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TAIWAN NEEDS TO STRENGTHEN DEFENSE CAPABILITY: MAC OFFICIALS

2004-06-18 23:11:45

    Taipei, June 18 (CNA) Taiwan and mainland China can sign an agreement to establish a military mutual trust mechanism if Beijing abandons its political ideology and shows willingness to talks, officials of the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said Friday.

    The officials made the remarks after China's State Council officials said earlier in the day that Taiwan's planned arms purchase will jeopardize the peace between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait.

    MAC officials noted that the ROC government must strengthen the island's defense capability amid China's increasing military intimidation against the people of Taiwan, which is necessary in light of the many missiles aimed by Beijing at Taiwan and the mainland's large-scale war games.

    Quoting statistics, MAC Vice Chairman Chiu Tai-san said Taiwan's military budget was higher than that in China in 1993. However, with its rapid growth, China's military expenditure was triple that of Taiwan in 2002, excluding those hidden in other budgets as estimated by international military experts, Chiu added.

    If Taiwan does not pay heed to this situation, there will be a military imbalance across the Taiwan Strait, Chiu stressed.

    Moreover, China's weapons are mainly offensive and Taiwan's are defensive, it is of tremendous importance that Taiwan keeps improving its defense ability, he said.

    If China really hopes for peace across the Taiwan Strait, both sides should hold talks as soon as possible to help promote peace in the Taiwan Strait and the whole Asian and Pacific area.

    Meanwhile, MAC officials also urged Chinese authorities not to obstruct cross-strait economic, trade and cultural exchanges by political interference, after reports saying that Beijing has imposed pressure on those Taiwanese enterprises or entertainment workers in mainland China who it thought are supporters of Taiwan's Chen Shui-bian administration and thus are supporters of Taiwan independence.

    The officials stressed that these exchanges have been conducted through efforts of many years between the civil sector of the two sides, and urged the Chinese authorities to stop such interference in order to continue cross-strait benign interactions for years.

(By Elisa Kao)

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