ACCORDING TO THIS REPORT, China wants to give Bush the “Thatcher treatment” over Taiwan.

They’d better watch out. Bush might give Taiwan the Bomb. Er, if Taiwan doesn’t already have it. . . .

Either this report is just plain wrong, or the Chinese haven’t been paying attention.

UPDATE: Jim Bennett emails:

What the ChiComs don’t get is that the military situation with Taiwan is quite different from that of Hong Kong. HK coulnd’t have lasted a week without water from the mainland. When i was talking with Lady T. she got on to the subject of HK — I got the impression that she had had the military possibilities of defending HK studied very closely, and had very reluctantly come to the conclusion that there was no way it could have been defended short of a nuclear strike on Beijing. If it had been as defensible as Taiwan, there’s no doubt in my mind she would have fought.

Yes. Also: Who’s in a worse political position if goods from China can’t get to WalMart because Chinese harbors have been mined? Bush? Or the Chinese leadership?