ad info




CNN.com
 MAIN PAGE
 WORLD
   africa
   americas
   asianow
   europe
   middle east
 U.S.
 LOCAL
 POLITICS
 WEATHER
 BUSINESS
 SPORTS
 TECHNOLOGY
 NATURE
 ENTERTAINMENT
 BOOKS
 TRAVEL
 FOOD
 HEALTH
 STYLE
 IN-DEPTH

 custom news
 Headline News brief
 daily almanac
 CNN networks
 CNN programs
 on-air transcripts
 news quiz

  CNN WEB SITES:
CNN Websites
 TIME INC. SITES:
 MORE SERVICES:
 video on demand
 video archive
 audio on demand
 news email services
 free email accounts
 desktop headlines
 pointcast

 DISCUSSION:
 message boards
 chat
 feedback

 SITE GUIDES:
 help
 contents
 search

 FASTER ACCESS:
 europe
 japan

 WEB SERVICES:

 

World - Middle East

Visions of China

Report: China holding naval exercises in Taiwan strait

graphic


icon  MESSAGE BOARD:
China Tomorrow

Taiwanese statehood?

 

July 28, 1999
Web posted at: 2:49 a.m. EDT (0649 GMT)

BEIJING (Reuters) -- China's navy is conducting mobilization exercises in waters across from Taiwan, the semi-official China News Service said in a report seen on Wednesday.

The drills, attended by senior military officials, were the second naval maneuvers reported by the domestic media since Taipei enraged Beijing earlier this month when it scrapped its "one-China" policy which has kept the peace between the two rivals for decades.

The maneuvers, organized by the navy, the general staff's mobilization department and the State Development Planning Commission, were aimed at testing military readiness along China's coast, the report said.

But Taiwan's military had noticed no such activity in the 160-km (100-mile) strait dividing the two sides, a Taiwan defense ministry official told Reuters.

'Picking up stones to smash his feet'

China views Taiwan as a wayward province that must be reunited with the mainland and reserves the right to take the island by force if it declares independence.

Taiwan President Lee Teng-hui said on July 9 Taipei's "one China" policy had been abandoned in favor of "special state-to-state" relations under which they would treat each other as equals during talks, but Beijing blasted the move as a "dangerous step down the road of separatism."

The official Xinhua news agency reported on Wednesday that the chief of the People's Liberation Army's (PLA) general staff had warned President Lee to immediately stop his separatist activities and said the president was "picking up stones to smash his feet."

"The PLA has the determination and strength to defend the state's sovereignty and territorial integrity," Fu Quanyou was quoted as telling a visiting Malaysian military official.

The navy's most modern training vessel, the Shichang, arrived in the southern city of Xiamen on Sunday for exercises in the Taiwan strait, the China News Service said in the report, on its Web site at www.chinanews.com.cn.

Observers included top military officials in charge of mobilization, such as PLA major general Jiang Shikun, it said.

Officials in Xiamen declined to comment on the report.

Unofficial talks could be canceled

Hong Kong's China-backed Wen Wei Po newspaper quoted political sources on Wednesday as saying that unofficial talks scheduled between China and Taiwan in autumn would be canceled unless the island's government completely withdrew its new policy.

Under Lee's formula, any move by China to take Taiwan by military force would be seen as an invasion from a foreign power and provide an excuse for foreign intervention, the newspaper quoted sources as saying.

Last week, the China Youth Daily said China's North Sea Fleet had conducted maneuvers with submarines, surface ships and guided missiles in the Yellow Sea, between the country's eastern coast and the Korean peninsula.

The newspaper said the Yellow Sea drills were part of preparations for Army Day on August 1, but China has used military exercises to warn Taiwan against moving towards independence before.

In 1996, the United States sent two aircraft carrier battle groups to waters near Taiwan as China conducted menacing war games ahead of the island's first direct presidential elections.



RELATED STORIES:
War of words escalates between China and Taiwan
July 26, 1999
Beijing warns U.S. to stay out of China-Taiwan tensions
July 25, 1999
ASEAN leaders take up economic recovery, political tensions
July 23, 1999
Clinton urges calm as Taiwan tempers stance toward China
July 21, 1999

RELATED SITES:
Taiwan Government Information Office
Chinese Embassy in Washington DC
Note: Pages will open in a new browser window
External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.

 LATEST HEADLINES:
SEARCH CNN.com
Enter keyword(s)   go    help

Back to the top   © 2001 Cable News Network. All Rights Reserved.
Terms under which this service is provided to you.
Read our privacy guidelines.