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China ‘ready to use N-weapons against US’
Financial Times ^ | July 14 2005 | Alexandra Harney

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


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; Front Page News; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: chicoms; china; nukes; terrorism
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1 posted on 07/14/2005 2:39:39 PM PDT by Stellar Dendrite
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To: Stellar Dendrite

BTTT


2 posted on 07/14/2005 2:40:58 PM PDT by Stellar Dendrite (FAKE conservatism is more dangerous than liberalism <<<---at least you know what you're gonna get!)
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To: Stellar Dendrite

Oh, quick! Let's sell these good people our oil companies!


3 posted on 07/14/2005 2:41:11 PM PDT by Hi Heels (Guns kill and cause crime? Dang, mine must be malfunctioning....)
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To: Stellar Dendrite

Whats he smoking?????


4 posted on 07/14/2005 2:41:19 PM PDT by GregB (Bring back Capt. Michael Scott Speicher!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
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To: Stellar Dendrite
Pffftt. Even the doctrinaire communists in the Chinese leadership know that China would be laid waste should it ever dare attack the U.S. with nukes.
5 posted on 07/14/2005 2:42:13 PM PDT by reagan_fanatic ("We must be tolerant and understanding of those trying to blow us to pieces" - Ted Kennedy & Co.)
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To: Stellar Dendrite

We really don't need to nuke them to send them back to the stone age. All we need to do is stop buying their sh*t at Wal-Mart.


6 posted on 07/14/2005 2:42:15 PM PDT by RetroSexual
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To: reagan_fanatic
Like this:


7 posted on 07/14/2005 2:42:56 PM PDT by RockinRight (Democrats - Trying to make an a$$ out of America since 1933)
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To: Stellar Dendrite
“In the end you care more about Los Angeles than you do about Taipei,”

I think the ChiComs care a little bit more about Shanghai than they do about Taipei, but that's just my wild guess.

8 posted on 07/14/2005 2:43:17 PM PDT by thoughtomator (For all you love to survive, Islam must be destroyed.)
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To: Stellar Dendrite

Three words:

Three Gorges Dam


9 posted on 07/14/2005 2:43:20 PM PDT by TexanToTheCore (Rock the pews, Baby!)
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To: Stellar Dendrite
“In the end you care more about Los Angeles than you do about Taipei,”

Tough call. Throw in Hollywood and you've got yourself a deal.

10 posted on 07/14/2005 2:43:39 PM PDT by AdamSelene235 (Truth has become so rare and precious she is always attended to by a bodyguard of lies.)
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To: Hi Heels

And run out and buy some more stuff from Walmart.


11 posted on 07/14/2005 2:43:42 PM PDT by OpusatFR (Try permaculture and get back to the Founders intent. Mr. Jefferson lives!)
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To: Stellar Dendrite
"In the end you care more about Los Angeles than you do about Taipei”

Hmmmm, I'll have to think about that one. Cedar Rapids, maybe, but LA?   [/sarcasm]

12 posted on 07/14/2005 2:43:56 PM PDT by jigsaw (Only morons believe the root cause of terrorism is our fight against terrorism.)
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To: Stellar Dendrite

How nice.

Back to MAD.


13 posted on 07/14/2005 2:44:29 PM PDT by mmercier (in what way princes must keep faith)
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To: Stellar Dendrite

Feh. China's not stupid enough to do that. And if they are, then China will cease to exist as a coherent nation.


14 posted on 07/14/2005 2:44:30 PM PDT by r9etb
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To: RetroSexual

" All we need to do is stop buying their sh*t at Wal-Mart "

Looks like our goose is cooked !


15 posted on 07/14/2005 2:44:36 PM PDT by sushiman
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To: OpusatFR
Give them money! Shovel! Go go go go !!.... / sarc

Gads.

16 posted on 07/14/2005 2:44:52 PM PDT by Hi Heels (Guns kill and cause crime? Dang, mine must be malfunctioning....)
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To: Stellar Dendrite; Jeff Head; TigerLikesRooster; Tailgunner Joe; CodeRouge; Arthalion

If China attempts to attack US with Nuclear Weapons, China will "cease to exist" with more to strike back.


17 posted on 07/14/2005 2:45:21 PM PDT by Wiz
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To: Stellar Dendrite
the threat to escalate might be the only way to stop a war.

Works both ways. China could disappear for another 500 years.

18 posted on 07/14/2005 2:45:34 PM PDT by RightWhale (Substance is essentially the relationship of accidents to itself)
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To: Stellar Dendrite

I'm telling you load up the B-2's, F-117's & F-22's with "heavy weapons" and take care of it now, before we have to deal with it later.


19 posted on 07/14/2005 2:46:17 PM PDT by Echo Talon (http://echotalon.blogspot.com)
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To: Stellar Dendrite
We can't let this threat go without response.
20 posted on 07/14/2005 2:46:44 PM PDT by Last Dakotan
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