China and Taiwan

Today's primary elections remind me of a worry I've had for a while.

It occurs to me that within the next decade the United States could face a far more difficult situation than terrorism - China.

China is growing strong economically, technically and militarily, and while I have no objection to a strong China, and I don't see why China couldn't be a good friend and trading partner (especially if it cleans up its human rights problems), I really don't want a strong China with a grudge against the U.S., simply because I don't want what could be an extremely serious war.

Unfortunately, there is a grudge - Taiwan. The U.S. is guarding Taiwan from China and that annoys the Chinese, who regard it as part of China. Whatever. I won't get into that.

But this brings me to my point. I think we should sit down with Taiwan and China and encourage them to cooperate and resolve their differences, and we should do it now while tempers are still under some level of control and we're not waving missles in each others faces.

For whoever becomes president, I hope he (or she) will make this a priority. Waiting until it is a crisis would be just plain stupid.