But at the same time, the Chinese Government hopes that the American Government would take into account of the Chinese national interests. Especially on the question of Taiwan. During the just finished annual gathering of the Chinese Parliament, came the news the military budget is being increased 17.7 per cent. Army officials say the bulk will go to increased salaries. But within days came fresh threats of military action against Taiwan.
Few countries refer to Taiwan as a separate state for fear of upsetting the mainland.
Nevertheless, Taiwan has asked the new Bush Administration to act on an order for new planes, missiles and ships in line with a decades old US law that specifically caters for Taiwan security, primarily, say the leaders in Taipei, out of concern over China. For Beijing they can never relinquish at least the threat of military deterrence against Taiwan, even though nearly every government in the world has told them that these military operations opposite Taiwan are counterproductive to the end call of reunifying Taiwan with the mainland. There are some within the Bush administration who do want to be more aggressive about selling defensive arms to Taiwan, however I think the more pragmatic members of the administration will be very carefully looking for signals from Beijing, either in terms of activities on Chinese territory in terms of military units that would give them more room to manoeuvre to be able to use these arm sales as a strategic tool in their dealings with Beijing. As one noted, the two sides may be doing more business than ever, but that doesn't mean they have to trust each other. This is Tom O'Byrne in Beijing for the World Today.