"Although the cross-Strait ties have improved significantly in recent years, the Chinese communists' military have not slowed at all their pace of build-up aimed at Taiwan," the United Daily News said, citing the ministry report.

In a report to the US Congress last month, the Pentagon also warned that China's military build-up against the island has "continued unabated" despite improving political relations across the Taiwan Strait.

China's military spending for 2010 rose 7.5 percent on last year, in spite of the global economic downturn, said the Taiwan report which was sent to parliament last week.

Looking ahead, the defence report said Beijing may offer concessions to Taipei on minor issues but will not budge on the decades-old dispute over the island's sovereignty.

Ties between Taiwan and the mainland have improved markedly since 2008 when Ma Ying-jeou of the Beijing-friendly Kuomintang party came to power.

But despite the fast warming ties, Beijing still refuses to renounce the use of force against the island, saying it was aimed at preventing the independence movement gathering ground on the island.

The People's Liberation Army may also attack the island "should the military tip the balance seriously towards Beijing," the defence report was quoted as saying.

It also cautioned of the likelihood of Chinese military action should Taipei push for a referendum on independence, or if it amends the constitution in favour of independence.

Last month's Pentagon report said China is investing in nuclear weapons, long-range missiles, submarines, aircraft carriers and cyber warfare.

"The balance of cross-Strait military forces continues to shift in the mainland's favor," the report said.

Beijing still considers Taiwan part of its territory awaiting reunification -- by force if necessary -- even though the island has ruled itself since 1949 at the end of a civil war.

]]> Thu, 09 SEP 2010 14:57:57 AEST Taipei (AFP) Aug 30, 2010 - Closer contacts between retired Taiwanese generals and the Chinese authorities have sparked concerns in Washington, the island's major arms supplier, media and an official said Monday.

The former generals started visiting China years ago, but with Taiwan's mainland ties improving rapidly since 2008, the trips have become so frequent that they have drawn US attention, the Taipei-based China Times said.

"The United States has voiced its concerns to (Taiwan's de facto ambassador) Jason Yuan and voiced the hope that Taiwan can come up with an explanation," the paper said, without naming the source.

It said Washington was especially concerned if such contacts may endanger long-standing military cooperation projects with Taiwan.

Washington is also wondering if the visits mark the beginning of discussion about military exchanges and the establishment of confidence-building measures between the two former cross-Strait rivals, it said.

"It would be understandable if the United States voices such concerns, given the fast improving ties between Taipei and Beijing," Chen Wen-yi, deputy chief of the foreign ministry's North American Affairs Department, told AFP.

But he said the concerns were unnecessary as the visits were not authorised by the government.

Beijing still regards Taiwan as part of its territory awaiting reunification, by force if necessary, although the island has ruled itself since the end of a civil war in 1949.

Despite the underlying tension, relations have improved markedly since 2008 when Ma Ying-jeou of the China-friendly Kuomintang party became president, pledging to boost trade links and allowing in more Chinese tourists.

]]> Thu, 09 SEP 2010 14:57:57 AEST Washington (AFP) Aug 16, 2010 - China is extending its military advantage over Taiwan and increasingly looking beyond, building up a force with power to strike in Asia up to the US territory of Guam, the Pentagon said Monday.

In an annual report to Congress, the US Defense Department said China was ramping up investment in an array of areas including nuclear weapons, long-range missiles, aircraft carriers and cyber warfare.

"The balance of cross-Strait military forces continues to shift in the mainland's favor," the report said.

The Pentagon said China's military build-up on the Taiwan Strait has "continued unabated" despite improving political and commercial relations since the island elected Beijing-friendly President Ma Ying-jeou in 2008.

The report -- which was delayed by five months as US officials fine-tuned the wording -- covered 2009, before the United States approved a 6.4 billion-dollar arms package for the island in January.

China considers Taiwan, where the mainland's defeated nationalists fled in 1949, to be a province awaiting reunification, by force if necessary.

