Thread: PRC-ROC Military Situations.

Updated Friday, April 3, 2009 9:27 am TWN, The China Post news staff & agencies

http://www.chinapost.com.tw/taiwan/c...iwan-China.htm


Taiwan, China to collaborate on Antarctic in research first
KAOHSIUNG, Taiwan -- Taiwan and China will cooperate on research in Antarctica for the first time, in a further sign of closer ties between both sides of the Taiwan Strait, scientists said yesterday.

Taiwanese researchers are expected to join China's icebreaker and research vessel MV Xue Long (Snow Dragon) when it sets off for Antarctica in late October or November, said Wang Wei-hsien, director of Taiwan's Museum of Marine Biology and Aquarium.

“We hope to draw on China's experience in Antarctica to research topics such as the environmental impact of global warming and sustainable resources,” Wang said.

The MV Xue Long, carrying some 80 scientists and 40 crew, arrived at Taiwan's southern port of Kaohsiung on Wednesday en route to Shanghai, on the return journey from its 25th mission to Antarctica.

MV Xue Long, anchored at Kaohsiung Harbor's True Love Wharf, will remain open to the Taiwan public, students and maritime researchers Thursday and Friday until it departs for China Saturday.

Up to 1,000 visitors per day will be permitted aboard the ship, said officials from the National Museum of Marine Biology and Aquarium in the southern county of Pingtung, which is one of the organizations hosting the Xue Long's first port call in Taiwan.

MV Xue Long has just concluded its latest expedition to the Antarctic, which began last October. It is China's only polar research ship and is owned by the Polar Research Institute of China, which operates three research stations in the Antarctic and one in the Arctic.

Wei Wenliang, a deputy director with the Polar Research Institute of China, said the ship's call in Kaohsiung is purely academic in nature and sets the stage for several Taiwanese scientists to join its next research expedition to the Antarctic this October.

Four Taiwanese scientists will join the expedition in what will be the first joint cross-Taiwan Strait polar exploration.

The Taiwanese team will focus on marine biology research and be comprised of experts from the National Museum of Marine Biology and Aquarium, National Dong Hwa University in the eastern county of Hualien and Cheng Shiu University in the southern county of Kaohsiung.

The latest cooperation venture with China is expected to be of great help to Taiwan's polar research in light of China's rich experience and resources in this area, he added.

Thanks Bryan and astralis for the correction.



Defense News

04/03/09

Taiwan-China Mil-to-Mil Report False

By Wendell Minnick

Taipei - Media reports that the U.S. Pacific Command (PaCom) is sponsoring a military-to-military dialogue between China and Taiwan for this summer appear to be incorrect.

Over the past week, media reports here have indicated China and Taiwan would conduct military discussions in Hawaii sponsored by PaCom. These reports are erroneous, sources here and in Washington say.

China and Taiwan will send senior military officers to attend the Transnational Security Cooperation Course provided by the Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies (APCSS), a U.S. Department of Defense-funded think tank based in Hawaii. This has been exaggerated as a formal military-to-military meeting by the local press, a Taiwan defense official said.

"Yes, this is an old issue," a former U.S. military official said. "The Chinese had sent guys to the APCSS course, but withdrew once an invitation was sent to the Taiwan military to send students. It settled into a one year Taiwan, next year China, next year Taiwan, etc. I don't recall them both going at the same time, but
I could be wrong. In general, it's just not a big deal."

There has been cross-Strait fever in Taiwan since direct flights began in 2008 after the presidential election of Ma Ying-jeou of the Beijing-friendly Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT). Ma has openly discussed confidence-building measures and a possible peace treaty with China.

However, China and Taiwan military officials have exchanged views and met on numerous occasions, often during nongovernmental venues, such as the annual Shangri-la Dialogue in Singapore, the Taiwan source said.

"There have been Chinese military visits to Taiwan, under think tank, nonofficial guise," the U.S. source said. "They've been together as adjunct fellows at think tanks here in Washington, D.C. They've been together at conferences in Europe. It's actually been going on since the early to mid-1990s."

Despite the false media reports, there have been increased discussions about creating friendlier relations across the Taiwan Strait to facilitate possible exchanges of official military delegations. Taiwan's Ministry of National Defense has openly acknowledged the possibility.

Although friendly relations might ease tensions across the Taiwan Strait, it has raised concerns that "too much of a good thing" could erode Taiwan's security.

