The mainstream United Daily News ran a graphic, full-colour front-page photo on Friday of a writhing 10-year-old girl after her leg had been amputated in China's Sichuan province.
Taiwan's four dailies and six bitterly competitive TV networks have shown images of bloodied bodies trapped under rubble and parents wailing as they discover dead children since the magnitude 7.9 quake struck on Monday.
Add to these pictures of Taiwan-registered aircraft planning to fly supplies and personnel into the quake-affected region, where more than 50,000 are believed to have been killed, and the result is a rare surge of China sympathy in Taiwan.
And the Chinese are reaching out to the Taiwanese:
Taiwan's Nationalist Party Chairman Wu Poh-hsiung was asked to come to China by President Hu Jintao and the ruling communist party's Central Committee, Xinhua News Agency reported.
"The Taiwan compatriots have been active in making donations and offering help in various forms after the devastating earthquake in Wenchuan of Sichuan Province on May 12," Chen Yunlin, director of the Taiwan Work Office of the CPC Central Committee, told Xinhua.
He did not give details of the proposed visit but said his office would consult with the Nationalist Party "as soon as possible."
A charm offensive based on the sympathy generated by the earthquake. Call me cynical, but as long as the Chinese insist they will use force if necessary to keep Taiwan from declaring independence, such warming is meaningless. As long as the Chinese keep building up missiles and modern aircraft opposite Taiwan, such a charm offensive can only be useful in lulling the Taiwanese.
The Chinese communists are smiling at the Taiwanese and shedding a small tear while they show pictures of dead Chinese earthquake victims, but nobody should be fooled by this display of so-called friendship.
I'm still worried about the Taiwan Strait Pole Vault Competition.
UPDATE: Even as the Chinese smile and look for opportunities to cooperate with Taiwan, the Chinese continue to probe and look for opportunities to gain military advantage over Taiwan:
Taiwan has accused China of increasing its military activity in the 180 kilometers straits that separate Taiwan from China. In the last ten years, China has gone from a little over 400 fighter sorties over the straits each year, to nearly 2,000. In the last three years, there have been twenty instances of Chinese spy ships moving into Taiwans territorial waters. There has been more Chinese submarine activity around Taiwan, although, the Taiwanese would not give any specifics on this. The Taiwanese believe the Chinese are testing Taiwanese defenses regularly and more intensively, as well as giving their pilots and crews vital training. This would be a necessary prelude to an attack on the island nation.
Remember that China wants Taiwan. Oh, China is perfectly willing to have Taiwan just surrender to China without war; but China will make a play for Taiwan at some point, using their arsenal to do so if necessary.