The military report said China was "already looking at contingencies beyond Taiwan," including through a longstanding project to build a far-reaching missile that could potentially strike US carriers deep in the Pacific.

"Current trends in China's military capabilities are a major factor in changing East Asian military balances and could provide China with a force capable of conducting a range of military operations in Asia well beyond Taiwan," it said.

China's military doctrine has traditionally emphasized the ability to strike within an area extending to Japan's Okinawa island chain and throughout the South China Sea east of Vietnam, the report said.

But Chinese strategists are now looking to expand their reach further to be able to hit targets reaching up to the US Pacific territory of Guam, including much of mainland Japan and the Philippines.

China is working on the longer-range precision missile, but probably needs more work on the technical infrastructure to put the weapon into use, an official who helped draft the report said on condition of anonymity.

Japan and Vietnam, which both have historic tensions with China, have reported rising incidents with China's military in recent months.

The Pentagon report credited China with becoming slightly more open about its military, but reiterated concerns about an overall lack of transparency.

In March this year, China said it was raising its defense budget by 7.5 percent to 532.1 billion yuan -- 77.9 billion dollars at the exchange rate at the time -- breaking a string of double-digit increases.

The Pentagon study was cautious on suggestions that China's military was partaking in national belt-tightening, saying that the spending growth may be lower simply because the forces were at the end of a five-year program.

The Pentagon paper estimated that China's overall military-related spending was more than 150 billion dollars in 2009 when including areas that do not figure in the publicly released budget.

The US defense budget -- by far the world's largest -- is more than 700 billion dollars in the fiscal year beginning in October.

President Barack Obama's administration has sought to broaden cooperation with China, which in the last quarter surpassed Japan to be the world's second largest economy after the United States.

But the administration approved the package to Taiwan that included helicopters, missile defenses and mine-sweepers, leading China to snap military exchanges with the United States.

The Pentagon said it wanted dialogue with China to avoid any "miscalculation" between the two militaries.

"We stand prepared to work with the Chinese if they are prepared to work with us," the anonymous official said. "But it only does us so much good to show up to a meeting if we're the only ones that are there."

The Taiwan arms sale did not include F-16 fighter-jets, which the island and many US analysts say are crucial to narrowing the strategic gap with Beijing.

]]> Thu, 09 SEP 2010 14:57:57 AEST Taipei (AFP) Aug 4, 2010 - A computerised scenario carried out by Taiwan's military showed that in a war with China the island's capital Taipei would be in enemy hands in just three days, a report said Wednesday.

Last month's simulation, attended by President Ma Ying-jeou, came amid warnings that China could increase its missiles aimed at Taiwan by several hundred to more than 1,900 this year, despite warming ties.

Under the scenario, assuming war in 2011, the People's Liberation Army (PLA) launched intensive air raids on Taiwan before sending in ground troops from sea and air, Next Magazine reported.

The war game found that Chinese troops could march into Taipei on the third day of hostilities, seizing control of Taiwan's top military command and the presidential office, it said, quoting unnamed sources.

The results dealt a huge blow to Ma's goal of building "solid defence and efficient deterrence" with a small but elite army, it said.

Taiwan's defence ministry dismissed the report.

China still regards Taiwan as part of its territory awaiting reunification and has increased its military build-up since a missile crisis in 1996, according to analysts.

The PLA launched ballistic missiles into waters near Taiwan during a series of live-fire drills in 1995 and 1996, aiming to deter the Taiwanese from voting for Lee Teng-hui, the independence-minded president then seeking another four-year term.

China halted its sabre-rattling only after the United States sent two battle carrier groups to waters near the island.

Although tensions across the Taiwan Strait have eased since Ma's China-friendly administration came to power in 2008, Beijing has still not ruled out the use of force against the island should it declare independence.

