100,000 Chinese Troops In Drills Near Taiwan
Military hints that forces preparing for hypothetical takeover

May 18, 2002

HONGKONG - Nearly 100,000 Chinese soldiers will take part in a series of military drills expected to last six months in a massive show of force targeting Taiwan, reports said yesterday.

The People's Liberation Army (PLA) is expected to kick off the drills within two or three days on

Chinese-language daily Wen Wei Po reported that the exercise will involve 100,000 personnel from all three services - army, air force, and navy.

The paper cited unidentified sources as saying that the drill was a 'routine annual military exercise' that would 'test the comprehensive fighting abilities of the three services in joint-landing operations'.

The exercises, which will last longer than similar exercises last year, will see involvement from PLA military units in Nanjing and Guangzhou, reports said.

Although the military authorities had tried to downplay the scale of the drills, they had hinted that the forces would drill themselves for a hypothetical mission of overrunning Taiwan.

The report said that long lines of armoured vehicles were seen on roads linking the Fujian provincial capital of Fuzhou and the coastal city of Xiamen, which are directly across the water from Taiwan.

China regards Taiwan as part of its territory to be reunited with the mainland, by force if necessary.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Kong Quan said on Thursday that Taiwan leaders, while asking for a resumption of cross-strait talks, had stepped up their support for an 'independent state'.

'Their actions are creating tensions,' he said. -- China Daily/Asia News Network, AFP

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