Beijing sends message to Taiwan with missile tests
Beijing sends message to Taiwan with missile tests
By Mark O'Neill
BEIJING (Reuter): China's missile tests off Taiwan have
achieved two goals: to remind the island that Beijing could use
force to recapture it and to show that no country is likely to
step in to help if China attacks, diplomats said on Sunday.
China announced last Thursday a second round of guided missile
tests in less than a month in the East China Sea, 150 km (90
miles) north of Taiwan, but this time expanded them to include
firing of live artillery from Tuesday till Aug. 25.
Diplomats said China's message through its unprecedented
advance announcements of the tests was a warning to Taiwan --
viewed by Beijing as a renegade province ruled by rebel
Nationalist foes -- not to try to raise its world status.
"Taiwan's President Lee Teng-hui did not change his stance
after the first round of tests, so a second round is necessary,"
a Chinese official said privately.
If Lee persists, more tests could follow, perhaps off the east
and south coasts of Taiwan, the official said.
The tests have already caused the Taiwan stock market to
plunge and the local dollar to tumble, and have resulted in
losses to the island's fishing industry while sparking anxiety
among local and foreign investors on the island, he said.
China, and its powerful military, were enraged in June when
Lee made a landmark private visit to the United States. Beijing
is insisting Lee halt his efforts to end the island's diplomatic
isolation.
China has said repeatedly its three-million strong military,
the world's biggest, cannot give up the threat of force to
recapture rival Taiwan if the island abandons its avowed goal of
reunification and declares independence.
"The missile tests have established the principle that, if
Beijing decided to take military action against Taipei, no
country would step in to help the island," one Western diplomat
said.
The marked absence of protest against the tests from countries
around the region is evidence to Beijing that they regard the
dispute as an internal Chinese matter and no concern of theirs,
he said.
China does not yet have the military capability to conquer
Taiwan with ease, but these tests reveal it has achieved the
necessary political and diplomatic conditions for military action
were it deemed necessary, he said.
Chinese officials say that, if the United States would not
intervene militarily to help the Bosnian government, then it was
even less likely to come to the aid of Taiwan should it come
under attack, he said.
Few diplomats expect China to carry through a threat to invade
Taiwan.
The Chinese official said the much more limited step of
conducting missile tests had proved their effectiveness.
"Many people in Taiwan, including business and political
leaders, have foreign passports and property abroad, especially
in the United States," he said. "Instability and bad China-Taiwan
relations are enough to scare investors away."