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Taiwan Air Force F-16 fighter jet takes off from the closed-off section of Sun Yat-sen freeway at Chang-hua county in central Taiwan, in this May 15, 2007 file photo
US President Barack Obama has decided against selling new F-16 jets to Taiwan but will give the island an arms package worth US$4.2 billion (RM12.6 billion), the Washington Times reported.
The newspaper quoted administration and congressional officials as saying the US Congress will be briefed later today on the proposals.
The White House declined comment, the newspaper said. Officials in Taiwan had no immediate comment.
The Obama administration had said it would decide by October 1 on Taiwan’s request to buy 66 late-model F-16 fighter planes built by Lockheed Martin Corp.
Since 2006, the United States has balked at providing Taiwan the F-16 C/D models, potentially valued at more than US$8 billion, apparently for fear of angering China, which regards the self-ruled island as its own.
China’s top official newspaper warned last week that “madmen” on Capitol Hill who want the United States to sell advanced weapons to Taiwan were playing with fire and could pay a “disastrous price”.
The package proposed by the administration will include weapons and equipment to upgrade Taiwan’s existing F-16 A/B model aircraft, the Washington times said.
On-air emergency: The mosquito can be seen flying into Huang Ching's mouth as she's live on air
A Taiwanese TV presenter had a severe asthma attack live on air after a mosquito flew into her mouth and bit her.
Huang Ching had to be hospitalised after she swallowed the insect, which then got stuck in her windpipe while she was reading the news.
Uh-oh: The mosquito gets lodged in the presenter's throat while she reads the news
Huang spent a day in hospital after the incident
The news anchor gamely continued with the broadcast despite the incident but executives from China Television Co decided to take her off air so she could get help.
They put on a four-minute advert and a replacement presenter was brought in to carry on with the broadcast.
Huang spent the following day in hospital after the incident.
'I never expected a mosquito to have such a great power. It really gave me a bad day,' she said.
China and Taiwan have signed a historic trade pact, seen as the most significant agreement since civil war split the two governments 60 years ago.
The Economic Co-operation Framework Agreement (ECFA) removes tariffs on hundreds of products. It could boost bilateral trade that already totals $110bn (£73bn) a year.
Correspondents say that, economically, the deal favours Taiwan but that Beijing hopes for political gains in its long-standing unification campaign.
The deal is seen as the culmination of efforts by Taiwan's President Ma Ying-jeou, elected two years ago with a vow to reduce tension with the mainland. Service sectors
The deal was signed in the mainland city of Chongqing and was carried live on state television.
Taiwan's envoy Chiang Pin-kung said the agreement was "a critical moment in the development of long-term relations".
His Beijing counterpart, Chen Yunlin, said the pact was an agreement of "equal consultation and mutual benefits".
The pair exchanged gifts and joined in a toast at the ceremony.
The deal is seen as being most economically beneficial to export-reliant Taiwan.
At the moment $80bn in goods flows to China, and $30bn to Taiwan.
Almost $14bn worth of Taiwanese goods exported to China will have their tariffs reduced or removed.
Taiwanese companies will also gain access to a number of mainland service sectors, including banking and insurance.
Chinese exports worth just under $3bn will see their tariffs lowered.
The BBC's Cindy Sui in Taipei says this is clearly a good economic deal for Taiwan but there remains genuine concern among many that the agreement will make Taiwan too economically dependent on China and therefore politically vulnerable.
There have been some street protests in Taiwan against the deal but opinion polls suggest the majority on the island are in favour.
Taiwanese critics say the deal could leave the island's economy open to a flood of cheap imports.
They also worry about China's motives, arguing that Beijing is hoping to use it to win the political support of big business on the island for its own agenda.
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao has previously said that his country "can give up our profits because Taiwanese compatriots are our brothers".
For decades, relations between the two sides have been strained.
Taiwan and China have been governed separately since the end of a civil war in 1949.
The site of the signing, Chongqing, has historical resonance. Communist leader Mao Zedong and Nationalist President Chiang Kai-shek tried but failed to sign a truce there.
A seismological centre specialist pointing at earthquake curves. A strong 6.9 magnitude quake struck southeast of Taiwan Monday, the US Geological Survey said, but no tsunami warning was immediately issued.
A 6.9 magnitude quake struck in an ocean area north of the Philippines on Monday and was felt throughout Taiwan, officials said, but there were no immediate reports of damage and no mass tsunami warnings.
Philippine authorities forecast little damage after the 10:59 a.m. (0259 GMT) quake that struck 300 km (180 miles) off the Batan Islands of the Philippines and 314 km (195 miles) southeast of Taiwan.
Philippine officials warned people on the coast to watch for a tidal surge, though it was unlikely to cause casualties or damage, while the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center advised that local tsunamis on coastlines within 100 km (60 miles) of the quake's center were possible.
The United States Geological Survey put the quake at a depth of 10 km (six miles), while Taiwan's Central Weather Bureau said it was 20 km (12 miles) deep and registered 6.6 on the Richter scale, which is the local measurement standard.
The quake shook buildings in Taiwan's capital, Taipei.
Taiwan's TSMC, the world No. 1 contract chipmaker, said the quake had no impact on its plants in northern Taiwan. UMC, the world No. 2 chipmaker, also reported no impact.
Earthquakes occur frequently in Taiwan, which lies on a seismically active stretch of the Pacific basin.
One of Taiwan's worst-recorded quakes occurred in September 1999. Measuring 7.6 on the Richter scale, it killed more than 2,400 people and destroyed or damaged 50,000 buildings.
