Taiwan's testing of US-made Patriot missiles Wednesday morning will only sharpen tense relations across the Taiwan Straits, Chinese experts and military analysts have warned.
Taiwan test-fired three US-made Patriot missiles, which the island bought from the United States, for the first time Wednesday at a military base of the island's Pingdong region.
Purchases and deployments of advanced weapons by the authorities in Taiwan threatens to jeopardize reunification of China, experts told Xinhua News Agency.
According to Xinhua, this is the first time the Patriot missiles have been test-fired outside the United States and the first time the Taiwanese military has fired missiles of this kind.
The three missiles intercepted a target plane and a target missile.
The test-firing will continue Thursday and Friday, and on June 26. The Taiwan authorities' recent purchase of advanced weapons for potential use against the Chinese mainland have revealed that they oppose the reunification of China, said Yu Keli, deputy director of the Institute of Taiwan Studies under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
Yu warned that Taiwan should realize test-firing of missiles will only put the island in a more precarious position.
It is absurd for the Taiwanese authorities to provoke the Chinese mainland with its small arsenal of advanced weapons, said Luo Yuan, research fellow with the Department of Strategy Studies under the Academy of Military Sciences of the People's Liberation Army (PLA).
Asked to comment on Taiwan's Patriot test-firing on Tuesday, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue said China opposes sales of advanced weapons to Taiwan.
(China Daily 06/21/2001)
