630 { China’s Quest
is not washed away, as long as the Motherland is not reunited, our people’s
armed forces responsibility is not fulfilled.”^26
PLA exercises continued as planned in spite of the Independence deploy-
ment. China did not back down. The day after Washington announced the
Independence movement, Beijing announced a second wave of exercises to
follow the just-initiated first wave. Washington responded with further warn-
ings. On March 10, Secretary of State Christopher appeared on the TV pro-
gram Meet the Press to deliver clear warnings about Taiwan. Part of the US
“one China policy” was Beijing’s commitment to deal peacefully with the
Taiwan issue, Christopher said. Implicit in these words was the warning that
PLA use of force against Taiwan would call into question Washington’s “one
China policy.” The PLA’s recent exercises “smacked of intimidation and co-
ercion,” Christopher said. The situation regarding Taiwan was “of great con-
cern” to the United States, and there would be “grave consequences” if China
tried to resolve the Taiwan issue by force. “We have real interests in Taiwan
and I don’t want the Chinese to misunderstand about that,” Christopher
concluded.^27 From Beijing, Qian Qichen rebutted Christopher: “Some peo-
ple ... must have forgotten the fact that Taiwan is a part of Chinese territory,
not a protectorate of the United States.”^28
The day after Christopher’s warning, the Pentagon announced deployment
to the vicinity of Taiwan of a second aircraft carrier battle group build around
the USS Nimitz and including seven other warships. The purpose of the de-
ployment, the Pentagon said, was to “make sure there is no miscalculation on
the part of the Chinese as to our interest in that area” and to “reassure our
friends in the region that we will maintain an interest in ... peace and stability
in that region.”^29 The Pentagon spokesman declined to go into particulars of
how the United States would respond to a Chinese attack on Taiwan other
than to say that such a move would be of “grave concern” to the United States.
The US deployment of a second carrier battle group further escalated the
tit-for-tat struggle underway between Beijing and Washington. Deployment
of one aircraft carrier battle group could be seen as an essentially symbolic
move. Dispatch of two battle groups very significantly increased the real mili-
tary capabilities in the area. Each battle group included a half-dozen other
warships in addition to the super-carrier itself, making a combined fleet of
perhaps fifteen or so warships. This was an extremely potent display of naval
power. Again, Beijing did not back down in the face of US power. The sec-
ond wave of exercises began as planned on March 12. Several days later, and
four days after the US announcement of the second aircraft carrier deploy-
ment, Beijing announced a third wave of exercises to begin on March 18 and
ending on March 25 —two days after Taiwan’s presidential elections. Tough
Chinese rhetoric paralleled PLA exercises. The day before the third wave of
exercises began, Li Peng warned that the US carrier deployment would be
futile. “If someone threatened the use of force against China, the outcome has