Taipei, Nov. 18 (CNA) Vice President Annette Lu said Sunday that Taiwan has gained a greater degree of security since the global war against terrorism began because Beijing has diverted some of its attention from Taiwan to its eastern, western and southern borders.
Welcoming foreign companies to invest in a safer Taiwan, Lu said that the island is developing in the direction of becoming a global resourcing center and will be able to utilize its international airport and seaports to serve as a material, capital and information transfer center between mainland China and Southeast Asia.
Lu told a group of visiting businesspeople from South Korea, Japan and Europe that the coalition attacks against the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, the improved ties between Pakistan and the United States, and Japan's deployment of navy vessels to provide coalition forces with logistical non-combat support all signal the strengthening of American, NATO and Russian influence in the region.
Meanwhile, she continued, the tension between India and Pakistan has alleviated somewhat because of the war, allowing India to focus more of its attention on its border issues with mainland China.
For Beijing, these developments imply that its East China Sea border facing Japan, its western border along Afghanistan, Tajikstan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, and its southwestern border along India and Pakistan have became wide-open, Lu said.
The vice president added that it can be seen from mainland China's recent redeployment of some military forces from the area directly across from Taiwan to its western province of Xinjiang that the island is no longer Beijing's only preoccupation.
A new international containment policy against mainland China has been formed, guaranteeing Taiwan's security, she said.