BREAKING:100 CHINEASE JETS FLY TOWARDS TIAWAN

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http://www.drudgereport.com/flash7.htm

-- boo (boo@home.com), March 20, 2000

Answers

It's called saber rattling.

link

China Accepts Chen's Win But Plans to Watch Closely

By Cindy Sui
Special to The Washington Post
Sunday , March 19, 2000; A28

BEIJING, March 18 –– China accepted the victory of a pro-independence candidate in Taiwan's presidential race tonight, but said it will watch closely Chen Shui-bian's actions "and where he will lead cross-strait relations."

"We should listen to what the new leader in Taiwan says and watch what he does," said a statement issued by the government's Taiwan Affairs Office, which also reiterated Beijing's stance that the election "will not change the status of Taiwan as a part of China."

Chen, of the Democratic Progressive Party, defeated Nationalist Vice President Lien Chan and populist independent James Soong with 39 percent of the vote as Taiwanese voters brushed aside Beijing's threats that it might attack the island if Chen was elected.

Chen had irked China by openly advocating independence for Taiwan, which Beijing has long considered a renegade province. China's Nationalists retreated to Taiwan in 1949 after losing a civil war to Mao Zedong's Communists.

China indicated today that it would not tolerate any move by Chen to push for sovereignty, saying, "Taiwan independence in whatever form will never be allowed." But Beijing left open a door for dialogue.

"We are willing to exchange views on cross-straits relations and peaceful reunification with all parties, organizations and personages in Taiwan who favor the 'one China' principle," the government said.

The tone of today's statement contrasted sharply with Chinese officials' saber-rattling in the run-up to the island's second direct presidential election. Just three days ago, Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji issued a stern warning to Taiwanese voters, saying if they elected Chen, they would not get a second chance to regret it.

As late as today, two Beijing-funded newspapers in Hong Kong as well as the People's Liberation Daily ran photographs and stories implying China was preparing for a military assault against Taiwan.

The Wen Wei Po newspaper reported China's military was on high alert. "If Chen Shui-bian takes the seat [of power], turbulence is inevitable," the paper said. "It will increase the likelihood of our using force to solve the Taiwan question."

The Ta Kung Pao newspaper reported the mainland city of Fuzhou, which faces Taiwan across the Taiwan Strait, was scheduled to restrict air traffic for five days to make way for a large number of military aircraft. The paper also reported that the city would soon conduct large-scale air-raid drills and that officials had allocated $7.2 million to connect the city's many bomb shelters and underground tunnels.

And the People's Liberation Daily ran a front-page photo of several partially submerged tanks plying the waters off China's coast. The caption said: "A regiment in the Nanjing Military District is organizing military exercises in preparation for real war conditions and actively preparing for a military struggle. The tanks in the picture are amphibious tanks capable of launching a takeover of land."

In Taiwan's first direct presidential election in 1996, Beijing fired missiles near Taiwan in a failed attempt to dissuade voters from choosing its most disliked candidate, Lee Teng-hui, the current president.

Chinese academics closely linked to the government said the near future will be tense and will depend largely on what tone Chen sets.

"If he puts the stability and prosperity of the 22 million Taiwanese people as a priority, then cross-straits relations can develop after an initial period of difficulty. There will be hope. But if he won't change his pro-independence campaign stance, then it could be disastrous," said Guo Zhenyuan, a senior research fellow at the China Institute of International Studies.

Before the election, Chen had softened his independence calls, saying sovereignty would only be declared if China attacked. Today, he said he wanted to meet with President Jiang Zemin and other Chinese leaders to repair misunderstandings.

But Huang Jiashu, an academic at the People's University, said such a meeting would be impossible until Chen embraced the one China principle.

-- kermit (colourmegreen@hotmail.com), March 20, 2000.


Well, it's now 8:00 utc and the "flash" was at 3:19 utc. Apparently, the "Chinease" jets are a little slower than we thought.

Anout 90% of the junk that Drudge has is unsubstantiated crap like the above "story".

-- Jim Cooke (JJCooke@yahoo.com), March 20, 2000.


China indicated today that it would not tolerate any move by Chen to push for sovereignty, saying, "Taiwan independence in whatever form will never be allowed." But Beijing left open a door for dialogue.

"We are willing to exchange views on cross-straits relations and peaceful reunification with all parties, organizations and personages in Taiwan who favor the 'one China' principle," the government said.

An artfully deceptive statement. Beijing supports an open door to dialogue, but the issue of greatest concern to Taiwan is non- negotiable.

-- David L (bumpkin@dnet.net), March 20, 2000.


er, Jim...

I don't think Drudge wrote this. It looks to me that it was written by: By Cindy Sui Special to The Washington Post Sunday , March 19, 2000; A28

and we all know how inaccurate the Washington Post is...

