PRESIDENT ATTENDS MILITARY EXERCISE IN CENTRAL TAIWAN
ROC Central News Agency
2005-07-27 19:25:15
Taichung, July 27 (CNA) President Chen Shui-bian said Wednesday that as the armed forces' commander-in-chief and national leader, he has to stand on high ground and take overall national security into consideration.
The president made the remarks while inspecting a live-fire military exercise aimed mainly at testing the armed forces' combat prowess in a counterattack against enemy airborne troops and commandos at the Chingchuankang air base in central Taiwan.
Some 2,000 troops, four F-16 jet fighters and nine C-130 transports took part in the live-fire training drill to hone the military units' skills in fighting off a hypothetical Chinese attack featuring paratroopers and sustained bombardment starting from the north of Tatushan on the western outskirts of Taichung City.
The drill, part of the ongoing Han Kuang 21 military exercise, also saw the participation of tanks and infantry troops enacting the scenario of a sudden Chinese invasion.
The president was accompanied by Vice President Annette Lu, Premier Frank Hsieh, Presidential Office Secretary-General Yu Shyi-kun, National Security Council Secretary-General Chiou I-jen, and National Defense Minister Lee Jye for the drill.
The heavy cloud cover sometimes hampered the view of airborne troops parachuting, but their performance was enthusiastically applauded by the audience in the grandstands.
The president lauded the Ministry of National Defense (MND) for being more accurate in its studies of China's strategic intentions, combat capabilities, troop training, and possible military actions against Taiwan than the United States in its recently unveiled report on China's military power.
He also said that if the international community could not use its collective strength to restrain the emergence of a threatening China or fail to see through the potential factors behind the facade of a peaceful rising China, then the international community will have to take the consequences.
He pointed out that the U.S. Pentagon's recent report on China's military power clearly stated that China has continued to increase its military spending in a double-digit figure and that it has deployed between 650 and 730 ballistic missiles against Taiwan, resulting in an apparent tilt of the cross-strait military balance toward Beijing.
The report on the strength of China's People's Liberation Army and its trend of development is almost identical with that of the MND's own assessment, he said.
He also said the report has shown China's apparent and possible military threat to Taiwan, and that the U.S. is seriously worried and concerned about Beijing's continued improvement of its strategic missiles and nuclear deterrent counterattack capability will threat countries in the Asia-Pacific region.
The president said that China is at a critical crossroads on its way to developing into a regional power, especially because it has actively stepped up its military build-up and is increasing its missile deployment unabated. It even enacted the "Anti-Secession Law" in March, codifying the use of force if Taiwan moves toward formal independence.
This has shown that Taiwan will not be the only possible victim of Chinese military expansion, he said.
A genuinely effective way to check and channel a rising China will be to deepen the peaceful awakening of China and its democratic development so that it will become a positive force in international democracies in its development process, the president said.
(By Lilian Wu)
enditem/mw
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