Military experts at conference urge closer ties with US, Japan

There should be closer collaboration between Taiwan, the United States and Japan in the effort to counter China's growing military threat in the Taiwan Strait, according to military experts taking part in a forum organized by the World Taiwanese Congress (WTC) that wrapped up in Taipei Sept. 25.

Vice President Lu Hsiu-lien echoed high-ranking officials and experts from Japan and the United States and warned Taiwan to improve its defensive capabilities in order to defend the nation against Chinese aggression. Lu called Beijing's military expansionism an "unprecedented challenge" for Taipei.

"The ruling Democratic Progressive Party stands firm in its promise to defend the sovereignty and dignity of Taiwan as well as the welfare of its people," said Lu during her remarks at the opening of the fifth annual conference.

Urging the public to support passage of the special arms procurement bill, now stalled in the Legislative Yuan, the vice president cited a recent U.S. report showing that Taiwan is the target of hundreds of Chinese short- and medium-range missiles. Meanwhile, she added, Beijing has been using a combination of military, economic, political and cultural strategies to precipitate a crisis in Taiwan.

Beyond mere threats, Lu warned, China is ready for a military attack to annex Taiwan. This puts not just the security of Taiwan at risk, but that of the entire Asia-Pacific region as well.

Other participants in the forum included Kurt Campbell of the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies; Gary Schmitt, Executive Director of the Project for the New American Century; and Hideaki Kaneda, a former vice admiral of Japan's maritime defense force.

"China has been using its economic growth to expand its military capability," Kaneda was quoted in a local newspaper as saying. "Starting with threatening Taiwan, China's ultimate goal is the whole world. The democratic countries in the Asia-Pacific region should therefore work together to counter China." The WTC was officially established in Taiwan in 2001 under an initiative by nearly 60 Taiwanese expatriate organizations that started unifying and gaining momentum in North America in 2000. It was the brainchild of former lawyer and presidential advisor Yao Chia-wen, who is now president of the Examination Yuan. The mission of the WTC is to promote the Taiwanese spirit and shepherd freedom in the country.

"The WTC has made it a goal to help people of Taiwanese origin understand their country and boost world support for Taiwan's bids to join the United Nations and other world organizations," said WTC coordinator Kuo Chung-kuo.

Overseas Taiwanese have contributed to the flourishing of international exchanges and people-to-people diplomacy in the areas of culture, democracy and human rights, said Kuo, who said his dream is to make Taiwan the soil for freedom, justice and democracy. The annual congregation has become an institution since the first WTC summoned some 500 expatriate Taiwanese back to their native soil for a meeting in 2001.

A regular sponsor of "Taiwanese Heritage Week," which is held each May to promote Taiwan's cultural heritage to people abroad, the WTC has been focusing its campaigns in the United States, Canada and Europe. In addition to its original members, such as the Taiwanese Hakka Association, Formosan Association for Public Affairs and Taiwanese Association of America, the WTC looks forward to networking more groups from Taiwanese communities all over the world.

In his keynote address, Yao said the power of the masses is one of the major forces driving advancement. Calling China's peaceful rise "little more than fiction," he suggested that public support was needed to push the contentious arms purchase now being debated.