Contain China in Joint Effort: Experts (PNAC dir. in Taiwan)

[Gloria]

New World Mdia Watch up now at http://www.zianet.com/insightanalytical
tomorrow at Buzzflash.com

2//The Taipei Times, Taiwan Sunday, Sep 25, 2005 Page 1

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2005/09/25/2003273084



CONTAIN CHINA IN JOINT EFFORT: EXPERTS

Experts at a World Taiwanese Conference forum said that Taiwan, Japan and the US must work together to deter an aggressively rising China



By Shih Hsui-Chuan, Staff Reporter


Military experts from the US, Japan, and Taiwan yesterday stressed the necessity for the three countries to work together to maintain peace in the Taiwan Strait at a symposium hosted by the World Taiwanese Congress (WTC) in Taipei.



The WTC, an organization made up of overseas pro-independence Taiwanese from around the world, is currently holding its fifth annual conference in Taipei. The group plans to attend a rally today staged by the Hand-in-Hand Taiwan Alliance, to join the call for legislators to pass the long-stalled US arms procurement budget.




(SNIP)



Vice President Annette Lu gave a speech to WTC members saying that China's military threat against Taiwan is not just a verbal threat, but that China is ready to back up its threats with action.


SNIP


The arms-procurement package was first brought up by the former ruling Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), Lu said, noting that the reason why the KMT has changed its position on buying arms now is that it has lost the will to protect Taiwan after it lost power.



Gary Schmitt, the executive director of the Project for the New American Century, said that often in newly democratized countries it takes time for the new ruling party to learn how to govern and for the party losing power to learn how to appropriately monitor the government.



The stalemate over the arms-procurement budget package might therefore stem from Taiwanese parties' struggle to adjust to their new roles, Schmitt said. However, he noted that the parties should hurry their pace since Taiwan is facing a growing military threat from China.

[oblivious]

1. Those PNAC people have no shame.

They say Taiwan is facing a growing military threat from China. Yet in 2001 China offered to reduce the number of missiles along the Taiwan Strait if the US dropped its offer to supply Yaiwan with missiles, submarine-hunting aircraft, advanced destroyers and conventional submarines.

Bush refused. And now the US is putting serious pressure on Taiwan to buy missiles, mines and helicopters.

[Selatius]

2. Hey, the "American Dream" is about getting rich though

Think of the billions of dollars flowing into the bank accounts of arms manufacturers. They won't be able to flaunt their wealth in obscene ways in front of the poorest in the world if we don't give them the money. Think of their well-being! :sarcasm:

[xchrom]

3. america is surrounded by enemies!

all enemies all the time!

quick give halliburton a contract!

[psychopomp]

4. The Chinese threat to Taiwain and in the S. China Sea is real

China seeks to control shipping lanes in disputed territorial waters in the S. China Sea as well as to claim Taiwan. A muscular defense of at least the status quo is required by all parties who have counter-claims and the only way that they can do so is with the help of the United States.

The CCP should not be conceeded to easily.

[Leafy Geneva]

5. The U.S supports China's claim of Taiwan.

[psychopomp]

7. Have you heard of the Taiwan Relations Act?

http://www.ait.org.tw/en/about_ait/tra/

It allows for the provision of arms of a defensive nature to the ROC.

We support the status quo and have been careful not to encourage either side to change it...that is, until dumbya pledged the US will do "whatever it takes" to defend Taiwan in 2001.

http://archives.cnn.com/2001/ALLPOLITICS/04/25/bush.taiwan.03/

One-China policy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"In the case of the United States, the One-China policy was first stated in the Shanghai Communiqué of 1972: "the United States acknowledges that Chinese on either side of the Taiwan Strait maintain there is but one China and that Taiwan is a part of China. The United States does not challenge that position." A similar formulation was made in 1982, when Ronald Reagan issued an acknowledgement that it is "the Chinese position that there is but one China and Taiwan is part of China."

