在WASHINGTON TIMES 的報導中，就指出中共無理取鬧，而台灣哈共族亦拼命賣台，台灣人的保台不足以克服中共的武力打擊，必須做區域聯防，此考驗台灣的內部團結與美日的智慧，要不要維繫亞太平洋與民主台灣的存在，亦是國際注目的焦點。
Beijing
warns Taipei against arms alliance
By Bill Gertz
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
China's military warned
Taiwan yesterday not to join a cooperative missile defense with the
United States and Japan.
The official military
newspaper Liberation Army Daily said Chen Shui-bian, the president
of the Republic of China (Taiwan), was "playing with fire"
by seeking a military alliance with the two nations.
The newspaper was responding
to remarks made by Mr. Chen in an interview July 16 with The Washington
Times.
Mr. Chen said in the interview that the growing Chinese missile threat
against Taiwan -- also known as the Republic of China -- shows the
need for developing a joint U.S.-Japan-Taiwan missile-defense system
to counter it.
"Avoiding a [People's
Republic of China] threat against Taiwan is something that the United
States, Japan and Taiwan must jointly deal with in a manner of division
of responsibilities and cooperation," Mr. Chen said during the
interview.
Mr. Chen said Taiwan's
defense agencies are actively studying the option of joining a joint
theater missile-defense project, but have not made any final decisions.
The Taiwanese leader also called for increasing military cooperation
and exchanges with the United States, while acknowledging that a military
alliance would be "difficult to achieve."
The United States broke
its military alliance with Taiwan in 1979 when Washington officially
recognized Beijing's government. Communist China considers Taiwan
to be a breakaway province.
The Chinese military
newspaper stated that a joint missile defense would be "dangerous."
"This is a dangerous
signal that Chen is moving farther away down the road of resisting
reunion by means of force," the article said.
The newspaper said Mr.
Chen is turning Taiwan into "an ideal battlefield for Americans."
China has repeatedly
threatened to use force to reunite the island with the mainland.
A Beijing official "white paper" issued last year stated
that China would go to war with Taiwan if it were occupied by foreign
forces or declared independence.
The military newspaper
said yesterday that China will not tolerate Mr. Chen "stepping
further down the road of dividing the motherland."
"The People's Liberation
Army is a great wall of iron and steel which separatism can never
surpass," the paper said. "Any attempt to interfere in China's
civil affairs by foreign forces will fail, as will any attempt to
separate Taiwan from the Chinese territory."
The newspaper's report
was carried in the state-run Xinhua news agency.
The military newspaper
said the awarding of the 2008 Olympic Games to Beijing had hardened
China's resolve to reunify the mainland with Taiwan.
The campaign to win the
Olympics showed the world "a brand new power that breaks through
brambles and thorns and makes no stop before reaching its goal,"
it said.
Mr. Chen, in his interview,
said the Olympics should not be awarded to a nation that uses missiles
to threaten other nations.
Taiwan's military, according
to Taipei's official Central News Agency, is open to conducting joint
exercises with the U.S. military. A Taiwanese military spokesman said
proposals to join regional missile defenses would be studied carefully.
China has opposed U.S. plans to provide missile defenses to Taiwan,
saying it constitutes an interference in its internal affairs.
However, the commander
of U.S. forces in the Pacific, Adm. Dennis Blair, said China's buildup
of hundreds of short-range missiles opposite Taiwan justifies U.S.
sales of missile defenses to the island.
Taiwan currently has
deployed Patriot anti-missile batteries around Taipei and is seeking
a more advanced PAC-3 version of the system.
Meanwhile, the Taiwanese
government conducted an air-raid drill in the northern part of the
island on Wednesday that was designed to test emergency preparedness
for any Chinese aerial or missile attacks.
Cars on streets stopped
and people hid in shelters as an air-raid siren sounded an alarm.
It was the last of seven drills known as the Wanan 24 Exercise.
Pentagon officials said
any attack against Taiwan by Chinese military forces would begin with
computer-based information warfare attacks, followed by massive missile
and aircraft attacks.
