Pentagon Sees Growing Chinese Threat to Taiwan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - China, boosting military spending and deploying growing numbers of ballistic missiles, is pursuing a strategy for a possible conflict in the Taiwan Strait aimed at bringing Taiwan to its knees before America has a chance to intervene, the Pentagon said on Wednesday.

The Defense Department issued its annual congressionally mandated report on Chinese military power, which emphasized a view that China is hard at work preparing for a potential war over Taiwan, regarded by Beijing as a renegade province requiring reunification.

China is ``exploring coercive strategies'' and embraces a doctrine of pre-emption emphasizing ``surprise, deception and shock'' in the opening phase of such a conflict, the report said.

China is making or buying weapons intended to impede the intervention of U.S. forces in a Taiwan conflict, the report added. It called these ``assassin's mace'' weapons systems.

more…
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/international/international-china-usa-pentagon.html

What the fuck did you think would happen with your nasty little Taiwan trade deal?

They better plan to draft all 19-year olds from poor, working poor, and ex-middle class families if we are going to be making enemies of non-white nations.

Precisely what this is!! We can't even afford to wait a year and a half to rid ourselves of ChimpCo!! IMPEACH! IMPEACH! IMPEACH!

force has been bandied about for so long it's ridiculous.
Anything to take Iraq off the front page. The Russians are coming!,
no, it's Iraq!, no, it's Syria!, no, Iran!, no, this is the
BIG one, it's China! . Duct tape everybody! To the sheeting cave!

The PRC and Taiwan have been engaging in very constructive
dialogue that has been growing through Economic sharing
and mutual understanding. Both sides acknowledge that
eventually there will be one China, and it will be peaceful.
And you can take that to the Bank.

As compared to when??

I seem to remember a somewhat shy little Bush Jr. requesting that the kind Chinese please please please return our downed spyplane --- when they got done learning everything they could about our adv tech on the plane.

This is just another distraction from the real issues.

i'm half chinese, my mother's family came to the united states from taiwan in the 70s. my grandfather was a member of the nationalist air force and fought the communists in the post-WWII period and escaped to taiwan in 1949 along with the rest of the guomindang. he later flew convert missions over china for the CIA, and once even saved the lives of a few operatives (basically they were doing an insertion mission, and he recognized that the signal flare patterns were sligthly corrupted, and decided not to drop...it was later determined that it was a trap).

anyways, i digress...my grandfather and grandmother left a lot of family back in china, which we only recently rediscovered. my grandmother was finally reunited with her brother after 40+ years. and right before he passed away :-(.

one of the largest ironies of all is that one of my second cousins in china is a general in the chinese military, working apparently in the taiwan invasion division. very nice guy, haha played cards one day...i taught him capitalism and he tried to teach me bridge.

What's your parent's take on the growing financial interconnections between Taiwan & China?

Hope you have a chance to visit often. I have friends who own a Chinese restaurant and they're back and forth to China like it was next door.

but please correct me if I am wrong. PRC and Taiwan have made
considerable progress in joint ventures and there is no active
hostility. The fact that you and your relative were reunited is
proof of this.

PRC has been upgrading the military for quite a while, and
there is nothing new in the Pentagon report, which I read.
The submarines that they are talking about from Russia, the
Type 093 Song class, and the Sovremennys are available on
the Internet. Go figure.

the Song class subs, and the Sovremenny destroyers and most
of China's military hardware can be seen on Janes Defence.

Relax. The Pentagon is just rattling sabres in hopes of getting another budget increase. It's just politics as usual. There's no need to worry about a US-China war unless the Stupid White Men (and the token blacks) start making threatening comments in public.

Taiwan is also the number one destination of U.S. Government staff. (Read this on MSNBC and a some others about a year back.) The reason wasn't reported. Covert base? Food? Girls? I can definitely vouch for the latter 2! Nothing better in the world!

One of the most beautiful islands on Earth but the KMT, Guo Ming Dong, the bastards who invaded Taiwan and killed 20,000 plus, totally screwed up Taiwan. I believe they did this with U.S. blessing because this was the largest covert operations center in Asia. You can swim to China on a calm day.

I've lost my post and text on my pc about President Chen. About 5 days ago I posted a bunch of links about Chen and the KMT tried to assassinate him. It was the story that his wife went to Europe, Germany... with Taiwan art. She was recieved well and the trip was successful. Could someone please search/find that and post here? Thanks a bunch!!!!!! I'd like to copy it to my disk.

thanks if you find it in the DU search. about 3-5 days ago.

