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13. Taiwan has taken great delight in the troubles the mainland is
periencing with the students. The Free China Journal carried such gleeful headlines as "Teng regime tottering" and a government spokesman proclaimed in measured terms that the demonstrations were "an extremely bad omen" for a Communist regime. The "general
awakening" was partly attributable, he claimed, to the policy of allowing Taiwan residents to visit the mainland.
14. The Taiwan authorities are becoming rather alarmed by a dramatic increase in the number of Chinese fishing vessels intruding into Taiwan's territorial waters. The military feel it is an attempt to probe their defences, and compare it to a similar event in 1980. Already one Chinese fisherman has been killed when his ship failed to stop after being challenged by a Taiwan patrol boat and was shelled. There has also been a huge increase in smuggling and in attempts at legal immigration (over 300 mainlanders have been apprehended and deported since February).
15. The DPP continues to try to go their own way in relations with the mainland. Fei Hsi-ping, a DPP member of the Legislative Yuan, arrived in London on 26 April with a "democratic and peacful reunification group". The DPP announced its own mainland policy in late April which is "quasi two countries, two governments".
16 May 1989
Far Eastern Section Research Department
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