China refuses to work with Taiwan on Internet crime

CNA , TAIPEI

Despite Taiwan's hope that cross-strait cooperation will stop Internet crime, China again rejected Taiwan's proposal recently in a working meeting of the APEC forum, a spokesman for the Ministry of Justice said yesterday.

According to the ministry official, an officer of the Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB), who took part in the APEC Telecommunication and Information Working Group meeting held late last month in Seoul, asked Chinese delegates for their cooperation on the issue. But the Chinese side gave him the cold shoulder, underscoring China's disregard toward helping Taiwan wipe out Internet crimes by hackers, the official said.

Crimes arising from computer games have increasingly become the playground of organized crime syndicates, which take advantage of legal operations between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait, the official said, adding that Taiwan's police have found that China-based hackers, with funding from Taiwan, have systematically intruded into Taiwan's computer gamers.

Most of the hacking cases involving Taiwanese computer game players have originated in from IP addresses in China, the official said, adding that China now is the major source of Internet crime in Taiwan, encompassing business fraud, money laundering and organized violence.

PRC trying to `isolate Taiwan:' US

DIVIDE AND CONQUER: Beijing, seeking eventual unification with Taiwan, will use its influence on ASEAN to marginalize Taiwan, US experts argue

CNA , WASHINGTON

The purpose of China's efforts in aligning with the member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is to isolate Taiwan and drive it away from the US and countries in Southeast Asia, US experts said Friday.

Speaking at a hearing called by the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission under the US Congress, Bronson Percival, a senior researcher at the Center for Naval Analysis, said that China is pressuring Southeast Asian countries to isolate Taiwan and that those countries are not willing to be dragged into a conflict by the US over the cross-strait impasse.

China now is increasingly emerging as the most unstable factor in East Asia due to its likelihood of attacking Taiwan, Percival said.

Dan Blumenthal, a former director for China, Taiwan and Mongolia affairs at the US Department of Defense, said that China is attempting to cement its influence in Southeast Asia and alienate the countries in the region from the US through the signing of a free trade agreement with the ASEAN member nations.

According to Blumenthal, who cited a recent annual report by the Pentagon on China's military power and strategy, China is aiming to increase its clout in Southeast Asia and adjacent sea areas through its military buildup that focuses on deploying more ballistic missiles, aircraft and destroyers.

Blumenthal suggested that Washington strengthen its ties with Australia, India, Vietnam and Japan as a counterweight to China's expansion in the region.

Another participant claimed that China's intention, rather than its military buildup and modernization, is the major concern to its neighboring countries, such as Japan, and to the US.

China's military expansion is aimed at increasing its influence in Asia, in particular toward Taiwan and the US military deployment in the Far East, he said, warning that future uncertainties will loom large in the region along with China's growing military might.

Peaceful cross-strait solution unlikely, analysts say

WAKE-UP CALL: The US report on China's military buildup and ambitions illustrates that peace in the Strait is not likely to last, and Taiwan must prepare itself, analysts say

By Shih Hsiu-chuan

STAFF REPORTER

"China's fierce response to the report shows that its military ambitions -- not only against Taiwan, but also in the region -- are genuine."－ Yang Chih-heng, professor of Southeast-Asian studies

The recent US report on China's military power and the growing military imbalance across the Taiwan Strait is aimed at shattering the idea that the cross-strait impasse can be solved peacefully, analysts said yesterday.

The analysts came to this conclusion after interpreting the US report's message and the Chinese government's reactions to it, adding that the report might dampen unificationist elements within Taiwan.

While the cross-strait military imbalance has been a matter of concern for the US, it was conveyed in a different way in the report, said Tsai Ming-yen, an assistant professor of international politics at National Chung Hsing University.

"Unlike the former [US military] reports that merely state the amount of Chinese weapons targeted at Taiwan, the functions and the operations of its weapons are also given attention in this year's report," said Tsai, adding "we should read from this difference that China's military strategy is based on bringing about unification with Taiwan."

