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| China-Japan-Koreas |
| China drill before Taiwan poll |
| 2004-03-15 |
| EFL: Taiwan has accused Beijing of intimidation, after China announced it would stage naval drills with France in the run-up to Taiwan’s elections. The official Chinese news agency, Xinhua, said they would be China’s biggest ever joint military exercises with a foreign power. But the agency made no link between the exercises off the port of Qingdao and the elections this Saturday. No connection at all, nope, nope. China has a history of flexing its military muscles just before Taiwan goes to the polls. It has also been especially critical of Taiwan’s first-ever referendum, also being held on Saturday, which Beijing views as a provocative step towards independence. Beijing views everything as a provocative step "If this week’s planned exercises are as large as those China held in 1996 they will clearly amount to an attempt to intimidate Taiwan’s voters," Joseph Wu, deputy secretary general to Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian, told BBC News Online. I don’t think the Taiwanese are as easy to intimidate as the Spanish. "This will be China’s most comprehensive naval exercise with any foreign navy," said Xinhua, quoting Ju Xinchun, captain of the Chinese guided missile destroyer, Harbin. China held its first ever joint naval exercises last year, when it conducted separate drills with both Pakistan and India. This will be its first exercise on the high seas with a major Western power, said Xinhua. Major power? I thought they were exercising with France? The French Goverment confirmed the exercises but denied there was any significance in their scale or timing. "They are part of the regional cooperation between the two navies, which was expanded after last year’s visit to France by Chinese President Hu Jintao," said a spokesman for the French Foreign Ministry in Paris. Demonstrating French arms, hoping for a sale. Just when was the last French naval victory, the seventeen hundreds? French warships - including the French anti-submarine warfare destroyer Latouche-Treville and light frigate Commandant Birotplan - will carry out joint search-and-rescue exercises and other drills with the North China Sea Fleet of the People’s Liberation Army. Chinese missile tests immediately before Taiwan’s first direct presidential elections eight years ago prompted the US to send two aircraft-carrier battle groups to the area, in its biggest military deployment in the region since the Vietnam War. The US will be annoyed with both sides taking part in this week’s exercises, say analysts. "The timing is very insensitive - it could not be worse," said Jean-Pierre Cabestan, a senior China specialist at the French National Centre for Scientific Research. "This is going to create additional tensions - both between Taiwan and China and between the United States and France," he told BBC News Online. Just keep digging, Jacques. Taiwan suspended high-level government contacts with France earlier this year after French President Jacques Chirac sided with China in opposing President Chen’s plan to hold a referendum on missile defence. France has also drawn criticism from both Washington and Taipei by spearheading moves to lift a European Union ban on arms sales to China, imposed in the wake of the violent suppression of the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989. |
| Posted by:Steve |
| #10 I wouldn't worry too much Dishman... to sell ASW you have to have ASW, train ASW and live ASW. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2004-3-15 8:08:22 PM |
| #9 ... the French want to sell ASW tech to the Chinese? While I like the general direction the Chinese leadership appears to be going, this really disturbs me. Part of the difficulty they would have invading Taiwan is their lack of ASW. Giving China the means to overcome that hurdle might not lead to trouble, but why tempt stupidity? |
| Posted by: Dishman 2004-3-15 6:51:38 PM |
| #8 A "hot" response on a French ship of the line by Taiwan would be a hoot. Could you imagine the feathers flying. Glad to see you're back, no one does weird images better than you. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2004-3-15 6:11:37 PM |
| #7 Just when was the last French naval victory, the seventeen hundreds? Actually, it was 1943 when the battleship Jean Bart fired 15" naval guns on Ameican infantry invading Morocco. For a while. The USS Massachusetts (imagine naming a warship after that state today!) dropped a 16" shell on the one working turret of the JB, jamming it. French honor was upheld. |
| Posted by: Mr. Davis 2004-3-15 12:57:49 PM |
| #6 A "hot" response on a French ship of the line by Taiwan would be a hoot. Could you imagine the feathers flying. What would they do, boycott? |
| Posted by: Lucky 2004-3-15 12:27:36 PM |
| #5 To me, this is no big deal. Since when is the presence of the French military in a "show of force" troubling to anyone (although for some, such as John F***ing Kerry, the absence of the French military in Iraq and elsewhere is troubling)? He's always talking about the "lessons of Viet Nam." Shouldn't one lesson he learned from Viet Nam be that the French are Le Pussies? |
| Posted by: Tibor 2004-3-15 11:42:33 AM |
| #4 I know that I should not be surprised, but the French never cease to amaze me. Joint naval exercises with the ChiComs. BTW, Jacques, how's the leClerc Tank deal going with the Saudis? |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2004-3-15 11:18:08 AM |
| #3 This is a calculated bet. The idea is that the Taiwanese will cave, just like the Spanish, in response to China's show of force - and elect the KMT. Will this bet pay off? We'll find out in a week. |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2004-3-15 10:49:58 AM |
| #2 the De Gaulle gonna be there? Oh, that's right, it has a 50 mile cruising radius before refitting is needed |
| Posted by: Frank G 2004-3-15 10:35:36 AM |
| #1 one thing to say on this - fuckin french |
| Posted by: Jon Shep U.K 2004-3-15 10:29:15 AM |