China To Gradually Draw Taiwan Back Into Its Fold

US-Japan Contingency Plans For Taiwan Loudly Opposed By China

Arms Race? Asks China. What Arms Race?

In February, defense department officials from Japan and the United States will meet to discuss what is known as 'The Taiwan Strait Contingency'. China, naturally, has expressed strong interest in exactly what this 'contingency' constitutes, because one of the key parameters will be how Japan and the US will react if Taiwan decides to declare independence from China this year, or if China decides to invade and occupy.

The United States and Japan decided in 2005 that protecting Taiwan from China amounted to a "common strategic objective."

Wrong, says China, Taiwan is ours, and we will have it back in the fold sooner rather than later.


From Bloomberg :

China opposes a U.S.-Japan military contingency plan over the Taiwan Strait, saying that such a plan must take into consideration the fact that the island is a part of China.

"We have taken notice of this,'' China Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said in a statement posted on the ministry's Web site."`Both the U.S. and Japan must honor the `one China' principle.''

China and Taiwan have been ruled separately since 1949, when China's Communist Party overthrew the ruling Nationalist Party, forcing it to flee to Taiwan. China's criticism of the U.S.-Japan contingency plan on Taiwan also comes after the admiral in charge of the U.S. Pacific Fleet expressed concern over China's recent acquisition of warships with a ``blue water'' capacity.

"Clearly the growth and capacity of China's navy, its ability to go into the blue water is very, very clear,'' Admiral Gary Roughead, commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, said in a November briefing at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing. He was in China to help oversee a joint U.S.-China naval sea rescue exercise off the south China coast.

Since 2004, China has spent more than $2 billion building or acquiring from Russia more than a dozen 6,000 or 7,000 ton battle ships, mostly destroyers, and a dozen kilo-class submarines, enabling it to ``project power far into the western Pacific,'' said Andrew Yang, an analyst at the Taipei-based Chinese Council of Advanced Policy Studies.

Naturally, the talk of Japan and the United States making plans to officially team up to protect the sovereignty of Taiwan received favourable coverage in that country.

From Radio Taiwan :

China's foreign ministry Thursday expressed "serious concern" over this plan, which could worsen thawing Sino-Japan ties. It said, "Taiwan is an inseparable part of China. Any arrangement or consideration should respect and abide by the principle of one China."

Kyodo (Japanese news agency) says that Japan's decision to go ahead with the Taiwan study is believed to reflect the pro-Taiwan stance of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

The United States and Japan angered China in February 2005 with a joint statement that easing tensions in the Taiwan Strait was part of their "common strategic objectives."

Under the Taiwan Relations Act, the United States is required to provide Taiwan with defensive arms if China attacks Taiwan

China continues to push the line that they will never accept Taiwan's breaking away from China, and that aggression by Japan and the United States over the breakaway territory will not be tolerated.

From DailyIndia :

China has said that it hopes the US would strictly abide by its promise and not would send any wrong signals to secessionists trying for Taiwan's independence.

The Chinese side stressed that to curb "Taiwan independence" and maintain peace and stability across the Straits were of mutual benefit both to China and the US, the news release said.

...the US would stick to its "one-China policy and did not want to see any unrest or crisis across the Taiwan Straits" and its surrounding regions, said the release.

China sent out a call on New Year's Eve to Chinese people, across the globe, to oppose any moves by Taiwan towards independence. Presumably, this call translates as a request by China to its national in foreign countries to keep up the talk of Taiwan staying part of China, and opposing discussions and debate about Taiwan declaring independence.

From the Union Tribune :

Chinese President Hu Jintao called on the 'sons and daughters of China' at home and abroad to resist moves towards Taiwan independence, state media reported on Tuesday.

'In the new year, we will uphold the basic principle of 'peaceful reunification' and 'one country, two systems' when dealing with relations across the Taiwan Strait,' Hu added.

"China will never give up our efforts to reunify the country peacefully, but we will not compromise on Taiwan independence and splitist activities," he was quoting as saying.

"So here, I am calling again for the sons and daughters of China from overseas and home to join hands, and to crack down together on Taiwan independence and splittist activities..."

Taipei and Beijing have been arch rivals since the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949, when the defeated Nationalists took refuge on Taiwan. China says the self-ruled, democratic island is a breakaway province, and has threatened to attack if it declares independence.

In his New Year address, Chen said 'the sovereignty of Taiwan belongs to its 23 million people, and it absolutely does not belong to the 'People's Republic of China',' according to a press release put out after his remarks.

'Taiwan's future is determined only by its 23 million citizens, and Taiwan is part of the world, absolutely not part of China,' Chen said.

China is also denying repeated, hypocritical claims by the United States that it is re-arming out of proportion to existent threats in ts region. United States officials, usually talking in an anonymous capacity to BushCo. mouthpiece agencies like the Washington Times, claim that China is engaging in a new arms race.

Arms race? says China. What arms race?

From Speros :

China claims that it is neither capable nor wants to rival the United States on issues such as military spending....

However, it does expect the United States to progressively disengage itself from Taiwan.

China’s defence policy is designed to preserve its sovereignty and territorial integrity and favour world peace, this according to state news agency Xinhua quoting a government official.

...China has no intention, nor ability to conduct an arms race with other countries, but wants to enhance regional security through cooperation with others.

In the last few days, there has been a lot of talk about China’s defence spending which has doubled in ten years.

Officially, China’s defence spending in 2005 represented 1.35 per cent of its GDP compared to 6.2 per cent for the United States.

However, many Western experts such as those from London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies claim that Beijing’s actual defence expenditures are much higher than officially reported.

In meeting a delegation from the Armed Services Committee of the US House of Representatives, Chinese Defence Minister Cao Gangchuan said that China shares extensive strategic interests with the United States and does not want to get into an arms race.

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