CNN - U.S. sends more ships toward Taiwan

U.S. sends more ships toward Taiwan

Maneuvers said to be precautionary

March 11, 1996
Web posted at: 8:55 p.m. EST (0155 GMT)
From Correspondent Steve Hurst
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Stepping up its war of nerves with China, the United States is sending a second aircraft carrier group to keep watch as Beijing launches air and sea maneuvers off Taiwan.
The carrier Independence is in the region already, and the nuclear-powered Nimitz is to arrive next week from the Arabian Sea. U.S. officials called the moves precautionary and said they do not think China intends to attack Taiwan.
On Saturday, China announced plans to carry out eight days of air and sea exercises with live ammunition in the Taiwan Strait starting Tuesday. China held missile tests off Taiwan's coast Friday.
China has acknowledged its actions are intended to discourage an independence movement in Taiwan, which will hold presidential elections March 23.
Officials say real threat unlikely

Secretary of State Christopher warned of grave but unspecified consequences should China take its military exercises too far.
"It's clear to us that the Chinese government understands the magnitude and the impact that any kind of attack would have on China's relations with the rest of the world," he said. "It's clear to us that the Chinese understand what the stakes are and we do not believe that the Chinese intend to take this action."
The lack of a real military threat was echoed by top military brass.
"We do not believe China plans to attack Taiwan. We do not expect a military conflict there," said Secretary of Defense William Perry. (94K AIFF sound or 94K WAV sound)
Taiwan reacts quietly

The people of Taiwan, long accustomed to an ongoing war of words with the mainland, are seeing the exercises as something a little stronger than what they've seen in the past.
While Taiwan is for the most part ignoring the Chinese aggression, soldiers spent Monday preparing for the exercises along the coast, and air and sea lanes have been re-routed during the exercises.
The maneuvers have also sent jitters through Taiwan's economy, prompting many to withdraw their savings or convert their cash holdings into other currencies.
U.S. officials hope their military presence will ease tensions between China and Taiwan.
"We want our actions to help calm the situation," said State Department spokesman Nicholas Burns. "We want the situation to return to a state where these problems that obviously exist can be discussed peacefully and constructively."
Chinese diplomats offer reassurances

The exercises prompted a meeting on Capitol Hill between Chinese diplomats and U.S. senators.
The diplomats said China is sending a message to Taiwan that perceived moves toward independence are unacceptable, said Sen. Bennett Johnston, D-Louisiana, who participated in the meeting. The diplomats also assured the senators that China does not intend to attack Taiwan. (262K AIFF sound or 262K WAV sound)
U.S. concern over Taiwan is a mixture of economics, diplomacy, and history. As missiles are fired and the island comes under intimidation, U.S. officials become ever more aware of the volume of trade with Taipei.
By law Washington is directed to view with "grave concern" any military threats to the increasingly democratic government on Taiwan that has evolved there since the Nationalist Chinese of Chang Kai-shek fled the mainland after loosing to Mao Tse-tung's communists in 1949.
The United States switched diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing in 1979, prompting Congress to pass the Taiwan Relations Act, which promises the United States' will show grave concern over the ongoing Chinese belligerence.
Strategic thinkers in Washington call the current crisis over Taiwan the worst since 1958, when the Chinese were firing on the island of Quemoy nearby. But it's not just the here-and-now bothering policy makers; it's the future as well. China looms large with policy planners as the United States' biggest problem abroad.

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U.S. sends more ships toward Taiwan

Maneuvers said to be precautionary

Officials say real threat unlikely

Taiwan reacts quietly

Chinese diplomats offer reassurances

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