Residents ran to open spaces as a 6.6-magnitude aftershock rattled the city of Concepcion
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon (L) and Chile's President Michelle Bachelet attend a news conference in Santiago, capital of Chile, March 5, 2010. Ban Ki-moon on Friday pledged 10 million dolllars aid from the Central Emergency Fund of the United Nations to the quake-hit Chile
Powerful aftershocks have rattled buildings and sent terrified residents fleeing into the streets in the Chilean city of Concepcion.
Fears of of additional damage in the tremors before dawn on Friday led officials to evacuate some patients from the regional hospital.
Patricia Correa, who was overseeing the hospital's emergency ward, said her part of the five-story building was "on the point of collapsing. The walls cracked".
The strongest of the aftershocks was a magnitude 6.6.
"Some chunks of buildings that were already in bad condition fell, but nothing significant," a senior government official in quake-hit Bio Bio region told local radio.
UN support
Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary general, arrived in the capital, Santiago, on Friday, promising support for Chile.
"The Chilean government is asking for international aid and we will give it," he said.
Meanwhile, Michelle Bachelet, the outgoing Chilean president, met with Sebastian Pinera, her successor, and they promised to try to avoid letting the March 11 hand-over of power interrupt aid efforts.
"The new government will have an immense challenge," Bachelet said.
Pinera has even before his inauguration named new governors for the six hardest-hit regions and told them to get to work.
Officials were still struggling to determine the death toll of the magnitude-8.8 quake, as well as the damage to roads, ports and hospitals.
Disaster officials announced they had double-counted at least 271 missing as dead in the hardest-hit part of the country - an error that would drop the official death toll to about 540 if there were no other mistakes.
But interior department officials said that from now on, they would release only the number of dead who had been identified: 279 as of Friday.
Uncertainty to remain
Doubts over the death toll are likely to persist, partly because an undetermined number of victims were washed out to sea in the ensuing tsunamis and some bodies may never be recovered.
"The number of disappeared is very difficult to determine," Patricio Bustos, a government forensics specialist in the city of Talca, said.
"It can take a very long time."
The government said on Friday it had removed Mariano Rojas as head of the Navy's oceanographic service over its failure to issue a tsunami warning for the Pacific immediately after Saturday's quake.
Port captains in several towns issued their own warnings, but a national alert never came, and some say that failure led to deaths.
The United Nations' Secretary General Ban Ki Moon committed the UN to giving Chile 10 million dollars from an emergency fund at a joint press conference with Chile's President Michelle Bachelet on Friday.
"The UN will authorize 10 million dollars from a central emergency response fund," Ban told journalists. "We will also establish a working group to look at Chile's most urgent needs," he said.
During the same conference, Bachelet said that she welcomed 2 million dollars' worth emergency material from China on an early Friday.
"This is a gesture that shows the excellence of the links we have had with China," Bachelet told the press conference in response to a question from Xinhua. "It has been the same with the free trade agreement and the cultural exchanges we have had," she added.
Chile experienced an earthquake measuring 8.8 magnitude on the Richter scale six days ago, which killed 279 people, at the last official count, but which may prove to have killed more than 1,000 once all the dead have been confirmed.
Chinese officials said Friday's flight represented the furthest geographical distance that the nation had sent aid and the furthest geographical distance from which Chile had received assistance. It is the first time China has sent a cargo plane to South America carrying material alone.
"It is not easy to cross the world," Bachelet told media. This really expresses the authentic willingness to support Chile, and " we are very grateful," she added.
Chile has received aid from 86 nations and 16 non-government organizations. Bachelet also highlighted aid from Bolivia, sent by both Chileans living there and Bolivia's government, even though the two nation's have not had diplomatic relations since the mid- 1980s. Ban said that 14 UN agencies are taking part in such efforts.
Ban and Bachelet said that they had already begun working with Sebastian Pinera, who will take over Chile's presidency on March 11.
Related:
Chile looks ahead at "enormous task" in rebuilding, Chilean UN envoy says
UNITED NATIONS, March 5 (Xinhua) -- Chilean UN Ambassador Heraldo Munoz said here Friday that with the "broad estimate" of damage for the quake-hit South American country being at around 30 billion U.S. dollars, Chile is planning for the "enormous task" in rebuilding.
"What we have ahead is enormous task of reconstruction," Munoz told reporters at a press conference at the UN Headquarters in New York. "But Chile is standing up -- we are recuperating." Full story
Chile announces national mourning period for quake victims
The Chilean government announced on Thursday that a three-day national mourning period will start Sunday for victims killed in last week's massive quake.
According to a law signed by President Michelle Bachelet, Chileans are asked to demonstrate national flags in front of their homes during the period, so as to pay tribute to the victims and offer condolence to their families.
Father and son looking for food among the destrustion of chile earthquake.
People collect petrol at a damaged Petrol station.
Dog search and rescue any survivor or corpses.
Chile Port is destroyed with tons of containers scattered around.
The earthquake that struck Chile was far stronger than the one that struck Haiti in January.
But, initial reports show that damage was much more contained. While the death toll of 214 is only preliminary and is expected to grow, it’s still a thousand times lower than that of Haiti’s.
One emergency official quoted by Reuters said the number of deaths was unlikely to increase dramatically.
IN PICTURES: Images from the 8.8 magnitude earthquake in Chile
Because of its long history with earthquakes, which has contributed to an earthquake “consciousness” in Chile, and infrastructure that is built to higher standards, many hope that Chile will be spared the vast destruction that struck Haiti, even as it deals with one of its worst natural disasters in decades.
“Chile has a long story of earthquakes, but I think this was the worst ever,” says Paula Saez, an aid worker at World Vision in Chile.
