If you're a reader who, like me, served in the military in Western Europe for some segment of time during the period between 1941 and 1989 (fall of the Berlin Wall), protecting those bonny, free lands from Naziism, then communism, now you know what it was all for:
BEIJING (Reuters) - China and France will hold rare joint naval exercises off the mainland's eastern coast on Tuesday, just four days before Beijing's rival, Taiwan, holds presidential elections.But, of course it’s just about this:
French President Jacques Chirac, keen to strengthen ties with China and win French business a firm footing in the rapidly growing market, sided with China in January in opposing Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian's plan to hold a referendum on missile defense alongside presidential elections on March 20.Just a little trade, of course. No matter that China would like to do to Taiwan what it has done to Tibet and what it helped North Korea attempt to do to its Southern kindred back in the fifties. No big deal.
(Thanks to Francis W. Poretto)
