China Threatens Invasion of Taiwan
United Press International
February 21, 2000
BEIJING ? China has issued a new threat to Taiwan: Talk reunification or face invasion.
In advance of Taiwanese presidential elections March 18, China's State Council issued a policy "white paper" that said China would use "drastic measures," including a military invasion, if Taiwan continued to stray from discussion about rejoining the mainland.
One of the front-runners in the election, Chen Shui-ban, represents the opposition Democratic Progressive Party, and his possible victory is apparently making Beijing nervous. He openly advocates independence.
Analysts in Beijing see this as a heavy-handed ploy in the war of words between China and Taiwan. Previously, China threatened to invade only if Taiwan declared itself a separate state.
Taiwan's democratically elected government says it should not consider reunifying with the mainland unless Beijing turns to democracy.
Beijing has long seen Taiwan as a renegade island that one day will come under its rule. Taiwan broke away from the mainland in 1949, when the ruling Nationalists fled the conquering Communists.
Hong Kong and Macao are back in Beijing's grasp, though each has a separate government. Taiwan is the last to come into the fold.
In the white paper, China now maintains that the Nationalists were really just local authorities on Chinese soil. Diplomats here say they were concerned about the March 18 presidential elections in Taiwan and said they wondered what tactics China would use in order to exert influence.
"No one knew what China would say, but we knew the white paper was coming," said one diplomat. "I think most people feared another missile launch."
During the previous election in 1996, China launched missiles across the Taiwan Strait, causing international concern about the stability of the region. The United States sent two aircraft carriers in a show of support to Taipei. U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott was in Beijing last week with top White House officials for talks with the Chinese leadership. On the agenda was the subject of Taiwan. Talbott, upon departing after two days of talks, said they had been intense.
The United States is in the precarious diplomatic position of having close commercial and military ties with Taiwan and is sometimes viewed internationally as its protector. Meanwhile, Washington and Beijing have been engaged in a hot-and-cold relationship, each wanting a foothold in the other's economic marketplace. Last November, the United States signed a landmark trade deal with Beijing that already has eased China's path into the World Trade Organization.
Earlier this month, the U.S. Congress passed legislation called the Taiwan Security Enhancement Act, which called for closer military ties between Washington and Taipei. Beijing reacted strongly and demanded the bill be overturned.
China regards this new bill as Washington's enabling the island to establish independence. Relations between the two countries hit a new low when NATO bombed the Chinese embassy in Yugoslavia last May. China and the United States have agreed upon reparations for damages in the bombing and the destruction of the U.S. Embassy and official residence in Beijing during the anti-NATO and anti-American riots that followed in (cont)
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