Parsing president's prose on prodigal
'province' By Yan Hua
XIAMEN,
China - With independence-leaning Chen Shui-bian about
to be sworn-in as Taiwan's president, China has
heightened its rhetoric against what it calls its
"renegade" province, increasing threats of an eventual
attack if necessary and vowing to forfeit even its
strong ties with the United States in order to take
control of the island. Despite the lingering and bitter
dispute over Chen's narrow election victory, the
incumbent will take the oath of office for his second
four-year term on Thursday, and deliver what may be the
most important speech of his life.
Every word
will be parsed and interpreted for what it means or does
not mean about cross-Strait ties with Beijing, Taiwan
identity, independence and relations with the US. Many
on Taiwan consider themselves not to be a province or a
part of China, but a distinct and even sovereign state.
No one is saying there will be conflict, but the
atmosphere is tense.
Meantime, here on this
resort island of Xinmen, fortifications are being built
and apparent preparations are underway for a conflict
that may never come. Xiamen was one of Fujian province's
pilot showcases for China's economic opening-up policy
since 1980, but now city planners focus on defense
instead of economic expansion. Large-scale construction
projects have been banned, and air-raid shelters to
accommodate thousands of refugees can be found on nearly
every other block. Despite obvious tourist attractions,
local authorities refuse to begin any tourist
infrastructure projects. Instead, they have fitted huge
air-raid shelters inside most of Xiamen's traffic
tunnels.
There are concerns in both Beijing and
Washington that Chen, a stanch advocate of Taiwan's
identity separate from the mainland (to many that means
actual political independence), may use his inaugural
speech to signal strong moves toward independence. He
has made it clear on several occasions that he will try
to pass a new pro-independence constitution through a
referendum before 2008, his last year in office.
According to Chen, the ideal timing for the plan is
2007, just one year before Beijing hosts the 29th Summer
Olympics. At that time - and this may be wishful
thinking on Chen's part - Beijing will be preoccupied
with the run-up to the sporting event and may be not in
the position to respond quickly or adequately to any
bold moves made by Taipei.
The new constitution
is widely expected to include some dramatic changes,
such as the renaming and remapping of Taiwan, both of
which would constitute a de facto declaration of
independence in Beijing's eyes. Chen's plan, like his
inauguration, has aroused significant concerns from
Beijing and Washington, which oppose any unilateral move
to change the cross-Strait status quo. If the
constitutional independence plan does play out, the
mainland is expected by some observers and hardliners to
launch a military strike against Taiwan, putting the
much-highlighted Olympic event on the back burner.
As Beijing-Taipei relations become increasingly
volatile, and some say, even war-prone, China has begun
fortifying its southeastern maritime Fujian province,
which lies only 68 nautical miles opposite Taiwan. At
their closest point, the islet of Kinmen, or Quemoy,
governed by Taiwan, and Fujian province in China lie
only a few kilometers apart. At present, an opinion
prevails that Taiwan will be militarily overwhelmed by
the mainland in 2006. Notwithstanding its military
might, Beijing is on high alert due to the growing
political clouds gathering over the Taiwan Strait,
observers and informed sources say.
Xiamen
builds air-raid shelters, not hotels Xiamen has
become a snapshot not of a tourist haven but of possible
war preparation. Big construction projects have been
halted and new construction has been banned, according
to visitors to the city. Air-raid shelters that can
accommodate thousands of people can be found on almost
every other block. Despite the magnificent view along
Waterfront Avenue, local authorities will not undertake
any tourist infrastructure projects.
Waterfront
Avenue runs along the sinuous coastline in Xiamen and
leads to Yefengzai, one of the city's most scenic
sights. Across the Strait lies Taiwan's Kinmen Isle -
which has a pro-Taiwanese identity - and where Dadan
("daring") Islet is located. Dadan is home to a symbolic
monument: a wall inscribed with the dictum "To unify
China with the Three Principles of the People". These
principles - nationalism, democracy and personal
livelihood - were advocated by Sun Yat-sen, the founding
of the nationalist party, the Kuomintang, or KMT, now
the biggest opposition party in Taiwan.
During
the Cold-War, Taiwan posted the anti-communist slogan in
the form of a monument. In response, the mainland
Chinese government later posted a similar monument with
the maxim, "To unify China with the policy of one
country, two systems".
Trips to view the
monuments have become a particularly hot draw for
tourists here. But despite the magnificent view along
Waterfront Avenue, the local authorities refuse to start
any tourist infrastructure projects. Instead, they have
fitted huge air-raid shelters inside all of Xiamen's
traffic tunnels in preparation for a possible
cross-Strait conflict.
Despite the political
tension, which has blocked the mainland and Taiwan from
launching full-scale direct shipping and direct flight
routes, both sides agreed to allow limited direct
shipping from Xiamen to Kinmen in a ground-breaking
pilot scheme that began on January 1, 2001. That
agreement has made Xiamen a major attraction for
tourists. One of the most popular tourist attractions is
the Kinmen-Xiamen sea tour: a passenger liner that sails
from Xiamen into the waters near the Dadan Islet.
Dadan has also been opened for tourism since
2001, but there is still a military base there, making
it a completely different world for mainlanders, who
share the same ancestry with the Taiwanese. Less than
three kilometers away from Xiamen, Dadan Islet and Erdan
Islet remained militarized.
Military drills
and exercises include beach landings Xiamen has
not relaxed its military preparations, either. Over the
past few years, it has conducted several night air
defense drills and other military exercises in various
scenarios,including urgent aid relief in toppled
buildings, emergencies in skyscrapers, and beach
landings - the most important exercise to the island.
Xiamen is both a resort town and an economically
important city in southern China. As a result, the
government takes great precautions to ensure it has
enough air-raid shelters so that even if Taiwan should
launch a revenge attack, the city could minimize its
losses. In the past, Taiwan has threatened to launch
missiles across the Taiwan Strait in an attack on the
mainland's key cities, including Hong Kong and Nanjing.
Aside from national defense on the mainland,
construction is gaining more and more attention.
Recently, a plan to build a 550-kilometer-long railway
linking Xiamen and Shenzhen, along China's southeast
coastline hit domestic headlines arousing a wave of
controversy. Vowing unanimous support for the economic
implications, the public nonetheless remains divided
regarding its military significance. Dissenters call the
project is a sheer waste of money and time, given that
Beijing could wage a war against Taiwan at any time,
while supporters argue that the railway could greatly
facilitate military supplies during such a wartime.
Recent moves toward preparations for conflict
are not a first for Taiwan and China. The Chinese
Communist Party once tried to "liberate" the
KMT-occupied island of Taiwan as its communist troops
swept across the mainland in the 1940s. On October 24,
1949, 24 days after chairman Mao Zedong revealed his new
socialist China to the world, 9,000 People's Liberation
Army (PLA) soldiers were ordered to cross the Strait and
take the Kinmen Islet, the prominent beachhead to
Taiwan. The battle was widely believed to be the only
fiasco in PLA's history: underestimating its enemy's
strength, and complacent about its own, the PLA fought
for three consecutive days before it surrendered the
battlefield.
At the time, Hu Lian, KMT's
then-commander defending Kinmen said, "The victory is
not only military, but also political; more importantly,
it boosted our morale." Even president Chiang Ching-kuo
(1978-1988) conceded, "[The battle] is a turning point
for KMT."
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