China Threatens War Escalation Over Bush Handshake

Top news story in China ignored in U.S.; Beijing furious about warming of American-Taiwanese relations

Paul Joseph Watson in Shanghai, China Prison Planet Wednesday, June 13, 2007

In an astounding development that has completely failed to register any attention amongst mainstream U.S. media, China promised to escalate preparations for war in advance of a potential conflict, after President Bush shook hands with a Taiwanese government official yesterday.

Bush shook hands and met with Taiwan's representative to the United States, Joseph Wu, on Tuesday, during a commemoration for victims of Communism in Washington DC.

In a headline story that aired at 10pm Shanghai time Wednesday night on the Hong Kong based PHTV news channel, Chinese government leaders threatened to plan new war games and heighten military readiness in anticipation of any attempt by the U.S. to defend Taiwan should a Chinese invasion occur, or simply if Taiwan declares its independence.

Click here for video in Chinese.

Officials expressed stern-faced concern and spoke of dire consequences during a press conference as China made clear its fury that Bush had even chosen to acknowledge Wu's visit.

"We insist to keep the current peaceful relations as we promised Taiwan's citizens. We have prepared to stop (prohibit) any activities, conduct and any excuses to divide Taiwan away from China in whatever cause, the activities are going to cause serious harm. Chenshuibian's (President of Taiwan) conspiracy of an independent Taiwan causes serious harm in our peaceful relations. We will resort to military action if they continue these irresponsible actions," said Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Yang Li. (rough translation).

The news anchor, reading from the government script, noted that the handshake heralded a change of direction in the Bush administration's approach to Taiwan, with the U.S. government having previously backed away from its resolve to defend Taiwan should an invasion occur, as it's treaty with the country dictates.

If anything's for sure, it's the fact that China, unlike Kim Jong-Il and his routinely belligerent rhetoric, isn't bluffing.

According to an editorial in the China Post today, "Beijing has deployed some 1,000 missiles targeting Taiwan and the sea-lanes surrounding the island, with 50 to 100 being added annually."

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When considered alongside recent talk of a new cold war between the U.S. and Russia after Vladimir Putin's vocal opposition to Bush's plan to erect missile defense facilities in Poland and the Czech Republic, this new escalation suggests the world is sleepwalking towards global conflict and a total breakdown of the existing international structure.

One can learn more about the attitude of Beijing from watching five minutes of translated Chinese television news than from attempting to search through thousands of news sources on the Internet, since Google.com, no doubt with the generous co-operation of Google itself, is blocked in real time by the Chinese government if too many searches about Taiwanese-American relations are entered.

Other websites lag and stumble to load as they are required to pass through an authority-approved filter before eventually appearing.

The news that China is intending to escalate tensions is clearly aimed at Taiwan directly, but we have managed to break through the electronic Berlin wall to provide this information to American citizens, whose corporate press seems too interested in Paris Hilton's latest escapade to bother about the fact that the globe's next superpower is openly hyping what could lead to world war three.