Chinese General

Good evening to all,
it's been a while, but was just making the most of the free time I have until I return to classes, now it's time to get caught up on things that caught my attention recently. *LOL

I heard little mention on the news regarding a comment made by a Chinese general, the aforementioned general said that China would nuke us if we got involved in the struggle over Taiwan. Hmmm, that sure made me wonder why we still allow that country favored trade status. Of course, the Chinese government downplayed the comment by saying it was just the personal views of the general and not those of the government there, but anyone can see that it was most likely a thinly veiled threat that was put out there to give us something to think about. The response by our government was equally frustrating, as the only thing said about it was "the comment was irresponsible". Yes, it was very irresponsible for China to say they would risk a world war in their aspirations to annex Taiwan, but couldn't more have been said in response? I kept going through the possible reasons for such a simplistic response, and all I could come up with was the old "less is more" approach to diplomacy. Marginalizing the impact of the comment could have been like a big ol' "whatever" said in an everyday argument. I tend to always attempt to visualize stuff like that as a schoolyard fight between two kids, and most often it works at putting almost overbearingly big things in their true perspective. I still wonder why we carry out so much trade with the Chinese? There was once a time when our inexpensive goods came from Taiwan, even recently we receive inexpensive goods from South Korea, why not on a bigger level of trade? Prices might go up slightly, but it would be money sent to a democratic nation, rather than money filling the coffers of a communist regime such as China, and that might be worth paying a little more. One thing I've noticed recently is that Wal Mart has been allowed to build stores in China, it has been reported that they've already made 1 billion dollars from the Chinese market, I assume that has something to do with keeping the trade flowing with China, as a downsize could push the Chinese to once again close their territories to our doing business there, and that is alot of money. Still, I feel it's just wrong for them to attempt to shake that stick at us, but the resolve of our nation would be fully awakened if they were to actually carry out their threat. The result would be terrible for all, and what remained of China would surely lose that conflict as our treaties with allies would find them opposing the world. Why wasn't more said about this matter? It's just confusing to me. What do you think about this whole thing?