When President Jimmy Carter in 1979 broke off relations with Taiwan in order to establish relations with the PRC, Congress responded by passing the Taiwan Relations Act, which while maintaining relations, stopped short of full recognition of the ROC. In 1982 President Ronald Reagan also made the Six Assurances were adopted, the sixth being that the United States would not formally recognize Chinese sovereignty over Taiwan. Still, United States policy has remained ambiguous. During the House International Relations Committee on April 21 of 2004, the Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, James A. Kelly, was asked by Rep. Grace Napolitano (D-CA) whether America’s commitment to Taiwan’s democracy conflicted with the so-called One-China Policy. He admitted the difficulty on defining the U.S.'s position: "I didn’t really define it, and I’m not sure I very easily could define it." He added, "I can tell you what it is not. It is not the One-China principle that Beijing suggests.""
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One-China_Policy

[oblivious]

6. I don't think anyone is conceeding anything to the CCP.

China's military budget this year is $30 billion - about 1.6% of GDP.

China's military expenditure in 2003 was equivalent to 57 per cent of Japan's, 76 per cent of France's, and 5.7 per cent of the United States, according to a government defence white paper released at the end of December.

http://english.people.com.cn/200503/05/eng20050305_175614.html
http://www2.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-03/05/content_421937.htm

As far as I know Taiwan spends over a third of that each year and is being pushed to spend another 15 billion this year.

So China's military spending does not really appear to be a threat to anyone at this time. Maybe in another generation. Exaggerating it is just propaganda as far as I'm concerned.

[psychopomp]

9. Perhaps you can tell me about what is happening

in the E. China Sea and why China is sending destroyers down there?

5 Chinese naval ships spotted near East China Sea gas field


Saturday, September 10, 2005 at 06:56 JST
TOKYO — Five Chinese naval ships, including a missile destroyer, were spotted Friday morning near the Chunxiao gas field in the East China Sea, where Japan and China have a dispute over demarcation, the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force said.

The MSDF said a P-3C patrol plane spotted the five vessels around 9 a.m. in waters 290 kilometers northwest of Kume Island, Okinawa Prefecture, southwestern Japan.

http://www.japantoday.com/e/?content=news&cat=1&id=348697&display=all

[oblivious]

10. They appear to be patrolling Chinese territory.

...waters Japan regards as China's side of the disputed line.

I don't see anything ominous in that.

I guess you see it as a show of force, but I don't think patrolling waters that are undisputedly in Chinese territory is provocative.

[cire4]

11. Don't worry....The status quo will prevail....

China isn't stupid. They're not going to make a move on Taiwan when it would almost certainly disrupt economic growth and damage their standing in the international community. But the government will continue to talk tough on Taiwan because it drums up nationalistic support for the increasingly illegitimate CCP.

Taiwan isn't stupid. A majority of Taiwanese do not want to declare independence from China because it is their belief that it will almost certainly lead to armed conflict. They will continue to favor the status quo and will press for closer relations with China to guarantee it.

And the United States isn't stupid. American corporations get their profits from the cheap goods made in China. As long as corporate interests are bankrolling politics, the US government will never declare war on China.

Tensions will always be high in the Taiwan strait. But the economic ties that bound all three countries together will virtually necessitate that military conflict is a last resort. The status quo will prevail long enough to see China's democratic transition. And by the time China democratizes, I doubt Taiwan will even be a concern.

[sweetheart]

8. At one time, texas was another nation for a while

And had a foreign power tried to stand between the union and that
outcome, it would have suffered a bloody nose. The renegade sovereign
province and meddling foreign power argument stands.

A generation of americans will pay in blood for this imperialism unless
the meddlers and the military scare-mongers are collared. China must
peacefully settle its disputes, and this is best facilitated by
good business, many marriages and family getting alongs. Then the enemy
is also our extended family and this silly feud can be put to rest.

More americans should marry chinese, and more chinese should marry
americans, until the american gene pool will all be chinese, and the
paranoid will declare a race war to prevent the gene pool... but haven't
they already.