The 8.8-magnitude quake that struck about 200 miles south of Santiago, is being billed as one of the world’s largest in a century, but it will most likely not go down as one of the deadliest. In part, that’s because Chile sits in the “ring of fire” earthquake zone and is accustomed to massive temblors, including the largest on record, which hit in 1960 and registered 9.5. A few more days until full damage is known
The government says that it might be another 72 hours before the real extent of the damage is known, as telecommunications are down in Concepcion, the city closest to the epicenter of the quake. Also, the earthquake impacted many rural areas, where the population is dispersed and hard to account for.
In downtown Santiago, a sense of calm prevailed, after initial panic. Residents began collecting debris that had fallen on the streets and attempted to reopen businesses by midday.
Chileans are well versed in what to do during earthquakes, with drills part of every child’s schooling. “Just in case” attitudes, which might seem obsessive in other parts of the world, are the norm here. One woman says she turns off the gas valve every time she leaves the house, just in case a quake strikes when she is out.
The Chilean National Emergency Office, which coordinates emergency responses, stresses that Chile is among the world’s most seismic. On its website the agency spells out how to prepare in the event of an earthquake.
That, as well as previous experience, helped many through this quake.
Learning from previous earthquakes
Leonel Araya, a doorman in Santiago who lost a child in a 1982 earthquake, says that he has learned from past experiences. “I’ve been through three big earthquakes, including a maremoto (tsunami) in the north. You learn from them, to be more humanitarian. To think about things better.”
He says he ran to open the door, to get his family under the frame to protect them.
“Everything else can fall,” he says. “I just tried to control the family, because you know, the family, the children, my wife, are really nervous. That’s one thing I learned. You need to keep them right next to you, because once, in an earthquake in 82, a son who’s no longer with me got away from me. And when I tried to grab him, he slipped out and was crushed by a wall.”
Silvia Vidalia, an elderly woman in a neighborhood in Santiago, also stressed the need to stay calm.
“The first thing you need to do is calm each other down. My husband, for example, who is 80-something, is very nervous. So the first thing I did was calm him down. And then, after that hellish shaking ended, we went downstairs because we live on the second floor. You have to find a safe place.” Population less dense than Haiti
Chile will undoubtedly also be helped by the fact that the earthquake did not happen in as dense an area as Port-au-Prince, Haiti, where parts of the city and several government buildings were literally flattened. It will also be helped by better-enforced building codes, one of the most significant challenges in Haiti. A US Geological Survey researcher told Reuters that a low death toll could be attributed to strong building standards.
Maria Cristina Sepulveda, a pharmacist in Santiago, says she believes she survived because of the sturdiness of the buildings around her.
“It seems like where I live is very well built, because nothing happened to it. I’ve been there for 15 years. The old buildings are well built,” she says.
One of the challenges in the hours ahead will be the damage to infrastructure. Bridges have fallen and airports closed. Some areas are only reachable by helicopter, says Ms. Saez. She says the government is reporting that up to 400,000 people could be affected. The death toll could be higher since in many rural towns there are no hospitals to report figures.
It will also be a blow to the economy, especially given damage to the copper industry, the world’s largest.
“It’s the most difficult emergency that Chile has faced in a long time,” Saez says.
And the quake has, for now, left many in the nation stunned. After all, says Ms. Vidalia, no one can ever really be prepared. “We know this is a seismic country, but one’s never prepared.”
Director Ku Kai-wen of Taiwan Seismology department at the Central Weather Bureau points to Richter Scale graphs after a 6.4-magnitude earthquake hit Taiwan on Thursday
Firemen put out a blaze at a textile factory in Tainan, Taiwan, on Thursday in the aftermath of a 6.4-magnitude earthquake.
Damage from an early morning earthquake is seen in a home in Kaohsiung county Taiwan, on March 4.
A local Taiwanese resident in Kaohsiung county inspects the damage to his home after an earthquake jolted the island on March 4.
In Chaiyi county, Taiwan, evacuated students sit outside in the playground protecting their heads after a strong earthquake shook Taiwan on Thursday.
A landslide occurs in Jiaxian Township, Taiwan, almost immediately after an earthquake struck the area on Thursday morning.
A man looks at broken statues inside a temple damaged by a quake that hit Shanlin Township, Kaohsiung County, southern Taiwan, Thursday.. An earthquake of magnitude 6.4 shook Taiwan early on Thursday, injuring 11, stopping transport and causing minor damage and fires in the southern half of the island.
Firemen battle a blaze at a textile factory that started shortly after a strong 6.4-magnitude earthquake jolted southern Taiwan, Thursday.
A woman walks inside a temple damaged by an earthquake on Thursday morning in Taiwan.
Smoke rises from a fire at a textile factory, which started shortly after an earthquake hit Tainan, Taiwan, early Thursday. A 6.4-magnitude earthquake shook Taiwan, injuring 11, stopping transport, and causing minor damage and fires in the southern part of the island.
A powerful earthquake that rocked southern Taiwan caused millions of dollars in damage to infrastructure and business operations, officials and companies said Friday.
At least 96 people were injured in the 6.4-magnitude quake which disrupted rail services, toppled farm houses, and momentarily cut off electricity to more than half a million homes.
A fire that broke out soon after the quake at Everest Textile and lasted for nearly a day was estimated to have caused at least 100 million Taiwan dollars (3.1 million US) worth of damage, said the company, located in Tainan county.
The tremor also disrupted operations in Southern Taiwan Science Park, a crucial component in the island's high-tech export industry, as production lines were temporarily shut down for safety evacuation.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) and United Microelectronics Corp (UMC), the world's two largest contract chipmakers, both reported a 36-hour production delay in their facilities in Tainan.
