Taipei, Jan. 17 (CNA) Vice President Annette Lu urged the international community Friday to pay heed to what she claimed is mainland China's "terrorist nature, " despite its guise as a friendly country in the Asia-Pacific region.
Lu made the remarks while giving a keynote speech at a luncheon of the International Inter-Parliamentary Conference on Asian-Pacific Security, which is being sponsored by the ROC (Taiwan) -USA Inter-Parliamentary Amity Association and will run through Sunday. About 80 parliamentary members from more than 20 countries are attending the event.
Apart from some countries that are engaged in state-sponsored terrorism, Lu pointed out that "in some other countries, we see state leaders use the name of anti-terrorism to crackdown domestic political dissidents and even to intimate other countries. Our neighbor--the People's Republic of China--is one of them."
Just some 300 kilometers away from Taiwan across the Taiwan Strait, mainland China is continuing with its military buildup as a direct threat to Taiwan, she said, adding that more than 400 ballistic missiles are deployed along the mainland's southeastern coast targeting the people of Taiwan.
In addition to the military threat, Lu accused the mainland of pressuring other countries into spurning relations with Taiwan, refusing to issue entry visas to Taiwan government officials and refusing to allow Taiwan to join international organizations such as the United Nations.
Noting that the mainland is emerging as a powerful hegemony in the Asia-Pacific region because of its vast territory and rich natural resources, the vice president said the Beijing leadership continues to view Taiwan as a renegade province, despite the goodwill the Taiwan authorities have shown and the contributions the Taiwan people have made to the mainland's modernization.
The Beijing leaders never hide their intention to take over Taiwan by force, Lu added. "Apparently, no one is more aware of the emerging threat of China than the people of Taiwan. For the past five decades we have lived under the constant and immense threats and bullying from China... It has even adopted a series of policies to 'seduce' Taiwanese entrepreneurs and hi-tech industries to invest there," Lu said.
However, she went on, "it is also employing a series of military, economic, and diplomatic measures to force Taiwan into submission."
From a strategic point of view, Lu pointed out, if mainland China wishes to become a maritime power in the West Pacific, it has to capture Taiwan first. "Located between continental Asia and the Pacific Ocean and between Northeast and Southeast Asia, Taiwan's strategic value is more than that of an 'unsinkable aircraft carrier' in containing the expansion of a hegemonic China -- the role we have been playing for over half a century," she concluded.