Posted on 06/01/2004 9:23:24 AM PDT by hedgetrimmer
BEIJING, (AFP) - China is gearing-up for large-scale military wargames aimed at "taking control of the Taiwan Strait", with 18,000 troops and the amphibious landing of a tank brigade.
The exercises were to take place in June and July on Dongshan Island in southeastern Fujian province just 150 nautical miles west of Taiwan's Penghu Island, the New Express Daily said, citing a pro-Beijing Hong Kong newspaper.
China has become increasingly agitated with independence-leaning Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian, and the report referred to the exercises as the first-ever aimed at "striving to control the Taiwan Strait."
The 18,000 soldiers will be deployed from the land, navy and air force of the Nanjing Military Region, where some 500 short-range ballistic missiles are pointed at Taiwan.
"Sukoi Su-27 fighter jets will be outfitted with KN59M guided air-to-surface missiles in an effort to maintain control over the Taiwan Strait and ensure that tank brigades can make a landing and engage in warfare," the report said.
Submarines, war ships and a guided missile brigade would also be involved in the exercises that were to be led by Lieutenant General Huang Jiang, it said.
Soldiers were deployed on Dongshan Island in mid-May where tanks and armoured personnel carriers had been practicing amphibious landings daily on Jinluan beach, it said. It was not clear if the exercises had already begun.
According to Hong Kong's Apple Daily, the exercises would be smaller than simliar drills held during the summer of 2001, when some 100,000 soldiers engaged in similar amphibious exercises and mock sea warfare aimed at sinking an aircraft carrier.
Since the re-election of Chen in March, and especially since his inaugural address on May 20, the mainland has racheted up the rhetoric on Taiwan, reiterating its long-standing vow to take the island by force should Chen move the territory towards formal independence.
Beijing has considered Taiwan part of its territory awaiting reunification since the end of the civil war in 1949.
Taiwanese defence officials said in April that Taiwan was conducting its own massive military exercises to evaluate the island's defense capabilities against the threat of attack from China.
The seven-month drills, codenamed "Han Kuang (Han Glory) 20", are scheduled to end in November and would test the joint operations of the armed forces.
Taiwan's defense ministry has previously warned of the possibility of an attack by China unless the island continues to strengthen its defensive power as a deterrent.
The United States has repeatedly urged China and Taiwan to refrain from any provocative actions, and it blasted Beijing in a defense department report last week for developing a variety of "credible military options" to prevent Taiwan from achieving independence.
China Monday blamed Washington's arms sales for the deteriorating state of cross-Strait ties.
"Due to the support and connivance of the United States, Taiwan authorities have gone further down the road toward 'independence' and the United States is responsible for the current worsening situation across the Taiwan Straits," the official Xinhua news agency said.
More importantly what products does the United States purchase from Taiwan (ROC)?
Because it has long been a chip manufacturer and I am sure supplies chips and parts to many of our national security needs, having China invade and take over will not be too good for our own national security.
If someone made a list of these critical goods from Taiwan, I'll bet its a pretty long one.
I work in construction, and on government preojects, there is a buy america clause.
We had to have the clause thrown out on one project, because we could not get american made nuts, bolts and dock washers in the size needed. not even close.
We are going to be screwed severely in the very near future without manufacturing capacity.
THANKS UNIONS!! Ya really forked us and good!
OK, here's my crazy idea. It starts with an FR thread from 5/29 with links discussing to articles about a rather large international US/British/Canadian/etc. joint training operation involving 7 US carrier groups including (IIRC) 2 Marine Expeditionary Units.
That thread is here:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1144475/posts
The short version of the thread is that some of this exercise has been planned for some time (obviously), but there are some interesting add-ons.
For example, the USS Reagan was supposed to go to San Diego, but had its orders changed and was added to the group just recently:
[Note, these are all excerpted]
http://www.wavy.com/Global/story.asp?S=1902088&nav=23ii0Elx
WAVY TV VA 5/29
"A major exercise soon to be underway will have a large part of the Navy fleet deploying out of Norfolk.
"WAVY News 10 has learned the Navy is sending seven carrier strike groups out to sea."
Likewise, the USS Lincoln had its orders changed recently.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/aplocal_story.asp?category=6420&slug=WA%20Lincoln
The AP 5/28
"The aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln will head to sea for training next week after 11 months of maintenance work at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard here.
"The carrier had been expected to return to its home port at Everett, across Puget Sound, after finishing the overhaul, but Chief Petty Officer Doug Stutz, a ship spokesman, said the Lincoln will not return to Everett until late June or early July."
In addition, a B-52 bomber squadron is flying to Guam to replace a different squadron (of course the 2nd group doesn't have to return immediately).
http://www.kplctv.com/Global/story.asp?S=1890483&nav=0nqxNMdq
KPLC TV in LA 5/24
"A pair of B-52 bombers from Barksdale Air Force base's 96th bomb squadron will leave Monday for Andersen Air Force base on Guam as the first element in a six-airplane deployment over the next two to four weeks."
