Taipei, May 3 (CNA) The Ministry of National Defense (MND) on Wednesday corrected false news reports on Wednesday that said mainland Chinese warplanes recently crossed the mid-point of the Taiwan Strait.
Several Taiwan newspapers ran reports that Tang Yao-ming, chief of the General Staff, said over a dinner with People First Party (PFP) legislators on Tuesday that mainland military planes have crossed the mid-point of the Taiwan Strait more often recently than in the past, a move perceived as provocative, but the ROC Air Force has not engaged these aircraft for fear that a direct confrontation will trigger war.
A MND spokesman said that the reports are untrue, and that the ministry is correcting the reports to ease possible misgivings that the reports might have aroused.
The spokesman said that Tang actually told the legislators that mainland China warplanes twice crossed the mid-point of the Taiwan Strait -- in July and August last year -- to illustrate Beijing's anger when President Lee Teng-hui aired his "special state-to-state relationship" theory.
The MND assessed at the time that the mainland move was designed as a provocation, and asked the air force to act cautiously and avoid possible confrontation.
The spokesman said that since August 1999, the air force has not reported any military planes from the mainland crossing the mid-point of the strait.
The spokesman went on to say that the ministry has reported the movement of the mainland armed forces at routine press conferences, and added that while the mainland army, air and naval forces have conducted routine training exercises recently, there have been no signs of a mass staging of mainland forces or large-scale exercises.
He further said that the ministry is keeping close tabs on military movements in the mainland, and that it will take the initiative to report on them so long as it does not affect national security or endanger the sources of Taiwan's military intelligence.
PFP Legislator Liu Wen-hsiung confirmed on Wednesday that Tang said mainland Chinese warplanes crossed the mid-point of the Taiwan Strait last year, but came short of mentioning the type and the number of warplanes involved.
Liu said that according to Tang, the military was extra vigilant during the campaign for the March 18 presidential election, saying that Tang flew to the offshore outpost of Kinmen on March 19, and had meetings with high-ranking military officials on March 20, all of which were related to the intimidation by the mainland during the election and the efforts to reassure the people of the nation's safety.
He said that legislators had suggested to Tang that the military take the initiative to "tell the people the truth" about Beijing's military provocation, lest the people of Taiwan are lulled into a false sense of security not shared by the rest of the world. (By Lilian Wu)
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