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Chen highlights threat of missiles in interview with CNN

President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) has accused China of "provoking" his government by targeting Taiwan with nearly 1,000 missiles, stepping up the rhetoric against Beijing.

In a wide-ranging interview with CNN broadcast over the weekend, Chen insisted that China had put Taiwan on the defensive with its provocative acts, rejecting Beijing's claims that he was to blame for cross-strait tensions.

"It is China that is provoking Taiwan," Chen said.

"It passed the `Anti-Secession' law. It never formally renounced the use of force against Taiwan," the president told the cable news channel.

"[The Chinese government] has also begun to complete three-stage preparation work to invade Taiwan in the future," Chen said during the interview.

"What this government, the people of Taiwan, and this administration have been doing is merely defending the sovereignty, dignity, and security of our country," he said.

Chen said he was merely trying to maintain the peaceful status quo in the Taiwan Strait, and he lashed out at China over what he called a massive increase in the number of missiles pointing at the country.

Chen told CNN there were now 988 short and medium-range ballistic missiles pointed at the country.

"Back in the year 2000, when I first became president, the missiles deployed along the southeastern coast of China were about 200, and now they are almost 1,000. They have increased almost by fivefold," the president told CNN.

Last week, the Ministry of National Defense said that Beijing had built up a huge arsenal of missiles facing Taiwan, up from 160 ballistic missiles in place in 1996.

"As of now, the Chinese communists have stockpiled 880 ballistic missiles and more than 100 cruise missiles, placing the whole of Taiwan under their range," Taiwan air force Major General Wang Cheng-hsiao told reporters in a regular press conference in Taipei.

"These missiles indeed pose a serious threat to Taiwan," he said.

Taiwan has deployed three US-made Patriot PAC-2 anti-missile batteries to defend the densely populated greater Taipei area.

The Chen administration has long sought to purchase more batteries to beef up Taiwan's defenses, but its efforts have so far been stalled by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the People First Party.

The opposition parties assert that a vaguely worded failed referendum held in 2004 in conjunction with the presidential election has made it "illegal" for the government to purchase three Patriot PAC-3 anti-missile batteries from the US.

Chen also pledged to continue his drive for a new constitution and to join international bodies like the UN and WHO -- goals which are strongly opposed by Beijing.
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