THE sabre-rattling on both sides of the Taiwan Straits begins to take on a worrying degree of permanence with last night's announcement that Beijing plans to conduct another round of missile tests, starting next Tuesday.
Already, this tit-for-tat battle has seen Taipei respond to China's initial missile tests by announcing plans to beef up its military might and conduct its own military exercises in the autumn. Clearly taking this as a sign that President Lee Teng-hui remains unrepentant, Beijing now responds with further war games. The only bright note seems to be that this time the tests will, at least, take place further away from the coast of Taiwan.
All the signs are that the cycle of the two sides goading each other into ever tougher responses is likely to continue for the foreseeable future. The People's Liberation Army is reported to want to continue the military pressure beyond the end of September - traditional end of the war games season. Early October is certain to be a tense time as both sides prepare for rival National Day celebrations.
President Jiang Zemin has little to lose from continuing the sabre-rattling. International condemnation of the last missile test was relatively mild: even Washington preferred to concentrate on repairing its relations with Beijing, rather than protesting.
Perhaps, most importantly, the panic which the test provoked on the Taipei Stock Exchange has increased domestic pressure on Mr Lee to abandon his crusade for greater international recognition of Taiwan - a factor likely to become increasingly important in the run-up to next March's presidential polls.
This means the message from the latest missile test is that China's neighbours should brace themselves for a return to the situation which existed in previous decades - when low-level hostilities across the Taiwan Straits were an unpleasant, but permanent, fact of life.