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Jolie Rouge
03-08-2005, 01:13 PM
China unveiled a law Tuesday authorizing an attack if Taiwan moves toward formal independence, increasing pressure on the self-ruled island.
China Steps Up Pressure on Taiwan
By ELAINE KURTENBACH

BEIJING (AP) - China unveiled a law Tuesday authorizing an attack if Taiwan moves toward formal independence, increasing pressure on the self-ruled island while warning other countries not to interfere. Taiwan denounced the legislation as a ``blank check to invade'' and announced war games aimed at repelling an attack.

The proposed anti-secession law, read out for the first time before the ceremonial National People's Congress, doesn't say what specific actions might invite a Chinese attack. ``If possibilities for a peaceful reunification should be completely exhausted, the state shall employ nonpeaceful means and other necessary measures to protect China's sovereignty and territorial integrity,'' Wang Zhaoguo, deputy chairman of the NPC's Standing Committee, told the nearly 3,000 legislators gathered in the Great Hall of the People.

Beijing claims Taiwan, split from China since 1949, as part of its territory. The communist mainland repeatedly has threatened to invade if Taiwan tries to make its independence permanent, and new law doesn't impose any new conditions or make new threats. But it lays out for the first time legal requirements for military action.


Taiwan's leaders warned that the move could backfire by angering the island's voting public. Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council, which handles the island's China policy, said the law gives China's military ``a blank check to invade Taiwan'' and ``exposed the Chinese communists' attempt to use force to annex Taiwan and to be a regional power.''


``Our government lodges strong protest against the vicious attempt and brutal means ... to block Taiwanese from making their free choice,'' the council said in a statement.


Taiwanese Defense Ministry spokesman Liu Chih-chien said large-scale military exercises would be held from mid-April to August to build confidence in the island's military preparedness. Troops will practice knocking down Chinese missiles and fighting communist commandos.


Mainland lawmakers immediately expressed support for the measure, which is sure to be approved when they vote March 14. The NPC routinely approves all legislation already decided by Communist Party leaders.


``We must join hands and absolutely not allow Taiwan to separate from China,'' said Chang Houchun, a businessman and NPC member from southern China's Guangdong province.


Chinese officials say the law was prompted in part by Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian's plans for a referendum on a new constitution for the island that Beijing worries might include a declaration of independence.


Chen says the vote would be aimed at building a better political system, not at formalizing Taiwan's de facto independence.


The proposed law says Beijing regards Taiwan's future as an internal Chinese matter, rejecting ``any interference by outside forces.''


``Every sovereign state has the right to use necessary means to defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity,'' said Wang.


The law says China's Cabinet and the government's Central Military Commission ``are authorized to decide on and execute nonpeaceful means and nonpeaceful measures.''


The United States has appealed to both sides to settle Taiwan's status peacefully, with no unilateral changes by either side. Washington is Taiwan's main arms supplier and could be drawn into any conflict.


In Taipei, Chen Chin-jun, a legislative leader of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party, said the island wants peace and trade with China.


However, he said, ``We will not accept any resolution to allow the Chinese Communists to unilaterally decide Taiwan's future, and it will only antagonize the Taiwanese.''


China and Taiwan have no official ties and most direct travel and shipping between the two sides is banned. But Taiwanese companies have invested more than $100 billion in the mainland and the two sides carry on thriving indirect trade.


Until recently, China's military was thought to be incapable of carrying out an invasion across the 100-mile-wide Taiwan Strait. But Beijing has spent billions of dollars buying Russian-made submarines, destroyers and other high-tech weapons to extend the reach of the 2.5 million-member People's Liberation Army.


Chinese leaders have appealed in recent months for Taiwan to return to talks on unification. But they insist that Taiwanese leaders first declare that the two sides are ``one China'' - a condition that Chen has rejected.


In an apparent attempt to calm Taiwanese public anxiety, Wang said the law promises that Chinese military forces would try to avoid harming Taiwenese civilians. He said the rights of Taiwanese on China's mainland also would be protected.



03/08/05 04:51

http://cnn.netscape.cnn.com/news/story.jsp?idq=/ff/story/0001%2F20050308%2F0452633758.htm&photoid=20050308XED102&ewp=ewp_news_0305china_taiwan&floc=NW_1-T



Difficult Neighbors: Key Factors Behind Taiwan's Troubles With China [BBC]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/asia_pac/04/taiwan_flashpoint/html/introduction.stm

Jolie Rouge
03-14-2005, 09:10 PM
U.S. Warns China on Anti-Secession Law Against Taiwan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Bush administration on Monday criticized China's anti-secession law authorizing the use of force against Taiwan, calling its passage "unfortunate" and a potential setback to cross-strait relations.

White House spokesman Scott McClellan said the United States opposed "any attempts to determine the future of Taiwan by anything other than peaceful means."

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice plans to raise the issue during her visit to China on March 20-21. "Our view remains that they need to move in the direction of peaceful dialogue," said State Department spokesman Richard Boucher. "She will encourage them to do that and look forward to hearing from them as to how they might be willing to move in that direction."


Passage of the anti-secession law by China's parliament could harden U.S. opposition to plans by the European Union to lift its ban on arms sales to China, officials and congressional aides said. "Certainly the prospect that China would use non-peaceful means to try to resolve differences with Taiwan should be disturbing...to the Europeans as it is to us," Boucher said. "I suppose this is one element of that that they should look at."


