Premier says China can't use airspace

 

NO RECIPROCITY: Frank Hsieh made the comments a day after he said the government was hoping it could lift the ban on Taiwanese aircraft flying through Chinese airspace

 

By Jimmy Chuang and Shih Hsiu-chuan

STAFF REPORTERS

 

Although the Cabinet said it will allow Taiwanese jetliners to fly through Chinese airspace, Premier Frank Hsieh yesterday said that the government will not allow Chinese aircraft to use Taiwanese airspace.

 

"It will never happen until Beijing signs a peace agreement with us," the premier said.

 

Hsieh made the remarks during an exclusive interview with the Central News Agency (CNA) yesterday morning, when he was asked whether Taiwan will also lift the ban on Chinese aircraft flying in Taiwanese airspace. The remarks were recorded and made public by the Government Information Office.

 

The premier said that it would be impossible for the government to do so, because Beijing still regards Taiwan as an enemy, as evidenced by the fact that China has deployed hundreds of ballistic missiles within striking distance of Taiwan.

 

Hsieh also said that Taiwan had years ago given up on the futile oath made by former president Chiang Kai-shek to "retake the mainland" and to "relocate" the capital of the Republic of China from Taipei to Nanjing. As a result, Taiwan has proven that it is no enemy to China, and therefore it was impossible that Taiwanese aircraft could be a threat to the Chinese government. In addition, Taiwan has not deployed any missiles aimed at cities in China.

 

"This is something which is known by the international society," the premier said.

 

"However, we have to retain the ban against Chinese aircraft, because the Chinese government does not have this same friendly attitude toward us," Hsieh said.

 

The premier continued, explaining that the government will not jeopardize national security when discussing potential contacts with the Chinese government.

 

"Unless Beijing and Taipei sign an agreement ensuring peace in the Strait, it will be impossible for us to allow their aircraft to fly through our airspace," the premier added.

 

Meanwhile, the government's top cross-strait policymaking agency yesterday said that the details of cross-strait direct charter flight for passengers have yet to be decided. The comments came in response to reports that the flights will be approved for the Mid-Autumn Festival holiday, weekend holidays and for Chinese tourists that might be allowed to visit Taiwan in the future.

 

"We hope the bilateral negotiation can proceed smoothly, so we don't expect to see too much speculation about the details," the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said in a press release yesterday.

 

Hsieh announced Wednesday that the government had agreed to hold negotiations with Beijing in tandem for the liberalization of charter flights for passengers, cargo and "other special purposes."

 

Following Hsieh's announcement, news reports quoted officials from the Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) and officials from the MAC as saying that the coverage of passenger charter flights would include the Mid-Autumn Festival, routine weekends and flights for Chinese tourists.

 

The MAC said that the problems surrounding the issue of passenger charter flights are complicated, and could only be solved via bilateral negotiation.

 

 

China cracks down on evils of `foreign culture' on TV

 

AP , BEIJING

 

China will bar new foreign television channels and step up censorship of imported programming, the Culture Ministry announced, adding to a sweeping effort to tighten the communist government's controls over popular culture.

 

In an effort to "safeguard national cultural safety," the government also will tighten controls over the 31 foreign television satellite broadcasters that hold licenses to operate in China, the ministry said on its Web site in a statement dated Wednesday.

　

The government also will ban new licenses for companies to import newspapers and magazines, electronic publications, audiovisual products and children's cartoons, the ministry said. It said new limits will be imposed on the number of foreign copyrighted products that Chinese companies are allowed to publish.

 

The announcement adds to a mounting campaign over the past two years to tighten control over popular culture and keep out material that communist leaders worry is spreading politically and socially dangerous influences.

 

The latest steps are meant to "strengthen management of imported cultural products, improve intellectual property protections and safeguard national cultural safety," the Culture Ministry said.

 

The measures are a dramatic step back from more liberal rules unveiled late last year to open China's media market. They are likely to be a major disappointment for international broadcasters that hope for access to China, whose people own nearly 400 million television sets.

 

Chinese radio and television stations are eager for access to foreign investment and programming as many lose government subsidies and have to compete in a crowded, fast-changing market.

 

But communist leaders are reluctant to give Chinese broadcasters free rein to form foreign ties, concerned it might erode official controls over what censors refer to as "political standards" of broadcasts.

 

Regulators frequently cite foreign culture as a source of unwholesome influences in Chinese broadcasting.

 

Last year, the government prohibited the use of English words on TV and foreign programs that promote "Western ideology and politics." It banned programs about crime or violence in prime time.

 

Last month, the government announced a ban on Chinese television and radio stations forming partnerships with foreign companies or leasing channels to foreign companies.

 

The Culture Ministry announcement also said the government will launch a new crackdown on illegal satellite dishes. Most private ownership of satellite receivers is banned in China, but millions of households have them illegally.

 

The ministry said authorities will try to stamp out the unlicensed broadcasting of foreign programming over telecommunications networks.

 

 

US concerned over China's nuclear arsenal

 

AFP , WASHINGTON

 

"What it shows is that there has not been enough thinking on both sides about the implications of an escalation in a Taiwan crisis."－ Chas Freeman, a former senior Pentagon official

 

China's nuclear weapons arsenal is coming under increasing US scrutiny after an influential general in Beijing warned of a nuclear strike on the US if China is attacked over Taiwan.

 

General Zhu Chenghu's remarks last month have been rejected as personal view by the Chinese government, which insists it would not be the first to unleash its nuclear firepower under any circumstances.

