Taiwan Unites in Censure of China's Anti-Secession Law (washingtonpost.com)

Taiwan Unites in Censure of China's Anti-Secession Law by Tim Culpan and Philip P. Pan:

The law does not set a deadline for unification and describes only vaguely what would trigger an attack.

It also refrains from repeating Beijing's long-standing demand that Taiwan must first acknowledge that the island and the mainland are part of "one China" before formal cross-strait talks can resume -- a demand that has stalled negotiations for years. In addition, the law does not define Beijing as the sole legitimate government of "one China," leaving open the possibility of talks on some type of federation in which Beijing and Taipei would be equal partners.

But it was Article 8 of the law, which states that China "shall employ non-peaceful means" if Taiwan moves toward formal independence, that captured the attention of residents here and appeared to bridge deep political divisions in Taiwan. An opinion poll conducted last week found that 93 percent of the public opposed China's threat, 84 percent rejected the law's claim that Taiwan is part of China and 56 percent believed Taiwan should respond by increasing defense spending.

Pretty clever to unite the Taiwanese against you. However, even though 84% "rejected the law's claim that Taiwan is part of China", Annie Huang writes, Taiwan Love Story Trumps Chinese Threats:

Images of Chinese lawmakers passing a law that authorizes an attack on Taiwan dominated the island's TV news Monday morning. But by evening, the scare from Beijing got bumped by a story about Taiwan's richest man losing his wife to breast cancer.

On an island that has lived with its communist neighbor's threats for five decades, the latest one didn't cause much panic, and many - including investors on the jittery stock market - didn't seem too worried. At the end of the day, the computer parts tycoon's devotion to his dead wife trumped Beijing's latest bluster...

The Chinese law sparked only a small protest of about 30 people - mostly pro-independence lawmakers - who burned the Chinese flag and chanted anti-Beijing slogans.

Taiwanese officials usually try to seize on China's bursts of bellicosity to gain sympathy from the world. The island likes to portray itself as the model global citizen - an underdog capitalist, free-trading democracy threatened by an authoritarian behemoth.

But that same communist monster happens to be Taiwan's biggest market for investment. That's one of the ironies of the Taiwan-China feud: While political tensions simmer, business ties boom...

This mutual reliance that leads many to believe a war will never happen.

Well, I hope so.