President Bush has voiced concerns that ending the embargo could skew the military balance between China and Taiwan, and some U.S. lawmakers have threatened to curtail defense cooperation with Europe if it proceeds.


A high-level delegation of European Union officials is visiting Washington this week to try to ease U.S. concerns.


They point to a revised European code, due to be agreed on in coming weeks, that requires EU states to look hard at the human rights record of the importing country before granting licenses, as well as its history of passing on imported equipment to third countries.


The Europeans imposed the embargo after China's bloody crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in Tiananmen Square in 1989.


The Taiwan Relations Act mandates that Washington supply Beijing's arch-rival with defensive weapons. "We view the adoption of the anti-secession law as unfortunate," McClellan told reporters. "It does not serve the purpose of peace and security in the Taiwan strait. We believe it runs counter to recent progress in cross-strait relations."


Passage of the bill by China's parliament also drew warnings from the self-ruled island that Beijing would have to pay a price.

The White House cautioned Taiwan as well. "We don't believe anyone should be taking unilateral steps, or make unilateral changes that increases tensions," McClellan said, adding, "We do not support Taiwan independence."


03/14/05 16:34

http://channels.netscape.com/ns/news/story.jsp?idq=/ff/story/0002/20050314/1635200561.htm&photoid=20050314TPE01D2&ewp=ewp_news_0305china_taiwan

YNKYH8R
03-15-2005, 11:26 AM
You know what? That is a tough call. If memory serves; this is not the first time the China has head to 'deal' with Tiawan...

http://www.msnbc.com/comics/editorial/jd050311.gif

nanajoanie
03-17-2005, 12:31 PM
We need to keep Tiawan free. China refuses to let them be. Tiawan is a stepping stone away from China. I have some acquaintances from Tiawan and Korea and they are all against China taking over anything. But something that sticks in the back of my mind is George Orwell 1984 and Animal Farm. It becomes Eureasia and Eastasia. The final big war/explosion will be China/Russia as we knew it/USA-Europe. Thanks my thoughts on this.

Jolie Rouge
03-17-2005, 09:54 PM
China Tells EU It Wants Peace With Taiwan
By PAUL AMES

LUXEMBOURG (AP) - Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing assured the European Union on Thursday that his country wants a peaceful end to its standoff with Taiwan, despite a new law authorizing force if the island seeks formal independence.

He also said Beijing was committed to getting North Korea back to multiparty negotiations aimed at dissuading Pyongyang from pursuing its nuclear arms ambitions. ``Our position is that the Korean peninsula should be free of nuclear weapons,'' Li told a news conference after talks with Luxembourg's foreign minister, Jean Asselborn, whose country holds the EU presidency.

Li said China ``will continue its constructive role'' in bringing the Pyongyang government back to six-party talks involving Japan, the United States, China, Russia, South Korea and North Korea.

For his part, Asselborn said he would try to get all 25 EU nations to agree to lift the bloc's 15-year-old arms embargo on China by the end of June. ``We will try, with all our energy and engagement, to make it possible,'' he said. But Asselborn cautioned there were still ``issues to work out regarding the code of conduct'' governing European arm sales.


France and Germany, which are leading calls to end the ban, say Europe will maintain tight controls on sales of high-tech weapons to China. They say the embargo is outdated and should be removed to enable the EU to engage more with the emerging economic superpower.


They also are hopeful China will see lifting the embargo as a goodwill gesture that will open its rapidly expanding markets to sales of European goods, such as airliners or trains. But the United States has appealed to Europe not to end the ban on China - instituted following the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown on pro-democracy activists - fearing European arms sales could spark an Asian arms race and threaten Taiwan.


Beijing sought to allay concerns about Taiwan. ``China will work all out for a peaceful solution to the Taiwan question and for the peaceful reunification of our motherland,'' Li said Thursday after meeting with senior officials at the EU executive commission in Brussels, Belgium. ``There is no reason at all for anybody, for any member of the international community, to be at all concerned,'' Li said.


China's parliament adopted the new law authorizing force against Taiwan on Monday. EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner said she expressed the EU's worries in talks with Li. ``Any cross-straits problem should be resolved by peaceful means,'' she said.


Li also discussed mounting European concerns over growing Chinese textile exports following the expiration of a global quota system on Jan. 1. Ferrero-Waldner said the EU hoped to avoid imposing new restrictions, despite mounting calls from domestic textile producers. ``The European Union wants to avoid the use of safeguards on textile imports from China, and we are counting on the cooperation of China on this issue,'' she said.


China has imposed a 1.3 percent tax on textile exports in what it says is an effort to prevent a surge in sales, and is considering other measures, including minimum prices and limiting numbers of new suppliers.


Li said China was looking for arrangements that satisfy both sides.



03/17/05 19:13


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mesue
03-18-2005, 02:01 AM
Well here is the reason you don't want to owe a nation like China a big load of money and we do, we owe them a ton of money so much in fact that they can affect our own economy and do, currently they are responsible for our low interest rates thus increasing the housing boom so we can continue to buy their products. Bush will probably make a gesture of protest but it will be nothing more than that and most world leaders will know its a joke and China will also.

Jolie Rouge
10-19-2009, 08:51 PM
miss ya' Sue :cry