CHINA-TAIWAN: PLA DAILY CLAIMS SENTIMENTS FAVOURING FORCEFUL REUNIFICATION OF TAIWAN ARE RISING IN C
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Ma Xiaoguang, spokesperson for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council , was quoted by PLA Daily on January 16, as saying that the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and Taiwan secessionist forces have provoked a growing sentiment in the Chinese mainland of reunifying with the island of Taiwan by military force, a spokesperson for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council said on Wednesday. He said 'more people in the mainland are losing faith in peaceful reunification because they believed previous mainland policies of delivering economic benefits to Taiwan went unappreciated. With the fast-growing strength of the mainland, especially its overwhelming military power, more and more mainlanders hope the government considers a non-peaceful option. They believe reunification by force could resolve the Taiwan question in a more effective and efficient way.' Li Xiaobing, an expert on Taiwan studies at Nankai University in Tianjin, said "The Chinese mainland government has always made great efforts to keep educating the fact to people that people in Taiwan are compatriots, to create conditions for cross-Straits cooperation and peaceful exchanges, but the Taiwan authorities didn't do this in the same way." With the pro-independence DPP continually winning elections, more and more mainland people are losing faith in peaceful reunification and begin to oppose the policy of delivering economic benefits to Taiwan. Mainland experts were quoted as saying 'the People's Liberation Army (PLA) was once unable to reunify Taiwan without serious casualties, especially when the US was involved in 1995-96. But now the mainland's military strength is increasingly mature and the advantage is more and more overwhelming.' Wei Dongxu, a Beijing-based military analyst, told the Global Times on Wednesday that the PLA is now in an absolute dominant position in all aspects over Taiwan's military and two PLA aircraft carriers, the Liaoning and the Shandong, could secure aerial and maritime superiority around the island to prevent intervention by external forces. PLA amphibious landing docks and assault ships could send armored assault vehicles with hovercrafts onto the island, while also dispatching helicopters to form a multidimensional landing force. He added the PLA's stealth J-20 fighter "would crush Taiwan's most advanced fighter jet the F-16Vs". The PLA Daily observed that 'Mainland observers stressed that of course the peaceful approach is always best, even when the mainland is perfectly prepared for a military solution. It would be extremely difficult to realize this peaceful solution without efforts from the Taiwan side'.
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