"The impact is limited and the insurance company will cover it," said a UMC spokesman. TSMC said it was still assessing the loss.
Taiwan High Speed Rail was forced to suspend services to southern Taiwan on Thursday following a minor derailing during the quake, but it declined to say how much revenue it lost.
The company resumed some services to quake-hit areas on Friday and is expected to return to a full schedule on Monday, a spokeswoman said.
About 99 schools have reported an estimated 40 million Taiwan dollars in quake damage to buildings and classrooms, according to the education ministry.
US-based catastrophe risk modeling firm EQECAT said in a note to clients that it estimated total economic damage from the quake to stay below one billion US dollars, including losses from secondary fires and landslides.
The US Geological Survey said the tremor struck about 70 kilometres (40 miles) from the island's second-largest city Kaohsiung, but was felt as far north as the capital Taipei, several hundred kilometres away.
The quake struck in a sparsely inhabited mountainous area in Jiahsian township in Kaohsiung county, an area still recovering from a massive typhoon that triggered floods and mudslides in August, killing about 700 people.
Taiwan is regularly hit by earthquakes as the island lies near the junction of two tectonic plates.
The 6.7-magnitude earthquake that struck southern Taiwan at 8:18 a.m. Beijing Time on Thursday has left 64 people injured, according to the latest statistics from local fire department.
Those injured have been taken to local hospitals, it said, without identifying them.
A blackout caused by the earthquake affected some 540,500 households. Electricity was restored at 2 p.m..
According to a separate report from education authorities, some 340 school buildings were damaged and classes were suspended in some schools Thursday. The report did not specify on the names of the schools.
The epicenter of the earthquake, at a depth of about 6 km, was 22.9 degrees north and 120.6 degrees east, at the juncture of the southern Kaohsiung and Pingtung counties, the China Earthquake Networks Center(CENC) said.
Xinhua reporters in Taipei felt the quake when it hit and telecommunications went down for a short time after.
An official with Jiasian Township at the epicenter told local media that at least three small landslides were triggered by the quake and cracks were found in houses.
Taiwan media footage showed cave-ins, landslides, cracks in school buildings, and power cuts. Many travelers were temporarily stranded at stations due to the temporary closure of high-speed railways.
Local media in Taiwan said the military was mobilized to help in quake-relief efforts.
The tremor was also felt in the mainland's Fujian Province on the western side of Taiwan Strait.
A man who identified himself as Lin in Fuzhou, capital of Fujian Province, said he was on the seventh floor when he felt a tremor. He said computer panels rattled furiously for a brief moment.
Residents of Xiamen, Quanzhou and Zhangzhou, all in Fujian, also said they felt an intense tremor when the quake hit.
An expert with Fujian Provincial Seismological Bureau told Xinhua that the earthquake had not caused any major damage in the province.
According to Taiwan's local authorities, the quake registered 6.4 on the Richter scale and its epicenter was at a depth of about 5 km.
Figures posted on the website of China Earthquake Administration (CEA) showed that a 7-magnitude occurred nearby in 1964, leaving 106 people dead and another 229 people seriously injured.
The Chinese mainland-based Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS) expressed sympathy through the Taiwan-based Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) for Taiwan people affected by the earthquake.
The mainland was deeply concerned about the injured and financial losses in Taiwan and hoped the people affected could resume their normal lives as soon as possible, the ARATS said in a letter to the SEF.
Yang Yi, spokesman with the State Council Taiwan Affairs Office, also sent "heartfelt sympathy and solicitude" for the people affected, and hoped they would recover soon and resume their normal lives.
"It's not clear how much damage the earthquake caused, but we can sympathize with those who are affected by it," said Lin Shengzhong, vice president of the All-China Federation of Taiwan Compatriots. "We are ready to initiate donations for them."
Chile, Taiwan, Haiti, Japan - 6-plus earthquakes in the last 48 hours
Chile, Taiwan, Haiti, and Japan all have had 6-plus earthquakes in the last week, with Haiti experiencing a major aftershock after the 7.0 Haiti Earthquake. Whatever is going on, it's now clear to many that the World is experiencing large earthquakes at a greater rate. The Taiwan Earthquake was centered in Kaohsiung and 3.1 miles below the ground. The quake disrupted train service and sent pedestrians running into the streets.
As of this writing, there's no claim that the Taiwan Earthquake is related to the giant 8.8 Chile Earthquake or for that matter the quakes in Haiti and Japan. But one element of evidence is obvious and that's the sheer timing of all of these great quakes.
Paramilitary policemen practise during a daily training session at the Forbidden City in Beijing, February 1, 2010.
Taiwan's President Ma Ying-jeou (L) speaks to Taiwan's top negotiator on China policy, Straits Exchange Foundation Chairman P.K. Chiang, during an International Democrat Union (IDU) meeting in Taipei, February 1, 2010.
Paramilitary policemen practise during a daily training session at the Forbidden City in Beijing, February 1, 2010.
A child runs past a torpedo on display outside the Taiwan Armed Forces Museum in Taipei, January 30, 2010.
U.S. Assistant Defense Secretary for Asian and Pacific Security Affairs Wallace Gregson speaks during a forum hosted by the Japan Institute of International Affairs in Tokyo, February 1, 2010. The United States intends to meet its obligation to ensure Taiwan's self-defence capabilities, Gregson said on Monda
Chinese state media blasted the United States on Monday for a planned $6.4 billion arms package for Taiwan but U.S. officials said they hoped the flap would be temporary and not derail cooperation.