]]> Thu, 09 SEP 2010 14:57:57 AEST Beijing (AFP) Aug 2, 2010 - China and Taiwan have a "long way to go" to build up military trust, state media said Monday, after Beijing reportedly offered to consider removing its missiles pointed at the self-ruled island.

Defence ministry spokesman Geng Yansheng said Friday that Beijing would agree to talks with Taiwan on military security "at a proper time" with an eye on trust-building, according to an official press conference transcript.

"This can be pushed forward step-by-step -- first on easy issues, and then hard ones," he said.

The spokesman was quoted by the Nanfang Daily as saying after the formal briefing that the issue of China's missile deployment could be included in the future talks.

Geng however cautioned that such an offer was conditional on Taiwan's acceptance of the "one-China principle". Beijing sees the island as part of its territory awaiting reunification, by force if necessary.

Taipei -- for which the "one-China principle" means surrendering its sovereignty to Beijing -- rejected the suggestion, with Premier Wu Den-yih quoted in the press as saying: "We cannot possibly agree to what he said."

Taiwan again called on Beijing to pursue peace through dialogue and remove the missiles.

"This is the government's established policy and we'll continue conveying the thought to Beijing," the Mainland Affairs Council, which handles relations with China, said in a statement.

Lo Chih-chiang, Taiwan's presidential office spokesman, blasted the missile deployment and demanded that they be removed.

"Despite the fast improved ties over the past two years, China still targets Taiwan with more than 1,000 missiles. This picture is incongruous, and those missiles have hurt the feelings of Taiwan's people," he said.

Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou has repeatedly urged Beijing to remove the ballistic missiles, insisting Taipei is unlikely to conduct talks on political relations under the perceived military threat from Beijing.

China's Global Times -- which is published by the Communist Party mouthpiece the People's Daily -- said in an editorial Monday that Taiwan's reaction was "not completely surprising".

"When it comes to building military trust, the sombre reality is that there is still a long way to go," the newspaper said.

It said the new proposal was "meant to reassure the people in Taiwan of their growing security, and also to give another push toward warming up cross-Strait relations", but warned points of contention remained.

"The deployment of missiles is to deter those die-hard Taiwan separatists," it said.

Military experts estimate that China has more than 1,600 missiles aimed at Taiwan. The island's deputy defence ministry told AFP last month that the figure could rise to 1,900 by year's end.

Taiwan and China split at the end of a bloody civil war in 1949.

Ma's Kuomintang administration is more China-friendly than that of his predecessor Chen Shui-bian, and since he took office in 2008 relations between the two former arch-rivals have improved significantly.

In June, the two sides signed the historic Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA), their most sweeping accord to date.

]]> Thu, 09 SEP 2010 14:57:57 AEST Taipei (AFP) July 28, 2010 - China may use a trade pact with Taiwan to push for its political goal of reunification, the island's parliament warned in a report on Wednesday.

The Beijing-friendly administration of President Ma Ying-jeou last month signed the historic Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA), the most sweeping accord yet signed between the two former bitter rivals.

Taiwan's parliament, dominated by Ma's Kuomintang party, warned Beijing may have a political motive behind the agreement.

"While ECFA may generate a lot of business opportunities for Taiwan, we must not turn a blind eye to the perceived threats in the wake of the agreement," it said in a research report for lawmakers obtained by AFP.

Taiwan's Economic Minister Shih Yen-shiang has said the ECFA is expected to create 60,000 new jobs in two years.

But the main opposition Democratic Progressive Party warns the deal, which has yet to receive final approval from parliament, would relegate Taiwan to the status of a local government such as semi-autonomous Hong Kong and Macau in any talks with Beijing.

Echoing the warning, the parliamentary report said Beijing could force Taipei into political negotiations once Taiwan became more reliant on the mainland economically.

"When that happened, Beijing may press for a peace agreement to pave the way for China's peaceful reunification," it said.

Taiwan enjoyed a surplus of 37.6 billion US dollars in trade with the mainland in 2009, and analysts say the gap is not likely to be narrowed by the agreement, which has been tipped to benefit Taipei.

