The Post isn't thrilled with Bush's decision to discourage Taiwan from having a referendum. The paper's lead editorial states: "Taiwan's democratically elected president, Chen Shui-bian, has been hinting that maybe his people should make a democratic choice about whether to unite with China or become independent. Yesterday President Bush essentially placed the United States on the side of the dictators who promise war, rather than the democrats whose threat is a ballot box. Mr. Bush had his reasons for doing so--above all to avoid one more foreign policy crisis during an election year. But in avoiding a headache for himself, he demonstrated again how malleable is his commitment to the defense of freedom as a guiding principle of U.S. policy."
I can understand that the China problem is tricky and risky. Taking a stand against democratic process shows him up for a hypocrite, which does not surprise me. Taiwan has as much right to a democratic process as do, say, the people of Florida. I just dojn't remember when we've had so anti-democratic a leader.