BY ROBERT MILLER
As tensions between the governments of China and Taiwan rise, Washington has stepped up its aggressive moves against Beijing. In late December, a U.S. aircraft carrier passed through the straight between Taiwan and mainland China. The Clinton administration is now talking about possible trade sanctions against the Chinese government.
On January 30 Chen Jian, the spokesman for the foreign ministry, said China was "highly concerned" over Washington routing of the aircraft carrier Nimitz through the Taiwan Strait on December 19. "We would hope that a state of stability in the Taiwan Strait could be maintained against any intervention by foreign forces," Chen said.
A White House official asserted that the warship's route was due to weather conditions.
An editorial in the Wall Street Journal on January 31 titled "Bring back the seventh fleet" applauded the threatening move and encouraged "sending a U.S. carrier and battle group through the Strait every now and then." The editorial concludes, "Taiwan's plight, and the US response to it, are a proxy for American relations and reliability in the entire region."
At the heart of the dispute between Beijing and Taipei is the reunification of China.
Statements by China's prime minister Li Peng and editorials in Communist Party papers on January 30 raised the issue of setting a timetable for the reunification of Taiwan with the Chinese mainland. Following the return of the British colony Hong Kong and Portuguese colony Macao to Chinese rule in 1997 and 1999 respectively, unification with Taiwan will become a top priority, the statements said.
Prime minister Li warned the president of Taiwan, Lee Teng- hui, that his government's policy of seeking greater international recognition, including attempts to rejoin the United Nations, are the same as advocating "independence for Taiwan." China has long maintained that any declaration of independence by Taiwan would lead to a military response from the mainland.
With the victory of the Chinese revolution in 1949, the defeated Kuomintang, or Nationalist Party, which had the full backing of U.S. imperialism, fled to the island of Formosa, also known as Taiwan. With a population of 21 million, Taiwan is considered a breakaway province of China.
When the People's Republic of China was recognized by Washington and relations normalized in 1972, the agreement stated, "The United States acknowledges that all Chinese on either side of the Taiwan Strait maintain there is but one China and that Taiwan is part of China".
The official position of the ruling Nationalist Party in Taiwan is for reunification. By this, however, the capitalist class in Taiwan - one of the top-ten exporters of capital in the world - has never meant coming under the rule of the Beijing government. With Washington's encouragement, Taipei has been on an energetic campaign to increase its international recognition. Last May Clinton allowed President Lee of Taiwan to visit the United States to attend a reunion at Cornell University, despite the strong opposition of Beijing. Lee also offered the United Nations a $1 billion gift in an unsuccessful attempt to win a UN seat.
Possibility of war
The Chinese army has sponsored a string of missile tests
near Taiwan and stepped up military exercises on the east
coast facing Taiwan. In mid-February, Beijing was preparing
for one of its largest military exercises in the strait.
According to a January 24 New York Times report, Chinese officials sent "unusually explicit warnings to the Clinton administration that China has completed plans for a limited attack on Taiwan" that could be mounted in the weeks after presidential elections there on March 23. A senior U.S. administration official told the Times, "They can fire missiles, but Taiwan has some teeth of its own."
Both Beijing and Taipei are heavily armed with top-of the line military hardware, and have stepped up their armament acquisitions in recent months. China is a recognized nuclear power. In past decades, at least, U.S. nuclear weapons have been stationed in Taiwan.
Taiwan has undertaken a "robust military buildup," as the Times put it. This year Taiwan will take delivery of 150 U.S.- made F-16 fighters and 60 French Mirage 2000 fighter-bombers. Last year Taiwan began deploying the first squadrons of its own new fighter, based on the F-16 design. In addition, the U.S. government approved recent deliveries to Taiwan of airborne command and surveillance aircraft that, according to the Times, "give its airforce a distinct air combat superiority over the mainland."
Beijing will be buying 72 SU-27 fighter planes - top Russian fighter jets - from Moscow as a prelude to licensing the production of the warplanes in China.
A February 11 article in the New York Times described the situation as "pistols are drawn and the threat of military confrontation hangs in the air like grenade smoke."
As this conflict unfolds, Washington is once again making noises about slapping trade sanctions on Beijing. The pretext is the charge that the Chinese government violated nuclear nonproliferation agreements by selling parts to the governments of Pakistan and Iran. Bejing denies the sales were nuclear-related.
Bob Miller is a member of UAW Local 980 in Edison, New Jersey.