Vol. 26 No. 11 dated 3 June 2004
Stand-Off in Taiwan
Perry Anderson
Perry Anderson on Greens v. Blues in the South China Sea
"Whatever the short-term eventualities, the long-term prospects of China ever accepting a breakaway of Taiwan seem small. From the standpoint of the nation-state, for a former province without ethnic difference from the majority population to attempt independence is secession. So far, no nation-state has ever permitted this. Freely to accept the independence of Taiwan would, in the eyes of the central government, be to invite a dynamic of disintegration along Yugoslav lines." http://www.lrb.co.uk/v26/n11/ande01_.html