Posted on 08/07/2004 8:34:03 PM PDT by DeaconBenjamin
China may attack the island in 2006, says business adviser, adding that the Olympics would not deter Beijing
THE heated rhetoric between China and Taiwan could see tensions break out into military action within two years, an analyst has warned.
As it is, some multinational companies, fearing the prospect of war, are firming up their emergency evacuation plans, Mr Michael Boyden, a business adviser to multinationals in Taiwan, told Radio Australia on Friday.
Likening the increasing intensity of cross-strait rhetoric to the 'boiling frog syndrome' - whereby a frog, oblivious to the steady rise in temperature, gets cooked alive - he warned that the situation, if left unchecked, could lead to military strikes.
'The pressure upon the Chinese government from the military establishment to let them sort the situation out, I think, is getting noticeably stronger,' said Mr Boyden, who is the managing director of Taiwan Asia Strategy Consulting.
'And unfortunately, the Taiwan issue has been coming into play in the apparent competition for influence between Jiang Zemin, the former president, and Hu Jintao, the present one.'
Without any serious attempt at some compromise resolution, cross-strait tension would likely deteriorate to 'a point where China has to demonstrate its resolve in some way', he said.
'This would have to be militarily,' said the analyst, who is also a contributor to the Economist Intelligence Unit's bi-weekly publication, Business Asia.
He warned that Beijing's hosting of the 2008 Olympics was no deterrent to an attack. In fact, China may strike before 2008, to avoid jeopardising the Games.
'It's assumed on the Taiwan side that China would not sacrifice the 2008 Olympics. I believe that they are right in a sense that the Olympics have to take place.
'So that means China has got to show its hand either before or after, and 2006 will probably be a good time for them to do it,' he said.
'It would give them a couple of years for everybody to forget about it before the Olympics came around and 2006 is (when) President Chen Shui-bian of Taiwan has said that he intends to have a revised Constitution up and running.'
Similarly, China would not be deterred by Washington's obligation to defend Taipei under the Taiwan Relations Act. And it was unlikely that the US would commit itself 'instinctively'.
'I think what we are going to see is China probing more assertively to test the United States mettle in this respect to see if they really have got the right stuff and really would come to Taiwan's defence,' he said.
'I would seriously doubt it that (the US) would leap to Taiwan's defence instinctively. I think if the situation were bad enough, they might, but it has to be pretty bad.'
I think you're right. If or what's more likely, when China makes its move on Taiwan the United State will make a lot of noise but end the end we won't do anything.
Tens of millions will have to rise up against their government and march on Beijing, irrespective of hundreds of thousands or millions of deaths by tanks, real bullets and aircraft for them to effect real and lasting change there.
It may happen some day...but I am afraid things are going to have to get a whole lot worse before they do.
Why do you even bother opening your mouth?
We are currently engaged in a military exercise called Summer Pulse. We currently are also engaged in Rimpac 2004 and Panamax 2004, and have conducted joint exercises with Thailand, Australia and the Philipenes earlier this summer.
This is in addition to the war in Iraq and Afganistan.
We are putting on a terrific show of strength out there, yet our media hardly reports it.
Here is one analysis however:
However, the cross-Strait strategic balance has been rapidly shifting in China's favor over the past 10 years, and many analysts - including experts at the Pentagon - are starting to believe that the US would have a difficult time intervening on Taiwan's behalf should China decide to attack. Therefore, some elements of the US military want to show China that the US could respond - in a very substantial way.
Official statements from the US Navy confirm that the primary purpose of the drills was to demonstrate the US's ability to get ships where they were needed as quickly as possible.
"We've moved from our standard deployment pattern to the Fleet Response Plan, where we promised the president of the United States that we can put six carriers anywhere in the world within 30 days, and [two more carriers] shortly after that," Vice Admiral Michael McCabe, the commander of the US Navy 3rd Fleet, said in a statement on the US Pacific Command's website. "We've changed the way we maintain, the way we train, the way we equip and the way we deploy. As an example of that, this summer, in what's called Summer Pulse, we will have seven different aircraft carriers with their supporting ships operating in five different theaters."
--Mac William Bishop
Asia Times
Yes. And more than just speculative.
Straits Times is such a vehicle for the ChiCom diatribe of the hour. Now its this sensationalist evacuation nonsense.
Interesting there was no byline. I was pretty sure it'd be Ching Cheong.
I think back in the Clinton days the ChiComs made a huge mistake in threatening LA. Any hope they ever had for taiwan ended on that day.
Kerry elected would be very bad. But our military know and are not without influence.
Here is something else alarming...
America's Eagle is brought down to earth with a bump
By Peter Spiegel
It started as one of the dozens of military exercises the Pentagon conducts with friendly governments each year - operations that are as much about bilateral diplomacy as about testing military capabilities.
