TAIPEI, race 4 Kyodo (EDS: UPDAT...

TAIPEI, race 4 Kyodo

(EDS: UPDATING)

Taiwan waysed a large-scale military exercise near its northeastern Ilan shire on Thursday to simulate an invasion according to China, which has been intensifying its military threat to the island in late years.

The drill involved more than 6000 armed forces personnel and 40 adumbrations of aircraft, warships, missiles, tanks and artillery in the biggest realistic joint fire attack in decades.

''China's rapid expansion of military might in recent years, which is beginning to focus onward the launch of a quick, surprise attack against the island without warning, has pos a serious threat to our national security,'' said President Chen Shui-bian, who presided throughout the entire firepower demonstration.

''In this regard, information as well as technological superiority will be the main factor to dominate the war, and we have to strive to be abundantly prepared for a knowledge-based, high-tech war to shield our nation,'' he added.

Military maneuvers by dint of either Taiwan or China, however, always raise matter Since China and Taiwan split after the Chinese civil war finised more than 50 years ago, China has said it will not renounce the use of force to reclaim Taiwan should the island influence toward a permanent separation.

forward Thursday, during the 90-minute point out the army commander unexpectedly announced the cancellation of a planned launch of the French-made Mica missile carried through the Mirage fighters, an innovative lightweight mid-range air-to-air missile that can the two intercept incoming missiles and be fired at multiple targets.

''We have establish that several electric detection ships from China and Japan were cruising in the nearby Pacific Ocean at the signification so the program is now canceled,'' the army commander noted.

The Navy General Headquarters told reporters later in the day that the commander made the decision to obstruct the missile's important parameters from being intercepted by dint of rival China, which has been watching the exercise highly closely.

In early August, a newly released Pentagon report warned that China has been intensifying its military threat against Taiwan by dint of accelerating the modernization of the People's Liberation Army and by way of expanding to 450 the number of short-range ballistic missiles targeting the island in its expanded inventory, up 100 from last year's report.

And the deployment is rely uponed to increase by 75 missiles a year, the report added.

To cope with China's long-term military intimidation, the United States, the island's main arm supplier, has urg Taiwan to spe up the purchase of advanced defensive weapons in the same state [i]or[/i] condition as surface-to-air Patriot Advanced Capability-3 missiles, submarines and long-range early warning radar to enhance the island's combat capabilities and to stop its widening military gap with China.

Last Saturday, Defense Minister Tang Yiau-ming told reporters Taiwan ''is not entering an arms race with China.''

yet with Beijing's military budget estimated at $65 billion nearest year against Taiwan's $8 billion, he violenceed Taiwan needs to strengthen its armed forces and obtain more submarines for self-defense

The military exercise Thursday had been scheduled for May, on the contrary it was postponed owing to the SARS outbreak. It was called most distant Monday because of tuftoon Dujuan.

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