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Mix-Ansicht- Taiwan's Streitkräfte in Alarmbereitschaft - Angriff d. Chinesen w. Irak-Krieg - kingsolomon, 15.02.2003, 08:46
Taiwan's Streitkräfte in Alarmbereitschaft - Angriff d. Chinesen w. Irak-Krieg
-->befürchtet.
War auch nicht anders zu erwarten, als dass die heimlichen und nicht so heimlichen Gegner der USA die amerikanische Truppenkonzentration im
mittleren Osten nutzen, um verstärkt ihre Ziele zu verfolgen.
Taiwan Alert For Chinese
Invasion During Iraq War
2-14-3
(AFP) -- Taiwan Defense Minister Tang Yao-ming said the military had been put on a state of alert for fear China could take advantage of a war in Iraq to launch an invasion of the island.
Tang warned that Beijing's hostility towards Taipei was as strong as ever despite the unprecedented civilian flights between Taipei and Shanghai over the Lunar New Year holiday period.
"They have yet to give up their attempt to take over Taiwan by force. This was clearly stated by (President) Jiang Zemin in the Chinese Communist Party's 16th Party Congress documents," Tang told a press conference here.
China could decide to attack its arch rival when the world's attention was preoccupied with war in the Gulf.
"The Chinese communists could cash in on such an occasion," said Tang.
"They could sabotage and attack our banking systems, democracy and other social institutions which are superior to those on the mainland."
The defence ministry had also stepped up security and its monitoring of Chinese troop movements and improved its crisis management capability.
Taiwan and China, which split in 1949 at the end of a civil war, remain technically at war despite the commencement of civil contacts in 1987.
While ruling out any possibility of Taiwan's involvement in a US-led war against Iraq, the minister said President Chen Shui-bian's government would provide humanitarian aid to refugees.
Tang also defended Chen's recent announcement in which he ruled out the possibility of direct cross-strait flights even after the resumption of air links with the mainland following a half century hiatus.
Civilian planes would instead be required to fly on a detour for national security reasons even after direct cross-strait transport links are opened up, Chen insisted.
"The Taiwan Strait is a shield (for Taiwan). Wouldn't it be just what the Chinese communists wanted if the shield was removed?" Tang said.
Six Taiwan airlines operated a total of eight chartered flights to and from China for the first time during the Lunar New Year period from January 26 to February 10, but they had to transit Hong Kong or Macau.
Local business and industrial leaders have pushed for direct links between the island and mainland, insisting they would help lower shipping costs and facilitate economic ties across the Taiwan Strait.
Taiwanese businesses are estimated to have invested some 70 billion US dollars in the mainland since 1987.
Commenting on China's growing missile threat, Tang said Taiwan had been working to build its missile shield.
"Research and development efforts have got underway to build a missile defense system. Hopefully the target could be arrived at within the next 10 years," he said, without going into details.
The People's Liberation Army has deployed at least 400 ballistic missiles along the southeast Chinese coast targeting Taiwan, with the number expected to increase to 700 by 2006, according to the defense ministry.
Military analysts said the missiles could be used to paralyze Taiwan's economic centers, military commands, airports and bunkers should war break out with China.
Taiwan purchased three batteries of US-made PAC-II Plus missiles, an improved version of the Patriot, from the United States in 1993.
The three units are positioned to defend the densely-populated greater Taipei area from any attack by China, which lobbed ballistic missiles into shipping lanes off Taiwan during the island's presidential elections in 1996.
Ties with the mainland have substantially declined since Chen, of the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party, was elected president in 2000.
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.S. urges Taiwan to speed up arms purchases
Friday February 14, 4:01 pm ET
By Jim Wolf
SAN ANTONIO, Feb 14 (Reuters) - The Bush administration called on Taiwan on Friday to speed up the acquisition of advanced weapons, including an antimissile defense, to head off any attack by China.
"We urge Taiwan to take the steps needed to acquire defensive weapons and systems sufficient to address the ever-increasing threat posed by the PRC (China)," Randall Schriver, the State Department's top official on China, told a privately sponsored U.S.-Taiwan defense industry conference in San Antonio.
The Pentagon's top policy-maker for the region, Richard Lawless, told the session China was arming itself to keep the U.S. military at bay in a crunch.
Taiwan, he added in a speech on Thursday night, must not consider U.S. support"as a substitute for investing the necessary resources in its own defense."
"It is believed that surprise and speed will be used to make any potential U.S. assistance to Taiwan -- in an unprovoked attack -- ineffective," Lawless, the deputy assistant secretary of defense for East Asian and Pacific affairs, said in a text made available by the Pentagon.
"We believe it is imperative that Taiwan build upon its existing assets and acquire an integrated air and missile defense capability."
Beijing deems self-governing Taiwan a rogue province and has reserved the right to use force if necessary to unite the island with the mainland.
The closed-door conference was organized by the U.S.-Taiwan Business Council, whose chairman is William Cohen, former President Bill Clinton's last defense secretary. Council member companies, notably top U.S. military contractors, were"frustrated" by Taiwan's delay in wrapping up billions of dollars of weapons purchases authorized in April 2001 by President George W. Bush, council president Rupert Hammond-Chambers told reporters.
The U.S. arms sale offer, including four Kidd-class destroyers and 12 P-3C Orion submarine-hunting aircraft and help in acquiring conventional submarines, was the largest in a decade, and much bigger than Taiwan's Defense Ministry had expected would be authorized when it submitted its wish list, Taiwan officials said privately.
Taiwan's military budget has been deceasing in real terms, as a proportion of total government spending and as a percentage of gross domestic product, according to a U.S. expert.
PRIORITIES
The U.S. government thinks acquiring Lockheed Martin Corp.'s (NYSE:LMT - News) Patriot Advanced Capability (PAC-3) antimissile system should be a top priority to meet the threat from the 650 or so ballistic missiles China is expected to have targeted on Taiwan by 2005, a senior U.S. official told Reuters.
The official, who spoke on condition he not be identified, said 2008 would be too late"to demonstrate that a credible effort is being made to address the threat."
In Taipei, Taiwan's defense minister, Tang Yao-ming, said on Thursday Taiwan expected to have antimissile capabilities"within 10 years," the Taipei Times reported.
Another top priority should be upgrading Taiwan's combat telecommunications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance -- the so-called"C4ISR" capabilities and infrastructure that are the electronic brains of national command and control, the senior U.S. official said.
A third top acquisition priority, he added, should be antisubmarine warfare capabilities. That would include the P-3C Orion maritime reconnaissance patrol aircraft, the deployment of the four U.S. Kidd-class destroyers on offer from the United States and up to eight diesel-electric submarines that Northrop Grumman Corp. (NYSE:NOC - News) and General Dynamics Corp. (NYSE:GD - News) are competing to design and build.
In his speech, the Pentagon's Lawless said Taiwan had long maintained a"qualitative edge" over China in air, naval and ground forces but was losing ground to China's force modernization.
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