pid enough to start shooting nukes given the environmental implications of a nuclear war, so, if there are any battles, they will be conventional in nature. The cold war rules apply when it comes to our relationship with China, including Mutually Assured Destruction, but it will be very different than the last cold war with the USSR due to our relatively extensive contact with the Chinese government4. We are acting in much the same way as we did in Korea and Vietnam; we are opposing communist rule in Taiwan and we are willing to use military force to see that it doesn’t become communist. The difference between the situations is that we have been using much more foresight in the current situation. We are trying to prevent conflict through negotiation with the Chinese, but their human rights violations and their position on Taiwan are making us less willing to give on many issues. By releasing the white paper with its guarantee of military action they might have lost all of their bargaining chips.But is china really that eager to cross the straits or are they just posturing to try to get us to stay out of it? The current policy trusts that China will not take any real action, and that is a comforting thought. We can sit back and think how nice it will be when we have free trade with China and we will be told that it is the direct result of not going to bat for Taiwan. But that would all be false security; the trade deficit would increase from its already intolerable level and you wouldn’t be able to find an item at the store that wasn’t made in a Chinese sweatshop. Allowing China its way in this situation and believing the Clinton Administration’s lies that free trade at any cost will make our country stronger would be an economic disaster. The fact of the matter is if we don’t think of the worst-case scenario in this situation, we are going to lose big. It would be nice to see the American governm...
