Defense officials see fewer mainland sorties
from CHINA NEWS, 25 August 1999Defense officials said yesterday China's warplane sorties in the Taiwan Strait have lessened over the past week but declined to comment on whether the trend represents a cooling of cross-strait tensions.
It is the first sign of an easing in tensions since both sides of the strait were locked in an impasse following President Lee Teng-hui's July 9 statement which characterized Taiwan as a state.
"Chinese communist warplanes are pursuing scheduled military exercise preparations, and the number of sorties shows a declining trend," Major General Kung Fan-ding, spokesman of the Defense Ministry, told a routine news conference yesterday in Taipei.
In the meantime, Taiwan has detected no unusual moves by the mainland's ballistic missile corps, according to Kung, who said China's naval and ground forces were also conducting routine training.
Ballistic missile corps comprise the mainland's most potent psychological weapons against Taiwan.
Kung said the subsiding military movements in the strait could be partially attributable to Typhoon Sam which hit the region over the weekend.
But the spokesman refrained from relating the trends to a thaw in cross-strait relations, which sharply deteriorated immediately after Lee's statehood comment was publicized. China sees the statement as a move toward independence and insists that Taiwan should retract it.
On reports of a scheduled passage of the U.S. Kitty Hawk aircraft carrier battlegroup through seas east of Taiwan later this week, Kung said the ministry did not know of it.
Kung emphasized that any such passage will require an approval from the foreign ministry. Last year alone, a total of 84 U.S. military planes were allowed passage through Taiwan's aviation intelligence zone.
The ministry reported August 10 that it has seen an increase in sorties by Chinese warplanes, including for the first time training flights in the strait by China's most advanced Sukhoi 27 fighter-bombers.
The stepped-up military activity has prompted warnings from alarmed U.S. officials about a possible conflict or accident, and Washington has urged both sides to show restraint.Copyright 1999 China News
Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list
