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bobdina
08-20-2009, 11:35 AM
China army boss rips U.S. policy on Taiwan

By David Wivell - The Associated Press
Posted : Thursday Aug 20, 2009 9:10:49 EDT

BEIJING — A top Chinese general criticized the United States on Thursday for selling arms to Taiwan and accused Washington of only being cooperative when it needs help with international campaigns.

Relations between the U.S. and China are generally good, but Taiwan is a sensitive point. China and Taiwan split during a civil war in 1949, and China sees the self-governing island as a renegade province. The Bush administration’s approval last year of a major arms sale to Taiwan led China to break off military talks with the United States.

“You keep challenging and violating our core national interests, and we have to react,” People’s Liberation Army Chief of the General Staff Chen Bingde said at a meeting in Beijing with his U.S. counterpart, Army Chief of Staff Gen. George Casey.

Chen said the United States has sought China’s help in international operations such as the war in Afghanistan or in fighting piracy off Somalia but undermined the mutual trust needed for such cooperation with its arms sales to Taiwan.

“Once the United State needs us to cooperate, they are good to us, they are friendly to us. Otherwise, they can do anything they want, even to offend the Chinese people. But I don’t think that kind of cooperation can continue,” Chen said at the meeting, which was open to the media.

Casey, the Army chief of staff, said Washington understood Beijing’s position on Taiwan, but that there needed to be understanding on both sides.

“It’s difficult to build a lasting relationship when we start from a point that ‘we have problem and it is you,’ ” Casey said.

Nevertheless, Casey insisted the growing military ties between China and the U.S. would “withstand the vagaries of political turbulence.”

U.S. officials say China suspended most military dialogue with Washington last year after the Bush administration approved a $6.5 billion arms package to Taiwan.

Relations improved this year, and military contacts resumed, but Taiwan has a number of weapons requests pending in Washington, including one for relatively advanced F-16 fighter jets.


http://www.armytimes.com/news/2009/08/ap_army_china_taiwan_082009/

ghost
08-25-2009, 01:13 PM
Sounds like a powder keg ready to ignite.

I always thought that Taiwan was starting to become less of an issue with China, especially in recent months. But I suppose it has just become reality again.

How likely would a Chinese amphib invasion of Taiwan be? It doesn't seem that likely right now, but I think it has the potential to head that direction.

Reactor-Axe-Man
08-25-2009, 11:19 PM
I think it's very tempting to think of China as this monolithic entity that speaks with one mind. The reality is that China is a mish-mash of cultures, ethnic groups, and even languages - its politics cannot help but be influenced by this. Add the growing divide between the last of Old Guard who might still remember life under the likes of Mao Zedong and Dengxiao Ping and those who have come of age in a post Tienanmen Square China, and you magnify these differences.