Tibet dilemma for Taiwan

Taiwan’s president-elect won a resounding victory over the weekend and soon after inauguration he’ll have to consider making good on a pledge to boycott the Olympics over the Tibetan issue. He says we highly value human rights, but also value relations with the mainland. There’s another reason he might want to consider the boycott, as suggested by a Tibetan, is that the Taiwanese should go to the Olympic games and compete. At this Tibetan memorial for the recent protests, many Tibetans in exile talk about autonomy for their country. these issues came into play during the Taiwanese presidential election too but the democratic party still lost the election. This political scientist does see Tibet and Taiwan as separate issues but he says Taiwanese will care if the government moves too close to China. The President-elect did say he accepts that Taiwan is part of China, just not the People’s Republic of China, unlike the two last governments which stressed otherwise. For now, the focus is on the Olympics and Tibet, and this professor thinks this could ultimately help Taiwan to see that the international community is looking into China’s issues of suppressing human rights. That had been one of the ideas behind giving China the Olympics, even if this crackdown on Tibet wasn’t supposed to be part of the mix but even now some people believe the Games will have a positive impact on China.