G'day all - and now another exciting episode of the shadow boxing at your friendly 3 ring circus
[plucked from Yahoo!]
Thursday July 15, 2:00 pm Eastern Time
U.S. warns China on Taiwan
WASHINGTON, July 15 (Reuters) - The United States, drawing its own line in the latest crisis in East Asia, warned China on Thursday it would not tolerate a violent solution to the future of Taiwan.
``We would determine and consider any effort to determine the future of Taiwan by other than peaceful means as a threat to the peace and security of the Western Pacific area and of grave concern to the United States. That's about as strong a statement as one can make,' State Department spokesman James Rubin said.
``We obviously -- and let me repeat if it's not obvious -- strongly oppose any attempt to resolve this problem in any other way other than through peaceful means and through dialogue,' Rubin told a news briefing.
``And as far as what response we would make, that is as far as we have ever gone, and I don't intend to change that,' he added.
Rubin spoke after China dusted off its threat to retake Taiwan by force if it moved toward independence and raised the ante by announcing that it had developed the technology to make neutron bombs.
The State Department and private analysts said the fact that Beijing had this capability has been known for some time. Although several analysts saw Beijing's public statements about the neutron bomb in the midst of the current controversy as a pointed message to Taipei, Rubin said he saw no connection. |
