Washington Post; "China's Law on Taiwan Backfires Anti-Seccesaion Measure Hurts Efforts Abroad"; Cody; Mar 2005

China passed a law codifying its stance that China will now allow Taiwanese independence. They saw it as a way to stave off Taiwan's president Chen from getting any ideas (he was asserting independance more, changing names from People's Republic of China to Taiwan etc.). Chinese officials were surprised when other countries condemned the law, so they backed down on it a bit, disappointed that it had cooled relations between themselves and Taiwan, rather than just laid out the relationship more clearly. Now, Taiwanese seem more strongly behind Chen's sentiments of independance.