The arms sales, the latest by the United States but the first by the Obama administration, has added to a litany of strains between the world's biggest and third-biggest economies, including the value of China's currency, trade protectionism, Internet freedoms and Tibet.
The official China Daily said U.S. weapons sales to the self-ruled island, which China claims as its own, "inevitably cast a long shadow on Sino-U.S. relations."
"China's response, no matter how vehement, is justified. No country worthy of respect can sit idle while its national security is endangered and core interests damaged," the English-language newspaper said in an editorial.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said the U.S.-China relationship was important and "I don't think that either country can afford to simply walk away from the other."
Gibbs said any sanctions against the companies involved in the arms sales, a move threatened by China for the first time, would not be warranted.
The United States switched diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing in 1979, recognizing "one China," and says it wants the two sides to settle their differences peacefully. The United States remains Taiwan's biggest backer and is obliged by the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act to help in the island's defense
.
State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said the arms sale decision reflected "long-standing commitments to provide for Taiwan's defensive needs."
"We will, as always, pursue our interests but we will do it in a way that we think allows for positive and cooperative relations with China," he told reporters.
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates defended the arms sale, telling reporters he hoped China's decision to protest by curtailing bilateral military contacts would be temporary and that he still planned to visit China later this year.
"Stability is enhanced by contact between our military and a greater understanding of each other's strategies, so I hope that if there is a downturn, that it will be a temporary one and that we can get back to strengthening this relationship," Gates said.
MISSILE BUILDUP CONCERNS
The Pentagon's 2010 Ballistic Missile Defense Review Report to Congress, published on Monday, said the United States was concerned and closely monitoring China's missile buildup and increasingly advanced capabilities in the Pacific region.
"One regional trend that particularly concerns the United States is the growing imbalance of power across the Taiwan Strait in China's favor," the report said.
The report said U.S. defense policymakers "remain committed to a relationship that is positive, cooperative, and comprehensive and do not believe a hostile or adversarial relationship with China is by any means inevitable."
Beijing considers Taiwan a breakaway province that must accept eventual unification, by force if necessary. China's ruling Communist Party controls the country's media and uses them at sensitive times to amplify its message.
Venting intense anger over the arms sales, Chinese Internet users called for a boycott of top U.S. exporter and plane-maker Boeing Co and other companies supplying parts.
China has for years opposed U.S. defense sales to Taiwan, which has been separated from mainland rule since 1949 and was a Japanese colony from 1895 to 1945.
But for the first time, Beijing sought to pressure the United States by threatening to formally punish companies whose arms are involved in the arms package, which was announced on Friday.
"China has no room whatever for compromise on this issue," said a commentary in the Liberation Army Daily, the mouthpiece of the country's military, adding that Chinese armed forces were ready for "resolute struggle" over Taiwan.
"It is entirely reasonable to impose corresponding sanctions on U.S. companies involved in arms sales to Taiwan."
U.S. arms exporters declined to comment on the Chinese threat and White House spokesman Gibbs said: "I don't think those (sanctions) would be warranted."
Walter Lohman, director of Asian studies at the Heritage
Foundation, said China's response was "mostly noise" and probably designed to deter Washington from considering selling F-16 advanced fighter jets to Taiwan.
"Partly what they're doing now is trying to scare us off the F-16 sale, by making a big deal out of this one," he said.
CHINESE FACE LIMITED OPTIONS
Chinese shares appeared unmoved but trading in offshore one-year dollar/yuan non-deliverable forwards (NDFs) implied slightly slower appreciation for the yuan over the next 12 months.
Dealers said the NDFs shift was mainly driven by the dollar's global strength but the Sino-U.S. tension contributed.
China's top leaders, President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao, have not publicly commented on what they have said is their nation's topmost issue, suggesting they want to keep some leeway in dealing with Washington.
Despite Beijing's strident words, options for punishing the United States were limited, said Drew Thompson, director of China Studies at the Nixon Center, a thinktank in Washington.
"They don't have a lot of leverage, and that's a source of frustration for them," he said. "It's hard to picture what they could do that's anything other than symbolic."
Sanctions on Boeing could give its rival, Airbus, more leverage in negotiations with Chinese buyers, Thompson said.
U.S. officials have said Taiwan, which lags China in the balance of military power, needs updated weapons to give it more sway with Beijing, which Taiwan says has more than 1,400 short- and mid-range missiles aimed at the island.
Beijing would postpone or partially halt some military contacts with the United States, including visits planned for this year such as Gates's trip, Xinhua news agency said.
China also said the dispute will damage cooperation with the United States over international issues. Washington has sought stronger Chinese support over several hotspots, chiefly the nuclear ambitions of Iran and North Korea.
"It's difficult to take what are global problems and use them as a tool to vent frustration over a bilateral issue," Thompson said of China's options. "They risk isolating themselves pretty badly."