The RKF of Asia, President Chen Shui Bian (Abian)
http://www.president.gov.tw/
http://www.president.gov.tw/1_president/e_subject-05a9.html
http://www.scanews.com/collester/article3/article3.html



Liu Yan Chun grew up in Taiwan firmly believing that her family would someday go back to mainland China. It took most of her life to realize that there would be no triumphant return, as envisioned by the Nationalists when they retreated (Edit: this word should be INVADED Formosa which they renamed to Taiwan.) to Taiwan after defeat by the Chinese Communists in 1949. It took her longer still to realize that she had no desire to return.
http://www.msnbc.com/news/315530.asp



First lady's European tour seen as diplomatic success
http://www.etaiwannews.com/Taiwan/2003/07/24/1059010376.htm


Assassination Attempt
Chen's wife, you know, was at a time an even more strident crusader than he was for the rights of the Taiwanese and the DPP. In 1985 she was rammed over three times by a truck and was crippled, and the driver was never found despite the fact that there were witnesses. Most Taiwanese believe _ that it was a botched KMT assassination attempt. And Chen has to go home every night and see her sitting in a wheelchair because of it. It's not an easy thing to shake.
http://www.time.com/time/asia/marketqa/2000/03/20/



Accident or assassination attempt?

One account claims the driver, described in press reports at the time as a "simple peasant with a steady job and a fixed residence, Chang Jung-tsai" was driving an "illegally assembled truck" down the narrow street where Mrs. Chen was standing.

Witnesses said Chang purposefully hit Mrs. Chen. They insisted that the driver reportedly exclaimed "Oh, she's not dead yet" before backing up and running over her again to ensure maximum injury if not death.
http://www.chinaonline.com/refer/biographies/secure/chenshuibian.asp



From poverty to power: Chen Shui-bian's rise to the presidency
http://www.chinaonline.com/refer/biographies/secure/chenshuibian.asp


(Ex President) Lee says pro-unification forces to blame for SARS outbreak
http://www.etaiwannews.com/Taiwan/2003/05/19/1053309473.htm


DPP decries Soong's proposal
(Soong and Lien are mainland pigs.)
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2003/06/15/2003055308


KMT (Pig) rebel blasts party's voting order
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2003/06/02/2003053622


Recent poll shows satisfication with government, Chen
http://www.etaiwannews.com/Taiwan/2003/05/17/1053136494.htm



Former hospital chief under fire (SARS spreader)
Wu was the superintendent of Taipei Municipal Jen Ai when President Chen Shui-bian was Taipei mayor, but he was fired over allegations of corruption in an equipment purchase scandal.

When Ma Ying-jeou (KMT Pig) was elected mayor, he invited Wu back and made him the superintendent of Hoping.
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2003/05/13/205762



The ‘New Taiwan Person’
Centuries ago, the island had an aboriginal culture of Malay and Polynesian descent. In the 17th century, the Dutch and Portuguese had colonies here, and the imported Chinese laborers — all men — intermarried with locals, forming the basis of the majority of today’s population. According this version of history, it was only in 1887 that China declared Taiwan a part of its territory in an effort to stem Japanese expansionism, say independence activists. But when that failed, China ceded Taiwan to Japan in perpetuity.
The Japanese held Taiwan for 50 years, until their defeat in World War II. In the years immediately after, Allied Forces backed Chiang Kai-shek’s temporary occupation of Taiwan. But according to pro-independence legal experts, the Nationalists never had a legal basis to stay.
“In 1949, Taiwan did not “split off from China”, but was occupied by the losing side in the Chinese Civil War,” according to a 1999 white paper endorsed by 18 overseas Taiwanese associations.
http://www.msnbc.com/news/316717.asp?cp1=1

This sounds exactly like the red scares we'd get annually right before new defense appropriations bills were presented during the cold war.

