Warning that a kind of "regional Armageddon" could result, Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said yesterday that he would urge China not to use force to resolve its dispute with Taiwan during a visit by Chinese President Jiang Zemin (
Jiang is scheduled to make a four-day visit to Australia before attending the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Auckland, New Zealand, where he will also hold talks with US President Bill Clinton.
Tension in the Taiwan Strait has heightened as Beijing stepped up military pressure on Taiwan to retract a recent affirmation of statehood by President Lee Teng-hui (
PHOTO: CHIANG YING-YINGN
Downer said military force to resolve the issue was unacceptable.
"We will be saying to President Jiang ... that we obviously take a very strong view against the use of force in the Taiwan Strait," Downer said on the Ten network's Meet the Press program.
"What Beijing understands is that any military conflict with Taiwan would have simply horrendous implications for China's relationship with the United States," he said.
"A war between China and the United States is something tantamount to a regional Armageddon."
Australian anxiety about tensions between China and Taiwan was raised by Jiang's insistence to The Australian newspaper last week that China reserved the right to use force to reunite with Taiwan.
Jiang said China's preferred policy was reunification by peaceful means, but this needed the support of a military option to be effective.
"It is the shared aspiration of the entire 1.2 billion Chinese people to settle the question of Taiwan at an early date," he said. "If China were to undertake not to use force, the peaceful reunification of China would become hollow words."
Among issues expected to be discussed during China-US talks are Taiwan and China's accession to the WTO.
US-China relations have been strained since the bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade.
A Chinese aircraft carrier group entered Japan’s economic waters over the weekend, before exiting to conduct drills involving fighter jets, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said yesterday. The Liaoning aircraft carrier, two missile destroyers and one fast combat supply ship sailed about 300km southwest of Japan’s easternmost island of Minamitori on Saturday, a ministry statement said. It was the first time a Chinese aircraft carrier had entered that part of Japan’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ), a ministry spokesman said. “We think the Chinese military is trying to improve its operational capability and ability to conduct operations in distant areas,” the spokesman said. China’s growing
Nine retired generals from Taiwan, Japan and the US have been invited to participate in a tabletop exercise hosted by the Taipei School of Economics and Political Science Foundation tomorrow and Wednesday that simulates a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan in 2030, the foundation said yesterday. The five retired Taiwanese generals would include retired admiral Lee Hsi-min (李喜明), joined by retired US Navy admiral Michael Mullen and former chief of staff of the Japan Self-Defense Forces general Shigeru Iwasaki, it said. The simulation aims to offer strategic insights into regional security and peace in the Taiwan Strait, it added. Foundation chair Huang Huang-hsiung
PUBLIC WARNING: The two students had been tricked into going to Hong Kong for a ‘high-paying’ job, which sent them to a scam center in Cambodia Police warned the public not to trust job advertisements touting high pay abroad following the return of two college students over the weekend who had been trafficked and forced to work at a cyberscam center in Cambodia. The two victims, surnamed Lee (李), 18, and Lin (林), 19, were interviewed by police after landing in Taiwan on Saturday. Taichung’s Chingshui Police Precinct said in a statement yesterday that the two students are good friends, and Lin had suspended her studies after seeing the ad promising good pay to work in Hong Kong. Lee’s grandfather on Thursday reported to police that Lee had sent
A Chinese ship ran aground in stormy weather in shallow waters off a Philippines-controlled island in the disputed South China Sea, prompting Filipino forces to go on alert, Philippine military officials said yesterday. When Philippine forces assessed that the Chinese fishing vessel appeared to have run aground in the shallows east of Thitu Island (Jhongye Island, 中業島) on Saturday due to bad weather, Philippine military and coast guard personnel deployed to provide help, but later saw that the ship had been extricated, Philippine navy regional spokesperson Ellaine Rose Collado said. No other details were immediately available, including if there were injuries among
RSS