SUPERPOWER tensions escalated as the United States prepared yesterday to assemble its biggest armada in Asia since the Vietnam conflict. The purpose is to show support for Taiwan in its war of nerves with China.
Beijing responded angrily, attacking Washington for a Congressional motion to defend Taiwan in case of attack by China. Pro China newspapers in Hong Kong warned of a "sea of fire" if the US tried to make trouble in Chinese waters.
A US naval battle group led by the nuclear powered aircraft carrier Nimitz, its deck packed with warplanes, passed through the crowded sea lanes between Singapore and Indonesia and headed north into the South China Sea to link up with the carrier group headed by the USS Independence off Taiwan.
The US naval movements came in response to the most tense relations between China and Taiwan for decades.
Tomorrow Taiwan holds its first presidential election, which China is attempting to influence with military exercises and missile tests in the Taiwan Strait between Taiwan and the mainland.
Beijing, which has regarded Taiwan as a rebel province since the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949, has said the election could lead to a proclamation of independence by Taipei, which it has said it cannot accept.
The war games, which will continue during the election, were preceded by live fire manoeuvres in the south of the Taiwan Strait, and missile tests perilously close to two Taiwan ports.
The US fleet, expected to assemble off Taiwan tomorrow or on Sunday will include the two carriers, three nuclear powered submarines, one guided missile cruiser four destroyers and two frigates, in addition to fuel and ammunition ships.
The carriers have on board Tomcat fighters, Hornet fighter bombers, Intruder bombers, Hawkeye early warning aircraft, Vikings and Sea King helicopters.
The US has not said whether it will send a carrier through the international waters of the Taiwan Strait. But Defence Secretary William Perry this week said. "America has the best damned navy in the world," and could do so if it chose.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, Mr Shen Guofang, said the US House of Representatives motion to defend Taiwan in the event of a Chinese attack was a serious encroachment on Beijing's sovereignty.
"The Chinese government and people hereby express our resolute opposition to and strong indignation at this detestable act of the US side, which constitutes a serious encroachment upon China's sovereignty and a gross interference in China's internal affairs," he told reporters at a briefing. "Taiwan is China's sacred territory and not a US protectorate."
China's latest war games, which included mock invasions of small islands similar to nearby Taiwan held islets, were to be expanded yesterday, their fourth day, according to the Hong Kong based newspaper Wen Wei Po.
It said the games would be shifted to an unnamed location, ending three days of drills on the island of Pinglan, where evacuations and travel restrictions had halted key economic activities.
It warned that any move by US ships into the Taiwan Strait "would not only be rash but would pose great dangers."
In Taiwan, the fear of war appeared to recede somewhat as enthusiasm for the election rose. Share prices closed up for the eighth consecutive session.
On the streets of Taipei and elsewhere, people were enthusiastic over what President Lee has called the first time Chinese people will directly choose their top leader in "5,000 years of Chinese history"