Posted on 01/13/2005 6:17:37 PM PST by TigerLikesRooster
China floats idea of highway to Taiwan
By Mure Dickie in Beijing and Kathrin Hille in Taipei
Published: January 13 2005 16:57 | Last updated:
January 13 2005 16:57
Mainland China has included Taiwan in its plans for highway construction, with Zhang Chunxian, communications minister, on Thursday even raising the possibility of building the world's longest undersea tunnel to link the highway networks of the Cold War rivals.
Mr Zhang's thoughts of a tunnel under the Taiwan Strait are likely to remain no more than a political pipe dream for the foreseeable future, since Beijing and Taipei are bitter rivals that have not been on speaking terms for years.
But calls for cross-Strait road routes illustrate the determination with which China pushes its claim to sovereignty over Taiwan, which has been politically separate from the mainland since 1949.
Chinese officials fiercely object to any map that does not show Taiwan as part of the mainland's People's Republic state and routinely include the island in everything from railway network information to books on social and economic statistics.
An expressway connecting Beijing and Taipei is part of a 30-year Rmb2,00bn plan unveiled on Thursday by Mr Zhang that he said would link all China's major cities by 85,000km of highway.
Challenged on how China might go about establishing such a route across the Taiwan Strait, Mr Zhang gave few details and admitted any connection would depend on the resumption of direct transport links between the rival sides.
"The (highway) networks might be connected by some form of shipping method," the minister said, mentioning a tunnel or "some other project" as possible future options.
Taiwan's government called the proposal political propaganda. "We hope that China can take a pragmatic attitude to cross-Strait relations," said Chen Chi-mai, cabinet spokesman.
Mr Chen said it was more important to work toward near-term goals such as a direct charter flights between the two sides, that Taipei hopes can be arranged over the Lunar New Year in February and which would allow mainland airlines to fly to Taiwan for the first time.
Taiwanese lack of enthusiasm for an undersea link is understandable, given China's long-standing threat to invade the island if it tries to formalise its de facto independence.
But Mr Zhang is far from the first to toy with the idea: the governor of China's Fujian Province, which neighbours Taiwan, has called a cross-Strait tunnel "the dream of the Chinese people".
In recent years mainland experts have repeatedly offered plans for tunnel and bridge links, with lengths of over 140km and price tags estimated at upward of US$170bn.
"We scientists like to joke that anything is do-able," said Yang Yeong-bin, dean of the College of Engineering at National Taiwan University. "We can drill a hole through the globe and have people hop in here and jump out in London, the question is only if this is reasonable."
Ping!
A tunnel is easily interdicted as an invasion route-- controlled at either end, or blown by engineers. Something else going on here, is my humble guess.
Each accompanied by a waiter.
When people in responsible position float this kind of truly outlandish ideas, you know that their economy is in a bubble. Happened during Japanese bubble of late 80's, and American bubble of late 90's.
That would sure make an invasion of Taiwan a lot more convenient, wouldn't it?
I guess the PLA is worried about their soldiers not being able to swim.
That is why I used /sarc tag.:) It was a joke.
I see. Missed it on the first pass. Things going on. My bad.
This gives a whole new meaning to the term
UNDERMINING CAPITALISM
Yep. This is one of their brighter ideas.:)
I agree, and I think in response to this Chinese vaporware, we float the yuan right up the Yangtze.
This is a very interesting statement. Does this mean China includes Taiwan's output when in releases economic statistics for China as a whole? If yes (and I'm inspired now to do some research), then the economy of Red China is much worse than official reports.
Taiwan is a capitalistic, democratic, economic powerhouse. If the PRC includes Taiwan's independently reported numbers in it's own, then we are getting hoodwinked.
That is the funniest thing i have read all year. Thanks for the laugh. A very intelligent joke.
They are just trying to tie the two together as much as possible. Personally, I think it's a good idea. Ideas have a way of flowing both ways. And once they've sunk a few billion dollars into Taiwan, they won't want to just blow it up.
Brilliant
Yea, what most ignore is that Taiwan and China are huge trade partners. As China becomes more capitalist only the dictatorship of the ideologyless Chinese Communist Party will remain an issue.
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