Critics are pointing to the visit of a "Chinese spy boat" to the southern port of Kaohsiung from April 1-4. Docked at the harbor's True Love Wharf, the MV Xue Long (Snow Dragon) is an A2-class icebreaker and Arctic research ship assigned to the Polar Research Institute of China. Although it has been accused of spying in the past - in March 2005,

Taiwan frigates chased it out of the island's territorial waters - a military official said the Snow Dragon was ordered to turn off all electronic monitoring equipment before entering Taiwan waters. Kaohsiung is the largest naval base in Taiwan.

xinhui,

if you notice too, it's not really a forum- it's a class. when that news report came out i was interested, coz i wouldn't mind going to hawaii for business but when it came to verification...

Here is a follow up.



April 15, 2009
China open to military talks
BEIJING - CHINA is open to defence talks with rival Taiwan, a senior mainland official said on Wednesday, but he denied reports the two militaries would soon hold a historic meeting in the United States.

Li Weiyi, spokesman for China's Taiwan Affairs Office, said reports that Chinese and Taiwan military officials would gather in August in Hawaii for their first talks in 60 years were 'inaccurate.'

The official China Daily last month cited unnamed mainland military officials as saying a meeting between the two militaries would be held in Hawaii.

The meeting would have been the first since the two sides split. But Mr Li told journalists that some form of dialogue between the rival militaries would be 'constructive' and could ease tensions across the Taiwan Strait.

'Cross strait military exchanges... could start with academic exchanges between experts on the issue of military security and mutual trust,' Mr Li said.

Such exchanges could also be initiated by retired servicemen from the two sides, he said.

Mr Li also announced that the next meeting between the two semi-official bodies that handle dialogue between China and Taiwan was likely to be held in April or May.

The previous meeting between the heads of Taiwan's Straits Exchange Foundation and China's Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits was held in November last year.

It led to the opening of daily passenger flights across the Taiwan Strait along with other transport links. -- AFP

An interesting article from ROC, but I not sure I buy it.


Japan may now have to rearm itself

Monday, April 13, 2009
By Joe Hung, Special to The China Post

North Korea fired a long-range rocket on April 5. Pyongyang claimed the rocket sent a satellite into orbit, but the U.S. North American Aerospace Defense Command said in a statement: "Stage One of the missile fell into the Sea of Japan and the remaining stages along with the payload itself landed in the Pacific. No object entered orbit and no debris fell on Japan."

Well, that's the reason why the Japanese self-defense forces didn't fire missiles to destroy any debris. But along with the United States, Japan believes North Korea was testing long-range ballistic missile technology that can be used to carry a nuclear warhead far beyond its skies to Alaska.

The fear of a nuclear attack from North Korea, coupled with the current economic recession, is more than likely to prompt Japan to re-arm itself. North Korea, rather than Russia or the People's Republic of China, is Japan's only potential enemy. And the country is headed by Kim Jong-Il, the erratic despot son of Kim Il-Song, who launched an invasion to kick off the Korean War in 1950. Pyongyang has gone on the record by saying it has stopped trying to make nuclear bombs, but the Japanese military suspects that they may have been stockpiled.

Japan has a mutual defense treaty with the United States. Uncle Sam provides a nuclear defense umbrella for Japan under the treaty signed at the beginning of the Cold War era for protection against attacks from the Soviet Union. Thanks to the mutual defense arrangements, Japan has been able to refrain from rearmament, which is frowned upon by the United States and the People's Republic of China, along with those Asian countries that were invaded or occupied by the Japanese Imperial Army before and during the Second World War.

The global financial crisis has changed the situation, however. Japan is one of the countries hardest hit by the silent tsunami, which, if not halted in time, may engulf the world like the Great Depression of the early 1930s.

The Wall Street crash of 1929 precipitated a sharp decline in Japan's silk industry first. By 1931, the index of raw silk prices, with those in 1914 at 100, was down to 67, compared with 151 in 1929 and 222 in 1925. Over the same period, the index for rice fell from 257 to 114.

A world slump in international trade simultaneously reduced Japan's cotton exports, driving a large proportion of unemployed girl factory workers to seek refuge in their native villages. The result was widespread poverty in rural areas.

One solution Japan found to cure its economic woes was to expand military spending. The Kwantung Army created the Mukden Incident on Sept. 18, 1931.The people who began to consider Western democracy the source of all evils cheered on the army, the only stabilizing force in the nation, for the occupation of Manchuria and the founding of Manchukuo with China's "last emperor," Henry Pu Yi, as the puppet emperor. This laid the ground for expansion abroad and the building of a country organized for war.

