Taiwan says elite force needed to safeguard island (Roundup)

Oct 1, 2009, 13:07 GMT

   Taipei - Taiwan Premier Wu Den-yih said Thursday that there is a need for the island to maintain an elite force to defend itself despite slowly improving ties with political rival China.

   'A government which fails to perceive hostility of other rival countries is tipped to be doomed,' Wu said, citing a Chinese idiom in supporting the government policy to keep a strong defensive force in case cross-strait relations turned sour again.

   He made the remarks when asked by journalists at a news conference in Taipei about China's display of its military might at a National Day military parade earlier Thursday and Chinese President Hu Jintao's vow to complete cross-strait reunification.

   In a speech marking the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, Hu said Beijing 'will continue to strive for the complete reunification of our motherland, which is a common aspiration of the Chinese nation.'

   Hu also said Beijing would push forward peaceful development of both sides of the Taiwan Strait.

   Wu said Taiwan is also seeking peaceful development with the mainland, but in improving ties, Taiwan should not rely solely on the goodwill of China.

   'We must make preparation for the worst,' he said, apparently referring to Beijing's ultimate goal to bring the island back into the Chinese fold.

   Taiwan and China split at the end of a civil war in 1949, and Beijing still considers the island an integral part of China that must return to the Chinese fold, if necessary by force.

   Cross-strait ties, once highly sour, have improved gradually since China-friendly President Ma Ying-jou became president of Taiwan in May last year and adopted a policy to engage Beijing.

   Wu said Taiwan also needs to maintain close ties with democratic allies, including the United States and Japan, to make sure that it is not isolated. He stressed that it is difficult for an isolated nation to survive.

   Meanwhile, Taiwan's pro-independence, opposition Democratic Progressive Party snubbed Beijing for trying to intimidate the island by flexing its muscle during its National Day military parade.

   'Very obviously, the military parade was aimed at menacing Taiwan,' party spokesman Chao Tien-lin said.

   Chao asked people in Taiwan to perceive the meaning behind the parade despite China's economic rise.

   Earlier, three Taiwan cable news channels - CTI, ETTV, TVBS, which provided live coverage of the parade - invited scholars and military experts to analyze the significance of the parade and China's modern weapons.

   'A democratic nation would not spend so much money and energy on putting on such an elaborate show,' China expert Huang Chieh-cheng said on CTI. 'Only communist and totalitarian countries do this.'

   Shuai Hua-min, a lawmaker and former military official, said China was expanding the National Day celebration because it wants the world to take it seriously.

   'China tells the world, 'I am somebody. You must take China seriously. The Chinese people have stood up,'' he said on CTI.

   'For many years, the Chinese people suffered humiliation' at the hands of Western powers, he said. 'Western countries see Chinese as second-class citizens, ... so China wants to display to the world its modern army.'

   Taiwan did not send delegates to China's National Day celebrations, but about 200 people from Taiwan, including business leaders, scholars and overseas Taiwanese, attended the festivities in a private capacity.

   But a flurry of exchanges are to kick off after China's National Day holidays, according to the Commercial Times daily in Taipei.

   The Bank of China is to open a branch in Taiwan, and Taipei and Beijing are to sign a pact on monetary settlement after that, the paper quoted Sun Yafu, deputy director of Taiwan Affairs of China's State Council, as saying.

   Taiwan and China are to hold another high-level dialogue in Taichung in central Taiwan in December to sign four pacts on fishing cooperation, farm products' inspection and quarantines, industrial standards and avoidance of double taxation, Sun told Taiwan business leaders while attending a National Day reception Wednesday evening in Beijing.

   The dialogue was expected to cover the two sides signing an Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement, which is similar to a free-trade agreement, the Commercial Times said.