Posted on 07/31/2004 2:45:09 PM PDT by wagglebee
TAIPEI - Proposed Chinese legislation that would give a mandate for the reunification of Taiwan with the mainland would provide a legal basis for an attack on the island, Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian has said.
Mr Chen, speaking for the first time on the mainland's proposal to adopt a reunification law, said he was very concerned about it.
'China is undertaking a legal battle. If Taiwan does not follow, it will undertake a military battle,' he was quoted by the United Daily News as saying during a visit to the southern county of Tainan late on Thursday.
'The reunification law is a bid to obtain a basis to attack Taiwan,' he said.
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao is considering a proposal made in May that parliament should draft and adopt a reunification law to prevent Taiwan from edging towards independence.
A reunification law would legally bind Chinese leaders to order the 2.5-million-strong People's Liberation Army to attack Taiwan if the island declared independence.
'I am very concerned,' Mr Chen said in Tainan.
Tension has been simmering between Taiwan and Beijing, rivals since a civil war that ended in 1949. Many security analysts see Taiwan as the most dangerous flashpoint in the Asia-Pacific region.
Both sides have been holding military exercises in the waters off Taiwan, leading some military analysts to conclude that the rising hostilities may have reached a critical juncture.
On Thursday, China for the first time denied that it had set a timetable to reunify Taiwan by force within the next 20 years.
'I have not seen any reports on this in the mainland's formal media, and internally I've also not heard of such a document,' Mr Wang Zaixi, vice-director of the Chinese Cabinet's Taiwan Affairs Office, told the media while attending a forum in Hangzhou, capital of southern Zhejiang province.
Mr Wang nevertheless stressed that Mr Chen risked war with the mainland if he pushed for a new Constitution by 2008.
The island's security lay not in building up an arsenal of missiles and submarines but in offering assurances that Taiwan was not planning to declare independence, Mr Wang said.
Beijing sees Mr Chen's goal of adopting a new Constitution by the end of his term in 2008 as a drive towards a formal declaration of independence and has been preparing for a possible military showdown.
'New tensions and even a serious crisis in the cross-strait situation may arise if Chen obstinately pursues his timetable,' Mr Wang said. -- AFP, Reuters, AP
If your interested in reading realistic novels,i suggest you try works by Humphrey Hawksley(a serving BBC journo)-they are far more credible & disturbing than the feel-good "techno crap" dished out by Tom Clancy & Dale Brown
http://www.hhawksley.co.uk/
About the "Punny" comment-i did'nt mean it bout Taiwan.But for South Korea ( & its percieved interests) ,Taiwan is indeed miniscule w.r.t to China.You'r right about the US wanting to see Taiwan stay independent,but will it fight for it-unfortunately, I don't think so.When was the last time 2 hugecountries of massive economic importance &military capility fight each other-WW2(where only one had nukes)
15 - "The last time someone tried to leave the US was thirteen states of the South. "
You have it backwards.
Red China left Nationalist China. The last traditional government of China is on Taiwan - Nationalist China. The breakaway part is Red China, which broke away from Nationalist China.
26 - "There are two nasty little problems. First, China is now the center of manufacturing for the world - and, should they decide to wage war, they would have a notable advantage over the rest of us. We would have trouble even finding clothing or shoes for our troops if we were in a conflict with them.
The second problem - which connects with the previous thread on oil - is that if their economy stagnates for whatever reason (say, high energy prices or a global recession) the populace might become restive. And they wouldn't be the first country to choose war as a diversion for an unhappy population."
most free-traitors haven't got the ability to grasp such simple concepts. You must approach them on their own level, as 2 year olds.
29- "I think we have a mandate to put a base on Taiwan."
We used to have bases in Taiwan up to the 1970's. I was stationed at Taipei Air Station and there was also CCK (Ching Chang Kang) Air Base .
Perhaps Nixon did away with them, for re-approachment with Red China?
52 - Fee, please stop using 'we' when talking about America, and use what is proper for you: 'we', when talking about Red China.
You are not an American.
If or when China adopts a "democratic system", Taiwan still may not want to reunify.
Even after democracy comes to the mainland, it will take several generations or more before the voting people of the mainland are able to wash the mindset of statism from their brains.
The people of Taiwan don't need such invalids voting in their elections.
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