 

But US experts interpreted Zhu's comments as a tacit warning by Beijing to Washington of cataclysmic consequences if it confronted China over Taiwan.

 

"If the Americans draw their missiles and position-guided ammunition on to the target zone on China's territory, I think we will have to respond with nuclear weapons, warned Zhu, dean of the Institute for Strategic Studies at China's National Defense University.

 

He then went on to say this could lead to the destruction of "hundreds" of of American cities.

 

Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing Li said the general was speaking in a personal capacity, saying Beijing would not be the first to use nuclear weapons "at any time and under any condition."

 

But considering China's nuclear might, there is a possibility of it launching an atomic strike even before coming under attack, said Eric McVadon, an ex-defense attache at the US embassy in Beijing.

 

"It is not a simple straight forward question as to whether under all circumstances, China would never under any situation use nuclear weapons first," he said.

 

"So, we probably shouldn't completely ignore General Zhu's words and remember in that context," said McVadon, a part-time director of Asia-Pacific studies at the US Institute for Foreign Policy Analysis.

 

Zhu's comments came five months after China adopted its "Anti-Secession" Law allowing it to use force against any secession moves by Taiwan, triggering concerns in Washington, which is bound by law to offer Taipei the means of self-defense if its security were threatened.

 

"There is little doubt that China's military leadership wants the US to believe that it will use nuclear weapons against the US should it rise to defend democratic Taiwan from Chinese attack," said Richard Fisher of the International Assessment and Strategy Center, a Washington-based think tank.

 

Zhu is the grandson of late Chinese leader Mao Tsu-tung's long time chief of staff, an important pedigree in the People's Liberation Army (PLA), Fisher said, describing China's nuclear deployments as having "coercive" potential.

 

The PLA, he said, now deployed a new fixed and a new mobile nuclear intercontinental ballistic missile system, he said.

 

In addition, China would soon deploy a longer-range mobile intercontinental ballistic missile, and about the same time, deploy a new long-range submarine-launched ballistic missile.

 

These new nuclear missiles -- three of which may contain multiple warheads -- would be active within five years, he said.

 

China is also on its way to acquiring 50 to 60 nuclear and conventional attack submarines, Fisher said.

 

At present, Chinese nuclear-tipped missiles are capable of reaching the US mainland without being intercepted. Zhu's remarks could draw greater support for a US missile defense system.

 

The size and pace of Beijing's weapons acquisitions, estimated at US$90 billion this year, could threaten the military balance with Taiwan, a recent Pentagon report on China's military power warned.

 

The US is the leading arms supplier to Taiwan.

 

Chas Freeman, a former senior Pentagon official who helped reopen defense dialogue with Beijing, said Zhu had made "a serious point which needs to be taken seriously by planners on both sides.

 

"I don't think it was a threat of any kind or represents policy. I think it represented an analytical point," he said.

 

"What it shows is that there has not been enough thinking on both sides about the implications of an escalation in a Taiwan crisis," Freeman said.

 

 

China's rise `can't be ignored'

 

The US will remain the leading power for the foreseeable future but the rising influence of China and India can no longer be ignored, Singapore's defense minister said yesterday. Japan is also playing a more active role in the global strategic arena, making the future of the Asia-Pacific region dependent on the moves by these three regional giants, Defense Minister Teo Chee Hean said. "China and India can no longer be ignored. They both have aspirations to be regional, if not global, powers ... With their sheer size and strategic weight, what these regional powers do will, like shifts in major tectonic plates, reshape the geopolitical contours of the region," Teo said.

 

 

Marines slain by `huge' bomb in Iraq

 

COMBAT OPERATIONS: Twenty US Marines have been killed in less than two days in the town of Haditha, which is in the heart of one of Iraq's most troubled areas

 

NY TIMES NEWS SERVICE , BAGHDAD

 

Fourteen US Marines were killed early Wednesday when their troop carrier struck a gigantic roadside bomb in the western town of Haditha, one of the single deadliest bomb attacks on US troops since the invasion here in March 2003. An Iraqi civilian interpreter working with the Marines was also killed in the blast.

 

The US command here provided few details of the attack, but said the Marines had been riding in an amphibious troop carrier "during combat operations" on the southern end of the city when it struck the bomb. Even though they operate in the desert, the Marines often use large amphibious vehicles to conduct patrols and transport men and material. The vehicles are lightly armored.

 

There were indications that the roadside bomb used in the attack was quite large; the Marines said that only one of the soldiers had been wounded, while 14 had been killed. US commanders say that in recent months the insurgents have been exploding bigger and more sophisticated bombs, some of which focus the blast in a single direction.

 

The attack brought the number of dead Marines in Haditha to 20 in less than two days. On Monday, guerrillas ambushed and killed a group of six Marine snipers who were moving through the town on foot. The insurgent group, Ansar al-Sunna, claimed responsibility for that attack, and also claimed that it had beheaded one of the Marines.

 

There was no way to verify the claim, but the Americans acknowledged that one of the snipers became separated from the group, after possibly being dragged away by the insurgents. Later in the day, masked men appeared in Haditha's main central market carrying US helmets, flak jackets and rifles.

 

Another Marine was killed Monday in the nearby city of Hit when a suicide bomber drove his car into a military convoy and blew himself up.

 

Marines inspect the remains of a vehicle destroyed by a roadside bomb yesterday, killing 14 Marines and a civilian interpreter, in Barwana, near Haditha, Iraq, yesterday. It was one of the deadliest roadside bombings inflicted on US forces during the Iraq conflict.