On Monday, Taiwan's Defense Minister Tang Fei announced Taiwanese plans to build a Missile Shield to combat any missile attack initiated by the People's Republic of China (PRC). This is the latest in a series of statements and events that show the relationship between Taiwan and mainland China rapidly deteriorating in the last two months; the state of hostility is equivalent to that of March 1996...

On Saturday, the Republic of China elected Chen Shui-bian (pronounced chen shway-bien) as president. The leader of the opposition's Democratic Progressive Party, Chen had called for Taiwan's independence from China, which had responded to such rhetoric with threats of invasion were Chen to be elected. Thus far, no invasion is imminent, but an olive branch from Chen in the form of a request for...