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Military strength key bargaining chip for Taiwan with China: DPP

ROC Central News Agency

2010/07/19 18:34:02

Taipei, July 19 (CNA) Taiwan has to maintain its military strength to serve as a bargaining chip in negotiations with China, Chairwoman Tsai Ing-wen of the opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said Monday.

The DPP, "whether in power or as an opposition party, should continue to urge the United States to provide necessary weapons to Taiwan, and the sooner the better, " Tsai said at a seminar in Taipei called "A Rising Chinese Hegemony and a Challenge to the Region."

Tsai said China's performance at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen last December showed that it only wanted to enjoy the benefits of being a developing country rather than being a responsible country, seen by its reluctance to cooperate with the U.N. Security Council in dealing with North Korea's sinking of a South Korean naval vessel in March.

Also speaking at the seminar sponsored by think tank Taiwan Brain Trust, Randall Schriver, the former U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, argued that China's rise poses a comprehensive and global challenge that needs to be dealt with accordingly.

He said the Afghan war and the financial crisis have hobbled Washington's ability to face up to a rising China, and that under such circumstances, enhanced relations between the U.S. and Taiwan will be very important and send an accurate signal to Japan, South Korea, the Philippines and other U. S. allies in southeast Asia.

Taiwan Brain Trust Chairman Koo Kuan-min said Taiwan is the most important and the first "domino" in maintaining peace in the Asia-Pacific region, and that the balance of power of the past 50 years in the region would be totally destroyed if Taiwan were to fall into China's hands.

"China is large and strong in its outlook, but is weak in its reality" as there are many contradictions resulting from its autocratic political structure and market economic systems, said Koo, an ardent supporter of Taiwan's independence.

Koo called the world's attention to what he said was China's attempt to take advantage of Taiwan's democratic society by using every conceivable means to infiltrate Taiwan and influence its future direction. (By Yeh Su-ping & Bear Lee) enditem/ls