The report also challenged Ma's belief that the agreement would encourage other countries to sign free trade agreements (FTA) with Taiwan.

"Despite the agreement, China will continue deterring other countries from forging FTAs with Taiwan ... so as to highlight its sovereignty claim over Taiwan," the report said.

Ties between Beijing and Taipei have improved markedly since Ma came to power in 2008. Beijing still considers the island part of its territory waiting to be reunified -- by force if necessary -- though the island has ruled itself since their split in 1949 at the end of a civil war.

]]> Thu, 09 SEP 2010 14:57:57 AEST Taipei (AFP) July 21, 2010 - China could raise the number of missiles aimed at Taiwan to 1,900 by the end of the year despite warming ties between the former bitter rivals, according to the island's deputy defence minister.

Military experts estimate that the PLA currently has more than 1,600 missiles aimed at the island.

But recent media reports have said the People's Liberation Army may boost the number of short-range ballistic and cruise missiles facing Taiwan to 1,960 before the year's end.

"Judging from their manufacturing capacities, the PLA could increase to that number of missiles targeting Taiwan before the year's end," Andrew Yang, an academic-turned deputy defence minister, told AFP.

Although tensions across the Taiwan Strait have eased since President Ma Ying-jeou's China-friendly administration came to power in 2008, "Beijing has never renounced the use of force against Taipei," Yang warned.

Beijing has repeatedly vowed to invade Taiwan should the island declare formal independence even though Taiwan has governed itself since the end of civil war in 1949.

Yang did not discuss possible evidence indicating a issile build-up by the PLA.m

The perceived military threat has prompted Taiwan to launch wargames simulating an invasion by China.

Taiwan's president has also vowed to build stronger armed forces to serve as a deterrent against aggression from Beijing, while also promising to push for a peace treaty to end more than six decades of hostilities.

]]> Thu, 09 SEP 2010 14:57:57 AEST Taipei, Taiwan (UPI) Jul 20, 2010 - Taiwan is planning to purchase torpedoes and heavy tanks from the United States in an attempt to further fortify its defense capabilities against China.

The Liberty Times reported that Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou ordered the country's defense ministry to draft a draw up a shopping list of weapons that include MK-54 torpedoes, dozens of M1A2 tanks and amphibious landing vehicles.

If acquired, the Taipei daily reported, the torpedoes will be used to replace Taiwan's aging MK-46s.

The decision comes despite an easing of tense relations between China and Taiwan in recent years.

The move also follows a decision by the Taiwan government to press ahead with a controversial $6.4 billion purchase of U.S. missiles, helicopters and ships despite the public stated wrath of China. The package includes an estimated 60 Black Hawk helicopters, 114 Patriot air-defense missiles and supplies for Taiwan's aging fleet of F-16 fighter jets.

China and Taiwan split at the end of a civil war in 1949. Still, Beijing considers Taiwan a wayward province that must be brought back into the fold. It has used a number of means, diplomatic and military, to deter other nations from officially recognizing Taiwan as an independent state.

Even so, relations between both sides have increasingly thawed, allowing Taiwan to pursue trade deals with other countries that have long been reluctant to antagonize Beijing.

This week, however, Taiwan staged a computerized war game to test its readiness to repel Chinese forces, a Defense Ministry statement said.

The simulated war game coincides with a defense ministry report predicting that China will deploy hundreds of new missiles aimed at Taiwan by the end of 2010. Military experts have also said that China has increased its missiles aimed at Taiwan from 300 in 2001 to 1,400 in 2008.

No details have been provided on the total number of missiles currently deployed.

Washington has tried to bolster Taiwan's defenses while allaying China's concerns of relations being undermined. Beijing though has urged the U.S. administration to reconsider the move, threatening the suspension of military contacts with the United States as well as slapping sanctions on the companies manufacturing the weapons bound for Taiwan.

