How to punish Taiwan President Lee Teng-hui will dominate the annual Chinese leadership conference in the northern seaside resort of Beidaihe.
Until the Taiwan crisis erupted over Mr Lee's definition of cross-strait relations as those between two sovereign states, the Beidaihe conclave, scheduled for early next month, was expected to talk about economic reform.
A Beijing source said the leadership under President Jiang Zemin was leaning towards quasi-military action comparable to - if not more severe than - the war drills staged close to Taipei in 1995 and 1996.
'Jiang has convened an enlarged meeting of the Central Military Commission as well as the party Central Committee's Leading Group on Taiwan Affairs,' the source said. 'The majority view is that Lee has not learned the lesson of the military manoeuvres of 1995 and 1996 and that tougher action is called for.' A PLA source said some elite troop units from the seven military regions had already been transferred to the 'frontline' province of Fujian.
The source quoted a senior general as saying at the military commission meeting: 'If military means have to be taken, we should do it sooner rather than later.' The general expressed utmost confidence about the PLA's military superiority over the Taiwan forces.
'It's not a question of whether we can or cannot take over Taiwan. It's just a matter of accomplishing it within the shortest time and incurring the least costs.' It is understood that a plan, first hatched during the earlier Taiwan Strait crisis, of first taking one or two outlying islands under Taipei's rule has been refined by PLA strategists.
