CHINA'S ARMS PURCHASES SAID AIMED AT UPPING ABILITY TO TAKE TAIWAN
Jun 28, 2002 15:29 UTC+0800
New York, June 28 (CNA) Mainland China's interest in the purchase of new weapons systems and their quick delivery speaks to the strategy at the heart of its weapons purchases, namely to rapidly build a credible threat for retaking rival Taiwan, the Asian Wall Street Journal reported Friday.
The daily was referring to a US$1.6 billion arms deal being negotiated between mainland China and Russia where Beijing would purchase eight Russian submarines.
The Project 636 Kilo class submarines, on top of the four Kilo-class submarines already in mainland China's arsenal, would allow Beijing to mount a robust blockade of trade-dependent Taiwan, the daily quoted defense experts as saying.
The eight submarines, equipped with long-range anti-ship Klub missiles, could be an added deterrent to intervention by the United States, which in 1996 sent two aircraft carrier battle groups to the Taiwan Strait region to counter mainland Chinese threats in the form of missiles fired near Taiwan during military exercises intended to influence Taiwan's presidential election, the report added.
"This puts mainland China in a position where they will never have to kowtow to an American naval task force as they did in 1996," Alan Dupont, an Asian-Pacific security expert at the Australian National University, was quoted as saying.
(By S.C. Chang)
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