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from Agence France-Presse via The Age, 2000-Feb-28:

China orders military alert

Hong Kong: Chinese President Jiang Zemin has issued an alert for People's Liberation Army (PLA) forces including on the coast along the Taiwan strait, a newspaper reported today.

Jiang, also head of the Central Military Commission, signed decrees ordering the military regions of Nanjing, Jinan, Beijing and other units including the East China Fleet to go on alert from February 23, Chinese-language daily The Sun, said citing unnamed 'insiders' in Beijing.

The orders follow Jiang's visit to various military sites in Anhui, Zhejiang, Jiangxi and Guangdong provinces from February 17, the daily said.

'We want peace, and not war, but we are not afraid of war,' Jiang was quoted as saying by the newspaper, calling on the forces to be prepared mentally, economically and militarily in the war against Taiwan's independence moves.

The military alert order comes as Taiwan, which Beijing deems a renegade province, is to hold its presidential elections on March 18.

In Beijing recently, the Communist leadership hardened its position on Taiwan, warning in a White Paper that the nationalist island could face war if it continued to reject calls for reunification.

The warning sparked strong concerns in Washington.

In similar elections in 1996, China carried out large-scale war games and fired missiles into the Taiwan Strait and Washington sent two battle ships to the area.

China and Taiwan have been governed separately since the nationalists fled to the island in 1949 after losing a civil war to the communists.

Meanwhile, the commander of US Pacific forces is to hold talks today with senior Chinese generals during which the tension between the mainland and Taiwan will be discussed.

A US official said Admiral Dennis Blair arrived late yesterday and would hold two days of talks with military and civilian Chinese leaders before leaving on Wednesday.

No agenda for the talks has been given by the Chinese or US side, but US sources stressed that the visit had been scheduled before the latest row over Taiwan blew up last week.

Nevertheless US concerns about an increasingly bitter war of words across the Taiwan Strait will be broached in the sensitive discussions, said the sources.