bellicose statements unwelcome in Washington. The Bush administration, absorbed by the war in Iraq and the election campaign, has worked hard to keep tensions down across the Taiwan Strait.

It really doesn't sound like a mistake. But if Bush is enraged at Chen's earlier behavior, it's partly his own fault for saying (in 2001) that the U.S. would "do whatever it takes" to defend Taiwan; one could hardly blame Chen Shui-bian as a megalomaniac for taking such a remark as support for independence.