AFP , BEIJING Monday, Jul 12, 2004,Page 3 China is getting edgy over a new US military strategy aimed at projecting force around the globe and National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice's visit last week was an attempt to calm Beijing down, analysts said.
Rice's trip on Thursday and Friday came as the US military was rolling out an unprecedented deployment of naval power to the Pacific Ocean in what is officially being termed a military exercise, they said.
"It is an unprecedented show of force and a return to gunboat diplomacy," said Andrew Tam, a security expert at the Institute of Defense and Strategic Studies in Singapore.
"The US is sending the message that any threat to peace and stability in Northeast Asia will not be tolerated.
"It is a signal to North Korea, but particularly to the Chinese. The carrier groups are sent as an affirmation of the US support of the status quo in the Taiwan Strait and the current status of Taiwan," Tam said.
The US Navy announced last month that three aircraft carrier battle groups were already in the Pacific and four others were being deployed for the war games called "Summer Pulse 2004."
According to US naval Web sites, the deployment is a part of the Fleet Response Plan, which is aimed at increasing force preparedness and establishing the ability to immediately provide significant combat power in a crisis anywhere in the world.
It comes with Beijing rattling sabers over Taiwan since President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) was inaugurated for his second term on May 20, and with China due this month to start massive amphibious military exercises on Chinese islands in the Taiwan Strait.
During her visit, Rice reiterated Washington's respect for Beijing's "one China" policy and its opposition to Taiwan's independence, while urging China to push forward efforts at resolving the simmering issue of North Korea's nuclear weapons program.
In 1996, the US sent two aircraft carrier groups to the Taiwan Strait after China tested ballistic missiles by lobbing them off shore from Taiwan's major ports. That deployment was its biggest to the region since the Vietnam War.
In the past week, the Chinese press has slammed the US military exercises, with the leading People's Daily outlining a perceived US plan to build up a line of defense in the Western Pacific that starts with Japan and extends down China's coastline through Taiwan and the Philippines.
"The US global strategic review not only again fully exposes a wild ambition for world domination, but at the same time also shows its intention to take unilateral actions in every part of the world," the paper said.
China and Iran have bought brand-new, top-of-the-line, Kilo-class diesel subs from Russia, and other nations also have been buying submarines. #msg-3333316
The ‘Onyx’ missile means that Russia or China can sink American aircraft carriers at will without ever having to escalate to nuclear warfare, which gives both countries a massive strategic advantage. #msg-3429768
Obviously the United States and Taiwan are cognizant of the fact that China can sink American aircraft carriers at will or the United States would not been mulling over reopening a production line to build subs for Taiwan. #msg-3434791 #msg-3471674
The Su-30 Fighters that China is using have scored better in some instances than U.S. planes.
New tactics, better Russian fighters like the Su-30, and a new generation of surface-to-air missiles mean that U.S. dominance could be ending, said Loren Thompson, who follows military issues for the Lexington Institute, a Washington think tank. #msg-3411126
-Am
Three purposes of military maneuver at Dongshan Island
UPDATED: 15:43, July 19, 2004
"Focus on the military maneuver at Dongshan Island", published on China Youth Daily on July 3, first revealed some information about the military maneuver at Dongshan Island, and drew extensive attentions from readers. Outlook Weekly reported this week that, the large-scale military maneuver by the PLA certainly has its purposes just like the military maneuvers in all other countries and regions, military experts analyzed.
The main purpose of holding "Military Maneuver at Dongshan Island" for eight consecutive years, according to the analyses of military experts, lies first of all in improving the army's joint combat capabilities under modernized conditions, and examining the achievements in the training of the PLA. Secondly, it is to declare to the "Taiwan Independence" elements, should they remain impenitent and dare to disintegrate the country someday, the PLA is capable and confident in settling the Taiwan Issue by military forces. And thirdly it is to declare to the whole world that it is China's internal affairs to settle the Taiwan issue and will tolerate no foreign country to poke its nose into the matter.
Locating in the Taiwan Straits, the Dongshan Island is 98 nautical miles away from the Penghu Islands to the east, and 166 nautical miles away from Kaohsiung, occupying a very important strategic position. At the beginning of the founding of New China, the PLA has ever defeated many a harassment of the Kuomintang (KMT) remnant forces.
As the PLA has carried out large-scale military drills here for many times, "Dongshan Island Maneuver" has caught the attention from more and more people and also from the world, especially the "attention" from some countries.
As reported, foreign media used consciously or unconsciously many "most" in the reports on "Dongshan Island Maneuver"--the largest joint beach landing drill of the three services (army, navy and airforce) ever since the founding of PLA; the maneuver using the most advanced weaponry and with highest scientific and technological content; the maneuver spanning over the greatest region; a maneuver with most CPC officers; the maneuver of the highest level; the maneuver with the most complete variety of military arms and the most numerous people; a huge maneuver receiving most attention from the high-rankings of the Central Military Commission; very close to Taiwan, and Dongshan Island is most similar to Taiwan in geographical conditions, etc..
According to a report in the paper on military issues, the PLA participating the "Dongshan Island Maneuver" are navy, army, airforce and the 2nd artillery troops; maneuver exercises include tactics and strategic missile attack, blockade and counter blockade, assault landing and counter-landing, air raid and anti-air raid, airborne, electronic interference and anti-interference, satellite reconnaissance and tracking, recruit privately owned boats and trans-regional deployment as well as attack at aircraft carrier, stealth fighter, cruise missile, helicopter and counter pinpoint strike, counter reconnaissance and monitoring, "enclose, fight, attack and aid", directional target seizure and battlefield mopping-up and consolidation etc..
New weaponry used in"Dongshan Island Maneuver" include: Su-27 and Su-30 Fighters, "Sovremenny"-class Destroyer, "Kilo"-class Submarine, homemade new nuclear attack submarine, Fighter-8 II, Flying Leopard Bomber, supersonic anti-ship missiles, various tactic missiles and cruise missiles etc..
This year's "Dongshan Island Maneuver" will last for one week with over 18,000 to take part in. It is a multi-arms joint combat drill with the aim of seizing the air dominance over Taiwan. The airforce will play the major role, the army missile troops and the 2nd artillery troops will both participate in the maneuver.
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