Beijing keeps eye on Taiwan

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BEIJING - China's top official in charge of Taiwan affairs has not ruled out the possibility of conflict during the period of 2006 to 2008 if the Taipei leadership declares full independence before the Beijing Olympics in 2008.

"If it happens before 2008, there may be a conflict" in the Taiwan Straits, said Zaixi Wang, vice minister at the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, China's supreme Cabinet.

China considers the Republic of China (Taiwan), an island in the East China Sea slightly larger than the state of Maryland, to be a breakaway province.

Tang Jiaxuan, who was foreign minister until last year and also serves as a vice minister in the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, said he saw the possibility of conflict because President Chen Shui-bian, Taiwan's pro-independence leader, might calculate wrongly "that China may not react militarily ... so he wants to try some adventure between 2006 and 2008."

The former foreign minister said the actual situation is one in which Mr. Chen wants to create the atmosphere and propaganda for Taiwan's independence. At the moment, he said, it is just a proposal, but if Taiwan authorities formally declare Taiwan an independent country, "that's our red line."

Mr. Tang told a small group of foreign reporters that the actions that could precipitate a confrontation if include Mr. Chen's amending Taiwan's constitution before 2008 to term the island a national territory and sought to legalize this by referendum. Such a plan, he said, "is very dangerous and very adventurist."

Beijing is of the opinion that Mr. Chen thinks that after 2010, China's strength on the global stage will be such that it will be harder for him to promote an independent Taiwan.

Mr. Tang also complained that some moves of the Bush administration vis-a-vis Taiwan are not helpful, specifically that "the U.S. side continues to sell advanced weapons to Taiwan on a large scale." The former foreign minister said Beijing considers the arms sales to be "interference in the internal affairs of China."

Departing U.S. Secretary of State Colin L. Powell repeatedly has said that the sales do not violate Washington's "One China" policy and the "three communiques" and that under the Taiwan Relations Act, U.S. arms sales to Taiwan are "to make sure that Taiwan is able to defend itself -- not to have an offensive capability, but to defend itself. All our arms sales are for that purpose and are carefully examined."

Mr. Tang and other top Chinese policy-makers say that although Beijing and Washington cooperate closely on many issues, such as seeking a peaceful resolution to the nuclear standoff on the Korean peninsula, fighting global terrorism, blocking the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and enhancing cooperation in economic and trade relations, the Taiwan issue is indeed "the most sensitive and core issue between the U.S. and China."