And here's the link to the international details:
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/2004/05/29/478516-ap.html
The AP 5/29
"About 6,000 British Royal Navy sailors and marines, along with 18 ships, are converging on Norfolk in preparation for one of the largest joint military exercises since 1996.
"Called Exercise Blinding Storm by the United States and Exercise Rapid Alliance by the United Kingdom, the training will involve about 30,000 troops from seven countries, including Canada, in exercises off the coast of North Carolina."
And, the USS Stennis was supposed to be training off the coast of Alaska before heading to the SE Pacific, but was mentioned in the second linked story (from WAVY, not the FR thread) as being part of this exercise:
http://www.deridderdailynews.com/articles/2004/05/27/news/news2.txt
The AP 5/28
"The Stennis, which left its San Diego home port Monday, will participate in an exercise off Alaska in June and then join the USS Kitty Hawk, which is permanently based in Japan, in the western Pacific."
And someone posted a link to an article about President Bush and chinese president Hu discussing Taiwan:
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2004-05/30/content_334938.htm
China Daily 5/30
"Chinese President Hu Jintao and US President George W. Bush had a telephone conversation Saturday evening on Iraq and Taiwan issues, said the Chinese Foreign Ministry."
Excerpt
"The two presidents agreed that the two countries would make joint efforts to push forward their constructive and cooperative relationship."
IMHO, this did not sounde like a contentious phone call.
Now, there's a lot of people who know much more than I do about military deployments, etc. There are many possibilities discussed on the FR thread above.
The US excercise may be just that
The US excercise may have to do with the war against terrorism
The US excercise may be in response to China, but (here's my really nutty idea, thanks for waiting):
What if the US and the Chinese are going to collaborate in an attack on North Korea. With the recent explosion there, North Korea's inherent zaniness, the US about to move troops out of South Korea, etc., perhaps it's time to take of this part of the axis of evil.
I know, there's all sorts of problems with this scenario, I just figured I'd throw it out there and let people have fun with it.
Maybe China really isn't going to conduct mock sea warfare, but actually try for Taiwan now. What better way to disguise an invasion, than with fake "military exercises"?
You're right that those deploynments of our carriers might be related to this. Fact is, we have British naval vessels in port in VA, so they can conduct military exercises with us at the same time China is conducting theirs.
yeah, they're 'conditioning' our intelligence services and the Taiwanese by these 'exercises' ... one day, they will GO ...
Saddam did the same thing along the Kuwait border, over a much shorter time period ... of course, the CIA warned he was going to go over (in 1991) ...
I didn't see your post before I added mine, but a timid person just might see ominous signs in sudden onset of military exercises all around the world, all in the same week.
Either China is pulling a bluff to see how we might respond if they were to really invade so they could fine tune their future strategy, or they are dead serious and are going to go for it now.
I really dont see us trying to block a China blockade
whoops, mean try to BREAK a China blockade
Not my post, but I'll take credit for summarizing it, ha ha ha. Anyway, you're right, at the very least there's a lot of 'movement' going on.
"THANKS UNIONS!! Ya really forked us and good!"
Not that simple. Unions did their damage, but in the last few years, they've realized they have almost no power in the golobal economy. Therefore, it's very easy for a company to get a union to kowtow. With the uneven playing field, legislators and businesses favor the move offshore. (Uneven playing field being restrictive business laws here, actual concern for pollution and worker safety, and the fact that you can pay 37 cents a day to a worker in China and they can raise a family on that. Many here would say you should be able to do the same with domestic workers). The "invisible hand" is at work, and national security will take the hit. But, there will be some nice portfolios built before we have to learn Chinese. :)
Several years ago, I met a Chinese-Canadian woman, a grad student in molecular biology. Although she was Canadian, she still could not understand why anyone could oppose China's claims of sovereignty over Taiwan. This is when I realized that our support for Taiwan is not tenable.
Taiwan is a major economic and trade power and a significant U.S. trading partner. Taiwan’s 2002 GDP was $289 billion, and its total trade (exports plus imports) was $243.2 billion. Total U.S.-Taiwan trade in 2002 was $50.6 billion, making Taiwan the 8th largest U.S. trading partner (the U.S. was Taiwan’s largest trading partner). U.S. exports to Taiwan in 2002 were $18.4 billion (making Taiwan the 9th largest U.S. export market), while U.S. imports from Taiwan were $32.2 billion (the 8th largest source for U.S. imports).
Most electronics manufacturers in Taiwan have plants in China. They continue to pour money into China. They are betting that there will be no war.
You do realize that Taiwan independence movement is to rewrite the constitution and dissolve Republic of China (free China).
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