The $6.4 bln sale has outraged Beijing
US President Barack Obama came in for criticism last year for not meeting with Tibetan spiritual leader, The Dalai Lama
Taiwanese soldiers man US-made anti-tank missiles during a military event in the island's capital, Taipei
White House has warned China against sanctioning US firms
US urge China against sanction The United States has urged China not to slap sanctions on US companies selling arms to Taiwan, as the firms tried to stay out of President Barack Obama's biggest row yet with Beijing. The Obama administration defended the arms sale Monday as preserving the military balance between Taiwan and fast-growing China, which reacted furiously to a US announcement it was selling the 6.4 billion dollars in weapons. Beijing has always strongly opposed US sales to Taiwan, which it considers a Chinese territory awaiting reunification. But in a new step, China pledged Saturday to punish the US companies involved in the deal. Related article: China furious at US 'arrogance' on Taiwan White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said that Chinese sanctions "would not be warranted." Gibbs said that Obama had spoken to Chinese leaders when he visited Beijing in November about the question of arms sales to Taiwan, and other issues. "We've always said that we want the type of relationship where we're working together on important issues of mutual concern," Gibbs said. "But when we have disagreements... we'll voice those disagreements out in the open, in public." State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said the sale was consistent with longstanding US policy of only recognizing Beijing but of providing Taiwan with weapons to ward off a potential invasion. "We think these defensive arms will contribute to security and stability across the Taiwan Strait," Crowley said. "We regret the fact that they have suggested they will impose sanctions on US companies involved in the sale of these defensive articles." Obama has tried to pursue wide-ranging cooperation with China, saying that the world's largest developed and developing economies can work together on issues from climate change to the North Korean and Iranian nuclear disputes. But relations have hit a rough patch on a range of disputes including Google's revelations last month that China had been hacking into accounts of the company and human rights activists. Another row may be fast approaching as Tibet's exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama is visiting the United States in late February. Obama came under intense criticism at home last year for not meeting with the Dalai Lama so as not to sour the mood before the president's trip to China. The US side agreed that Obama would meet later with the Dalai Lama, who is widely respected in the United States but vilified by China. US companies involved in the Taiwan deal all declined to comment other than to say that the issue concerned governments and not individual firms. An official at one company noted that China did not reveal details about the sanctions, making it difficult to gauge the impact. US defense contractors sell little to China, which has been under a US and EU arms embargo since its bloody 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in Tiananmen Square. But Boeing Co. -- whose McDonnell Douglas unit was given a 37 million-dollar contract for 12 Harpoon missiles to Taiwan -- is an aerospace giant which counts China as one of its largest markets. Nonetheless, Boeing shares closed up 1.82 percent on the New York Stock Exchange, outpacing the benchmark Dow index, after Obama's budget proposal outlined new business for the company with NASA. Boeing has deep ties with the aviation industry in China, which could stand to lose if it sanctioned the aviation giant. Three Chinese companies are under contract to produce key parts of Boeing's emblematic 787 Dreamliner, which took to the skies in December after a more than two-year delay. Aviation expert Richard Aboulafia, vice president for analysis at Teal Group, said that with past arms sales to Taiwan, "it's usually been this little dance of expressing disapproval over a few months and then things return to normal." "But you never know when there could be a tipping point," he said. "If somehow Europe stays squeaky clean and the US has this tension over Taiwan and Tibet and cyber freedom and climate change, then there may be a shift to the European aerospace companies." --------
China on Friday protested the US decision to sell 6.4 billion dollars in weapons to Taiwan and warned of "serious" damage to relations and cooperation with Washington.
China's Vice Foreign Minister He Yafai made an urgent official demarche to the US ambassador in Beijing, Jon Huntsman, in the early hours Saturday local time, Wang Baodong, spokesman for the Chinese embassy in Washington, told AFP.
"The latest US move to sell weapons to Taiwan, which is part of China, constitutes a gross intervention into China's internal affairs, seriously endangers China's national security and harms China's peaceful reunification efforts," Wang quoted the protest as saying.
"The US plan will definitely undermine China-US relations and bring about serious negative impact on exchange and cooperation in major areas between the two countries," he added.
China "strongly urges the US side to fully recognize the gravity of the issue, revoke the erroneous decision on arms sales to Taiwan and stop selling any weapons to Taiwan," he said.
China snapped off military relations with the United States temporarily after the last US arms package to Taiwan in October 2008.
Beijing considers Taiwan, where China's nationalists fled in 1949 after losing the mainland's civil war, to be a territory awaiting reunification, by force if necessary.
The United States in 1979 switched recognition to Beijing. But Congress requires the administration to provide Taiwan weapons for defensive purposes.
Wang said that the weapons deal violated the 1982 communique between China and the United States, which said the arms sales to Taiwan "will not exceed, in qualitative or in quantitative terms," the level in the years before that.
State Department spokesman Philip Crowley earlier said that the arms sales were consistent with the three key communiques between the United States and China when they normalized relations.
Rescue workers and firefighters search for victims in the rubble of a collapsed hotel in Taipei as rescue operations continue and workers search for victims of this century's second most deadly earthquake.
A total of 129 aftershocks have been recorded as of noon Sunday after a magnitude 6.8 earthquake hit Taiwan Saturday at 9:02 p.m., the Central Weather Bureau (CWB) said.
Kuo Kai-wen, director of CWB's Seismology Center, said the strong quake and later aftershocks are normal seismic energy release, and he urged the public "to be on guard" but said there was no need to panic.
Kuo said Saturday's quake, whose epicenter was 25.5 kilometers southeast of Hualien City off the coast of Hualien County in eastern Taiwan, resulted from friction between the Eurasian Plate and Philippine plate, which converge off Taiwan's east coast.
Because it struck at a depth of 45.9 kilometers, its impact was less than if it had been shallower, Kuo said, but he expected seismic energy to continue to be released.
"It is estimated that there will be aftershocks with magnitudes of less than 6.8 in the next few days," Kuo said.
Kuo also said that compared with the more than 1,000 aftershocks that occurred within 24 hours after a magnitude 7.3 temblor hit Taiwan on Sept. 21, 1999, the aftershocks after Saturday's quake were relatively mild.
Eleven people suffered minor injuries in Hualien, and other minor damage was reported elsewhere after Saturday's quake.
Yuching Bridge in northern Taiwan's Miaoli City was sealed off for inspection Sunday after its expansion joint opened wider because of the earthquake.
The Miaoli County government said the bridge poses no immediate danger, but it decided to close out of safety considerations.
