Posted on 07/16/2004 6:36:27 AM PDT by milestogo
WASHINGTON, (UPI) July 13 , 2004 -
The United States must cease its interference with Chinese internal affairs over the question of Taiwanese independence or face a serious deterioration of U.S.-China relations, China warned Tuesday.
In an official statement delivered to the press at the Embassy of the Republic of China, embassy spokesman Sun Weide spoke of China's grave concern regarding recent U.S. actions on the Taiwan question.
He urged the United States to halt all arms sales to the country, terminate military links, end official exchanges with Taiwanese authorities, and stop supporting Taiwan's efforts to join international organizations that require statehood.
Such actions, Sun said, violated the one-China policy to which U.S. leaders pledged adherence in three joint communiqués signed by the two countries in 1979 and 1982.
In the final communiqué, the United States reiterated its official recognition that there is but one China and Taiwan is part of China. The United States also stated the intention to gradually reduce arms sales to Taiwan over a period of time, leading to a final resolution.
Twenty-four years have passed, said Sun. It is time for the U.S. to honor its commitments.
If those commitments are not honored, he said, ... the reactions will not be in favor of the bilateral relations. ... It will affect our cooperation and China-U.S. relations as well.
Recent visits to China by U.S. national security adviser Condoleezza Rice and Vice President Dick Cheney were successful, he said, and on the whole, China-U.S relations have been steadily progressing.
However, it was made clear to Rice during her visit, Sun reported, that the importance of the Taiwan issue in China's relationship with the U.S. cannot be overemphasized.
The Taiwan question bears directly on China's sovereignty and territorial integrity, he said. We don't need any foreign countries to play any roles in their regards.
Sun rejected Cheney's suggestion during his April visit that there was a link between Chinese conduct over Hong Kong and the Taiwan question, saying China would not accept such interference from the U.S. government.
A senior administration official told the Washington Post in April that Cheney's message to China's leaders had been that Beijing's efforts to stifle democracy in Hong Kong might further kindle Taiwan's moves towards formal independence.
There is not, said Sun, any basis for American government officials to accuse China of eroding freedoms in Hong Kong.
Expressing Beijing's dissatisfaction over recent comments and actions by U.S. government officials and congressmen, he said democracy is expanding in Hong Kong, and people are enjoying freedoms more than anytime in the past.
China, he said, welcomes international dialogue on human rights on a basis of mutual respect. The recent breakdown in such dialogue, he said, is the sole responsibility of the United States.
He pointed to the anti-China resolution tabled by the United States at the U.N. Human Rights Commission in Geneva this April. The defeat of the resolution, the 11th such defeat since 1990, shows the international community recognizes Chinese progress in this area, he continued.
The fact that Taiwan is part of China is also a fact recognized by the international community, said Sun.
A State Department spokesman declined to comment on Tuesday's statement, pointing to the April testimony of James E. Kelly, assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, in which he outlined to the House International Relations Committee U.S. official policy on Taiwan.
The United States is committed, said Kelly, to the one-China policy based on the three joint communiqués. However, it will not support any unilateral move that alters Taiwan's status, and should China threaten force or coercion against Taiwan, the United States would use its capacity to resist that threat.
In addition, the U.S. government will continue to sell Taiwan defensive military equipment in accordance with the Taiwan Relations Act, introduced in 1979.
China strongly opposes this act as a violation of the one-China principle and the three joint communiqués, Sun noted at the press briefing.
However, if Beijing fulfills its obligations in adopting a military position that supports peaceful approaches to Taiwan, the defensive requirements will also change accordingly, according to Kelly's testimony.
China currently has short-range ballistic missiles aimed at Taiwan, which have been increasing by 50 to 75 missiles per year, Kelly stated.
Taiwan views this threat as a major obstacle to reunification. Taiwanese President Chen Shui-Bian said in his May inaugural speech:
If (China) continues to threaten Taiwan with military force, ... this will only serve to drive the hearts of the Taiwanese people further away and widen the divide in the Strait.
The chairman of Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council, Joseph Wu, said in a June statement that under such military pressure, Taiwan must reinforce its own defenses.
The Taiwanese position has been to call for peaceful and amicable negotiations on the issue of independence. Chen stated in his May speech that the Taiwanese government would not exclude any possibility as long as the people consented, and that the country understood China's insistence on reunification based on historical and ethnic concerns. However, he also called for a reciprocal understanding on the part of Beijing of the Taiwanese people's democratic concerns.
