Dear Mr. Kofi A. Annan,
Mr. Trent Lott,
Mr. Denny Hastert,
China is not our friend and China is not our enemy.
China has interests, and the United States has interests.
--- by Max Baucus Senator, Montana --- Democrat
Beijing ---
China showcased its latest military hardware with a grandiose parade
to mark 50 years of Communist rule yesterday. In its first military
parade in 15 years, China prominently displayed short-range missiles
capable of dropping nuclear warheads on Taiwan and long-range Dongfeng
DF-31 intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of sending a nuclear
warhead across the Pacific Ocean into the United States.
"The DF-31 missile, with a range of 8,000 kilometers,
was first tested by China in August," a western
military expert who witnessed the parade, said.
A regiment of Dongfeng DF-11 and Dongfeng DF-15 short-range ballistic
missiles, with ranges of 400 kilometers, were also transported before
hundreds of thousands of Chinese marking National Day in Beijing's
Tiananmen Square.
President Jiang Zemin marked the 50th anniversary of the founding
of Communist China on Friday with a tribute to "immortal feats"
of old revolutionaries and a vow to achieve "socialist modernization."
"Practice has fully proved that socialism is the only way
to save and develop China,' said Jiang in a speech at Beijing's
Tiananmen Square which was carried live on state television.
"From the middle of this century to that of the next, the
Chinese people, with hard and enterprising work of 100 years, will
by and large bring about socialist modernization," he vowed.
Jiang, dressed in a grey Mao suit, urged China's 1.23 billion people
to "hold high the great banner of Marxism, Leninism, Mao Zedong
thought and Deng Xiaoping theory and march bravely towards our sublime
objectives."
In a speech that followed a display of modern military might, Jiang
said Beijing's goals included the recovery of Taiwan, estranged
from China since 1949 and drifting further from the Communist mainland
since it democratized in the late 1980s.
"We will continue to pursue the policy of 'peaceful
reunification and one country, two systems' and ultimately accomplish
the national reunification of Taiwan with the mainland following
the successful return of Hong Kong and Macao," he said.
On foreign policy, Jiang said China "will, as always, side
with the vast number of developing countries and the people throughout
the world, oppose hegemonism, promote global multipolarity, (and)
push for the establishment of a just and equitable new international
political and economic order."
Speaking to foreign businessmen Thursday (Sept. 30,
1999), Premier Zhu warned that armed conflict is inevitable if Washington
doesn't back away from its vow to defend Taiwan. "Sooner or
later it will lead to an armed resolution of the question, because
the Chinese people will become impatient," he said.
As the Chinese mainland yesterday marked a half century of rule
under the Communist Party, Beijing's leadership has no time for
complacency.
In its 50th anniversary festivities, Beijing took credit
for the many advances since 1978. That is around the time economic
reforms were launched. Chinese communist, which has lost its credibility,
was at historical dead end. The communist regime's repetitive failures
led to the death of more than 30 million in the Great Leap Forward
and a ruined generation in the Cultural Revolution. Only since Deng
Xiaoping began to trade communism for capitalism in the 1980s has
China begun to climb out of its disastrous situation. Home to a
fifth of some of the poorest people in the world, the present-day
China under President Jiang Zemin is still better understood as
a hypothetical power than as an authentic one.
With its economic development, China increasingly sees itself as
an Asian power on a par with the United States. Armed with ambitions
to challenge the United States to become the world leader, China
is nonetheless a second-rate military power. It accounts for only
4.5 percent of global defense spending while the United States accounts
for more than a third. China's military simply has no
means to take the disputed Senkaku Islands from Japan, whose Self-Defense
Forces are well-armed and well-trained.
China, however, is a serious threat to Taiwan. Although the People's
Liberation Navy is not capable of providing adequate amphibious
support to invade the island, China's acquisition of advanced fighters
and deployment of formidable diesel-electric submarines and next-generation
warships will exacerbate the military imbalance across the Taiwan
Strait. Armed with a massive inventory of missiles, China's Second
Artillery Forces can also bring devastation to the moral and willingness
of the Taiwanese to defend their homeland.
In sharp contrast to Beijing's showing off its military muscle
aimed at invading Taiwan in its 50th anniversary this week, Taiwan
is suffering from the largest earthquake in the past 100 years.
Over the years, Taiwan has generously provided assistance valued
at more than US$50 million to China for disaster relief. When the
tables were turned, China brazenly exploited Taiwan's natural catastrophe
in the United Nations. China interfered with and restrained the
U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs' efforts
to send a disaster assessment team to Taiwan. While politicizing
earthquake aid, China's Minister of Foreign Affairs Tang Jiaxuen
shamelessly thanked the international community for providing assistance
to the "closely linked flesh and blood"
in Taiwan. Such disgraceful politics-over-humanitarian behavior
on Beijing's part prove only that Taiwan is better off not unified
with the authoritarian China.
China, although in history a great country, matters far less than
many people think, either economically or military. The country's
future is overlaid with many uncertainties. Consequently, the People's
Republic of China's 50th anniversary was really nothing to celebrate.
The true time for celebration will not come until China
completes thorough political reforms, bestows its long-oppressed
people with liberty, and coexists peacefully with its neighbors.
The model under which Hong Kong --- and soon Macau --- was returned
to the communist rule is unacceptable to the Taiwan people as shown
in repeated polls. It is only for the benefit of the
people that we seek peaceful development under a stable cross-strait
relationship and strive for reunification under democracy and prosperity.