Among the 11 injured in Hualien Saturday, 10 were tourists at a Hualien City hotel whose discomfort may have been caused by chlorine leaking from a pipe that ruptured during the earthquake.
The other injured person, a 16-year-old boy, was hit by a falling rock in Siulin Township, Hualien County.
Provincial Highway 11 was disrupted by landslides at its 40 kilometer marker, but the road was later cleared and traffic returned to normal.
Also, some 9,000 households were left without electricity after the Rueisuei transformer station in Hualien County's Kuangfu Township broke down, but power has since been restored in the area.
Some parts of Taiwan were hit by a severe Earthquake on Saturday. Local TV channels showed footages of the damages caused by the calamity. U.S. Geological Survey found out the magnitude of the quake was around 6.4. There was an aftershock that had the magnitude of 4.8. Taiwan is located in a quake prone region. 10 years back, the place was hit by one of its worst quakes. It had a magnitude of 7.6 and took the life of 2,400 people as per the record. However, the recent quake is not likely to bring a Tsunami- the geologists have said. The after effect of the situation can be ascertained only after some days.
The tremor was felt quite well by the residents and those living in high rises could feel the floors shaking beneath their feet. Four people got injured after debris fell on them but no casualty has been reported so far. As a result of the quake, rail services were suspended in Taiwan. As one can expect, the quake created panic among the residents and worried relatives started calling up others.
The buildings started shaking and those inside, could feel the tremors for quite some time. Minor property damage was reported from some places, including a hotel. However, none of the reports were alarming enough.
There have been many instances of quakes in Taiwan but none of them were as dangerous as the one that hit the place in 1999. To cope with the quakes and tremors, the weather department in Taiwan uses sophisticated equipment that can sense such events some time in advance.
Taiwanese rescuers assist landslide survivors after they were evacuated by military helicopter Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2009, in Chishan, Kaohsiung county, southern Taiwan. Taiwan's military rescued about 260 typhoon victims Tuesday from the area around a village consumed by a massive mudslide, local TV stations reported, but there is still no word on the fate of hundreds of others caught in the disaster
A young Taiwanese landslide survivor is held by a family member after they were evacuated by military helicopter following Typhoon Morakot, Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2009, in Chishan, Kaohsiung county, southern Taiwan. Taiwan's military rescued about 260 typhoon victims Tuesday from the area around a village consumed by a massive mudslide, local TV stations reported, but there is still no word on the fate of hundreds of others caught in the disaster.
Armored Personnel Carriers bring rescue workers through a flooded street of Pingtung county, southern Taiwan, Monday, Aug. 10, 2009. An estimated 400 Taiwanese are unaccounted for after the landslide spawned by Typhoon Morakot struck their isolated mountain village of Shiao Lin, a police official said Monday, and a newspaper quoted a resident as saying as many as 600 were buried.
A young woman pauses as she cleans furniture in a flooded street of Pingtung county, southern Taiwan, Monday, Aug. 10, 2009. An estimated 400 Taiwanese are unaccounted for after the landslide spawned by Typhoon Morakot struck their isolated mountain village of Shiao Lin, a police official said Monday, and a newspaper quoted a resident as saying as many as 600 were buried.
In this image taken on Monday, Aug. 10, 2009, and released by the Taiwan Military News Agency on Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2009, an aerial view of the flooded village of Shao Lin inflicted by Typhoon Morakot is seen in southern Taiwan's Kaohsiung county. A mudslide touched off by the deadly typhoon buried a remote mountain village in Taiwan, leaving at least 400 people unaccounted for, while officially there are 38 dead and 62 missing.
A massive landslide is seen across a mountain road in Pingtung county, southern Taiwan, Monday, Aug. 10, 2009. An estimated 400 Taiwanese are unaccounted for after the landslide spawned by Typhoon Morakot struck their isolated mountain village of Shiao Lin, a police official said Monday, and a newspaper quoted a resident as saying as many as 600 were buried.
In this image taken on Monday, Aug. 10, 2009, and released by the Taiwan Military News Agency on Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2009, an aerial view of the flooded village of Shao Lin inflicted by Typhoon Morakot is seen in southern Taiwan's Kaohsiung county. A mudslide touched off by the deadly typhoon buried a remote mountain village in Taiwan, leaving at least 400 people unaccounted for, while officially there are 38 dead and 62 missing.
An elderly man is carried after being rescued by military helicopter from a village covered in a landslide from Typhoon Morakot in Kaohsiung county, southern Taiwan, Monday, Aug. 10, 2009. An estimated 400 Taiwanese are unaccounted for after the landslide spawned by Typhoon Morakot struck their isolated mountain village of Shiao Lin, a police official said Monday, and a newspaper quoted a resident as saying as many as 600 were buried
-In this image taken on Monday, Aug. 10, 2009, and released by the Taiwan Military News Agency on Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2009, a soldier sifts through debris from Typhoon Morakot in southern Taiwan's Kaohsiung county. A mudslide touched off by the deadly typhoon buried a remote mountain village in Taiwan, leaving at least 400 people unaccounted for, while officially there are 38 dead and 62 missing. (AP Photo/Taiwan Military News Agency)-
Taiwan said as many as 500 people may have been killed by landslides in the country’s south after Typhoon Morakot unleashed the worst floods in 50 years.
Morakot, a storm more than 1,600 kilometers (994 miles) wide according to satellite images, destroyed as many as 150 houses in the village of Shiao Lin, Taiwan’s National Fire Agency said.
“There’s about 500 people who were buried by the mud, but we don’t have the exact number,” Leng Chia-yu, a section chief with the agency, said by telephone today.
