Report: China's Military Plans Exercises
Associated
Press | July 4 2004
Comment: What with Summer
Pulse 2004 also taking place, those waters are getting awful crowded.
BEIJING -- China intends to hold military
exercises this month across the strait from Taiwan, as Beijing builds up
its capability to back up its frequent threats to invade the island.
The annual summer exercises will be held this year on Dongshan
Island off the Chinese coast and will include air, sea and land forces,
the China Youth Daily said Saturday. The newspaper didn't give a date or
say how many troops would take part.
China's military holds such drills at different points
along the coast facing Taiwan every summer, practicing beach landings and
attacks on shore targets by ships and warplanes. Tens of thousands of troops
take part.
China has threatened repeatedly to invade Taiwan, which
has been ruled separately since 1949. But the 2.5 million-member People's
Liberation Army, which traditionally focused on fighting land-based conflicts,
has until recently lacked the ability to carry out a war across the 100-mile-wide
Taiwan Strait.
Beijing has spent heavily in recent years to expand the
PLA's naval arm, building warships and landing craft that could support
an invasion and other forces that could help blockade Taiwan.
The reference by the China Youth Daily to joint air, sea
and land drills this year highlights recent efforts by Beijing to integrate
its forces for complex maneuvers -- a key part of any possible attack on
Taiwan but one in which China lacks experience.
Chinese officials say the annual military drills are routine,
but state-controlled media often highlight their focus on capturing islands,
a message clearly meant to intimidate Taiwan.
Exercises at Dongshan in 2001 involved advanced aircraft
and ships, amphibious tanks and submarines. Accounts of the numbers of troops
taking part ranged from 10,000 to more than 100,000.
Chinese news reports at the time said the 2001 exercises
were meant to practice seizing an outlying Taiwanese island and attack an
aircraft carrier -- an apparent reference to U.S. naval forces.
