Thu, Mar 11, 2004 page1

• No change in cross-strait military tensions, CIA says

  • By Charles Snyder / STAFF REPORTER IN WASHINGTON
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  US intelligence has not yet detected any military moves by China to try to influence Taiwan's presidential election, CIA Director George Tenet says.

  But despite the lack of any publicly-released information on Chinese military activity, the role of the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk as a potential monitor and deterrent to a military threat by China remains uncertain less than two weeks before the election.

  Tenet, appearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee, told the committee that with respect to the security situation in the Taiwan Strait as the election approaches, "there are no movements by Chinese military forces nor preparations for exercises to attempt to influence events in Taiwan."

  He did not give details or elaborate.

  Meanwhile, the Kitty Hawk, a mainstay of the US Seventh Fleet, was scheduled to leave Hong Kong yesterday after a five-day port call, but in keeping with its policy of not announcing ship movements, the Pentagon has not released any details of the carrier's plans after departing from the territory.

  The carrier battle group arrived in Hong Kong Saturday from Shanghai, where it stopped off after leaving its home port in Yokosuka, Japan, earlier this month. The Kitty Hawk is the only permanently forward-deployed -- meaning based outside of the US -- aircraft carrier in the US military.

  Fanfare

  Beijing news media paid great attention to the visit, which would seem to belie speculation that the recreational stopover is part of a mission to keep tabs on the situation in and around the Strait in the runup to Taiwan's presidential election.

  The Hong Kong visit by the Kitty Hawk is "absolutely not coincident with" Taiwan's elections, the official Beijing newspaper People's Daily quoted the commander of the Kitty Hawk battle group, Rear Admiral James Kelly, as saying on Sunday.

  "It has nothing to do with the election," the newspaper quoted him as saying.

  Nevertheless, speculation about the Kitty Hawk's role gained attention last week when Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia Randall Schriver mentioned the sailing to Hong Kong in a meeting with Taiwanese-American groups seeking Bush administration support for Taiwan's referendum.

  During a discussion of the US defense posture in the Western Pacific, Schriver said "the USS Kitty Hawk carrier group is not on its way to Hong Kong," Bob Yang (楊英育), the leader of the Taiwanese group, told the Taipei Times after the meeting.

  Schriver "did not attach any significance to it. He would leave it up to our interpretation," Yang said.

  "We were left with the impression that the Kitty Hawk would represent a show of force. That's my interpretation," Yang said.

  A US official, however, termed the Kitty Hawk trip a "routine operation" for training with a Hong Kong port call.

  He did, however, hint at a Taiwan-related role for the Kitty Hawk.

  Supporting role

  Discussing the mission of America's more than 150,000 troops based in the Asia-Pacific region, the official said their role was for "the general purpose of supporting our allies, supporting peace and stability, and supporting the various commitments we have, and that would include those under the Taiwan Relations Act."

  That act, enacted after Washington recognized Beijing diplomatically in 1979, committed the US, among other things, to retain the capability to help defend Taiwan against hostile Chinese military actions.

  However, a US military official in the naval command in Hawaii doubted that the Kitty Hawk's mission involved Taiwan. The warship was scheduled to leave its home port in the middle of last month, but it was held up with a steam leak that had to be fixed, he said. That means, he contended, that the trip was not meant to coincide with Taiwan's election.

  In addition, he noted, Beijing approved the visit.

  "I just can't imagine" that China would approve a visit that had something to do with Taiwan's election, he said.

  Besides, such an election monitoring role would be seen as "escalatory" and the US would not take a step to escalate tensions in the region at this time, he said.
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