Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

The US will try to keep Taiwan as far down the agenda as possible during Chinese President Hu Jintao’s (胡錦濤) three-day state visit to Washington this week.

During a lengthy White House briefing on the visit, US National Security Adviser Tom Donilon detailed the main topics to be covered during all of Hu’s talks with US President Barack Obama and never once mentioned Taiwan.

In a situation where few can feel the economic recovery and where there is no growth either economically or in the employment rate, the 18 percent preferential interest rate on the savings of military personnel, civil servants and teachers merely serves to reinforce the feeling of unfairness and deprivation among the general public.

A political avalanche is in the making and it will bury the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) if it insists on supporting the 18 percent interest rate for these privileged groups.