China tests 'D-Day invasion' of Taiwan
From Oliver August in Beijing
CHINESE soldiers will for the first time rehearse a D-Day-style invasion of Taiwan on a densely populated island off the mainland coast this month.
The 18,000-man mock landing on the beaches of Dongshan Island is to involve amphibious assault craft, Russian-built fighter jets and submarines operating in the Taiwan Strait to ward off a simulated counter-attack by the US Seventh Fleet.
Reports of the exercise were greeted with thousands of supportive messages yesterday in mainland internet chatrooms, a sign of the immense popularity of Beijing's policy of striving for eventual control of Taiwan.
Dongshan Island is 150 miles from the southern tip of Taiwan and has the same geography and local dialect. The island is inhabited by one million people, compared with 22 million on Taiwan, which has a significantly larger landmass.
The mock invasion will be the first exercise aimed at â Å“taking control of the Taiwan Straitâ ?, according to a Shanghai newspaper. â Å“Sukhoi SU27 fighter jets will be outfitted with guided air-to-surface missiles, to ensure that tank brigades can make a landing and engage in warfare,â ? the New Express Daily reported.
The exercise comes at a time of high tension in the Taiwan Strait after the re-election of President Chen Shuibian of Taiwan, who is intensely disliked by Beijing for his pro-independence sentiments.
David Shambaugh, an expert on the Chinese military at George Washington University in Washington, said: â Å“I've been coming to China every year for the last 25 years and I have never sensed a higher level of anxiety over the Taiwan issue than at the present time.â ?
Regional security concerns will top the agenda when Condoleezza Rice, the US National Security Adviser, visits Beijing this week between trips to Tokyo and Seoul. She will have two days of talks with China's leaders â †the first high-level consultation since a North Korea summit in Beijing last month and a visit to the Pentagon by Taiwanese arms buyers.
Although Dr Rice will meet senior Chinese leaders in Beijing, she is unlikely to be told exactly who until shortly before the meeting. The Communist Party leadership has a policy of deciding at the last minute who foreign visitors will meet in order to increase their leverage. China is concerned that Mr Chen is moving further towards formal independence, a step that would be most likely to trigger a Chinese military response, possibly a naval blockade.
Few analysts believe that the People's Liberation Army (PLA) is capable of getting a full-scale armada across the Taiwan Strait.
Nevertheless, thanks to billion-dollar arms purchases from Russia and exercises involving the Chinese Army, Navy and Air Force, Beijing's chances of retaking the island have risen significantly. Kenneth Lieberthal, a former White House adviser on China, said that Taiwan was wrong when it assumed that Beijing was â Å“all bluff when it talks about the use of forceâ ?.
The present tensions have fuelled a cross-strait arms race, with Washington promising Taipei billions of dollars of high-tech weapons to scare off China. Pentagon planners fear that Taiwan's deteriorating defences and its increasingly aggressive pro-independence posture could eventually drag the United States into conflict with China.
A large number of messages expressing support for an attack on Taiwan were posted on the internet after mention of the Dongshan Island exercise in the state media.
One said: â Å“Taking back Taiwan by force is only a matter of time. We don't have to be afraid of the US. China is never afraid of a paper tiger.â ?
Another wrote: â Å“It seems there is a common understanding among people in every chatroom: we should recapture Taiwan by force.â ? A commentator on the state news agency website wrote: â Å“China should put aside economic issues and first of all solve the Taiwan issue at all costs.â ?
A member of the Communist Party said: â Å“I work for a bank and I offer the following suggestion to our Government over the issue of Taiwan: there is no middle line between the mainland and Taiwan. The exercise should clearly show this to the world.â ?
Sabre rattling
1996 Missile tests and naval and air drills before Taiwan election.
1997 Ten days of exercises involving more than 100 warships.
1999 Landing exercises after talks between the two countries broke down.
2000 War games with 110,000 troops.
2001 Simulated assaults on outlying islands and engagement with US aircraft carrier.
2002 Small-scale drill across Taiwan Strait.
army then u would live here, correct? so in turn, in a few years you could become a canadian citizen and then join - might be very difficult but there is a chance, lots of immigrants join - so i have been witness too.
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