Posted on 07/14/2005 2:39:38 PM PDT by Stellar Dendrite
China is prepared to use nuclear weapons against the US if it is attacked by Washington during a confrontation over Taiwan, according to a senior Chinese military official.
“If the Americans draw their missiles and position-guided ammunition on to the target zone on China's territory, I think we will have to respond with nuclear weapons,” Zhu Chenghu, a major general in the People's Liberation Army, said at an official briefing.
Mr Zhu, who is also a professor at China's National Defence University, was speaking at a function for foreign journalists organised, in part, by the Chinese government. He added that China's definition of its territory includes warships and aircraft.
“If the Americans are determined to interfere [then] we will be determined to respond,” Mr Zhu said. “We Chinese will prepare ourselves for the destruction of all of the cities east of Xian. Of course the Americans will have to be prepared that hundreds. . . of cities will be destroyed by the Chinese.” Mr Zhu is a self-acknowledged “hawk” who has warned previously that China could strike the US with long-range missiles. But his threat to use nuclear weapons in a conflict over Taiwan is the most specific by a senior Chinese official in nearly a decade.
Rick Fisher, a former senior US congressional official and an authority on the Chinese military, said the specific nature of the threat “is a new addition to China's public discourse”.
China's official doctrine has called for no first use of nuclear weapons since its first atomic test in 1964. But Mr Zhu is not the first Chinese official to refer to the possibility of using such weapons first in a conflict over Taiwan.
Chas Freeman, a former US assistant secretary of defence, said in 1999 that a PLA official had told him China could respond in kind to a nuclear strike by the US in the event of a conflict with Taiwan.
“In the end you care more about Los Angeles than you do about Taipei,” Mr Freeman quoted this official as saying. The official is believed to have been Xiong Guangkai, now the PLA's deputy chief of general staff.
The rationale for the new threats is unclear. China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs could not be reached for comment.
Mr Zhu, who has risen from the rank of colonel over the past five years, insisted he was expressing his personal views, and that they did not represent the policy of the Chinese government. Nor was he anticipating war between China and the US.
But he said that, because China did not have the capability to fight a conventional war against the US, the threat to escalate might be the only way to stop a war.
His comments could provide insight into the thinking among some in the PLA amid growing anxiety in Washington about its capabilities. Last month, Donald Rumsfeld, defence secretary, voiced concern about China's military build-up.
Additional reporting by Edward Alden in Washington
Only if they bomb Pootie in Russia on the way....
And Target, Home Depot, Kohl's, CostCo, etc. etc. etc.
IMHO, the US should classify the last 30 years as a "wild, drunken orgy" with respect to awareness of strategic issues and threats. There is a real reluctance to bring the cold war mentality, which we should never have dropped.
No, I wouldn't do that... Just China and North Korea on this salvo.
How about not invading Taiwan? Think that would work?
"All we need to do is stop buying their sh*t at Wal-Mart."
They would collapse into civil war within a week.
Of course Walmart means, Target, Lowes, etc
Thank you Bill Clinton...
You left out Frisco. :):)
Posturing.
I think Washington is catching on to Chinese hegemonic dreams...you see a little of that from reps duing the congressional hearings on the UNOCAL bid by the Chicomms.
China knows it would lose in a nuke war with us...and lose badly...granted we wouldn't be in the best of shape and the whole world would undoubtedly suffer. However, China would be gone for good (so many mellenia of history gone in a mushroom cloud)...and we'd survive...they know this. All this "big talk" from the Chicomms is bluster and posturing.
In other news, the US has a missile defense system and a second strike capability, and thousands more nuclear weapons than China could ever dream of. A single Ohio-class sub has more nuclear warheads than China's arsenal put together.
Clinton voice, "oh come on.. their money is just as good as anybody elses... just think, if it wasnt for the Chinese, America wouldnt of had the pleasure of having me as president"
The Chinamen better watch it. They could be exterimated in an afternoon if we so desired. Fact.
All we need to do is stop buying their sh*t at Wal-Mart.
And Target, Home Depot, Kohl's, CostCo, etc. etc. etc.
Right on brother. Every product sold on the shelves in america needs to carry a full color graphic of the the nation of origin next to the front labeling. gives people a more informed choice of what nation's military they are building up.
Here, here, on noting the 3 Gorges dam.
Table of Global Nuclear Weapons Stockpiles, 2000-2002
| End Year |
US |
SU |
UK |
FR |
CH |
Total |
| 2000 | 10,615 | 10,201 | 185 | 450 | 400 | 21,851 |
| 2001 | 10,491 | 9,126 | 200 | 350 | 400 | 20,567 |
| 2002 | 10,640 | 8,600 | 200 | 350 | 400 | 20,190 |
|
US = United States, SU = Soviet Union/Russia, UK = United Kingdom, FR = France and CH = China |
||||||
Works both ways. In the end ChiComs care about Beijing more than they do about Taipei.
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