What the neocons are really concerned about, imo, is the fact that the Taiwanese are growing ever more closely linked to, and dependent upon, China financially. They are slowly but surely moving out of the US orb. They will never concede to unification without rigid guarantees--much more solid than HK's--but the ultimate joinder is inevitable.

unlike Afghanistan..oops, bad example, how about the lane DLC--China has the means and ways to inflict some serious damage to the US forces who are dumb enough to attack them. It's merely a saber rattling session for even more money--as if nearly $400 BILLION wasn't enough already :eyes:

i read in their monthly lunch room paper an article about Boeing parts being made in china, a new 747 had been delivered and a Boeing executive was there to make a speach.. he said, 'this isnt so much a delivery as a HOME COMMING because so many parts of this aircraft were made in CHINA. read the 'Art of War', by Sun TZU 680 bc. waging war without fighting a battle.. i believe they are waging such a war with us now, we will become so dependant on them till we would collapse without their good will, considering their present genocide of the Tibetan people..i wouldnt bet on it. they could threaten to stop all trade with us if we wouldnt let them have taiwan. and they would take it and anyone else they want.

In case you haven't noticed, the Americans have secured control over the vast majority of the world's energy supplies. If the Chinese attempt economic warfare (which they won't unless the Americans attack first) then the Americans can conduct a distant oil blockade until the Chinese economy collapses.

I heard somewhere (sorry about being so vague) that China will have virtually unlimited electricity once they've completed damming the 3 rivers gorge.
All this while the American Empire is engaged in increasingly futile and cost-ineffective attempts to get a corner on the planet's remaining fossil fuel supplies.

I'm concerned that we're about to turn a major geopolitical corner in the next 10-20 years and we're doing all the wrong things to prepare for it.

and a good portion of the fascist Chinese government would be more than happy to invade Taiwan if they thought that the U.S. might not defend Taiwan.

There's no way in the world China would sacrifice its trade relationship with the US by invading Taiwan.

There's no way in the world the old farts who run China would ever in their wildest dreams think the US would give them a "bye" on a Taiwan takeover.

Sure, they will play the cross-straights build-up game because it's in the budgetary interests of the military of both sides to do so. But it's nothing more than a game, and everybody knows it.

This report from the Pentagon is just old time religion recycled to a gullible US public to support a continuation of Shrubby's 20% annual increases in defense funding.


p.s. Btw, not to quibble, but Taiwan is not a "Democratic Republic." It has not been accorded nationhood status by anyone, and exists in a kind of "limbo" not unlike the Palestine Liberation Organization. In fact, the UN's World Health Organization was prevented by China from formally entering Taiwan during the SARS crisis because technically Taiwan is a province of China, and China has control. We don't have an "ambassador" to Taiwan. Instead we have a private organization headed by an individual who is the de-facto US ambassador. Other countries do the same thing.

in the glorious future, I mean.

We already have. Look at the tags on your clothes, shoes, towels, furniture, film, camera, TV, CD player, etc., etc., etc., etc.

Same goes for CD-R's. The quality is much better than media made in China, Taiwan, or any other country.

can we fight china now? please, please?

Reasons China has for not invading Taiwan:
A) World wide trade connections which are helping to raise the standard of living in China, and which China needs desperately to continue to modernize. If they invade Taiwan, they not only lose their trade with the US, but also the EU, Australia, So. Korea, Japan, Malaysia...

B) An invasion of Taiwan - whatever the US response - will provoke China's neighbors into a NATO style alliance to contain them. That alliance will almost certainly include India, and Japan. It would be extremely costly to confront such an alliance, especially in light of the fact that her world trade, the source of all her wealth, will be constricted.

C) China has no way of knowing for sure what the US response will be, and no way of guaranteeing that she will be successful in her invasion attempt. Face facts - it would be impossible for China to hide the preparations for such an invasion. We would have all kinds of warnings. (well, I admit that doesn't nessecarily mean our intel would be paying any attention.) The absolute worse case scenario for China would be a failed invasion attempt. That would bring on all the negative consequences listed above, without the goal of reunification.

China has only one reason for invading Taiwan, and they have stated this over, and over, and over: the only reason China will abandon it's peaceful reunification policy, and invade Taiwan, is if Taiwan abandons it's one-China policy, and declares itself an independent, second, Chinese state.

What the Pentagon is doing is twofold: On the one hand they are doing what they are supposed to do, and prepare for any eventuality; on the other hand they are trying to scare congress into giving them more money. Fighting terror, and countries like Afghanistan and Iraq, requires people mostly, and small arms; Confronting China requires sophisticated hardware. Hence the effort to "sell" the Chinese "threat".