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U.S. SUCCEEDS IN ENCOURAGING TAIWAN TO BOOST NATIONAL DEFENSES

ROC Central News Agency

2006-03-08 19:41:03

    Washington, March 8 (CNA) The United States has encouraged Taiwan to take steps to bolster its national defenses and has achieved success in this regard, Adm. William Fallon, commander of the U.S. Pacific Command, claimed Tuesday.

    Fallon made the remarks while attending a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee on military strategy and operational requirements in fiscal 2007. "We've been working with the military of Taiwan to encourage them to take steps to bolster their defense, which I think would be exceedingly useful both for themselves and to help us. And I'll tell you that we've had success in that regard. We're going to continue to work with them closely to move that particular initiative forward, " he said.

    When asked to assess the current state of China-Taiwan relations in light of the recent decision by President Chen Shui-bian to cease the National Unification Council and China's continuing buildup of its missiles targeting Taiwan, Fallon characterized them as "significantly reduced from a year ago."

    Although Chen's move has caused some concern, "I will cite the fact that the response from China has been pretty muted. There hasn't been much of a reaction in that change from past activity. But I think it's an area that we obviously have to continue to watch," Fallon said. "A year ago things were indeed tense. There there was a lot of rhetoric being thrown back and forth by both sides. But in fact there was significant activity going on on the ground. That has subsided significantly during the year," he said. "The recent announcement by Chen was not particularly helpful, I think, in that situation," Fallon said.

    But he noted the "absence of any significant activity from the Chinese other than statements, " and said "there have not been the types of activity we have seen in the past, such as riots and loud protests involving large numbers of people."

    Fallon said that to the best of his knowledge, the U.S. has not seen any military movement from China in conjunction with Chen's recent move to cease the operations of the NUC.

(By Oliver Lin and Lilian Wu)

ENDITEM/J