China marks Army Day with plea, warning to Taiwan

China marks Army Day with plea, warning to Taiwan

BEIJING (Reuters): China's army called on rival Taiwan on Tuesday to march along the "bright path" of reunification with the Communist mainland, but said darkly it would crush any move toward independence for the island.

State media marked the 73rd anniversary of the People's Liberation Army with commentaries urging the 2.5 million member PLA to fight Taiwan separatism and step up indoctrination against Western and "anti-Marxist" ideas.

"The hostile Western forces' desire to subjugate China has not died off and they vigorously pursue Westernization and division policies against us," said the Liberation Army Daily.

"Taiwan independence elements have not changed course or abandoned plotting to split the motherland," the PLA daily said.

While China maintained an official silence on Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian's call on Monday for talks, Defense Minister Chi Haotian was quoted as urging Taiwan to "take the bright path of peaceful reunification".

Underscoring a mainland threat to use force that Taiwan views as a stumbling block to better ties, Chi said in his army day speech that the PLA was "determined to stop all separatist activities that promote Taiwan independence".

Tension between Taiwan and China has intensified since Chen, whose party backs independence, won office in March. China has ignored a series of reconciliation gestures by Chen.

The PLA has mounted a series of war games in waters near Taiwan, which Beijing regards as a breakaway province and has threatened to attack if Taipei declares independence or drags its feet on reunification indefinitely.

"Peace and development is the main world trend, but hegemonism and power politics still exist and neo-colonialism and new interventionism threaten world peace and security," said the PLA daily, using Beijing's shorthand for U.S. policies.

Sharp anti-U.S. rhetoric in China's media, all state controlled, drew fire last month from visiting Defense Secretary William Cohen. He said media depictions of the United States as bent on world domination were "simply untrue".

But the China Daily this week attacked Cohen by name, accusing him and the United States of "arrogance" and "excessive sensitivity" to Chinese criticism of U.S. plans to build a missile defense shield against attacks from hostile states.

The English-language mouthpiece of the Communist Party also said Washington was rewriting the history of the 1950-53 Korean War to justify "other U.S. wars" in Asia and elsewhere.

Ironically, despite the hot Chinese rhetoric, Cohen's visit represented the restoration of military relations frozen over last year's NATO bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade.

Ties will take a step further this week when the Japan-based guided-missile cruiser USS Chancellorsville calls at Qingdao and U.S. Pacific Fleet commander Thomas Fargo visits that eastern port and meets PLA counterparts in Beijing.

August 1 1927 was the date of the first armed Communist uprising against the ruling Nationalists of Chiang Kai-shek.

Mao Zedong formed the Workers and Peasants Red Army a month later and defeated the Nationalists in 1949, driving them into exile on Taiwan, where they ruled until May.

The PLA commentary and the speech of Defense Minister Chi, who sits on the Communist Party's powerful Politburo, illustrated the world's largest army's dual nature as a highly-politicized yet increasingly high-tech fighting force.

Chi highlighted the reduction of the PLA by 500,000 troops since 1997 and its absorption of science and technology, represented by the launch last year of the Shenzhou space ship.

But the Liberation Army Daily urged the PLA to soldier on toward their goals "confident of success with Marxism-Leninism, Mao Zedong thought and Deng Xiaoping theory pointing the way."