China: March 9, 2005

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 The Chinese government proclaimed a new law that authorizes its armed forces to do whatever is neccessary if a part of China declares independence. This bit of Information War was mainly aimed at Taiwan, which responded by telling China to go take a hike. But the new law may first be used on the mainland, where nearly fifty million Chinese government employees are increasingly corrupt, and more loyal to local officials, than to those in the central government. Talk of invading Taiwan is still in the theoretical stage, and may stay there for some time to come. China's track record of undertaking tasks like amphibious invasions is dismal, but civil war is much more common.