THE US Secretary of State, Mr Warren Christopher, said yesterday the US does not view China as an imminent threat to Taiwan. He called for a peaceful resolution of their differences.
"We don't see any imminent "threat coming from the activities of the Chinese at the present time," Mr Christopher said. "But we urge them to conduct them selves in a way that's consistent with what we understand to be the goal of both countries and that is to settle whatever differences they have in a peaceful way.
"We have made clear to the Chinese repeatedly, and again recently, that we expect the differences they have over Taiwan to be settled peacefully," he said.
The New York Times reported on Wednesday that China has sent explicit warnings to the Clinton administration that it has completed plans for a limited missile strike against Taiwan. This, the report said, could be mounted after President Lee Terighui of Taiwan wins re election in March, as expected.
US officials declined to confirm or deny China's reported warnings to the administration, but said they did not believe that Taiwan faces imminent danger.
In Beijing, China denied giving any information to US authorities about supposed plans for a military strike against Taiwan but made clear it wanted the island over which Beijing claims sovereignty to renounce any move towards independence.
Whether the US would defend Taiwan in the event of a Chinese military strike is unclear. Senior administration officials have said on several recent occasions that "nobody knows" how Washington would react.
The US established full diplomatic relations with China in 1979, downgrading relations with Taiwan to unofficial status.
Western diplomats said China's decision neither to confirm nor deny the New York Times report "appeared intended to keep the "island nervous about Beijing's intentions.
"They would not be unhappy if this intimidates Taiwan," said one. "This helps to reinforce the notion that Beijing is keeping its options open."
"China's military leaders have grown over confident and are talking in Beijing as though an attack on Taiwan would be a push over," a Hong Kong based western diplomat concerned with regional strategic security matters said.
"The western assessment is that they may well be tempted to launch an attack, but that they will get a bloody nose if they try to invade Taiwan," he said.
However, a secret Australian government report quoted by a newspaper in Sydney yesterday concluded that China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) could lash out at Taiwan if it continued to seek international recognition, but it was unlikely to invade.
Western and Chinese military analysts in Hong Kong said Chiha's sabre rattling towards Taipei in recent months had shown a new war in the Taiwan Strait could not be ruled out in the next few years and that clashes might come soon.
Mr Tai Ming Cheung, a China analyst and military expert in Hong Kong, said force was one of the options against Taiwan but that PLA capabilities were limited and a military flare up soon was unlikely.
"I think it depends on what happens after the presidential elections, whether Taiwan decides to change the constitution and go for independence," Mr Cheung said.
"This is one phase ... we could say psychological warfare, or it's in the Cold War stage. The hot war hasn't started.
"The PLA has a tradition of doing this, making very clear statements about using force, to gain political objectives without actually using force", Mr Cheung said.