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29/01/2007: "SELF PORTRAIT ....... in Taipei cafe"
On the third of four visits to date to this interesting country that should be officially called Taiwan but for international political reasons can't be.
Picture was taken with my guide's camera and then copied direct from her LCD viewing screen with my new camera. That's why the pixel's are showing. I look happy and was happy. The attitude and friendliness of Taipei people toward us westerners exceeds anything I've experienced elsewhere.
Recently, I met an international airline pilot who attended the same school as I had many years ago in Sydney, although at a different time.
He has lived in various Asian cities and today is based in Taipei - which he says is his favourite city of them all due mainly to the friendly locals.
President Chen Shui-bian has accused China of "provoking" his government by targeting Taiwan with nearly 1,000 missiles, stepping up the rhetoric against Beijing.
In a wide-ranging interview with CNN broadcast over the weekend, Chen insisted that China had put Taiwan on the defensive with its provocative acts, rejecting Beijing's claims that he was to blame for cross-strait tensions.
"It is China that is provoking Taiwan," Chen said.
"It passed the `Anti-Secession' law. It never formally renounced the use of force against Taiwan," the president told the cable news channel.
"(The Chinese government) has also begun to complete three-stage preparation work to invade Taiwan in the future," Chen said during the interview.
"What this government, the people of Taiwan, and this administration have been doing is merely defending the sovereignty, dignity, and security of our country," he said.
Chen said he was merely trying to maintain the peaceful status quo in the Taiwan Strait, and he lashed out at China over what he called a massive increase in the number of missiles pointing at the country.
Chen told CNN there were now 988 short and medium-range ballistic missiles pointed at the country.
"Back in the year 2000, when I first became president, the missiles deployed along the southeastern coast of China were about 200, and now they are almost 1,000. They have increased almost by fivefold," the president told CNN.
Last week, the Ministry of National Defense said that Beijing had built up a huge arsenal of missiles facing Taiwan, up from 160 ballistic missiles in place in 1996.
"As of now, the Chinese have stockpiled 880 ballistic missiles and more than 100 cruise missiles, placing the whole of Taiwan under their range," Taiwan air force Major General Wang Cheng-hsiao told reporters in a regular press conference in Taipei.
Taiwan has deployed three US-made Patriot PAC-2 anti-missile batteries to defend the densely populated greater Taipei area.
Chen also pledged to continue his drive for a new constitution and to join international bodies like the UN and WHO - goals which are strongly opposed by Beijing.
