China is a global economic opportunity -- and possible problem

"But Taiwan has more reason to worry ... We should all be alarmed," the editorial said.

Speaking in a recent interview, Deputy Minister of National Defense Michael Tsai (蔡明憲) said China had deployed 700 ballistic missiles within range of Taiwan and its military build-up was continuing apace. But Tsai noted that Taiwan was not the only potential target.

"We expect that total [of 700 missiles] to increase to 800 by 2006, including about 100 long-range missiles capable of delivering a warhead more than 12,000km -- capable of hitting California or any part of the Pacific region, including Korea and Japan," Tsai said.

Taiwanese can take some small comfort from the fact that China appears to have miscalculated the international impact of its Anti-Secession Law. The law is the principal reason why the EU has decided to delay, until next year at least, its plan to lift its post-Tiananmen arms embargo.

It has also helped refocus the Bush administration's attention on Taiwan and other China-related issues, disturbing its long-running fixation on Iraq and Middle Eastern terrorism. US President George W. Bush made a point last week of drawing attention to human-rights failings and restrictions on religious observance in China. "We expect there to be peace in Taiwan,"Bush said.

The Pentagon is in the midst of a review of its strategy in the Pacific. And according to reports in Israel, the US, which is pledged to assisting Taiwan's self-defense, has cut the Israeli government out of a new fighter-plane project, called the F-35, in protest at its arms sales to Beijing.

In these respects, it seems clear that the government-permitted anti-Japanese ructions are serving to remind Washington and Europe, as well as Beijing's neighbors, that China is much more than an economic opportunity. It poses a strategic challenge that could become everyone's problem.