The typhoon dumped a record 3,063 millimeters (120 inches) of rain in Alishan after it started buffeting the island on Aug. 6. Floods wrecked at least 11 bridges in southern Chishan and 136 roads across the country were closed because of rock falls and high waters, according to the Transport Ministry.
About 200 people were trapped in Namashia with the military dropping 200 kilograms of supplies and evacuating 10 people for medical treatment, the NFA said. Helicopter flights into Shiao Lin and Namashia were suspended later because of fog, it said.
The NFA has flown 21 helicopter missions into Shiao Lin and 13 into Namashia in the past two days, Leng said today.
A group of 300 people slept in cemeteries in Namahsia village where schools and libraries were destroyed, local television TVBS reported today. A young man carried his sick father on his back and rode a helicopter to safety, the news channel said.
Officials said more than 300 people were brought out Tuesday on up to 120 flights from a large mountainous area in Kaohsiung to an improvised landing zone at Cishan Junior High School. The people saved came from Shiao Lin and surrounding villages, officials said.
Those rescued Tuesday escaped the mudslide by running to higher ground, from where they were plucked by the helicopters. But those saved from other villages — which are miles (kilometers) away from Shiao Lin — had enough time to run to open ground.
Taiwan's population registry lists Shiao Lin as having 1,300 inhabitants, though many are believed to live elsewhere.
The village's almost total isolation complicated reporting about its fate. Shiao Lin was cut off after floodwaters destroyed a bridge about eight miles (12 kilometers) away. A back road wending its way northward toward the mountain community of Alishan was also believed to be cut off, and with rain still falling in the area, prospects for an early resumption of overland travel were poor.
Two villagers battle through a flooded village in Cangnan county in east China's Zhejiang province
Emergency evacuation: A rescuer pulls a crying baby out of floodwater
An aerial picture shows the floods after Typhoon Morakot hit Pingtung county, southern Taiwan
Path of destruction: This map shows the region of China, Taiwan and the Philippines where Typhoon Morakot hit
A resident makes his way across a flooded street on a couch after typhoon Morakot hit Cangnan county of Wenzhou, Zhejiang province
A woman cries after being rescued from the southern village of Hsiaolin and airlifted to a high school in Chishan, in Taiwan's Kaohsiung county
A man and woman watch as thousands of pieces of wood washinto the Fu Kang fish harbor in Taitung, in southeast Taiwan
Splash down: The building of Hotel Chin Shuai lies collapsed in floodwater
Leaning tower: In extraordinary scenes, a hotel building is about to topple over after Typhoon Morakot hit Taitung county in Taiwan
-In a spectacular explosion of water and mud the hotel collapses into the flooded river-
A resident pulls a makeshift raft to transport two girls across a flooded street
-Residents near the coast are evacuated to Ningde City, southeast China's Fujian Province, on Aug. 7, 2009. Authorities in Fujian Province have ordered all schools and scenic spots to close before 4 p.m. Friday, as typhoon Morakot nears. The provincial flood control and drought relief headquarters said Friday that about 34,000 vessels had been recalled to port and 21,190 people in the cities of Ningde, Putian, Fuzhou and Quanzhou had been relocated to safe areas.-
-Soldiers help fishermen go to safe zone in the rain in Taizhou City, east China's Zhejiang Province, Aug. 6, 2009. It is predicted that the typhoon Morakot will land off the seashore in east China's Zhejiang Province and southeast China's Fujian Province from Saturday noon to Sunday morning. -
A mudslide triggered by torrential rains from a typhoon may have buried up to 600 villagers in mountainous southern Taiwan, disaster officials said on Monday.More than 50 people have died in tropical storms striking the Phillipines, Taiwan, China and Japan.
The death toll so far in Taiwan stood at 15, with 55 missing and 32 hurt, since Typhoon Morakot struck the island on Friday and remained in the area through the weekend before battering China's populous east coast.
Rescue squads aboard helicopters had saved only 45 people from Hsiao Lin, a village of 1,000 in southern Taiwan. Rains washed out roads and bridges in Kaohsiung County, severing all land vehicle traffic.
"No small number of single-storey houses have been covered in mudslides," said Richard Hu, an army major-general. "We don't know how many people are there, but homes have definitely been buried."
Local officials said they had lost contact with up to 600 villagers, with inclement weather reducing even helicopter access. The storm caused floods in Taiwan's densely-populated south and farm-related losses on the island were estimated at T$4.2 billion ($128 million).
Morakot killed 22 people in the Philippines. In China, it damaged more than 1,800 houses in the province of Zhejiang and killed at least one child, the official Xinhua news agency said.
One million people were evacuated in China before the storm made landfall and losses were estimated at 2.2 billion yuan ($322 million).
Witnesses Account
Lin Chien-chung, a rescued villager, told the United Evening News Paper that his home and neighbourhood were buried and up to 600 people could have suffered the same fate. However, rescuers said that the figure was an overestimate. “The mudslide covered a large part of the village, including a primary school and many homes. A part of the mountain above us just fell on the village.”
Another man could not hold back tears. “The mountain buried everyone in the middle of the night. There was no escape.”
One local government official in Sayo was found drowned in his car and the body of a woman was recovered from a gutter. In Okayama, a 68-year-old woman was killed by a landslide as earth loosened by the intense rain bore down upon her house. Cars were upended and wooden houses were half toppled by the waters. The lower floors of even stronger buildings were inundated with mud and debris.
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Taiwan has closed offices and schools and grounded flights as the strongest typhoon of the year closes in on the island.
Heavy rains and strong winds caused by Typhoon Morakot have already triggered floods and mudslides across the region.
