The US Department of Defense's annual report to Congress on "The Military Power of the People's Republic of China" highlighted growing concern, not only among US officials but also regional nations, over the impact of the rapid modernization of China's military forces on regional security, and its belligerence toward Taiwan as the cross-strait military balance has continued to tilt toward China.
The report related that the People's Liberation Army now has 650 CSS-6 and 730 CSS-7 short-range missiles targeted at Taiwan, as well as over 700 aircraft, including a rising share of advanced Su-27 fighters, two-thirds of its naval forces and 375,000 ground troops stationed across from Taiwan.
New findings also remind the world that China is improving its strategic missiles, capable of targeting India, Russia, virtually all of the US, as well as the Asia-Pacific theater as far south as Australia and New Zealand. Beijing's recent engagement in conflicts with its neighbors over territory and resource rights, also illustrate political uncertainties.
While the report attributed the rationale for Beijing's continued military build-up as a move to both prevent Taiwan's independence and to counter any third-party -- potentially the US -- intervention in cross-strait affairs, the modernization of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) and its explicit ambition to threaten countries in the region, is cause for more global concern.
President Chen Shui-bian (
Moreover, the third-party argument plays an illegitimate role -- unless a cross-strait conflict were to be initiated solely by the People's Republic of China. Washington will help defend Taiwan and provide Taipei with defensive-oriented weapons in accordance with its own domestic law, the Taiwan Relations Act.
The irony is, China unilaterally enacted the so-called "Anti-Secession" Law this March despite international concerns. The law provides a legal basis for the PLA to employ "non-peaceful means" to resolve cross-strait disputes. To put it simply, Beijing will have the absolutely right to define the conditions for using force against Taiwan.
Under such circumstances, one cannot help but ask the following essential questions: Does Taiwan's independence and US interference in cross-strait affairs constitute an apparent and direct threat against China's national security? If not, why would the Chinese government increasingly and continuously expand its military power and develop long-range missile systems in the absence of a clear and present danger from the outside?
The Pentagon report is a wake-up call to the international community that Taiwan is not the only potential victim of Beijing's missile development and military aggrandizement. China's emerging military threat has extended beyond the Asia-Pacific region to Russia, Central and Southern Asia, and Australia.
Even though the Chinese authorities have introduced the concept of "peaceful rise," a new term to describe China's emergence, the notion of the "China threat" is by no means limited to the Taiwan Strait.
In pursuing engagement with China, the international community, including the US, must state clearly that safeguarding a strong and democratic Taiwan is in the interest of US efforts to create peace and prosperity in the Asia-Pacific region. Only by offering Taiwan support for continued democratic consolidation and defense can the impact of the "China threat" be jointly managed.
Liu Kuan-teh is a Taipei-based political commentator.
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