China warns Taiwan not to amend constitution to promote independence News
China warns Taiwan not to amend constitution to promote independence

[JURIST] China's Taiwan Affairs Office [official website] Wednesday reiterated the Chinese government's open hostility to Taiwan's intent to change its constitution [JURIST report] to rename the island the Republic of Taiwan. China has already threatened military action against Taiwan in the event Taiwan declares independence, and a Taiwan Affairs Office spokesman said that renaming now being considered by Taiwan's ruling Democratic Progressive Party [party website] was a step in that direction.

The current Taiwanese constitution [text], drafted by the Kuomintang party of China in 1947, has been amended seven times and was written 2 years before Taiwan split from China in 1949 after the Communist takeover of the mainland. That constitution declares Taiwan to be the "Republic of China," and formally declares that mainland China is under the control of what is now considered Taiwan. Reuters has more.

THIS DAY @ LAW

Dreyfus convicted of treason

On December 22, 1894, Jewish French army officer Alfred Dreyfus was convicted of treason in a court-martial trial that prompted worldwide allegations of anti-Semitism. Dreyfus was later cleared. Learn more about the case of Alfred Dreyfus and read an English translation of the famous public letter J'Accuse...! by novelist and Dreyfus partisan Emile Zola.

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