Taiwan: President Chen Criticizes US, EU for Opposing Taiwanese Referendum

I've blogged previously about the upcoming Taiwanese referendum and Condi Rice's opposition, so here's the background. In that post, I opined that opposition to the Taiwanese poll is basically criticizing a democratic country for wanting to do a democratic thing...and that the issue is not issue-specific Taiwanese "provocation," but long-term Chinese hostility.

President Chen, in his New Year's address, took aim at the US and EU. In fact, Chen basically accused the US and EU of bowing to China. Here's a blurb:

"We find it extremely regrettable that, under tremendous pressure from China, the United States and the European Union have expressed varying degrees of opposition to Taiwan's referendum on joining the United Nations," Chen said in his annual New Year's Day address at the presidential palace in downtown Taipei.

Chen said the U.S. and Europe "are weighing national interests against democratic values."

Ouch.

Well, some (or most) of this is true, but I'm not that sure that Chen saying so is really going to help matters, either.