You Si-kun casually threatens war crime

On Sunday, You Si-kun, "president" of the "legislative yuan" of Taiwan said the island could hit Beijing with its missiles. You also made sure to mention they wouldn't attack the Three Gorges Dam in advance.

This is no less offensive a threat than the one uttered by Peter Su from Tamkang University in January 2018. Even though You said "not in advance", just by mentioning the dam he acknowledges the possibility of attacking and destroying this civilian target.

The reason behind this is clear, as stated in Su's 2018 "proposal": To cause cataclysmic floods deluging cities and farmlands in central and eastern China in what would be one of the most monstrous war crimes in history.

Such a declaration reveals how low Tsai Ing-wen's team is willing to sink. For their own selfish aims, they casually threaten hundreds of millions of lives.

As a comparison, the central government has always been careful to distinguish Taiwan people from secessionists. A look at the press releases of the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council shows the central government and its spokespersons reserve their harsh criticisms for those who resist the historical trend of national reunification.

At the just-concluded Shangri-la Dialogue in Singapore, Defense Minister Wei Fenghe said "if anyone dares to split Taiwan from the motherland, we will definitely respond at any cost, even by going to war." Even here the central government has not mentioned any civilian target.

Morals on the two sides of the Taiwan Straits differ greatly, and the higher one will ultimately get the support of the other.

In any event, the notion of destroying the dam is nothing more than fantasy. It is a project built by the best Chinese engineers and is designed to withstand astronomical pressures both natural and manmade. Further, Taiwan's missiles could never reach the Chinese mainland in the first place, considering the huge gap in the two sides' military capabilities.

The Three Gorges Dam stands firm. The only thing that has any chance of collapsing is the schemes of those who idly talk about destroying it.