Fri, Nov 25, 2005 page2

• Experts at odds over China's role in East Asia security

  • By Shih Hsiu-chuan / STAFF REPORTER
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  The role China plays in East Asia's security was highlighted at a forum yesterday, with experts at odds over whether China was playing a constructive or destabilizing role in the region.

  The forum was held by the Taiwan-based Cross-Strait Interflow Prospect Foundation and the China Institute of Contemporary International Relations (CICIR) based in Beijing. The think tanks focused especially on security in the Taiwan Strait.

  Speaking of the availability of energy resources, Li Ming-juinn (李明峻), deputy secretary of the Taiwan Society of International Law, said that China and Japan could bring war to the international community as they try to secure stable crude oil supplies.

  The dispute over the rights to underwater energy reserves in the East China Sea proves that China's strategy to acquire foreign oil is seriously challenged by Japan, he said.

  He added that the disputes lie not only in exploring for oil resources, but also in maintaining transport channels, as China has been trying to secure them against possible hazards.

  Japan, on the other hand, also vies with China to acquire oil resources to restrain China's economic development and retain its position of leadership in the region, he said. He said that the countries would become natural opponents in the a war over oil.

  Liou To-hai (劉德海), a professor at National Chengchi University's Department of Diplomacy, addressed the forum from the viewpoint of China's participation in the six-party talks, to check North Korea's nuclear ambitions.

  He said that China, which has gradually played an important role in the six-party talks, has reaped considerable benefits so far with the goals it has set up.

  "China wants to form the image of joint burden-sharing between China and the US in Asia, and to degrade Japan, as well as to rope in the US to cooperate on other issues which are vital to [Beijing]," he said.

  Another goal is for China to enhance its relations with North Korea, he said, noting that should China become stronger in the future, Japan would be put into a disadvantageous position.

  "China has shifted its diplomatic strategy to the aspect of shortening its economic ties with other countries, with the aim to countering the containment policy the US adopted against it. Its final goal is to form an economic region that can rival the EU and the US," Liou said.

  Yang Wen-jing (楊文靜), an assistant researcher at the Institute of American Studies of the CICIR, however, said that China is actually an active contributor to East-Asian security.
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