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MaomingMaster
Board Legend
Joined: Feb 03, 2004
Posts: 11059
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 Posted:
Sep 29, 2004 - 11:02 PM |
 
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| Post subject: Taiwan wants to bomb Pudong! |
Taiwan Threat to Attack Shanghai Angers China
Wed Sep 29, 2004 07:49 AM ET
By Benjamin Kang Lim
BEIJING (Reuters) - China accused Taiwan Premier Yu Shyi-kun on Wednesday of clamoring for war with threats to fire missiles at Shanghai if the People's Liberation Army (PLA) attacks the self-ruled island.
Yu last week defended plans to buy T$610.8 billion (US$18.2 billion) worth of weapons from the United States, saying Taiwan needed a counter-strike capability to hit China's financial center of Shanghai with missiles if the PLA attacked the island's capital, Taipei, and the southern city of Kaohsiung.
"Yu Shyi-kun's remarks are a serious provocation and clamoring for war," Li Weiyi, spokesman for the policymaking Taiwan Affairs Office, told a news conference.
Many security analysts see the Taiwan Strait as the most dangerous flashpoint in Asia. China claims sovereignty over Taiwan and has threatened to attack the democratic island of 23 million people if it formally declares independence.
Beijing and Taipei have been rivals since their split at the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949, but trade, investment and tourism have blossomed since detente in the late 1980s.
"For the Chinese people, there is nothing more important, more sacred than safeguarding national sovereignty and territorial integrity," Li said.
"Any person, any force using whatever methods to attempt to seek Taiwan independence and make enemies with 1.3 billion Chinese people is doomed to failure," he said.
By arming itself, the island was seeking nationhood, he said.
Tensions between China and Taiwan have been simmering since the March re-election of the island's President Chen Shui-bian, who Beijing is convinced will push for statehood during his second four-year term.
TO ARM OR NOT TO ARM
Responding to Li's remarks, Taiwan said it had no intention of provoking China and was seeking weapons from the United States for defensive purposes only.
"Beijing's saber-rattling and missile threat only moves the two sides of the Taiwan Strait farther apart," a spokesman for the Taiwan cabinet, Chen Chi-mai, was quoted as saying by the state-funded Central News Agency.
Taiwan's weapons package is made up of $4.3 billion for Patriot Advanced-Capability 3 missile defenses, $12.3 billion for eight diesel-electric submarines and $1.6 billion for 12 P-3C Orion submarine-hunting aircraft.
"The premier's comments went too far and were unrealistic," said Arthur Ding, a research fellow at the Institute of International Relations under Taiwan's National Chengchi University.
"For one thing, the United States does not want, and will not allow, Taiwan to have counter-strike capabilities."
Washington switched diplomatic recognition to Beijing from Taipei in 1979 but remains the island's biggest arms supplier.
President Chen said last week China had 610 missiles pointed at Taiwan, up from 496 last December, and that China's arsenal was increasing by 50 to 70 missiles every year.
Thousands of prοtesters marched through Taipei on Saturday, urging their government to scrap the weapons package they said would trigger an arms race with China and squeeze social welfare.
In a speech before the prοtest, Yu said: "If you attack me with 100 missiles, I will at least attack you with 50. If you attack Taipei and Kaohsiung, I will attack Shanghai.
"If we have such counter-strike capability today, Taiwan is safe," he said defending the arms deal.
Taiwan's opposition parties, which hold a slim majority in parliament, said the island could not afford the weapons and the money should be spent on social welfare or education.
Taiwan's military says the package will help to maintain a balance of power with China for another 30 years. If it falls through, it says, the PLA will have the capability to overrun the island in the next two to three years.
Blimey!! I'm glad I live in Puxi.... |
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lucar
Board Royalty
Joined: July 05, 2004
Posts: 6265
Status: Offline
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| Posted:
Sep 30, 2004 - 01:09 AM |
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| Quote: |
Yu last week defended plans to buy T$610.8 billion (US$18.2 billion) worth of weapons from the United States, saying Taiwan needed a counter-strike capability to hit China's financial center of Shanghai with missiles if the PLA attacked the island's capital, Taipei, and the southern city of Kaohsiung.
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"capability to hit China's financial center of Shanghai"
Financial center?! Who are they kidding? (Sorry, I’m in Hong Kong at the moment.)
...and so what. Just because the missiles can reach Shanghai doesn't mean they'll target it. The good ol' Peacekeeper ICBM's fly at 24,000KM an hour, skip along the top of the earth's atmosphere and drop up to 10 warheads while on their merry way. They do all of this with an accuracy of 100M and have a range of 13,000KM; and those were made in the early ‘80’s. So, I guess the States also has the capability to hit China's financial center of Shanghai and if you don't think the Russians do too, then you have got another thing coming! |
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Monk
Raver
Joined: May 03, 2004
Posts: 440
Status: Offline
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Sep 30, 2004 - 11:03 AM |
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"So, I guess the States also has the capability to hit China's financial center of Shanghai and if you don't think the Russians do too, then you have got another thing coming!"
But the US and Russia have no reason to do so, whereas Taiwan would, if attacked.
Actually, I have to admit, this article worries me a little bit. But just a little. |
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lucar
Board Royalty
Joined: July 05, 2004
Posts: 6265
Status: Offline
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Oct 01, 2004 - 01:14 AM |
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Gosh. What made me so sassy last night? Was it that those beers?
Are you also worried that North Korea is now a member of the nuclear weapon family? Did they announce that here yet? Waz in the HK papers. |
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