The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government yesterday welcomed a remark by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao (溫家寶) that Chinese missiles aimed at Taiwan would one day be removed. The opposition, however, dismissed Wen’s comment as vague and a mere effort to boost the KMT’s prospects ahead of November’s municipal elections.
During a meeting on Wednesday with reporters posted to New York by Chinese-language media, Wen was asked about withdrawing Chinese missiles targeting Taiwan.
“I believe the issue you mention will eventually be realized,” said Wen, who was in New York for the UN General Assembly.
The remarks made him the highest-ranking Chinese leader ever to comment publicly on the issue.
Commenting on Wen’s remarks, Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) said: “We believe the remark is a gesture of goodwill.”
“The withdrawal of the missiles will not neutralize the threat facing Taiwan, but it is a most specific sign of goodwill,” he said.
The Ministry of National Defense estimates that there are about 1,500 short-range missiles targeted at Taiwan, a number that has grown by about 100 per year for the past decade. Other reports state the number is closer to 2,000.
The latest addition of missiles, confirmed by Admiral Robert Willard, the top commander of US forces in the Pacific, in March, involved the transfer of up to eight batteries of surface-to-air missiles to a military airport in Fujian Province.
The Pentagon said in an annual report to Congress last month that China’s military build-up against Taiwan has “continued unabated,” despite the improving political relations.
On July 30, a spokesman for China’s defense department said that the issue of missile removal is negotiable “based on the ‘one China’ principle.”
In response, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said through his spokesman on Aug. 2 that Beijing should remove the missiles without conditions because doing so would mark an important step toward improving bilateral relations.
While Wen’s choice of words on Wednesday indicated that the missiles would be dismantled “eventually,” Wu yesterday said: “We hope it [the removal] can be done as soon as possible, as it’s everyone’s wish in Taiwan.”
DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), on the other hand, was more skeptical, adding that Wen’s answer was “very vague — so vague that it may be considered a meaningless answer.”
“I understand that they want to create the image that they are a friendly party and they don’t have bad intentions, but that statement is just too vague to achieve that purpose,” she said.
Instead, Tsai said, there was a widely held view that the remarks were made to coincide with the Nov. 27 elections, with polls showing that the KMT will likely lose one or two mayoral seats.
“I think the public here pretty much has a view that the Chinese are doing this for political purposes and they, of course, favor the KMT in the local elections,” Tsai said.
The last time some of the missiles were fired across the Strait was in 1996, after China conducted missile tests into waters surrounding Taiwan, allegedly to intimidate and sway voters against re-electing then-president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝). The attempt backfired as angry voters handed Lee an overwhelming victory at the polls.
“The Chinese have been heavily involved in domestic politics here and I have no reason to believe they will stop doing this in the next 10 years,” Tsai said. “They will continue to do so and probably with greater intensity.”
The ease with which the missiles could be relocated means that a far more important issue is whether China would be willing to renounce the use of force against Taiwan, Tsai added.
“You also have to ask, how quickly or easily can the missiles be redeployed after they are removed?” she said. “If they can be redeployed very easily, then what [Wen] said is basically just empty words.”
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