TENSIONS between Taiwan and China increased yesterday as Taipei ordered its military on to high alert in preparation for war games by mainland troops which are seen approaching closer to the island than ever before.
In Beijing, China repeated charges that Taiwan was to blame for recent tensions between the two.
Taiwan said its armed forces were put on heightened alert even though a People's Liberation Army deployment along China's east coast, put at some 150,000 troops, was smaller than some reports had predicted.
"In order to ensure that people can pass the [Chinese New Year] holiday period in peace, units from the three branches of the armed forces are strengthening alertness," the Taiwan defence ministry said.
Taiwan would guard against any provocation by the "enemy" a ministry statement said.
"The strength of the combined forces does not exceed 150,000 so the rumour of 400,000 troops is an exaggeration," the Taiwanese Defence Minister, Mr Chiang Chung ling, was quoted by a spokesman as saying in Taipei.
Mr Chiang said China had airlifted troops into provinces near Taiwan and increased air strength by 88 warplanes to a total of 6 at 11 airports along the south east coast.
Taiwanese authorities would not venture a date for the exercises seen in Taiwan as intimidation before a March 23rd presidential election but Mr Chiang said they were likely to go closer to the island than any before.
Beijing has regarded Taiwan as a renegade province since 1949 when the nationalists, defeated by the communists in a civil war, took refuge on the island.
Decades of military hostility gave way in the 1980s to economic and cultural detente and broad unofficial contacts, but tensions have soared in recent months with China alleging that Taipei was seeking to make its de facto independence formal.
China vows to use force if Taiwan declares independence.
In Beijing, a Foreign Ministry spokesman, Mr Shen Guofing, restated China's goal of reuniting Taiwan with the mainland and said efforts by Taiwan's nationalists to win international recognition were the "root cause" of tensions.
"The most urgent thing for the Taiwan authorities to do is to give up attempts to create `two Chinas' or one China, one Taiwan and abandon their splittist policies," Mr Shen said.
Mr Shen played down a new Taiwan cabinet council formed to soothe political and economic jitters and boost public spirit before the island's first direct presidential election.