PLA officers have completed the mainland's largest computer-assisted war-game, Xinhua reported yesterday. The news came as a Chinese diplomat warned that the Taiwan Security Enhancement Act, proposed by the US Congress, would increase the risk of military confrontation between China and the United States. Xinhua said several hundred officers from the Beijing military district and more than 10 types of units, including artillery, airborne and armoured forces, took part in the exercise. Air and ground troops were split into two teams, which had to plan strategies and fight under extreme conditions, with the computer deciding the winner, the news agency said. Although the projected enemy was not named, the report said the goal of the war-game was to enable the PLA to fight a hi-tech war with the help of computers and modern military equipment. President Jiang Zemin has repeatedly called for new scientific and technological ideas to modernise the PLA, especially in 'upholding sovereignty' should the US or other foreign powers intervene over Taiwan. Liu Xiaoming, a senior diplomat at the Chinese Embassy in Washington, issued a warning over Congress' proposed act, which would upgrade defence sales and ties between the US and Taiwan. 'This legislation will bring grave damage to China-US relations, to regional security and to the fundamental interests of the United States,' he said. If the act became law, the US would no longer treat Taiwan as part of China, but as a US military ally. 'It would cause great uncertainty and destabilisation in the region by triggering an arms race and increasing chances of a military confrontation,' said Mr Liu. 'Taiwan's recalcitrant separatist forces will be further emboldened and reckless in challenging the 'one China' principle.' The act would make the restoration of cross-strait relations even more difficult, if not impossible, he said.
