Too Early to Celebrate

In Taiwanese Protest Chinese Anti-Secession Law, NPR's Rob Gifford ("in Beijing") interviews Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴; DPP Legislator, and yes, she's in Taiwan) about China's stupid law:

Hsiao Bi-khim: This march is a response to China's passage of the so-called anti-secession law. The vast majority of the people here in Taiwan are against this law. They feel insulted by the law and threatened by the law. And this march is a demonstration of the Taiwanese people's will and opinion and our persistence in maintaining the peace and democracy in Taiwan.

Gifford: For the mainland Chinese, this whole debate is all about territory and ethnicity. Taiwanese people are Chinese, they say, and Taiwan itself used to belong to China before the two were separated at the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949. All of this is about restoring what is rightfully Chinese. For many Taiwanese, on the other hand, political system trumps ethnicity every time. Even those Taiwanese who are conciliatory to the mainland say they've fought for 50 years to overthrow the dictatorship in Taiwan and there's no way they're going to accept being ruled again by a one-party state. As a condition of even holding talks between the two sides. Beijing says Taiwan must recognize it is part of One China. Hsiao Bi-khim says it's not just her traditionally pro-independence party that opposes that.

Hsiao Bi-khim: The political conditions of One China, of China governing Taiwan, this is something that we who have worked for many years to achieve democracy cannot accept at this point. This position is promoted not only by the DPP; the other political parties in Taiwan also agree that Taiwan, the Republic of China, is already an independent country.

Gifford: Those are words that Beijing does not want to hear, though there's little the Chinese Communist Party can do unless Taiwan actually stands up and declares that it's not just de facto but officially independent. Meanwhile, as China continues to breathe fire, Philip Yong of National Taiwan University says Beijing is succeeding in changing the mood in Taiwan and alienating even those who previously thought of reunification as a possibility.

WHAT? "there's little the Chinese Communist Party can do unless Taiwan actually stands up and declares that it's not just de facto but officially independent"?? Since when can the Chinese Communist Party be expected to respect its own laws? Since never! As far as the demonstration goes, remember they were opposed to a referendum that was merely going to demand that China renounce the use of force against Taiwan and immediately withdraw all ballistic missiles aimed at the island. The Communists dislike democracy and shoot their own people when they demonstrate. While they obviously did something self-defeating by passing the new law, despite the celebratory crowing of Instapundit et al., et al., a demonstration is hardly going to sway them.