- P'ENG-HU ISLANDS, Taiwan
-- The most aggressive practice run to be staged by China for an invasion
of Taiwan is terrifying the inhabitants of a tiny archipelago in the South
China Sea.
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- The P'eng-hu Islands, which lie in crystal clear waters
between Taiwan and mainland China, have been identified by Beijing as the
first stepping-stone for an all-out assault on Taiwan, which governs the
islands.
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- Last week, China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) massed
over the horizon to prepare a fearsome demonstration of its power - using
18,000 seaborne troops to launch a mock invasion of Communist-controlled
Dongshan island, a part of China's Fujian province, 170 miles to the south-west.
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- Such war games are an annual event, but this year's exercise
has a chilling intent. China's Communist mouthpiece, the People's Daily
newspaper, declared: "This year's military exercise is a substantial
warning to Taiwan's independence elements" - a reference to Taiwan's
President Chen Shui-bian, who plans constitutional changes to which China
objects.
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- In the event of an invasion, the People's Daily added,
"the PLA would immediately take the P'eng-hu Islands, forming an outpost
position to control Taiwan island".
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- In the fishing port of Magong, the islands' capital,
Chao Lee-mai gripped her nine-year-old son's hand tightly as she gazed
out to sea and considered the effect of a Chinese invasion. "Devastation.
There wouldn't be anything left but dust," she said.
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- Mrs Chao, 38, added: "I love this island, it's my
home, but I'm planning to leave as I have no doubt that P'eng-hu will be
attacked. I have no choice but to think of the safety of my family."
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- Lai Feng-wai, the 51-year-old governor of P'eng-hu, said:
"We want peace. War will mean total destruction of P'eng-hu and its
people. We live on an isolated island and I have been told that we may
only be able to defend ourselves for 24 hours," he said.
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- Even that may be an overstatement: the chain of 64 low-lying
islands, 37 miles long by 14 miles wide, has a population of just 90,000,
most of whom live in fishing villages which dot the coastline. They are
guarded by 10,000 Taiwanese troops, but they would offer little opposition
to a missile attack and ground invasion by the 2.5 million-strong PLA.
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- Since nationalist forces under General Chiang Kai-shek
first fled to Taiwan after losing a bloody civil war with Mao's Communists
in 1945, successive Chinese leaders have threatened to reunite Taiwan and
its outlying islands with the mainland by military force.
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- According to Chinese state media, the "offensive"
drills involve the PLA's most advanced weaponry, including Sukhoi Su-27
fighter jets bought from Russia. Tensions have been heightened by Taiwan's
parliament considering a bill to authorise the purchase of £11 billion
of American military hardware, including offensive weapons that could strike
inland China.
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- As a countermeasure to China's military exercises, Taiwan
held its own defence drills last week.
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- Air force jets practised landing and refuelling on sealed-off
motorways, in case the island's airfields are destroyed by a Chinese missile
attack.
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- Philip Yang, a security and defence adviser to the government,
said: "Beijing is truly worried about Chen's timetable for constitutional
reform, which it views as a step towards formal independence. It wants
to prove that the military is capable of attacking Taiwan. China is now
ready and able."
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- © Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2004. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/0
/25/wchin25.xml&sSheet=/news/2004/07/25/ixworld.html
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