Government policy played an important part in these developments. At first, this was because of attempts to overcome the economic crisis, but it came later to depend very largely on military needs. Military spending rose sharply from under 500 million yen and 30 percent of the budget in 1931 to 4 billion yen and 70 percent of the budget in 1937-8. And on July 7, 1937, the undeclared war between Japan and the Republic of China under Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek occurred.

In fact, Japan was among the first countries to recover from the Great Depression by massive military spending. If the current economic crisis continues to deepen, Japan simply has to sharply increase defense spending to tide it over.

It will spend its way out of the crisis.

Unemployment has soared in Japan, where tent villages have been opened in large public parks, including one at Hibiya in Tokyo. Its export trade has shrunk and will continue to shrink. Domestic demand remains very weak at best. As a matter of fact, the Japanese economy hasn't completely recovered from the bubble burst after the Plaza Accord of 1989.

The pro-American Liberal Democratic government of Prime Minister Taro Aso is teetering on the verge of collapse, while a much more conservative leader, Ichiro Ozawa of the Democratic Party, is still likely -- all but certain, if not held in check by the political contribution scandal -- to come to power, come September. If he does, Japan is all set to go nuclear to protect itself against hostile North Korea.

Japan has a no-war constitution.

One of its unchanging fundamental government policies is not to make or own nuclear weapons of mass destruction. But Japan is also a nation capable of making an instant about-face.

During the ten years of Taisho democracy in the first quarter of the last century, officers were so ashamed of wearing their military uniform in public that they kept the clothing in a rented dorm in front of the barracks, where they all became quick-change artists to pass the sentry.

Civilians with good eyesight wore zero-power glasses to pretend short-sightedness, which was a status symbol of intellectuality and refinement. They espoused militarism and ultranationalism after schools had started teaching a government-authorized mythological history of Japan to foster blind submission to the emperor, who was revered as a living god, descending linearly from the Sun God Amaterasu Omikai.

They were taught to believe Japan was a divine nation destined to deliver the peoples of Asia from under Western colonialism.

The Japanese made another about-face after World War II. History may repeat itself in Japan, unless the current economic crisis is stymied from developing into a disaster worse than the Great Depression and recovery starts in the not-too-distant future.

Copyright © 1999 – 2009 The China Post.
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Getting back on topic, PRC-ROC Military Situations, and I guess what is meant by that is "military scenarios".

Here's a scenario, if push comes to shove

1. 4 squadrons of FA-18E's dropping AS/ASU mines and Harpoons over the strait.

2. A lot of PLA on the bottom of the sea.

Here are some questions.

Does the PRC really want to go to war over Taiwan and get a royal a*s kicking by the USN?

If not, does the PRC think that in the next one hundred years, ROC will give up independence?

If it does, for what reason would ROC give up independence?

Originally Posted by xinhui

One of its unchanging fundamental government policies is not to make or own nuclear weapons of mass destruction. But Japan is also a nation capable of making an instant about-face.

During the ten years of Taisho democracy in the first quarter of the last century, officers were so ashamed of wearing their military uniform in public that they kept the clothing in a rented dorm in front of the barracks, where they all became quick-change artists to pass the sentry.

Civilians with good eyesight wore zero-power glasses to pretend short-sightedness, which was a status symbol of intellectuality and refinement. They espoused militarism and ultranationalism after schools had started teaching a government-authorized mythological history of Japan to foster blind submission to the emperor, who was revered as a living god, descending linearly from the Sun God Amaterasu Omikai.

They were taught to believe Japan was a divine nation destined to deliver the peoples of Asia from under Western colonialism.

The Japanese made another about-face after World War II. History may repeat itself in Japan, unless the current economic crisis is stymied from developing into a disaster worse than the Great Depression and recovery starts in the not-too-distant future.

Copyright © 1999 – 2009 The China Post.
Back to Story

Print friendly - News from The China Post

No.

At that time almost every country to a lesser or greater degree had school instituted nationalism and divine theories of greatness. Including England.

After Perry sailed in, Japan wanted to bolster its defence so that there wouldnt be a repeat of something like the Opium Wars on its soil.

After it really started to modernize, it needed materials and markets, and so did Germany.

Like Germany, Japan had little in the way of colonies. Delivering native populations into modernity through its subservience was just a romantic notion, convenient, but really it was about one colonial power taking over from another, as one did in those days - with force.

It was all just part of the Great Game.

Originally Posted by WarisHell

Getting back on topic, PRC-ROC Military Situations, and I guess what is meant by that is "military scenarios".

Here's a scenario, if push comes to shove

1. 4 squadrons of FA-18E's dropping AS/ASU mines and Harpoons over the strait.

2. A lot of PLA on the bottom of the sea.

Here are some questions.

