With China preparing to move its war games even closer to Taiwan, the island told its huge neighbor Friday to stop wasting money on scare tactics. Taiwan's president said he and his government are not "wimps with weak feet" and will not be intimidated.
Beijing, which has been conducting military maneuvers off the Taiwanese coast since Tuesday, said Friday that it would end its missile tests - but would start a new round of war games on Monday, this one only 11 miles from Taiwanese territory.The eight-day military exercise is part of a Chinese strategy to throttle what it sees as a Taiwanese drive to make itself independent. China claims sovereignty over Taiwan and hopes to influence the island's March 23 presidential election.
The United States sent two aircraft carriers and other warships to the region to deter a possible Chinese attack, and on Friday, the White House preferred to focus on the announcement that the four Chinese ballistic missiles that splashed down near Taiwan's ports over eight days would be the last.
"We had anticipated more missiles than were actually tested," said press secretary Mike Mc-Curry. "We hope that this will lead to an easing of tensions."
But the White House was still urging an end to the "unnecessarily provocative" war games, Mc-Curry said.
The Pentagon says it has Chinese assurances that it does not plan to invade Taiwan.
China has been making menacing military moves since July, angered by President Lee Teng-hui's visit to the United States, which it took as proof that Taiwan was bent on going independent.
The present war games are continuing until Wednesday; before those end, the new round will begin.
The current round is taking place in a zone that stretches to the mid-point of the Taiwan Straits - about 30 to 70 miles from the southwest Taiwanese islands of Quemoy and Wuchiu.
According to the Taiwanese military, the new maneuvers will come even closer - off China's coast within 11 miles of Taiwanese islets north and south of the exercise zone.
Taiwanese newspapers have speculated that the southern islet, sparsely populated Wuchiu, could be attacked in quest of a propaganda victory over Taiwan.