Saturday, August 14, 1999

Taipei denies mainland jets crossed line

JASON BLATT in Taipei and AGENCIES

More reports of threatening actions against Taiwan by the mainland's air
force yesterday were denied by senior defence officials in Taipei, who
said the alleged incidents defied basic military sense.

Vice-Defence Minister Sun Tao-yu has rejected Hong Kong media reports that
quoted Chinese military sources as saying the PLA was capable of
conquering Taiwan within five days as merely psychological warfare.

Analytical military reports by Taiwanese, United States and British
specialists had all concluded the PLA remained incapable of transporting
adequate forces across the Taiwan Strait, he said.

Taiwan's China Times Express cited unnamed military sources as saying
mainland jet fighters based in Fujian province, directly opposite Taiwan,
had crossed the line dividing the strait on two occasions in late July and
early August.

In one of the incidents, a fighter broke away from a group travelling
northwards along the Taiwan Strait and flew east towards Taiwan, turning
away less than two minutes from Taiwan's airspace, the report said.

It said Taiwan's armed forces had "exercised self-restraint"
throughout
both potentially explosive incidents and that US F-14 and F-18 fighter
jets had been deployed to patrol areas over the Pacific Ocean just off the
coast of eastern Taiwan in an apparent warning to Beijing.

"For several consecutive days in late July and early August, F-14 and
F-18
jets from a US aircraft carrier practised the drills off Taitung in
southeastern Taiwan," it said, adding that the drills were taken after
Washington called for mainland and Taiwanese militaries to exercise
restraint.

General Chen Chao-min, Commander-in-Chief of Taiwan's air force, said
there had been a significant increase in patrol flights by both sides, but
said both sides had remained "reasonable" with no incidents of
pilots from
either side attempting any dangerous stunts or trying to do anything
heroic.

He said Taiwan's armed forces were well-prepared for a variety of
scenarios ranging from attacks on outlying, frontline islands facing the
mainland to an air assault or an amphibious landing.

Meanwhile, the Beijing-backed Wen Wei Po quoted a senior researcher at
China's Academy of Military Science, Yan Zhao, as saying that military
conflict in the strait could erupt at any moment.

Mr Yan also said Beijing would not stop using force even if the United
States intervened.
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Published in the South China Morning Post.  Copyright © 1999.  All rights
reserved.