Washington is required under the Taiwan Relations Act to ensure that Taiwan can defend itself. The United States remains the island's top arms supplier.

Last year, U.S. President Barack Obama paid a 4-day visit to China where he signed a joint statement under which China and the United States agreed to respect each other's "core interests."

]]> Thu, 09 SEP 2010 14:57:57 AEST Taipei, Taiwan (AFP) July 19, 2010 - Taiwan on Monday started a computerised wargame simulating a D-Day style attack by China, the defence ministry said.

During the five-day drill, Chinese forces attack the island from Guangzhou and Nanjing, the military districts nearest Taiwan, while Taiwanese forces test counterattack strategies.

"The purpose of the drill is aimed to test our defence capabilities in case the People's Liberation Army launched an invasion," a defence ministry official said, declining to provide details.

Ties between Taipei and Beijing have improved markedly since President Ma Ying-jeou of the China-friendly Kuomintang came to power in 2008, pledging to boost trade links and allowing more Chinese tourists to visit.

But Beijing still refuses to rule out the use of force against the island should it formally declare independence, although Taiwan has governed itself since China's civil war ended in 1949.

Ma has vowed to build stronger armed forces to serve as a deterrent against aggression from Beijing, while also promising to push for a peace treaty to end more than six decades of hostilities.

]]> Thu, 09 SEP 2010 14:57:57 AEST Washington (AFP) July 16, 2010 - Taiwan still wants the United States to approve further weapons sales despite a marked thaw in tensions between the island and mainland China, the government spokesman said Friday.

Johnny Chiang, the minister of the Government Information Office, said on a visit to Washington that national security remained paramount for the self-ruling island and "for its democracy."

"In order to have a credible deterrence to prevent any future miscalculation, it is reasonable and necessary for Taiwan to continue to have those armaments that we cannot manufacture ourselves," he told reporters.

Chiang said that Taiwan still had a standing request for weapons including F-16 fighter-jets. The United States in January approved a 6.4 billion-dollar package including helicopters, anti-missile defenses and mine-sweepers.

China protested the sale to Taiwan, where nationalists fled in 1949 after losing the mainland's civil war to the communists. Beijing considers the island a province awaiting reunification, by force if necessary.

But relations have improved since Taiwan in 2008 elected Beijing-friendly President Ma Ying-jeou. China and Taiwan last month signed a trade pact, marking the most sweeping cooperation yet between the two sides.

Despite sealing the pact, Chiang said it was too early for China and Taiwan to engage in formal talks on a long-term political settlement.

"We don't think... that our mutual understanding and mutual trust is mature enough to talk about those sovereignty issues," Chiang said.

Ma has sold the trade deal on economic terms and argued that -- whatever Beijing's political motivations -- the agreement would ease Taiwan's isolation.

Ma's critics fear that the agreement would jeopardize the island's de facto independence and may eventually turn it into a Chinese territory along the lines of Hong Kong and Macau.

earlier related report
Taiwan agents jailed for spying for China: report
Taipei (AFP) July 17, 2010 - Two former law enforcement agents from Taiwan have been sentenced to prison terms for selling secrets to China, a report said Saturday.

Chen Chih-kao, who quit Taiwan's Investigation Bureau 13 years ago to do business in Shanghai, got a three-year jail term for spying for China with the help of Lin Yu-nong, said the United Daily News, citing a Supreme Court ruling.

Chen, 58, paid Lin about 232,000 Taiwan dollars (7,250 US) during 2006 and 2007 to collect confidential information on the bureau's "national security net system" and a financial crime-fighting center, the report said.

Lin, who was fired by the bureau after he was arrested and indicted three years ago, was sentenced to six years in prison, the report said.

Supreme Court officials were not immediately available for comment on the report.

Taiwan and China have spied on each other ever since they split in 1949 at the end of a civil war. Beijing still claims the island as its territory.

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