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HONG KONG, July 16 (Reuters): China has kicked off war games simulating an invasion of Taiwan and military chief Jiang Zemin has vowed to recover by 2020 the democratic island Beijing claims as its own, Beijing-backed Hong Kong newspapers said Friday.
The week-long land, sea and air exercises started on Dongshan island off China's southeastern coast in the first half of July after months of preparation, the Ta Kung Pao newspaper said.
About 18,000 troops are taking part in the exercises, which will aim for the first time to demonstrate air superiority in the Taiwan Strait, the newspaper said.
China believes Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian will push for formal statehood after winning a second four-year term in March and is preparing for a possible showdown with the island, which Beijing has claimed since their split at the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949.
The period "before or after 2020 is the time to resolve the Taiwan issue," military chief and ex-Communist Party chief Jiang told a recent expanded meeting of the Central Military Commission, the decision-making body of the People's Liberation Army (PLA), the Wen Wei Po newspaper said.
The meeting also approved military, political, logistics and armament development plans over an unspecified period for the 2.5-million-strong PLA, the newspaper said. It gave no details.
Western military analysts have said booming China wants to avoid conflict with Taiwan if possible, but tension has been simmering and the PLA is preparing for worst-case scenarios.
Taiwan's Chen appears determined to adopt a new constitution in 2008, a move Beijing sees as a formal declaration of independence and which it has warned could lead to war.
Taiwan's leaders are betting China will not attack and jeopardise surging economic growth, seen as necessary to create jobs, avert social unrest and perpetuate Communist Party rule.
The island's leaders believe the United States would rush to its rescue, especially after President George W Bush's pledged early in his term to do whatever it takes to help the island defend itself.
Western analysts said Taipei may be miscalculating Beijing's resolve and that Washington has no desire to be dragged into a conflict with China over Taiwan.
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