Beyond the Rim [China]

OpinionJournal ^ | 12/13/2004 | Mark Helprin

[ZeitgeistSurfer]

From the beach at Santa Monica on a clear day in fall, with 3,000 miles of this country invisible at one's back, the Pacific horizon is a precisely etched line empty of event and set in alluring color. But beyond the rim lie two things now tightly interwoven: China, and the destiny of the United States.

[marron]

If long term the odds are against winning a military conflict with China, we must focus on winning on the field of ideas. That is where we are the strongest, anyway, and that is the battle that matters most in the end.

But to win it will require a clarity of purpose and a clarity of vision that is hard to maintain in this era of easily distracted amnesiacs.

[Paul Ross]

And a clarity of non-nuanced, non-apologetic, spade is a spade-speaking. Where, oh where, is the courage of a President to go to Tai Pei, and say to the Chinese Communist Party across the Strait:

If you are truly for peace, then Mr. Chairman,

TEAR DOWN THOSE MISSILES!

 

China Reveals Nuclear War Plans Against U.S.

UPI
Monday, March 20, 2000

WASHINGTON -- China's People's Liberation Army has outlined plans, including a nuclear conflict with the United States, to "liberate" Taiwan, Hong Kong's South China Morning Post newspaper reported Monday.

The PLA issued a 16-page publication, the Howangjio Weekly, that was devoted to Taiwan, that was sold on street corners. In contrast, most Chinese newspapers had little to say about Taiwan's pro-independence vote.

The publication included plans to send 200,000 fishing vessels with a two-million-strong invading force to take over Taiwan. It also included photographs of what it said were the most advanced secret weapons in the world. These included laser weapons to disable the U.S.-owned F-17's guidance systems, the newspaper said.

The PLA has reportedly been working on a new generation of nuclear weapons, the publication said, and it outlined steps by which China would threaten the United States with nuclear war. China would then sway U.S. public opinion by making economic concessions, and it would increase arms purchases from Russia, the Post reported.

It would then stage a limited attack on Taiwan and if that failed, China would mobilize its people into exercises that would show that it is preparing to survive a nuclear war, the newspaper said.

"The United States will not sacrifice 200 million Americans for 20 million Taiwanese and eventually they are going to back down," the publication said.

-- Copyright 2000 by United Press International. All rights reserved. --