President Bill Clinton, in a human rights speech yesterday (Dec 7, 1999), criticized China's "troubling" crackdown on the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement. He also said Russia "will pay a heavy price" if it carried out its threatened destruction of the Chechen capital of Grozny.

Smarting at criticism from U.S. President Bill Clinton, China yesterday (Dec. 7, 1999) accused the U.S. government of trying to beautify the Falun Gong spiritual movement that communist Chinese leaders have banned as a mancing cult.

In his first comments about China's crackdown on the sect, Clinton criticized the imprisonment and detention of Falun Gong members as a "troubling example" of the government acting against those "who test the limits of freedom."

China has considered Taiwan a breakaway province since the side split amid civil war in 1949, and Beijing viewed Lee's comments as a radical step towards formal independence. Sometimes China threatens to use force to block. Chinese relations are expected to be a central issue in the March presidential election, but Washington is not trying to influence relations between the sides by supporting any one candidate.

Beijing, Dec. 8, 1999 ---
China will imminently test the Julang 2, an intercontinental sea-to-surface ballistic missile with an estimated range at least 9,000 kilometers that will boost its nuclear deterrent capability, foreign military experts in Beijing said yesterday.

"The test is imminent," said an expert who asked to not be named, but added the missile, capable of hitting any city in the United States and Europe, could be equipped with a small nuclear warhead.

According to Monday's Washington Times newspaper, the transit of Chinese Golf class submarines from southern areas to the north of the country, carried out last month, signals the approach of the JL-2 test.

The newspaper also put the range of the JL-2 at nearly 12,000 kilometers. China's Foreign Ministry downplayed the report, and said China was entitled to develop military programs for its own defense, dismissing talk of a "China threat."

"To develop basic national defense capabilities is purely for defense purposes," spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue said at a briefing. "Some media are advocating the so-called China threat which I don't think will have any result," she added.

The second generation Julang, which translates as "great wave," is the successor to the Julang-1, which was tested successfully in the 1980s from Golf submarines, which are powered by Soviet-made engines, and from the Xia, believed to be the Chinese navy's only nuclear-powered submarine.

The Xia's first successful missile launch of the JL-1 tool place in September 1988, according to defense specialists Jane's Information Group. "It was generally held that (a JL-2 launch) would be from the Golf, but it could also be from a submarine platform or an upgrade of the Xia," Robert Karniol, Jane's Asian correspondent base in Bangkok, told AFP.

China hopes to place the JL-2, also known as the CSS-N-4X, aboard a new generation of type 094 nuclear submarines, whose construction will begin during the next few weeks, said the Washington Times, citing American sources.

The newspaper said the submarine would carry a smaller underwater variant of the Julang-2 and could be operational by 2005-2006.

We urged the president candidate not to play with fire as the people of Taiwan are getting used to Beijing's military intimidation and verbal attacks. Beijing has already stated clearly that it will not use military intimidation as a means of intimidating Taiwan's voters as it did in the last presidential election.

It is in America's interest that it pursue a policy of engagement with the PRC, not only in trade but with its military as well. It is also in America's interest to pursue a similar policy with Taiwan, including its military. Globalization in economics, and changing technology in military strategy, make this increasingly necessary, even if the US did not occupy the special position it has in East Asia.