Taiwan’s President Ma Ying-jeou said any peace talks with China would take place after the mainland removes short-range missiles based across from the island.
It remains unclear to me why any Taiwanese would believe "peace talks" are anything other than arranging the terms of surrender to China. But Taiwanese public opinion seems odd, to say the least.
More to the point, the Taiwanese must not accept a reduction in the missiles rather than complete removal from launch range. Remember, China's war plans will not rely on a simple salvo of all of their missiles in the first minute of war. There is some fraction of the total that will allow China to begin an invasion while other missiles are brought forward for the second and subsequent waves of missile attacks.
But I suspect that Ma will take any reduction offered by China as progress and press forward with meaningless talks.
China wants Taiwan. What is there to discuss?
