China practices an `attack on Taiwan' as warning to Chen

China has massed thousands of troops and will deploy some of its most high-tech weaponry in war games to practice capturing a Taiwanese island and attacking an aircraft carrier, a state-run newspaper said yesterday.

The drills, involving land, sea and air forces and code named "Liberation One" (解放一號), begin this month on and around China's Dongshan Island, off the southeastern Chinese coast in the straits that separate China and Taiwan, the Beijing Morning Post said.

China's Foreign Ministry described the drills as routine. "Every country has military exercises, this is normal," a spokeswoman said.

But a report on a Web site operated by the government's Xinhua News Agency said they were "a military warning" to the administration of President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁). Chen has angered Beijing by refusing to capitulate to its view that China and Taiwan are one country.

The exercises are China's first large-scale war games since Chen's election last May and among the largest ever conducted by the Chinese People's Liberation Army, the Beijing Morning Post said. The PLA, the world's biggest army with 2.5 million members, is trying to reshape itself into a modern fighting force.

"The main military targets of these exercises will be attacking and occupying an outlying Taiwanese island and attacking an aircraft carrier," the Beijing Morning Post said. The drills "demonstrate the Chinese government's determination to protect sovereignty and territorial integrity."

China has repeatedly threatened to attack Taiwan if its government indefinitely rebuffs Beijing's demands for talks on unification or if it declares outright independence.

If meant as a warning to Chen, the drills would mark an escalation in Chinese efforts to force him to accept the "one China" principle.

Beijing said after Chen's election that it would give him time to take steps to ease tensions. But recently Beijing has expressed mounting frustration over Chen's refusal to kowtow to "one China."

The Chinese army's plans to practice attacking an aircraft carrier appeared designed with US forces in mind.

US President George W. Bush angered Beijing in April by approving a large package of weapons for Taiwan and by saying that US forces could be used to defend Taiwan from Chinese attack.

An April 1 mid-air collision between a US Navy spy plane and a Chinese fighter jet also strained relations.

In Taiwan, a Ministry of National Defense spokesman said China routinely holds drills this time of year because the weather is favorable.

"We have not seen signs that the drills are a threat to Taiwan," said the spokesman, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

The spokesman said all nations hold military exercises and that Taiwan should not get alarmed when China does. He also said that combined exercises -- involving jets, warships and troops -- are routine in maintaining a modern military. Such drills by nature will be large, he said.

The Beijing Morning Post said nearly 10,000 troops have been taking up positions on Dongshan since mid-May.