LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Taiwan: United States
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The Taiwan issue is consequently not just the biggest problem between the PRC and the United States, as statesmen and analysts have been insisting for decades. It has become a key factor shaping China's overall foreign policy and the PRC's internal political development, which affects the future of China, East Asia, and beyond. It may drive the rising Chinese power irreversibly into the horrific, dead-end alley of militarism and imperialism. But it may ... facilitate the PRC's transformation into creating a democratic and peaceful nation in Greater China before it is too late. Taiwan, under a conditional unification with the Chinese mainland, could become a powerful catalyst of change to help reform the PRC and enable a peaceful rise of China. Much bigger and unevenly developed, China indeed must travel the inevitable road of political reform in its own way and at it own pace, but in the same general direction as the Taiwanese.
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Although taxi drivers in Taiwan tend to be more honest than in many other countries, not all are trustworthy. An indirect trip might cost you half again as much. A cab driver using night-time rates during the daytime will cost you 30% more (make sure he presses the large button on the left on his meter before 11pm). Avoid the especially overzealous drivers who congregate at the exits of train stations. Also, stand your ground and insist on paying meter price only if any driving on mountain roads is involved - some drivers like to tack on surcharges or use night-time rates if driving to places like Maokong or Wulai. Such attempts to cheat are against the law.
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Taiwan currently does not possess nuclear weapons, although it has attempted to acquire them in the past. Taiwan - as the Republic of China (ROC) - signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) in 1968. After the seats for China at the United Nations (UN) - General Assembly and Security Council - reverted from the Taipei government to Beijing in 1971, Taiwan signed a trilateral agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the United States to abide by the terms of the NPT. Taiwan has since implemented the IAEA's "Program 93+2" safeguards. Despite persistent suspicions of offensive and defensive chemical and biological weapons (CBW) programs, there is no conclusive evidence that Taiwan has developed or deployed chemical or biological weapons. Taiwan is not a member of the Missile Technology Control Regime.
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Only by assisting the peaceful rise and change of China can Taiwan solidify lasting support from the United States. Otherwise, the American national interest could conceivably lead to a new Sino-U.S. strategic compromise in the Western Pacific and take away Taiwan's most important bargaining chip, effectively bringing the Taiwan story to an abrupt end. To help China change politically and rise peacefully, and ... for Taiwan's own future, the Taiwanese must sacrifice their understandable but ultimately self-defeating desire for full independence.
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Taiwan faces many of the same economic issues as other developed economies. As labor-intensive industries have relocated to countries with low-cost labor, Taiwan's future development will rely on further transformation to a high technology and service-oriented economy and carving out its niche in the global supply chain. Taiwan's economy has become increasingly linked with China. Taiwan official statistics indicate that Taiwan firms had invested about U.S. $55 billion in China through 2006, which is more than half of Taiwan's stock of direct foreign investment. Many unofficial estimates put the actual number well over U.S. $100 billion. More than one million Taiwan people are estimated to be residing in China, and more than 70,000 Taiwan companies have operations there.
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Speculation over a covert Taiwanese nuclear program intensified on 13 October 2004, after the Associated Press reported that International Atomic Energy Agency officials disclosed they had evidence that Taiwan experimented with plutonium during the early 1980s (AP). Taiwanese experts voiced strong opposition to the idea of a nuclear program, saying it would bring direct conflict with China and isolate Taiwan from the United States (Taipei Times, ETtoday). The pro-independence China Post was one of the few Taiwanese media outlets to publish an editorial supporting a nuclear weapons capability.
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