-- Uncle Bob (UNCLB0B@AOL.COM), March 20, 2000.


"Every two or three minutes, a fighter jet went over our heads. This lasted for four hours non-stop," the witness was quoted by the newspaper as saying.

Ok, Ok, there were only TWO jets, going around in circles for four hours......

-- Ken (kjacks@peoplepc.com), March 20, 2000.



OK, let's get on the same page here. The article posted by kermit, though relevant and interesting, is not what I find at the drudgereport URL posted by boo. The latter URL yields the following:

Agence France Presse
March 20, 2000, Monday 3:19 AM UTC

Chinese jets fly towards Taiwan: Hong Kong newspaper

HONG KONG, March 20 - Large numbers of Chinese fighter jets were seen heading in the direction of Taiwan following the island's election of pro-independence advocate Chen Shui-bian, a Hong Kong newspaper reported Monday.

The English-language South China Morning Post quoted an unidentified witness in the southern town of Huizhou, in Guangdong province, as saying about 100 jets had flown over the town Sunday .

"Every two or three minutes, a fighter jet went over our heads. This lasted for four hours non-stop," the witness was quoted by the newspaper as saying.

The planes were heading north eastwards, towards China's Fujian province and Taiwan, which lies across the Taiwan Strait from Fujian.

The fighters were a mixture of modern jets and older models, the witness said.

"There used to be planes flying around but local people say they have never seen that many," the witness added.

In the build-up to Saturday's presidential elections, China was reported to have scrambled fighter jets and put its military on high alert.

Democratic Progessive Party leader Chen scored a stunning victory in Saturday's ballot, sweeping to power and ending the ruling Nationalist Kuomintang's 50-year grip on power.

China had earlier indirectly warned Taiwan's electorate not to vote for Chen, who has previously advoctated Taiwanese independence.

China regards Taiwan, which split from the mainland in 1949, as a renegade province and has threatened to invade the island if it ever declares independence. END

-- David L (bumpkin@dnet.net), March 20, 2000.


Yeah - I posted the Washington Post article to show how the Dridge article was so off. Sorry for any confusion.

-- kermit (colourmegreen@hotmail.com), March 20, 2000.

I didnt think attack is underway, but they do seem to be getting ready for a POSSIBLE attack. I would rather be wrong and on gaurd, than right and not be ready

-- boo (boo@home.com), March 20, 2000.

boo:

Be ready for what? Posting more unsubtantiated reports? An attack on Taiwan is going to be reported in real time when it happens, not by some anonymous source seeing planes flying around his head. This type of posting is pure fear mongering.

-- Jim Cooke (JJCooke@yahoo.com), March 20, 2000.


Jim,

Good answer, and there was enough fear mongering with the y2k...

smirking after having gone down to basement today and realizing I STILL have a TON of food left..

perhaps I should go cook or something.?

NOT.

-- consumer (shh@aol.com), March 20, 2000.



Jim, are you saying it just isnt so i can site at least 2 other news agencys that reported the same thing. If you have watched china lately you will see they have backed themselves into a corner. A majority of chinease believe war is now need to take tiawan.Right now (clinton era), china believes the US doesnt have the will to defend Tiawan.They believe they will need to have the attack wrapped up b4 a new president is signed in. i dont see it happening in the next few weeks, but POSSIBLY in the next few months or summer time. I urge you to goto yahoo full coverage and read "china-tiawan tensions" going all the way back to this summer. Why do you think russia and china increasing military ties? Why is the sino-russian axis trying to increase ties with nations such as N korea and india? Why at the same time is the USA also trying to increase ties with N korea and India? Why is the US suddenly trying to increase ties with vietnam(including putting us bases there? Why are both russia and china vastly increasing there military spending? Churchhill treied to warn the world of the nazi extremism in the 1930,s, we need a churchhill now

-- boo (boo@home.com), March 20, 2000.

boo:

Can you tell me the names of the two other agencies that reported the same thing? I use Yahoo news search all the time and I can't find any reference to any other reports.

Did that story sound even faintly ridiculous to you? It would take about 20 minutes for jet fighters to go from mainland China to Taiwan. How long do you think it would take for every news agency in the world to be reporting an attack in progress? Remember the Gulf War?

Have you read any of the other threads here on this issue? Taiwan is not dependent on the United States for defense. Do you have any concept how difficult it would be for China to mount an amphibious attack on a country 190 miles away? War is not going to happen until China can mount a successful invasion and that's going to be long after Clinton is out of office.

Can you show me any evidence that Russia is vastly increasing military spending? How about any evidence that Vietnam is even considering allowing us to have bases in their country? How about any evidence that Russia is developing closer ties with North Korea?

If you can't provide the evidence, you're fear mongering. If you want to be fearful, that's OK - just don't present your fears as facts.

-- Jim Cooke (JJCooke@yahoo.com), March 20, 2000.


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