cj#986> China & Taiwaan: the South China Morning Post article

1999-09-22

Richard Moore

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To: •••@••.•••
Subject: Re: cj#985> Randy Miller: CHINA MAKING CONCRETE PLANS TO INVADE TAIWAN
Date: Tue, 21 Sep 1999 13:26:46 EDT
From: "Arun A. Tharuvai" <•••@••.•••>

The South China Morning Post is a Hong Kong based newspaper.

Here's the URL of the article mentioned for those who are interested.

"Fight for Taiwan tops PLA's list of priorities" reads the headline.
http://www.scmp.com/News/China/Article/FullText_asp_ArticleID-19990921025736309.
asp

Arun A Tharuvai

===============

Dear Arun,

Thanks.  The article is below.

-rkm

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Tuesday, September 21, 1999
 
Fight for Taiwan tops PLA's list of priorities
OLIVER CHOU and REUTERS
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Battling Taiwan independence has been listed as the PLA's main task while
crossing the strait and landing have become the focus of troops' training,
a Beijing-affiliated paper said yesterday.

Hong Kong's Wen Wei Po quoted Beijing military experts as saying the
designation of a specific military objective was an important sign because
of the PLA's "very strict management and training". One expert said history
showed the PLA always undertook military action against its enemies once an
objective was set.

The paper also quoted sources as saying crack troops had been transferred
to the mainland's southeast coast. Advanced fighter jets, bombers,
submarines and missile units were being deployed in specified locations.
Troop training had become Taiwan-oriented, the sources said.

"Control of the air, sea, electromagnetic field and strait-crossing are the
key contents in the training programme," the paper said. It quoted the
unnamed military experts as saying each level of the troop command
responsible for frontal attacks on Taiwan had a set of operational plans.

"These plans are carried out according to the military objective which may
vary from regional war to an all-out war, or from a blockade to a strike
against the enemy's effective strength," the experts said. Priority had
been given to producing arms for sea crossing operations.

"While [the numbers of] missiles and submarines must be kept in absolute
superiority, the production of warships, ship-borne weapons, communications
equipment and fighter bombers will be increased," one expert said. He said
the PLA was more prepared than other countries realised for the military
option to resolve the Taiwan issue.

"A war will surely break out if Lee Teng-hui continues to act wilfully even
though Beijing has stated to try every possible means to reach a peaceful
reunification," the expert said. Separately, it was reported that China's
new naval fighter-bomber would fly over central Beijing during the National
Day celebrations on October 1. Yesterday's Science and Technology Daily
said an unspecified number of FBC-1 "Flying Leopard" bombers would pass
over Tiananmen Square to open the military parade.

The supersonic aircraft, designed and developed by more than 10,000
mainland aviation experts, can carry four missiles weighing a total of five
tonnes. Development production and testing took years, the paper said. It
included a picture of the plane, saying it could carry air-to-air or
air-to-surface missiles and had a combat radius range of 1,650km.

Published in the South China Morning Post. Copyright (c) 1999. All rights
reserved.



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