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."