CIA Director Porter Goss said on Thursday that the opportunity for reconciliation between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait had been damaged by China's passage of its "Anti-Secession" Law and Taiwan's push for a new constitution.
In testimony to the Senate Committee on Armed Services on Thursday morning, Goss cited both the new law and Taiwan's "constitutional re-engineering" as negative factors affecting cross-strait relations.
Gross made the statement while discussing current and future worldwide threats to US national security. He said the Taiwan Strait is one of the five most sensitive security issues in the world.
"A mild thaw in cross-strait relations, following the first-ever non-stop flights across the Strait, may be eclipsed by Beijing's Anti-Secession Law and Taipei's constitutional reform agenda," he said.
"Beijing enacted on March 14 an anti-secession law [that] Taipei characterizes as a war-authorizing law. Taipei's National Assembly will vote this summer on constitutional reforms that Beijing has warned are part of a timeline for independence," he said.
"If Beijing decides that Taiwan is taking steps toward permanent separation that exceed Beijing's tolerance, we believe China is prepared to respond with various levels of force," he said.
According to Goss, Beijing's military modernization and military buildup is tilting the balance of power in the Strait, and its improved capabilities are threatening US forces in the region now.
"In 2004, China increased its ballistic missile forces deployed across from Taiwan and rolled out several new submarines," he said, stressing that China continues to develop more robust, survivable nuclear-armed missiles, as well as conventional capabilities for use in a regional conflict.
He said that China is increasingly confident and active on the international stage, trying to ensure it has a voice on major issues and counter what it sees as US efforts to contain or encircle it.
"[The] new leadership under President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) is facing an array of domestic challenges in 2005, such as the potential for a resurgence in inflation, increased dependence on exports, growing economic inequalities, increased awareness of individual rights, and popular expectations for the new leadership," Gross said.
He also addressed the controversy over his agency's interrogation practices during his testimony.
US officials do not view torture as a method for gaining vital intelligence, Goss said. But he acknowledged some CIA operatives may have been uncertain about approved interrogation techniques in the past.
"Professional interrogation has become a very useful and necessary way to obtain information to save innocent lives, to disrupt terrorist schemes and to protect our combat forces," he said.
"The United States does not engage in or condone torture," he said.
"I know for a fact that torture is not productive. That's not professional interrogation. We don't torture," he said.
Goss said the CIA complied fully with a broad definition of torture contained in a Justice Department memo issued on Dec. 30 last year. He could not offer assurances about CIA practices earlier last year, when the government followed a narrower interrogation policy.
Tropical Storm Usagi strengthened to a typhoon yesterday morning and remains on track to brush past southeastern Taiwan from tomorrow to Sunday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was approximately 950km east-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost point, the CWA said. It is expected to enter the Bashi Channel and then turn north, moving into waters southeast of Taiwan, it said. The agency said it could issue a sea warning in the early hours of today and a land warning in the afternoon. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was moving at
UPDATED FORECAST: The warning covered areas of Pingtung County and Hengchun Peninsula, while a sea warning covering the southern Taiwan Strait was amended The Central Weather Administration (CWA) at 5:30pm yesterday issued a land warning for Typhoon Usagi as the storm approached Taiwan from the south after passing over the Philippines. As of 5pm, Usagi was 420km south-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost tip, with an average radius of 150km, the CWA said. The land warning covered areas of Pingtung County and the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春), and came with an amended sea warning, updating a warning issued yesterday morning to cover the southern part of the Taiwan Strait. No local governments had announced any class or office closures as of press time last night. The typhoon
DISCONTENT: The CCP finds positive content about the lives of the Chinese living in Taiwan threatening, as such video could upset people in China, an expert said Chinese spouses of Taiwanese who make videos about their lives in Taiwan have been facing online threats from people in China, a source said yesterday. Some young Chinese spouses of Taiwanese make videos about their lives in Taiwan, often speaking favorably about their living conditions in the nation compared with those in China, the source said. However, the videos have caught the attention of Chinese officials, causing the spouses to come under attack by Beijing’s cyberarmy, they said. “People have been messing with the YouTube channels of these Chinese spouses and have been harassing their family members back in China,”
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said there are four weather systems in the western Pacific, with one likely to strengthen into a tropical storm and pose a threat to Taiwan. The nascent tropical storm would be named Usagi and would be the fourth storm in the western Pacific at the moment, along with Typhoon Yinxing and tropical storms Toraji and Manyi, the CWA said. It would be the first time that four tropical cyclones exist simultaneously in November, it added. Records from the meteorology agency showed that three tropical cyclones existed concurrently in January in 1968, 1991 and 1992.
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