1.   Foreigners living in Taiwan have drawn up contingency plans as tension has grown between the Nationalist island and the communist mainland but so far they are staying put.

2.   Full air, sea and land manoeuvres will be staged on the coast of Fujian, the southeastern Chinese province opposite the nationalist island, he said.

3.   Fresh exercises, accompanied by missile firing close to the nationalist island, are scheduled to begin later this week.

4.   Greeting the vice president was James Wood Jr., the new chairman of the American Institute in Taiwan, which represents US interests on the nationalist island.

5.   He also said the nationalist island had no plans to develop nuclear weapons, despite an increase in the perceived military threat from China.

6.   He also won a pledge from pro-independence opposition leaders to help set up a Tibetan office on the nationalist island.

7.   He also supposedly wrote to retired Taiwanese general Chiang Wei-go expressing a wish to see China follow the path set by the nationalist island in embracing democracy.

8.   He originally was scheduled to visit Taiwan after his Chinese trip, but due to presidential elections on the Nationalist island in March, South Africa postponed the visit.

9.   His comment had come in the midst of a series of Chinese missile tests of the Taiwan coast that caused panic in the nationalist island.

10.   However, at present the Taiwanese are forced to fly through third countries because of a ban on direct contacts with the mainland by the nationalist island.