Dear
Mr. Donald H. Rumsfeld, Chinese authorities have formally
arrested a U.S. citizen detained on suspicion of espionage but might delay
his trial until before a visit by U.S. President George W. Bush, a human
rights group said on Aug. 1, 2001. Wu Jianmin, detained in China
since April, was formally arrested this week on charges of endangering
state security, the Hong Kong-based Information Center for Human Rights
and Democracy said. China’s detention of Wu and
other U.S.-linked scholars over the past year strained ties with
Washington and unsettled academics who regularly visit China for research. To ease tensions, China last week freed three of the scholars, smoothing a visit by U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell to Beijing last weekend. Minister of defense Chi Haotian
marked the 74th anniversary of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA)
by repeating China’s threat to use force against Taiwan if it sought
independence, the People’s Daily reported on Aug. 1, 2001. Following two months of drills,
China was ready to launch larger-scale exercises involving all branches of
the military under the eye of top-level officials, the newspaper said. The People’s Daily quoted Chi as
saying one of the military’s main tasks was to modernize. In March, China’s parliament
approved a budget that raised defense spending by a year-on-year 17.7
percent to a record 141 billion yuan ($17 billion). But analysts estimate the real
defense budget could be up to four times that figure as China upgrades the
military into a high-tech force capable of backing up a threat to invade
Taiwan if the island declares independence. As we have known that the PLA is
the world’s largest standing army with 2.5 million active personnel,
according to official figures. China slashed the size of its army by one
million people in the 1980s and cut another 500,000 between 1997 and 2000. Russia has conducted a test of a long range SS-25 missile that may be designed to scuttle U.S. missile defenses. The missile’s engine, a supersonic-combustion ramjet, is just as powerful as it sounds, and can generate speeds of five times the speed of sound. Officials familiar with the
testing of the SS-25 said the missile was fired into space two weeks ago
from a launch site in central Russia, and in its last stage dropped down
into the atmosphere, flying at supersonic speed to an impact range
thousands of miles away on the Kamchatka Peninsula. The missile has a
range of more than 7,000 miles. China’s military has
deployed a new reconnaissance satellite that is being used to target U.S.
force in the region, according to U.S. intelligence officials. The satellite is Beijing’s first
high-resolution imaging satellite and is disguised as a civilian earth
monitoring system, said officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity. The satellite secretary has been
designated as the Jianbing-3, officials said. Its public name is Ziyuan-2
(ZY-2). Ziyuan means “resource.” The satellite was launched Sept. 1
from the Taiyuan Satellite Launching Center in the northern Shanxi
Province. The official Xinhua news agency described the satellite as a
civilian “remote sensing” system. The news agency said the
satellite would be used primarily in territorial surveying, city planning,
crop yield assessment, disaster monitoring and space science
experimentation. Xinhua made no mention of its
military spying role. An official familiar with
intelligence reports on the launch said it is “a photoreconnaissance
satellite used exclusively for military purposes.” The satellite is being used
by China’s military for planning combat operations, such as targeting
missiles at U.S. forces in Japan and elsewhere, and preparing for both
missile and aircraft strikes on Taiwan, an island nation that Beijing
views as a breakaway province. The resolution of the satellite is
less than U.S. reconnaissance satellites but comparable to the clarity
produced by several U.S. and European commercial imagery satellites now in
use. Taiwan’s defense minister, Wu Shih-wen, expressed concerns shortly after the satellite launch that the system would be used for military purposes. Taiwan’s military is monitoring the satellite, he said. Report said that … State Department spokesman Charles
Hunter said yesterday the United States had "strongly protested"
the deletion of some of Powell's comments on Taiwan and human rights. The
deletion amounted to about one or two minutes of a 24-minute interview
taped Saturday and broadcast Sunday on CCTV. "We'll continue to convey to
the Chinese government and the Chinese people our clear and unedited views
of all the issues that arise in U.S.-Chinese relations," Hunter said. Hunter said the embassy had a
"clear and explicit agreement" with CCTV that it would air the
interview in its entirety. "They chose to renege on that
agreement, and we think that was a counterproductive choice," Hunter
said. "We believe the Chinese people are mature and sophisticated
enough to hear both their own government's views and those of others who
may disagree." In our view, whole media were
controlled by communist China, and used it to cheat Chinese people even
interview in public at view of CCTV. If Taiwan ever came to blows with
mainland China, its only hope would lie in support from Washington. However, some people in Taiwan
deep doubts about whether the US would really be willing to take on
Beijing in the island's defense. Such doubts linger even after the
double reassurance provided by Washington last week in the form of the
most impressive US arms sales offer in nearly a decade and an
unprecedently forthright promise of support from George W. Bush, US
president. Asked in an interview if the US
had an obligation to defend the Taiwanese against attack by China, Mr.
Bush said: "Yes, we do" and that Washington would do
"whatever it took" to help the island defend itself. That sounded like a firm
commitment of military support for Taiwan and an end to the
"strategic ambiguity" with which Washington has tried to
convince Beijing that any attack on Taiwan would risk war, while making
clear to Taipei that US backing is not assured. Mr. Bush's remarks were greeted
with widespread enthusiasm in Taiwan but few read them to mean that full
US support can be taken for granted. "I don't think the US would
send troops at all," says Yen Chen-shen, an expert in US policy at
Taipei's Institute of International Relations. "When Bush says
'whatever it takes' I don't think its going to be troops - maybe logistics
or air support." No one questions that Washington
has been the greatest ally of Taiwan's Republic of China government. The
Nationalists would probably not have made it to the island without US
help. US warships averted a Communist invasion in the 1950s and
Taiwan's subsequent economic development was fuelled by US assistance.
Even since it cut diplomatic ties in 1979, Washington's willingness to
offer Taipei arms and international support has contrasted sharply with
European reluctance to rile Beijing. But some people in Taiwan fear
that the island is just a bargaining chip in the more important
relationship between the world's most powerful nation and its most
populous. Such doubts are underlined by
later comments by Mr. Bush that military support for Taiwan was just
"one option" and by his administration's insistence that its
basic policy has not changed. Nevertheless, many Taiwanese
people are full confidence in Bush’s statement. Continuing ambiguity will be
welcomed by those who believe that keeping both sides guessing about US
intentions is the best way to maintain stability in the Taiwan Strait. Certainly, although Mr. Bush's
recent actions are undoubtedly a boost for Chen Shui-bian, Taiwan's
president, there seems little chance they will prompt any attempt to
formalize the island's de facto independence. Mr. Chen put aside
pro-independence rhetoric even before his election last year and has since
worked hard to avoid antagonizing Beijing. Indeed, for many strategists the
most pressing question is not whether the US would be willing to fight for
Taiwan but whether the island would be ready to fight for itself. Many old mainlanders’
thought that divided loyalties and the overseas bank accounts and US
passports of much of Taiwan's elite added to a general lack of popular
martial ardour, which makes some military planners fear morale could
crumble in the face of a mainland missile attack or blockade. However, no one as native
Taiwanese people could agree that kinds of “surrender’s ideas”. On the other hand, whole Taiwanese people can try their best to fight back Beijing’s threat at anytime.
Yours Sincerely,
※ FORMOSA (computer CD), the history of Taiwan, enclosed herewith
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