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July 13, 2004

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Practising for the real thing

Xinhua reports on PLA exercises on Dongshan Island, "just 150 nautical miles away from Taiwan's Penghu Islands". This is where all arms of the PLA unleash their newest and best toys along with 100,000 troops in a mock invasion of Taiwan. The article goes through the details, but leaves little doubt as to the intent of the exercise:


If the exercise in 1996 is targeted at Lee Teng-hui's proclamation "ROC in Taiwan"; the exercise of 2000 is directed against Chen Shuibian's substantive "Taiwan Independence" policy, the exercise of 2001 is an explicit warning to Taiwan authorities and the foreign country that attempts to interfere in the Taiwan Issue not to "play with fire". Then the exercise this year is a substantial warning to "Taiwan independence" elements.
And here you were thinking they were military exercises. It is China literally saying to Taiwan: one false move and we shoot.

 posted by Simon on 07.13.04 at 10:33 AM in the




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Comments:

Dong Shan Island is connected to the mainland by a dyke, and is anyhow at most a mile or so away. Taiwan is 100 miles from the mainland. If this is their idea of a realistic exercise, they're never going to successfully invade Taiwan, short of using nukes. An exercise involving Hainan would be far more realistic, but this would probably highlight the Chinese navy's shortcomings.

 posted by: Zhang Fei on 07.13.04 at 01:37 PM [permalink]




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