Forwarded from: Christian Wright <cwat_private> http://asia.reuters.com/news_article.jhtml;jsessionid=IK4RYIWRN5QMUCRBAEZSFEY?type=topnews&StoryID=1423490 ["Unrestricted Warfare" is at: http://www.c4i.org/unrestricted.pdf - WK] 09 September, 2002 TAIPEI (Reuters) - Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian accused China on Sunday of intimidating the island with "terrorist" tactics in comments likely to fuel Beijing's fury. "Communist China has accelerated development of 'unrestricted warfare' similar to terrorist methods," Chen said, apparently referring to the book "Unrestricted Warfare" by two Chinese colonels who advocate resorting to computer viruses and other types of "dirty war" to bring the enemy to heel. "It has seriously threatened our national security and the welfare of the people of Taiwan. We sternly condemn this and urge our countrymen to heighten vigilance," Chen said in a videotaped speech during a top security meeting about anti-terrorism. He did not elaborate. Taiwan military analysts are divided over whether China, one of five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, would resort to terrorist tactics against the island. But it was the first time Chen had accused China of resorting to "terrorist" methods. In their 1999 book, the two colonels argued that bombings, kidnappings and assassinations do not go far enough and that sowing fear and uncertainty is more effective than killing. "The battlefield will be everywhere," they wrote. "There is nothing in the world today that cannot become a weapon." President Chen made the accusation one month after he riled Beijing when he said Taiwan and China were "one country on each side" and backed legislation for a referendum on formal independence from China. Beijing considers Taiwan a rebel province and has threatened to attack the democratic island of 23 million if it formally declares independence or drags its feet on unification talks. Taipei and Beijing have been military and diplomatic rivals since the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949, but their economies have become increasingly intertwined since detente began in the late 1980s. Taiwan businessmen have invested up to $100 billion on the mainland. Chen, whose landmark election in 2000 alarmed Beijing because of his pro-independence stand, offered to help China democratise by training Chinese election officials and inviting them to observe the island's polls. There was no immediate comment from Beijing. Chen said Taiwan would set up a group to monitor human rights abuses in China. He also said Taiwan's state-controlled media would broadcast news about the island's democratic experience to the mainland. He also pledged support for the U.S. campaign against terrorism after the attacks on U.S. landmarks last September. The security meeting was attended by the island's vice president, premier, defence minister, top China policymaker and national security chief. China has nuclear weapons, but Taiwan is armed to the teeth with billions of dollars worth of U.S. and French-made fighters and capable of giving the 2.5 million-strong People's Liberation Army, the world's biggest fighting force, a bloody nose in any conventional slug-out. - ISN is currently hosted by Attrition.org To unsubscribe email majordomoat_private with 'unsubscribe isn' in the BODY of the mail.
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