On April 4, the Taiwan "president" Chen Shui-bian said the mainland's military build-up poses "a significant threat" to stability in the Taiwan Straits and to the security of the entire Asia-Pacific region.

He delivered the overblown speech at the International Seminar on Asia-Pacific Co-operation Security, co-sponsored by the Taiwan International Medical Alliance and Italy's International School on Disarmament and Research on Conflict. Chen warned the world not to ignore the mainland's "fast military build-up," while expressing concern about the nuclear development of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

Chen falsely claimed that the mainland's development of cruise missiles and missiles with multiple warheads will not only threaten Taiwan but also countries within their range.

His exaggerated rhetoric shows he has an ulterior motive - to cause panic not only on the island but also among China's neighbours. In his eyes, such a panic will create tensions between the mainland and its neighbours, diverting its attention and giving the island an excuse to develop its military power. The Taiwan authorities have been attempting to create an unnecessary sense of anxiety among people on the island.

The Chinese mainland's military budget for this year is equivalent to just 1.69 per cent of China's economic output, or half the level of the United States or India according to a recent Xinhua report. The American military budget for the year that started Oct 1 is US$366 billion, or about 3.5 per cent of the US annual economic output of US$10.2 trillion.

In fact, Chen's latest diatribe about the mainland's military is by no means new.

When the United States stepped up its diplomatic and military efforts ahead of an attack against Iraq, Chen reminded the Taiwan people of the possibility of a military strike by the mainland against Taiwan while the United States was focused on the Middle East.

Earlier, on February 16, Chen gave a speech to the island's navy about the mainland's military presence in its southeastern coastal areas, accusing the central government of aggressively expanding closer to the island chain.

A few days later, Chen told Richard Bush, former chairman of the American Institute in Taiwan, that the mainland's deployment of ballistic missiles underscored the island's need for a missile defence shield.

And people also should not forget Chen's statement delivered on the eve of the first anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks on the United States. In the statement, Chen called the mainland's military build-up a great threat "similar by its nature to terrorist attacks."

Chen's evil verbal attacks against the mainland's military have been echoed by other Taiwan officials and some US conservatives.

In November 2001, Taiwan "Minister of National Defence" Tang Yao-ming said in a national defence report that potential strikes by the mainland against the island would inevitably damage its political, economic and military infrastructure and undermine the morale of the Taiwan people.

A few days later, Tang warned once again that Taiwan's west and east coasts were under threat from the mainland. He stressed the necessity of purchasing sophisticated weapons, including Kidd-class destroyers, from the United States. This is the real reason behind those calculated remarks.

Randall Schriver, a top US State Department official, at the US-Taiwan defence industry conference held in San Antonio on February 14, called on Taiwan to speed up the acquisition of advanced weapons, including an anti-missile defence system, to "head off ever-increasing military threats from the Chinese mainland."

At the meeting, some senior Pentagon and State Department officials also stressed the US commitment to supplying Taiwan with adequate weaponry, although they emphasized the need for the island to develop its own missile defence and other indigenous military capabilities.

US conservatives have not only helped exaggerate the so-called "military threat" posed by the Chinese mainland but also encouraged Chen and his followers to plot Taiwan independence.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell, just prior to his visit to China, the Republic of Korea and Japan, made it clear in an interview with Hong Kong-based station Phoenix TV that the United States would operate under the Taiwan Relations Act while adhering to the one-China policy. That policy commits the United States to supplying Taiwan with the weapons it needs to fend off the so-called "military threat" from the Chinese mainland.

Powell's stance reflects the general policy on China adopted by the Bush administration.

In April 2001, US President George W. Bush publicly said the United States would try to assist Taiwan in its defence, the first time a US president has made such a statement since the establishment of Sino-US diplomatic relations.

In September 2001, Pentagon's Quadrennial Defence Review Report portrayed the mainland as a serious threat to Taiwan.

As a result, Bush offered to sell Taiwan up to eight diesel-powered submarines and four Kidd-class destroyers in 2001, which was the biggest US arms package for the island since 1992 when his father sold Taiwan F-16 fighters to Taiwan.

Also, in the Pentagon's Nuclear Posture Review, released early last year, the United States claimed that if conflicts occurred across the Taiwan Straits, it would consider a nuclear attack against the mainland.

In his visit to China in February last year, Bush publicly expressed his support for the Taiwan Relations Act, the first time a US president has taken such a position during a visit to China.

The support and encouragement from the United States have contributed to the Taiwan authorities' ongoing independence line.

Last year, US arms sales to Taiwan amounted to around US$3 billion. Over the next 10 years, the island is expected to purchase a total of more than US$20 billion worth of advanced weapons and military equipment, according to the island's "Ministry of National Defence."

Military co-operation and exchanges between the United States and Taiwan in any form are unacceptable as such moves are against the three Sino-US joint communiques. Left over from China's civil war, the Taiwan question is purely China's internal affair. The mainland upholds the principle of "peaceful reunification and one country, two systems" for the solution of the Taiwan question.

Nobody in the world hopes more than the Chinese people do to solve the Taiwan question in a peaceful way. But the mainland will never commit itself to abandoning the use of force. This is not directed against people in Taiwan but the foreign forces interfering in China's reunification and the separatist forces in Taiwan attempting to foment "Taiwan independence."

The key to the realization of cross-Straits reconciliation is for the Taiwan authorities to come back to the one-China position as soon as possible.

(China Daily April 15, 2003)