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China practiced air attack: DPP official

Citing the recent parachuting exercise carried out by the Chinese military on June 18 with the participation of eight civilian aircraft, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday criticized the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) administration for its lack of awareness in national security, urging it to attach importance on issues relating to Taiwan’s national security.

China’s Xinhua news agency reported that the Chinese air force carried out its first parachuting exercise at Shijiazhong Airport in Hebei Province on June 18. The main purpose of the exercise, which lasted two hours, was to relocate soldiers and necessary equipment or supplies to designated locations within the shortest time possible, Xinhua reported. Pictures of the exercise were available on the Xinhuanet Web site.

The story described the drill as successful and quoted an anonymous military officer as saying that similar exercises would be repeated as parachuting ability had become a recent priority and focus for the Chinese air force.

Chuang Suo-hang (莊碩漢), director of the DPP’s Policy Research Committee, said yesterday that the timing of the exercise — in which special forces were carried by civilian aircraft — was rather suspicious, as the two sides of the Taiwan Strait have just reached an agreement on allowing cross-strait charter flights.

Chuang was referring to the agreement signed on June 13 between Taiwan’s semi-official Straits Exchange Foundation and its Chinese counterpart, the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait, to launch weekend cross-strait charter flight services starting on Friday. Flights will be shared equally between Chinese and Taiwanese airlines, servicing routes between the Chinese cities of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Xiamen and Nanjing and eight airports in Taiwan.

Noting that the drill was held on June 18, a few days after the agreement was signed, and that the drill included eight civilian aircraft, Chuang said: “[The intention] is very brazenly obvious.”

Chuang said that international media viewed the parachuting exercise as China’s attempt to enhance its military transporting ability in the wake of the Sichuan earthquake.

But Chuang, mentioning an exercise that reportedly included “transporting of paratroopers and attacking and occupying airports,” said the drill was obviously aimed at attacking and occupying Taiwan’s airports.

China has never given up its plans to take over Taiwan, Chuang said, and once Chinese civilian airlines become familiar with the routes and the geography of the eights airports in Taiwan, China could use them to launch a surprise attack.

“In other words, they could come straight through [Taiwan’s] gates and leave us no time to block them,” he said, adding that Taiwan is the only neighboring country that plans to open its non-international airports to China’s civilian airlines.

Chuang urged President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and his administration not to fall head over heels for China, warning that charter flights could have an impact on regional security as well, as the cross-strait charter flight air routes purposely avoid the Japanese Air Defense Identification Zone.
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