From: Bill Howard <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Saturday August 18
US navy stages big show of force in South China Sea
Alan Low
2:04pm, Sat: HONG KONG, (AFP) - Two US aircraft carrier battle groups have
staged a rare exercise in the South China Sea in an apparent show of
support
for Taiwan as China conducts its biggest ever war games.
The USS Carl Vinson and the USS Constellation led Friday's one-day exercise
involving 13 other vessels including three submarines, about 150 aircraft
and more than 15,000 personnel.
The exercise was a "rare meeting at sea" for two US battle groups, an
official report on the US 7th Fleet's Internet website said.
The "passing exercise" was believed to have comprised the launching of
fighter jets and joint operations between crews from the giant aircraft
carriers.
"Along with the valuable training benefits achieved during the exercise,the
meeting of the two aircraft carrier battle groups on the high seas
demonstrates a commitment to providing peace and cooperation in the region
while preserving the right to freedom of navigation."
The website report did not give the exact location in the South China Sea
for the exercises. The Constellation is due to arrive in Hong Kong on
Monday
for a port call.
Pointed message
A spokesman for the 7th Fleet told the South China Morning Post the
exercises were not intended to send a "specific message" to China, but
analysts quoted by the newspaper were doubtful.
They said the rare US show of force was a pointed message to Beijing as the
People's Liberation Army conducts big war games on the southern coast
facing
Taiwan.
"There are no coincidences around the Taiwan Strait and the Americans would
have been fully aware of the PLA exercises when they planned this," said
Paul Beaver, an independent defence analyst in Britain.
"They are demonstrating to the PLA that they have an interest in the future
of Taiwan," he said.
The Constellation is making its way home to San Diego in California
following a six-month deployment that included operations in the Gulf.
The Carl Vinson has commenced a six-month deployment.
"It is a very obvious response to the (mainland) exercise," said Joanna
Kidd, a naval analyst at the International Institute of Strategic Studies
in
London.
Simulated invasion
China has begun final preparations for its largest ever military exercises
which would simulate an invasion of the Taiwan-controlled Penghu islands,
the Beijing-backed Hong Kong newspaper Wen Wei Po said today.
In the third phase of the "Liberation No 1" drill on Dongshan island on the
Chinese side of the Taiwan Strait, PLA troops will try to "strongly resist
US intervention" over Taiwan, the daily said.
The drills, which started in April, involve more than 100,000 troops from
military divisions across China as well naval and air forces, it said.
Apart from occupying an outlying Taiwanese island, the Chinese exercises
are
aimed at "fighting off an aircraft carrier", the South China Morning Post
said.
Taiwan does not have any aircraft carriers.
Exercises involving two US aircraft carriers last took place in the region
in August 1999, after then-Taiwanese president Lee Teng-hui said relations
between China and Taiwan should be on a "state-to-state basis".
The remarks sparked fury in Beijing, which regards Taiwan as a renegade
province, to be reunited with the mainland by force if necessary.
In a previous crisis in 1996 when Beijing fired test missiles into the
Taiwan Straits, Washington sent two battle carrier groups to waters off the
island in a thinly veiled warning to China.
===================================================================
[Via: Communist Internet eGroup:
http://www.egroups.com/group/Communist-Internet ]
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