"Another point that wasn't mentioned so clearly in the former reports is the China's two-pronged strategy to against Taiwan," Tsai said, referring to a strategy of "persuasion and coercion" as stated in the Pentagon report.

The US doesn't consider China's rise as merely an opportunity to tap its vast market, as its foreign policy clearly shows. This includes asking the EU not to lift an arms embargo against China, blocking Israel's sale of drone aircraft to the authoritarian giant, and enhancing its military cooperation with Japan and India, he said.

These actions prove that the US perceives a rising China as a threat, Tsai said.

"It seems that those aspects of the Chinese military threat, as spelled out in the US report, have not been noticed in Taiwan," Tsai said. "In fact, it's difficult in this country to reach a consensus on the issue because of the bitter partisan rivalry that exists here. That's why the Pentagon sought to remind Taiwan of China's `persuasion strategy' in the report."

Tsai's interpretation was echoed by Chang Kuo-cheng, former director of the Democratic Progressive Party's department of Chinese affairs. Chang claimed that one of the purposes of the report was to discourage pro-China and unificationist forces within Taiwan.

Failing to break the deadlock over the arms procurement budget symbolized the pervasiveness of "pro-China thinking" in the country, Chang said, defining such thinking as "placing China's interests before Taiwan's."

Politicians guided by this thinking prefer to pin their all hopes of resolving the cross-strait dispute on all kinds of exchanges activities with China, Chang said.

"I'm not saying that peaceful exchanges don't help the cross-strait situation. The problem is that while the politicians preach the benefits of these activities, they forget about the necessity to build up our own defense capability," Chang said.

Chang noted that by emphasizing the cross-strait military imbalance, the Pentagon wanted to give Taiwan the hint that its political dispute with China won't be easily resolved by peaceful means, given China's fast-growing military and economic clout.

"Not to pin your hopes on a peaceful settlement of the issues doesn't necessarily equal a willingness to have a military conflict," Chang said. "[Investing in defensive weapons] just means that we take the possibility of a military conflict seriously."

He also said that maintaining a sufficient military force and solidifying defense around Taiwan's borders is the report's overriding message.

The Chinese government blasted the US government shortly after the report was released, with China's Deputy Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi saying in a statement that the report has baselessly attacked China's modernization of its national defense, and accused Washington of looking for an excuse to sell advanced weapons to Taiwan.

"China's fierce response to the report shows that its military ambitions -- not only against Taiwan, but also in the region -- are genuine, and that the conclusions reached in the US report are correct," said Yang Chih-heng, an associate professor of Southeast-Asian studies at Tamkang University.

China might think that it was inappropriate for the US to make such strong conclusions about its military expansion, as Washington needs Beijing's help in resolving the North Korean nuclear dispute, Yang said.

The report, to China's surprise, illustrated the fact that the US' China policy is one of engagement and containment, Yang said.

In view of this, the cross-strait military imbalance and Taiwan's complacence toward its defense capability are especially worrying for the US, as they are closely related to the future of that nation's influence in the region, Yang said.

Don't buy into `peaceful rising' talk

By the Liberty Times editorial

At a meeting in Hong Kong on July 14, China's Major General Zhu Chenghu, a dean at China's National Defense University, told reporters that Beijing might respond with a nuclear strike on the US if Washington interfered in a cross-strait war.

Even though Beijing said the general's views were his own and not official policy, it is hard to know what China's real position is. But no matter what, his threat was enough to remind the world about the possibility of Beijing's determination to resolve the "Taiwan question" by any means necessary, including the use of nuclear arms. People should therefore prepare for the worst, and should not be fooled by China's so-called "peaceful rising."

In the past, China said that it would not use nuclear weapons unless it is attacked by such weapons. Today, as China's strength grows, its ambition to be a military superpower also grows.