Sun, however, cited the refusal of the Taiwanese authorities to recognize the one-China principle as the main obstacle to reunification, which, he said, is the common wish of all Chinese people, including our compatriots in Taiwan. China will never tolerate Taiwanese independence, he added. We know that there is only one China in the world.
Such statements further confirm that Beijing's patience is beginning to wear thin, Ted Galen Carpenter, a leading foreign policy analyst, told United Press International Tuesday.
Beijing is becoming increasingly frustrated that the United States does not regard this matter as urgent, said Carpenter, vice president of defense and foreign policy studies at the Cato Institute in Washington.
In fact, he said, We've reached the point where the status quo is unsustainable for more than a few years.
The United States is caught in the middle of an increasingly tense situation, said Carpenter, and is currently heading for a nasty confrontation.
We're likely to have a major crisis within the next few years, he said.
If United States wants to avoid the line of fire, according to Carpenter, we should make clear to Taiwan that although we support negotiations, we will not defend Taiwan in the event of a military conflict.
We don't want to fight a war with China over Taiwan, he concluded, and that may be the bottom line.
They won't. They won't start something they can't finish.
Basically its the London Bobby approach.
"Stop, or I'll yell Stop! Again!"
In five to ten years they will. They are growing both in numbers and with the help of international companies in tech. Their will eventually be a shotting war between the US ans China. This is one of the reasons we need a missile defense shield.
You mean, like Imperial Japan? Even after Yamamoto (the designer of the Pearl Harbor attack) told them it was a bad idea?
Well, we've transferred all our manufacturing technology to them, even technology for small nukes (multiple re-entry) Why should we be suprised????
There will be no "conventional" war with China.
As we shift a large part of our manufacturing base to China, China will one day use Richard Nixon's famous policy................
"When you have them by the balls, their hearts and minds soon follow!"
Close to 1.2 billion.
China's been rattling like this about Taiwan for decades. This is just the latest. They didn't do anything then and I doubt they will now or in the immediate future. It wouldn't be in their best interests, either economically or militarily.
All the technology the toon gave them.
We cannot even manipulate our currency against theirs to gain economic advantage (like some of our "friends") as they have pegged the Yuan to the Dollar. They are slowly limiting the options for retaliation.
Ever heard of COSCO?
Check it out.
Ask yourself . . .
How many PLA troops could China deliver to their container ports in So. CA, Mexico, both ends of the Panama Canal, their world's largest building in the Bahamas . . .
in say only 10-15% (or even in 3-5%) of the COSCO containers used across the Pacific?
Keep in mind PLA troops are used to low creature comforts. Keep in mind China has more than a little bit of a mentality quite comfortable 'living off the land.'
Keep in mind this would likely be AFTER terrorists et al had shredded what they could of our military and infrastructure.
Keep in mind that Mexico, Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua etc., (with whatever help from North Korea), would not be standing by the sidelines wringing their hands.
Which is no doubt being tracked 24/7/52 by a combo of space, air and sea assets and would never get a single shot off if hostilities begin.
Of course, that's a two-way street. Who are they going to sell all that junk to, if not us? Imagine the political instability in China with its GNP in a tailspin, shuttered factories, and massive unemployment.
You guys should check out www.sinodefence.com.
Them buggers are catching us up. I give it ten years max until the shooting starts.
The puppet masters planned all this long ago.
Nixon was their stoolie along with the rest of them.
And peanut head was horrid. He insisted on waking Chiang Kai Sheck up at 0300 to tell him we were cutting relations. Arrogant!
Shrillery and Billdo happened to be deliberately complicit stoolies cheering the globalists on and trying to head the pack.
So we should just ignore those pesky laws we don't like, eh?
Are you talking about pre WWII?
I don't think China could win a conventional war with us but they really don't have much to lose either. They know we won't or probably can't invade them, and they have a real surplus of young men due to their forced abortion policy.
To: milestogo
Here it comes, I thought they were going to attack about two years ago or after 9/11. They will attack and they will come after us. Just what we need a two fronted war. Only fighting these chinks will be bloody.
3 posted on 07/16/2004 8:41:27 AM CDT by Lowell (The voice from beyond the edge!)
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