Laws needed to protect dam from attack: magazine

By Other News Sources on December 5, 2003 • ( Leave a comment )

Kelly Haggart and Mu Lan

December 5, 2003

As political tensions escalated this week across the Taiwan Strait, a Beijing magazine urged the central government to pass tough new laws to help prevent military attacks on the Three Gorges dam.

A legislative vacuum makes the world’s largest dam on China’s longest river a sitting target, the International Herald Tribune (Guoji xianqu daobao) said in its Dec. 1 issueThe weekly magazine, published by the official Xinhua news agency, warned that "in an increasingly unstable international environment," a suicide attack on the dam involving the hijacking of a large ship is "a growing possibility."

The same scenario was outlined in an article that ran last week in a Shanghai-based news weekly, Oriental Outlook (Liaowang dongfang), but this time the authors have called on Beijing to introduce a special security bill to address the issue.

Safeguarding the dam is so important – for economic and political reasons, and to protect the lives of millions of people in the Yangtze Valley – that enacting strict laws would not be "using a hammer to swat a fly," the Beijing-based International Herald Tribune said.

The article contained no specific suggestions as to what the proposed legislation should include. But it said laws are needed to co-ordinate the activities and clarify the responsibilities of the many different groups involved, including Three Gorges project officials, the army, police, Yangtze Valley and shipping authorities, and local governments.

Concern about the dam’s vulnerability as a high-profile military target appears to be mounting on the mainland as relations with Taipei become increasingly strained.

A recent decision by Taiwan’s legislature to give President Chen Shui-bian the power to hold a referendum on independence has angered Beijing, which regards the island as part of China and will not tolerate any talk of formal separation from the mainland. China warned last week that a vote on sovereignty could "bring disaster to Taiwan’s people."

The Chinese press this week has been full of threats of war. China Daily quoted a top military officer on Dec. 4 as saying the People’s Liberation Army would never allow Taiwan to seek independence. "We will definitely intervene," Major General Peng Guangqian warned.

The newspaper also called the Taiwan question "the most sensitive issue on the agenda" during Premier Wen Jiabao’s four-day visit to the United States next week.

Meanwhile, Oriental Outlook magazine said in its Dec. 1 issue that Taiwan has drawn up a list of 10 cities it regards as primary targets in the event of war: Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Xiamen, Beijing, Nanjing, Dalian, Qingdao and Tianjin.

Taipei’s battle plan also includes targeting key facilities on the mainland, such as steel factories, power plants and the Three Gorges dam, the news weekly said.