A NEW United states poll released yesterday shows public opinion almost evenly split over whether US military forces should intervene in the event of a Chinese attack on Taiwan.
The CNN Gallup poll asked 1,088 adults "If China were to attack Taiwan, do you think the United States should use its military forces to help defend Taiwan or not?" Forty six per cent opposed US intervention, 43 per cent favoured it, while 11 per cent expressed no opinion.
Under the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act, Washington pledged to help Taiwan defend itself but stopped short of any security guarantees.
China's latest war drill in the Taiwan Strait started yesterday with less than four days until Taiwan's presidential elections.
Taiwan's security agency cast a protective shield around the election candidates, amid warnings they were being stalked by an assassination team sent to wreck Saturday's landmark ballot.
Local officials and residents reported the People's Liberation Army (PLA) launched the air sea land drill on and around Haitan, an island in the northern part, of the strategic waterway separating Taiwan and the Communist mainland. The exercise the sixth and potentially the most risky in an eight month long series coincides with the final days of campaigning leading up to the first full democratic leadership elections in Chinese history.
The northern exercises are the closest yet staged to Taiwanese territory by China, seeking to cow Taiwanese President Lee Tenghui, whom it loathes as a "splittist" seeking to declare the island formally independent.
Troops on Tungchu, one, of three Taiwanese islands lying just 10 nautical miles (18.5 kilometres)from the exercise zone, have been placed on 4 hour alert, their local commander said.
China yesterday unleashed a fresh diatribe against Mr Lee, describing the election front runner as a dictator bent on "abrogating all authority to himself".
"Lee has wantonly shielded and backed those preaching Taiwan independence ... by taking advantage of his power from a dictatorship system," Xinhua, the official news agency, said.
A Chinese foreign ministry spokesman, Mr Shen Guofang, had more strong words for Washington, saying the US had stoked tension by dispatching two air craft carrier groups to the Taiwan Strait and should halt its "interference" in the dispute.
Yet he also welcomed a forthcoming meeting between the US Secretary of State, Mr Warren Christopher, and the Chinese Foreign Minister, Mr Qian Qichen, as a chance to "enhance mutual understanding and remove those misunderstandings between us".
In Taipei, the Foreign Minister, Mr Fredrick Chien, warned Taiwan would never yield to Chinese intimidation. "Making a concession under military threat would lead to even bigger concessions" he said.
But he also indicated Mr Lee would tone down the trips abroad that have outraged China. Taiwan rescued eight seamen but 16 others were missing after a Chinese container ship sank in the Taiwan Strait near Beijing's war games, state television said yesterday. Taiwan advised China it was sending a warship to the area to assist in the rescue.
The ship was identified as a 5,000 tonne container vessel registered in China's northeastern province of Liaoning.
The television report said the eight mainland Chinese were rescued by a Taiwanese naval vessel.