Two Notes

The Presidential Office now has a giant sign in neon red Chinese characters running vertically down the central tower. It reads: Taiwan Joins the UN. If anyone had any doubts about whether Chen is planing to go through with the UN referendum, they are now answered. It's definitely going to happen. Below the sign is a hand holding baseball. The metaphor is that the UN referendum is a sinker pitch that will sucker China and the US into a wild swing. The strikeout will be Taiwan's admission to the UN. Of course, the choice of metaphor shows that the message and the referendum are aimed entirely at the domestic voter.

On Dennis Wilder's comment that "Taiwan, or the Republic of China, is not at this point a state in the international community." One reading, which was probably not Wilder's intention, is that the Republic of China was at one point a state in the international community and that Taiwan may one day be one in the the future." In other words, ROC statehood is in the past while Taiwan's statehood is still in the future.