HONG KONG -- In a potentially significant move, China is reported to have pulled back some of its missiles along the Fujian coast facing Taiwan, something that the United States and Taiwan have been urging China to do for some time. An article in Taiwan's United Daily News on Thursday reported that "the Chinese communists had moved some of the missile troops from Fujian in the southeast coastal region back to their base in the northwest."
Yet, a military official in Taipei, who declined to be identified, said Friday that Taiwan had no evidence that China had withdrawn some of its missiles. Also, a Pentagon official, in remarks made over a week ago but only released Friday, said that Taiwan would be confronted with 600 mainland missiles by 2005.
Washington and Taipei had both urged Beijing to withdraw its roughly 400 missiles on the coast facing Taiwan. Last October, Chinese President Jiang Zemin proposed that, in return for China withdrawing these missiles, the U.S. would reduce arms sales to Taiwan. Washington, however, was unwilling to link arms sales to Taiwan with such a missile pullback.