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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, April 10, 2002

Chinese FM Spokeswoman Refutes US Remarks on Taiwan

The United States intends to "do more work" on improving Taiwan's defence capability and, on top of arms sales, plans to help the island shake up its military command and coordination systems to guard against "attacks" from the People's Liberation Army, said Paul Wolfowitz, deputy defense secretary of the US at the "US-Taiwan defense summit" held in mid-March.


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The United States intends to "do more work" on improving Taiwan's defence capability and, on top of arms sales, plans to help the island shake up its military command and coordination systems to guard against "attacks" from the People's Liberation Army, said Paul Wolfowitz, deputy defense secretary of the US at the "US-Taiwan defense summit" held in mid-March.

The US has plenty of military experience that can help Taiwan training its armed forces of the land, the sea and the air and improve coordination among the armies, according to a report of China News Service.

Tang Yiau-min, the "defense minister" of Taiwan, was also present when Wolfowitz delivered his speech. On top of arms sales, it is vital important to export military "software" to Taiwan, says Wolfowitz, adding that Taiwan should reform its defense system and strengthen public supervision of its armed forces.

Wolfowitz reiterated President Bush's stand by saying the US would make all efforts to help Taiwan defend itself but will not support Taiwan independence, however, the US is also against Beijing solve the Taiwan question by force.

Beijing and Taiwan see more and more economic contacts, which will continue to develop and Beijing is not an enemy, Wolfowitz says. The US would seek balance between the two and conduct cooperation based on mutual benefit, including military contacts, he added.

Chinese FM Spokeswoman Refutes U.S. Remarks on Taiwan
The Taiwan issue is purely China's internal affair and no other country in the world should interfere, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue said in response to claims from a high-ranking U.S. military official that the U.S. would do everything needed to protect Taiwan.

The remarks seriously violated the commitments made by the U.S.government in the three Sino-U.S. Joint Communiques, said Zhang, adding that those remarks, out of ulterior motives, interfered in China's internal affairs.

Zhang stressed that history had repeatedly proved that U.S. arms sales to Taiwan and its elevation U.S.-Taiwan relations would only incite the separatists in their attempts to split Taiwan from the mainland and would lead to the deterioration of Taiwan Straits situation and constituted jeopardy to the interests of the U.S. itself.

The spokeswoman urged the U.S. to strictly abide by the serious commitments that it had made to the Chinese government and Chinese people and stop the wrong actions so as to avoid further damage to Sino-U.S. relations.

The Taiwan issue is at the core of Sino-U.S. relations, reiterated Zhang, emphasizing that any measures or remarks that ran against the three Sino-U.S. Joint Communiques would undermine Sino-U.S. relations.

"We hope U.S. behaves as it says it would, strictly abide by the three Sino-U.S. Communiques and stop using the Taiwan issue to interfere in China's internal affairs," Zhang said.



By People's Daily Online


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