If Taiwan were to expand its missile batteries to include both short- and long-range missiles, how many must be trained on Chinese communist targets before Beijing thinks twice about launching an attack against Taiwan?

No number will ever be enough. But Taiwan does need to beef up its defense capability. A strong garrison force, similar to the self-defense forces of Japan, is all Taiwan needs.

To say the truth, if missiles can fight back human rights, the nuclear arms can do anything to threat democratic country easily. China has lodged "a strong protest" against the United States (Dec. 10, 1999) over U.S. President Bill Clinton's support of Taiwanese participation in the World Health Organization, state media said.

The United States, which maintains a "one China" policy, has promised not to support Taiwan's admittance into international bodies of which statehood is a condition of entry. "Russia supports China's principled stand on the Taiwan issue. The People's Republic of China supports the Russian Federation's attack against Chechen terrorist and separatist activities," said a separate communique released with the joint statement. Having collected unequivocal support from Jiang on Thursday (Dec. 9, 1999) for Russia's Chechen campaign, Yeltsin promised Russian backing of China's claim over Taiwan.

This year's Nobel Peace Prize winner, the humanitarian group Doctors Without Borders, lashed out at Russia on Thursday (Dec. 9, 1999) for its war in Chechnya but said it would not send people there because that would mean submitting to Moscow's control.

"The Russian army ... is showing virtually no respect for international humanitarian law and this is completely unacceptable," said James Orbinski, a Canadian doctor, who is president of the group's international council.

The current Russian-orchestrated massacre in Chechnya has isolated Russia's head of state from the West. To break through this, Russian President Boris Yeltsin took a special trip to Beijing to meet with Chinese President Jiang Zemin for possible support. Jiang gave Yeltsin a warm embrace, and the two of them hummed the duet of objecting to human rights being superior to state sovereignty. In doing so, they were simply trying to mislead people into thinking that we are back to the medieval time of an absolute monarchy.

There is no subordinate or superior relationship between human rights and state sovereignty. The truth is, human rights is the foundation of state sovereignty. It was not until the 15th and 16th centuries that sovereignty became the symbol of state power, and that state stood for a basic framework of political order and a fundamental unit of human political life. The term "state" originated from the Italian term "stato," which referred to power, those who own power or institutions of power. All referred to the power of the absolute monarchy during the 15th and 16th centuries. It was the French Revolution that brought democracy to human civilization with the outcome of popular sovereignty over state (monarchy) sovereignty. Since then, state sovereignty has rested with the people. Thus, no human rights, no state sovereignty.

The duet of Yeltsin and Jiang gave an impression that they are not only ignorant about human rights but also about state sovereignty. They are misreading history in believing that strong military might can warrant their pursuit of murder in the name of sovereignty.

Murdering your own people cannot assure sovereignty. Nor can it guarantee peace. The Chechnya conflict is an internal war in which the participants are striving for state control and the right to rule. This inevitably pushes Russia into the role of key belligerent. If Yeltsin wants to be the winner, he needs to prove that he is capable of instituting an effective system acceptable to the people of Chechnya. He also needs to convince the Chechens that Russia is capable of maintaining order, protecting human rights, and assuring peace by way of a viable political system --- nor just military actions.

The very nature of the Chechnyan question is that contemporary Russia lacks an effective political system, and hence the ability to maintain rule and assure peace. As such, there is no way that Jiang can help since he himself is mired in the same trouble. The ability of the Chinese Communist state to rule is withering, no matter how they disguise this face by bloody suppressions over the Uigur in Xinjiang, the Tibetans, the democracy activists and even the religious groups.

The Yeltsin-Jiang rendezvous in Beijing is a satire. They simply exposed themselves to be not people of peace but rather militant barbarians.