Zhu's words reveal that even if the US does not use its nuclear arsenal first, China may still choose to use nuclear weapons if it is unable to compete with the US in a conventional war. By the same logic, if China invades Taiwan, it also won't rule out the possibility of using nuclear arms on this country. During the cross-strait crisis in 1995, high-level Chinese military officials threatened to launch nuclear strikes if war did break out.

If one accepts the idea that China is seeking to become a military hegemony, the world can't afford to take Zhu's statement lightly. US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said that Zhu's remarks were "unfortunate" and "irresponsible." French media outlets also pointed out that such hostile words make China's "peaceful rise" difficult to believe.

However, Taiwan has once again failed to be on alert in the face of Chinese military threats. Those pan-blue camp politicians who visited China to "seek peace," as well as the pro-China media here have all turned a blind eye to these threats.

But their willingness to dismiss the danger posed by China has been consistent. In recent years, China's Taiwan-minded military build-up has rapidly increased. It now has more than 700 ballistic missiles pointed at Taiwan. But the pan-blue camp is still determined to boycott the government's arms procurement plan.

Despite the blue camp's subservience to China, Beijing has never renounced the use of force to resolve the cross-strait impasse.

In March, Beijing even passed the "Anti-Secession" Law, vowing to employ "non-peaceful means and other necessary measures" if Taiwan declared independence.

Under such circumstances, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Lien Chan and People First Party Chairman James Soong accepted an invitation to visit China, shamelessly touting the "one China" policy and the so-called "1992 consensus" while meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao. Lien and Soong's move to "unify China to restrain Taiwan" has further boosted Beijing's arrogance and probably went a long way in inspiring Zhu's nuclear threats.

During the fourth Shangri-La Dialogue held in Singapore in early June, US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld pointed out that China's military expansion has endangered the subtle security balance in Asia. He criticized China for concealing its actual military spending, and questioned its increase of missiles targeting Taiwan while claiming to desire a peaceful solution to the issue.

Earlier this month, Japanese media reported that US troops stationed in Okinawa will not withdraw, so they could quickly arrive in Taiwan within one day if a cross-strait war breaks out. Thus, US troops in Japan will remain to prevent Beijing from attacking Taiwan and to prevent a pro-China regime from being established here.

The fact that Taiwan is viewed as forbidden fruit by the Chinese is probably why they issued a nuclear threat against the US indirectly, through one of their high-ranking officers.

But the threat was not simply a case of China venting its frustration. Over the last decade or so, the expansion of China's military capability is directed at breaking through the First Island Chain and probing the Second Island Chain. Taiwan is at the center of the first chain -- or first line of defense -- constraining Beijing's geopolitical influence.

Even as it seeks to dominate Asia, China also wants to replace the US as the dominant power in the Pacific. Taiwan's precarious position in the Pacific blocks China's direct access to the region, making it an essential asset if further conquest is to be achieved. Only by taking Taiwan will China advance its ambitions in the Pacific.

Moreover, China has initiated an assault across a very broad front. In addition to making trouble for the US internationally, it has also locked horns with the US over the acquisition of a US oil company.

The tenor of public utterances by Chinese leaders have been increasingly nationalist, with increasingly frequent references to Ming Dynasty-era Admiral Cheng Ho, who sailed around Southeast Asia to display China's naval might. Obviously, Beijing hopes to rekindle some of its previous glory.

All of this proves that all the talk of China's peaceful rising is simply a ploy to divert attention away from the very real threat that China now poses. Prior to the passing of the Anti-Secession Law, the Chinese government declared that the 21st century would see a return of the Chinese people to greatness.

This kind of statement, repeated with overtones of fascist delusions of grandeur, falls heavily on the ears of democratic societies that are striving only for peace and stability.

The Anti-Secession Law and statements by China's military about the use of nuclear weapons is a clear indication that the idea of "might is right" dominates the core of the Chinese Communist Party's leadership.

The people of Taiwan, who hold the front line against China's expansionism, must wake up from their delusions that China seeks peace. They also must maintain a high level of psychological preparedness if they are to protect their sovereignty, as well as their safety and property.