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| Monday, 2 August 2004 |
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China says can "smash" Taiwan independence move BEIJING, Sunday (Reuters) China's army has the ability to crush any attempt by Taiwan to move towards independence, Defence Minister Cao Gangchuan said in a speech reported by state media on Sunday. His remarks followed a blunt warning from President Hu Jintao to U.S. President George W. Bush on Friday against pressing ahead with arms sales to the democratically ruled island. Speaking on Saturday ahead of China's August 1 Army Day, Cao said there could be no peace or stability if Taiwan sought independence. "If the 'Taiwan independence' separatist forces obstinately persist in their course, the Chinese People's Liberation Army has the determination and ability to resolutely smash any 'Taiwan independence' separatist plot," the People's Daily, mouthpiece of the ruling Communist Party, quoted Cao as saying. Hu told Bush by telephone on Friday that Beijing opposed U.S. sales of sophisticated weapons to Taiwan. He told the American leader that the situation across the Taiwan Strait was very sensitive and complicated, and the two sides should "act resolutely" against Taiwan independence. Washington switched diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing in 1979, but U.S. law requires it to defend the island from attack. Taiwan is currently mulling weapons purchases of $18 billion from the United States, including Patriot anti-missile systems, submarines and anti-submarine aircraft.. Cao said China hoped to achieve peaceful reunification with Taiwan, which Beijing has viewed as a renegade province since Chinese Nationalist forces fled there in 1949 at the end of the civil war on the mainland. "But we absolutely will not allow any person, using any means, to split Taiwan from the motherland," Cao said. "There is nothing more important than the territorial integrity of the motherland, and the will of 1.3 billion Chinese people cannot be spurned," he said. Beijing sees Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian's goal of adopting a new constitution by 2008 as a drive towards a formal declaration of independence, and has been preparing for a possible military showdown. Both sides have held war games in recent weeks amid rising tensions. |
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