CHINA IS GETTING AGGRESSIVE

In his latest column in Washington Post neo-con writer Robert Kagan writes about the increasingly aggressive diplomacy from Beijing. In only a few weeks times China has passed a new law in order to invade Taiwan should the oppertunity arise; they've "warned" Japan and Australia against collaborating further with the United States, and they've rather easily managed to lure the European nations into competing over who's the most Chinese-friendly so that they can get good deals for their companies.

China is obviously testing. A little insult here and a little threat there - not enough to get into trouble, but sufficiant to study the reactions from other nations in order to find out how far they can go without strong reactions. They must be pretty pleased with the outcome. Their ally in Europe, president Jaques Chirac, continues to press for dropping the ban on arms sales and the reaction from America has been relativly weak so far. And China's getting stronger by the day.

The democratic nations, both in the West and in East Asia, must now clearly show China that they are united, strong, and that they will not tolerate any real aggression. Otherwise the dragon may be tempted to strike.

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