Taipei IT IS a new twist in electoral strategy that even Dick Morris would have problems spinning. In the midst of Taiwan’s presidential campaign, China test-fired nuclear-capable M-9 missiles within twenty miles of the Kaohsiung, the world’s third-largest container port, and of the other major Taiwanese port, Keelung in the East China Sea. This was accompanied by the amassing of 150,000 troops and the staging of major live-fire exercises in the path of major shipping lanes. For good measure, Peking extended the exercises even after the elections. All this has been a desperate and futile effort to intimidate 14 million Taiwanese voters on the verge of giving birth to the first full democracy in four thousand years of Chinese civilization.
Despite the war fever surrounding Peking’s reckless conduct, China’s goal was mainly to narrow Taiwanese President Lee Teng-hui’s victory margin and to shape the course of his post-election diplomacy away from a drive for international recognition. In the second case, it was unnecessary. Lee would likely have been compelled by economic and political realities to move back toward dialogue with Peking without the bullyboy tactics. And in the first it was immensely counter-productive, causing resentment in Taiwan and chills throughout the Western Pacific.
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