China: August 4, 1999

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Taiwan has announced that it's officials will, in the future, try to avoid saying or doing anything that will get China stirred up. As it has because of the July comments about China and Taiwan being two different nations. While Taiwan continues to operate as an independent, China maneuvers to isolate Taiwan diplomatically and force it's people to accept Chinese rule. This time around, China sent navy ships off the coast of Taiwan, mobilized ground troops in the coastal areas facing Taiwan and, in the last week, began flying more combat sorties near Taiwanese air space. This last item was uncharacteristic of the Chinese, because of the high probability that two pilots could blunder into combat, something that could escalate into a major war.