China's Army Said in Large Exercise

China's Army Said in Large Exercise
By JOHN LEICESTER, Associated Press Writer

BEIJING (AP) - China has massed thousands of troops and will deploy some of its most high-tech weaponry in war games to practice capturing a Taiwanese island and attacking an aircraft carrier, a state-run newspaper said Friday.

The drills, involving land, sea and air forces and code-named ``Liberation One,'' begin this month on and around China's Dongshan Island, off the southeastern Chinese coast in the straits that separate China and Taiwan, the Beijing Morning Post said.

China's Foreign Ministry described the drills as routine. ``Every country has military exercises, this is normal,'' a spokeswoman said.

But a report on a Web site operated by the government's Xinhua News Agency said they were ``a military warning'' to the administration of Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian. Chen has angered Beijing by refusing to endorse its view that China and Taiwan are one country.

The exercises are China's first large-scale war games since Chen's election last May and are among the largest ever conducted by the Chinese People's Liberation Army, the Beijing Morning Post said. The world's biggest army, with 2.5 million members, is trying to reshape itself into a modern fighting force.

``The main military targets of these exercises will be attacking and occupying an outlying Taiwanese island and attacking an aircraft carrier,'' the Beijing Morning Post said. The drills ``demonstrate the Chinese government's determination to protect sovereignty and territorial integrity.''

Taiwan and China split amid civil war in 1949, but Beijing still regards the island as part of its territory. China has repeatedly threatened to attack Taiwan if its government indefinitely rebuffs Beijing's demands for talks on unification or if it declares outright independence.

If meant as a warning to Chen, the drills would mark an escalation in Chinese efforts to force him to accept the ``one-China principle.''

Beijing said after Chen's election that it would give him time to take steps to ease tension. But recently Beijing has expressed mounting frustration over Chen's refusal to endorse ``one China.''

The Chinese army's plans to practice attacking an aircraft carrier appeared designed with U.S. forces in mind.

President Bush (news - web sites) angered Beijing in April by approving a large package of weapons for Taiwan and by saying that U.S. forces could be used to defend the island from Chinese attack. An April 1 collision between a U.S. Navy (news - web sites) spy plane and a Chinese fighter jet also strained relations.

In Taiwan, a Ministry of Defense spokesman said China routinely holds drills this time of year because the weather is favorable.

``We have not seen signs that the drills are a threat to Taiwan,'' said the spokesman, speaking on customary condition of anonymity.

The spokesman said all nations hold military exercises and that Taiwan should not get alarmed when China does. He also said that combined exercises - involving jets, warships and troops - are routine in maintaining a modern military. Such drills by nature will be large, he said.

The Beijing Morning Post said forces taking part in the exercises will include missile batteries, amphibious tanks, submarines, warships, marines and Russian-made Su-27 fighters - among the most modern weapons in China's growing arsenal.

Nearly 10,000 troops have been taking up position on Dongshan since mid-May, the newspaper said, quoting a report in a pro-Beijing Hong Kong newspaper.

``Dongshan Island is now full of all types of Liberation Army units. Troops that have reached the site of the exercises are intensifying training in order to prepare for the big maneuvers,'' the newspaper said. http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20010601/wl/china_war_games_2.html