...Whatever the reasons, the US Air Force might normally be expected to keep such a defeat under wraps. But in recent weeks, senior officers have begun leaking information about the exercise, freely admitting their technical inferiority. "We may not be as far ahead of the rest of the world as we once thought we were," says General Hal Hornburg, head of the US's air combat command.
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/88ec0f7e-e745-11d8-aff8-00000e2511c8.html
But the exercise carried out in February, involving mock combat between the US and Indian air forces over the skies of Madhya Pradesh in central India, has taken on a life of its own. The reason? The US lost.
Just joking the US will never sell them out.
This is the Stock to short, with that many splits
their paper will be worthless if the island falls.
Note to self:
If Skerry wins Taiwan is back into Communist Chinese hand within 2 years. Skerry doesn't have the right stuff.
ARM TAIWAN WITH NUKES TODAY...
They don't need nuclear weapons. They need targets. They have a big one and that is the Three Gorges Dam. If China can't defend it, then Taiwan has a chance to throw the Chinese juggernaut for a loop. They are already having power shortages and the new GM plant had to stop operations today for lack of power.
I wonder if all the businessmen who would flee to China realize that if Taiwan could disrupt their energy and water, what a world of hurt they would be in. But its just one of the dangers that doing business in an unstable communist country has that is insured by the US taxpayer via OPIC.
I think not just the Three Gorges Dam as a target, but all power stations as well. Once they take out most of them, China will have a nice power crisis that would make Gray Davis' California Power Crisis look like a light bulb short. Certainly would hurt those 'business whores' at least.
And hopefully, no matter what happens, we will stand by Taiwan. Which makes the prospect of a President Comrade Kerry all the more scary.
My experience is that at least some multinationals have staff that do nothing but Emergency Response Planning (ERP), Diaster Recovery Planning (DRP), and Business Continuity Planning (BCP). And having evacuation as an emergency response is not unusual; for instance, in Tokyo, which is just waiting on the next great earthquake, I believe that evacuation procedures are indeed considered and in place for some companies. (I wouldn't be surprised to find that generally such company plans are to evacuate within Japan for Tokyo earthquake scenarios.) Certainly, the civil authorities in Japan encourage planning; take a look at this recent symposium and this one also. (I notice that my drift could make it appear as the city of Tokyo's internal planning is to evacuate within Japan for earthquakes; I believe that it is instead the city's plan to evacuate residents to local aggregation points if evacuation procedures are activated (see page 26 for instance of the Tokyo Earthquake Handbook.) In fact, as Kobe in the Great Hanshin earthquake demonstrated, residents have a critical role in search and rescue, and transportation difficulties in a highly urban and industrialized area in the event of an earthquake are hard to overestimate. (Kobe also, unfortunately, showed many limitations with respect to planning, plan integration, and particularly lack of testing, especially with fire suppression systems -- somewhat of a surprise considering how much experience Japan has with massive fires in the 1923 Kanto earthquake as well as of course the great firebombing of Tokyo in WWII.))
You cannot do planning once an emergency begins; that's when you execute your procedures that you have in place (and usually there are still decisions to make even with the best plans in place.) Planning comes beforehand. Drawing up scenarios is a big part of your planning. If you were a planner in Taiwan right now, I believe that "Incipient War" would be a scenario where you would be well served to make sure your planning and procedures were up to date.
ERP can help alleviate losses in bad times, including human, financial, and reputational losses. Successfully done, it can make the best out of bad situations. Even minimally done, it certainly can help make things better.
Some of the more forward-looking companies are in the early stages of adopting this mind-set right now. It is extremely low key. Taiwan is a small island. Secrets don't keep well here.
We sold our soul to China in 1978 in a swift number of moves (surrendering the Panama Canal to the ChiComs, and derecognising Taiwan).
The derecognising of Taiwan has greatly increased over the years as more nationals are no longer recognising the nation after pressure by the ChiComs.
And in Shanghai and beijing as well as well as all sorts of cities all over the world.
This is a purposely sensationalist report, as usually is the case in the pro-ChiCom media. It's par for the course as far as the propaganda drumbeat meant to lower confidence in Taiwan.
I'm still waiting for the war that was promised if Lee Teng-hui was elected president and the 100% certain attack that would occur if Chen were elected in 2000.
Would young Chinese men die for their country? For all those who are either enjoying the skyrocketing standard of living, or who hope (and expect) to do so, why die to fix something that's not even broken. Certainly Taiwan is no threat to the mainland -- but rather the contrary, the Taiwanese are actively improving life on the mainland.
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Me too, Jeff. I think the question will be answered one way or the other within the next few years. I know you have no trouble believing that, either.
I just can't imagine any leader on the scene having the strength to pull the trigger on China. I think this country has forgotten what real committed war is like, even what it means to really stand for and behind a principle. I think we as a nation, leaders included, have all been seduced into a soft, mushy complacency. And, as portrayed in your books, I think the wake-up call is gonna be a real doozy.
MM
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