Just when you think you have China worked out, they throw a spanner in the works!

Jiang Zemin has handed over effective power to Hu Jintao, a pragmatist who sees the Taiwan situation in a more realistic light.

"Analysis: Jiang Zemin's departure

By Louisa Lim
BBC correspondent in Beijing

Chairman Mao famously said: "Power comes from the barrel of a gun."

His philosophy has underpinned China's opaque and secretive political system and, for this reason, Jiang Zemin's decision to stand down as army chief three years ahead of schedule marks the real handover of authority.

Jiang Zemin could have remained army chief until 2007

It completes the first orderly transition of power since the communist revolution in 1949.

In a letter read out on state television, Jiang Zemin said he was standing down for the good of the party, the state and the armed forces.

He said the appointment of Hu Jintao to the post - a man who is already China's president and head of the Communist Party - demonstrated "the absolute leadership of the party over the armed forces".

His departure has been greeted with surprise, both from the public and from analysts.

The official press had given Mr Jiang prominent coverage over recent weeks, even reporting on obscure visits he made 15 years ago, sparking rumours of a power struggle between him and Mr Hu."

news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/3671106.stm

Its a trap!!!

No really.  They are now getting us to think that they might handle Tiwan with more maturity because of who is in charge, but in reality this new guy tows the line just as hard if not harder then the guy who just stepped down, and after some more back and forth that gets us to feel good and lower our defenses and back off on Tiwan alittle bit, they will go in with guns a'blazing.  This is really just a lead up to the invasion of Tiwan.  I think they pushed the schedule up because they realize just how thinly spread out our military forces are and now is a good time to hit Tiwan because we can't deal with it effectivly.  Not with Iraq, Afghanistan, North Korea, Syria, and now Iran.

The GWOT is creating enough of a distraction for our already spread-too-thin military forces so that China feels comfortable making their move on Tiwan.

You can't trust shit that China does because they are engaged in an "all out war" with us spanning political, social, econimical, and military boundaries.

It only gets worse from here.

Chris

Interesting.  I'll ask my China expert what he thinks about this.