Faced with the threat of Communist China's missile tests, Taiwan this month was not cut off from the outside world, but it did come under the hot spotlight of international attention.
Looking back over the path we have trodden over the past month, from relations across the Taiwan Strait being apparently so strained that hostilities might break out at any moment, to the situation easing and the people of the Republic of China being able to write a new page of history by directly electing their president, there really have been perils at every turn.
During that progress, some people have deeply reexamined their own positions, while others have remained supremely confident throughout; the arrival of US power on the scene has been greeted with jubilation by some, but with caution by others; and amid all the voices raised, there have been many comments both critical and supportive from friends overseas.
For this month's In Focus, we have selected and translated a public opinion poll and five articles presenting a wide range of viewpoints--on the one hand to document the "changing tone" of exchanges across the Taiwan Strait, and on the other to provide readers with a broader scope for contemplation, for after all this is not the end, but the beginning of a new phase.
Before the storm over China's missile tests, the first Asia-Europe Meeting--which Taiwan had failed to gain access to--was held in Bangkok amid great fanfare. This summit introduced an entirely new variable into the changing world balance of power and into regional cooperation and competition. This important and highly influential event was completely upstaged by the missile tests, and almost entirely failed to receive the attention which should have been due to it from people in the ROC. In our In Focus section we have also chosen an article which awakens us to the possibility that Europe will not be missing from Asia.
As for the other great event of the month--the election of the ROC's ninth-term president--because the ballot is only just over, it will be some time before answers emerge to such questions as how large the president's popular power base has become, which direction he will take the country in, and what expectations people in different sectors of society hold of him. Hence we ask readers interested in these matters to wait for next month's In Focus.