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Lien's promise on cross-strait arms control shot down

Executive Yuan spokesman Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday that the "cross-strait arms control talks" proposed by Chi-nese Nationalist Party (MKT) Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) as one of his presidential election campaign promises could only lead the nation into a perilous situation.

At a gathering marking the establishment of the pan-blue camp's national campaign headquarters, Lien vowed that, if he is elected president, he would see to it that Taiwan's leaders and their Chinese counterparts meet for cross-strait arms control talks.

In response to Lien's proposal, Lin said the "cross-strait arms control talks" initiative is unrealistic, regardless of whether it is viewed from the angle of Tai-wan's security, US-Taiwan relations or the actual armament situation on either side of the Taiwan Strait.

Lin said Lien's cross-strait arms control talks initiative reflects how poor and wrong Lien's knowledge of international affairs is.

Lin ridiculed the KMT chairman's remarks that he would propose that Taiwan and China engage in arms control talks in the same way that the US and the former Soviet Union had engaged in nuclear disarmament talks in 1969.

The Executive Yuan spokesman said that Lien's proposed cross-strait arms control talks and the US-USSR disarmament talks were as different as "apples and oysters."

According to Lin, if the two sides were to agree to cross-strait arms control talks, Beijing would undoubtedly link the talks with the issue of US arms sales to Taiwan as a bargaining chip.

This scenario would eventually put Taiwan in a dangerous situation, he said.

Lin said that cross-strait peace can prevail only if Beijing were required to unconditionally remove missiles and other arms targeted at Taiwan, so that the two sides could exist on an equal footing.
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