Does the PRC really want to go to war over Taiwan and get a royal a*s kicking by the USN?

If not, does the PRC think that in the next one hundred years, ROC will give up independence?

If it does, for what reason would ROC give up independence?

Money. Or at least that's what Beijing thinks.

million-man swim............. not so funny now.




China, Taiwan approve swim through military zone
Mon Jun 15, 2009 2:31pm IST


TAIPEI (Reuters) - Authorities in China and Taiwan, political rivals once on the brink of war, have agreed to remove underwater military barricades and let 100 people swim from one side to the other, Taiwan officials said on Monday.

The 8.5-km (5.2-mile) swim, billed as the latest symbol of peace between the two sides as well as their first military agreement, is set for August 15 between the southeast Chinese city of Xiamen and Little Kinmen, an outlying Taiwan-controlled island.

"The bigger meaning is that this is a competition for peace," Kinmen County Magistrate Lee Zhu-feng told a news conference. "We want peace, not war."

Military officials have agreed to remove anti-ship landing barricades, which stand as testament to a skirmish between the two sides five decades ago, county officials said.

Protected by coast guard boats from both sides, about 100 professional swimmers, 50 from each side, will go one way from Xiamen through the warm but choppy waters.

Next year another 100 swimmers, 50 from each side, plan to do the route in reverse in what could become an long-term annual event, organizers said.

In 1958, China bombed the islands of Kinmen, also known as Quemoy, for weeks as it tried to seize them. Kinmen has strategic and military value and remains heavily guarded. The main island of Taiwan is about 160 km (100 miles) from China.

The barricades are spikes mounted at an angle on cement bases and designed to spear warships headed toward shore.

China has claimed Taiwan since 1949, when Mao Zedong's Communists won the Chinese civil war and Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalists (KMT) fled to Taiwan. Beijing has vowed to bring Taiwan under its rule, by force if necessary.

Since Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou took office in May, the China-friendly leader has eased tension with Beijing through trade and transit deals, although military distrust lingers.

(Reporting by Ralph Jennings; Editing by Ken Wills and Sugita Katyal)

Military port has commercial future
By Xie Yu (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-06-25 08:08
Military port has commercial future

Part of a port dedicated to military use in Fujian province, on the western side of the Taiwan Straits, could be up for conversion to economic development.

Zhang Xiong, a Ningde port authority official, told China Daily that the city government "has made a verbal contract" with the navy, and that it may pull out from part of the Sandu'ao harbor region, including Sandu island.

A regimental naval officer surnamed Chen said: "The several regiments stationed on Sandu island now may pull out. We are waiting for the final order."

It was announced in June that an economic zone would be built on the west side of the Taiwan Straits and that Sandu'ao harbor in Ningde, Fuzhou harbor, Xiamen harbor and Meizhou bay harbor would be selected for priority development by Fujian province.

"It's finally our turn," said Chen Guangmin, vice-chairman of the tourism association of Ningde city.



China National Offshore Oil Corp and the Fujian provincial government signed a contract yesterday to invest 23 billion yuan ($3.4 billion) in the Sandu'ao region and build an industrial park, including an oil reserves base, near the harbor.

"Thanks to warmer cross-Straits ties, I don't think we need as much military force here as before," Chen Guangmin said.

Military port has commercial future

Zhang said the government was negotiating with the navy to establish clear boundaries.

"They will keep some areas closed, and we will develop the remaining," he said.

Situated 145 km from Taiwan's Kee Lung harbor, and located on main arteries of many international services, Sandu'ao has a special advantage for future development, said Pan Xiaojin, vice-director of Ningde's harbor bureau.

In the first five months of this year, direct shipping carried nearly 1 million tons of goods from Ningde to Taiwan.

Dr Sun Yat-sen, founding father of the Kuomintang, described Sandu'ao harbor as "the deepest ice-free harbor in the world". It used to be Fujian's center of trade and culture and also home to businesses from a dozen nations.

Before 1993, this region was used mainly for military purposes and foreign ships were not allowed to enter.

The mainland opened 7.5 km coastline in that region in 1993, and approved a larger area for development in 2005, but the open area was still mainly used for fish farming.

Last August, Fujian province approved a development plan for Sandu'ao harbor created by Ningde city government. Massive construction began in February.

The plan includes more than 3 billion yuan in investment, and two 100,000 ton-grade berth docks to be built before next year. Another two 200,000 ton-grade berth docks will be completed before 2012.

China is sending 1000 boots to ROC, I guess this will give a new meaning to the phase "boots on the ground"