Posted on 07/15/2005 1:28:05 PM PDT by Robert Drobot
BEIJING (AP) - A Chinese general said Beijing might respond with nuclear weapons if the United States attacked China in a conflict over Taiwan, news reports said Friday.
While the general has no policy-making role in China, his comments could add to tensions with Washington at a time of U.S. worries about China's military buildup and the proposed takeover of the oil company Unocal Corp. by a Chinese state-run company.
"If the Americans draw their missiles and position-guided ammunition into the target zone on China's territory, I think we will have to respond with nuclear weapons," Maj.-Gen. Zhu Chenghu, a dean at China's National Defence University, told visiting Hong Kong-based reporters. His remarks were reported by the Asian Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times.
Zhu stressed that he was expressing a personal view, not official policy, and was confident that China and the United States would not go to war, the reports said. While Zhu is a serving officer, he isn't involved in policy-making.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry didn't respond to requests for comment on the general's remarks. A woman who answered the phone at the protocol office of the Defence Ministry said the ministry had no comment.
China claims Taiwan, which split from the mainland in 1949, as part of its territory and has threatened to invade if the self-governing island declares formal independence or puts off talks on unification.
Also Friday, the visiting president of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, called on Beijing to open direct talks with Taiwan, saying it would help to promote peace in East Asia.
"The international community would welcome China starting a direct dialogue with Taiwan as a sign of great maturity," Barroso said in a speech at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the government's main think tank.
China has a "particular responsibility for peace and security in East Asia," Barroso said. "Both the region and the world as a whole cannot afford conflict in East Asia."
Zhu was responding to a question about how China might react to U.S. involvement in a conflict with Taiwan, the Journal said. The United States is Taiwan's biggest arms supplier and could be drawn into fighting to help defend the island.
"If the Americans are determined to interfere . . . we will be determined to respond, and we Chinese will prepare ourselves for the destruction of all cities east of Xi'an," a major city in central China, Zhu said.
"Of course the Americans will have to be prepared that hundreds of, or two hundreds of, (or) even more cities will be destroyed by the Chinese," he said.
The general said his comments were "my assessment, not the policy of the government," the Journal said.
In Washington, witnesses at congressional hearings this week criticized the bid by Hong Kong-based CNOOC Ltd. to take over Unocal as a strategic effort by China to gain control of foreign energy supplies.
China exploded its first nuclear weapon in 1964 and has an arsenal of missiles that can carry nuclear warheads.
China has a "no first strike" nuclear policy, but according to the Journal, Zhu said he believed that applied to non-nuclear powers and could be changed.
The general said China has no intention of getting into an arms race with the United States, noting the experience of the former Soviet Union as evidence of the futility of doing so, the report said.
NOT!!! These threats are coming from an atheist in a country where living and breathing require government approval!!!
We're supposed to believe this was a spontaneous news conference pulled off by a 'maj-general' ass-wipe to a group of visiting Hong Kong-based reporters from the Asian Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times. And pigs fly.
Our response: ZIP.
Then comes the sh!t on the American taxpayer's shoe:
Connect the dots between China, Hughes Electronics Corp., Boeing Satellite Systems, and Loral Space and Communications Ltd.
"....the Air Force intelligence finding that technology transferred by Loral Space and Communications Ltd. to the Chinese during the crash review could have allowed China to improve the guidance systems on their intercontinental ballistic missiles, which are virtually identical to the Long March rockets. National security had been harmed, according to the Defense Technology Security Administration (DTSA). ( 31 May 1998 - http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/special/campfin/stories/loral053198.htm ) www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/special/campfin/stories/loral053198.htm
In international aerospace circles, the crash became known as the "St. Valentine's Day Massacre," and not just because of the loss of human life. Many potential customers already were wary because of crashes and other mishaps suffered by the Long March, produced by the state-run China Great Wall Industry Corp. The February launch was the maiden flight of a new model of the rocket, and within days several contracts for future launches were canceled by U.S. companies.( Unnamed American companies using the atheist-commies to put their stuff into obit is OK with our government???? Where does the corruption stop???? )
Unsatisfied with Chinese assurances that the crash was caused by an easily rectified "low-tech" problem, the specialized insurance companies that underwrite satellite launches threatened to cancel coverage of future launches unless a non-Chinese review reached the same conclusion. After Beijing reluctantly agreed, Loral's satellite division signed on to lead a review team that included its major rival, Hughes Electronic Corp., and Intelsat, the satellite's owner.
Keep this little gem in your thoughts: Hughes Electronics Corp. and Boeing Satellite Systems allegedly committed 123 violations of U.S. export laws, reports said today, in connection with transfers of satellite and rocket data to China. ( 02 Jan 2003 - http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=30294 )
Our national security has been corrupted by politicians who dare call themselves American in collusion with the top defense industry companies in our country - determined to strengthen the single greatest threat we have in the world???? If this doesn't make you feel as good as guy without an oar in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, nothing will.
But hey! We've got greater concerns right? There's baseball, getting some honey, the mountain of credit card debt on your back, or wondering how devious and deceitful the Bush family has become when they have no timidity in screwing Kathleen Harris after she saved them from political oblivion in 2000.
Want more? Read about the China, OBL and 9-11 connection here ( http://usaattacked.com/china's_master_plan.htm ) from a book written by two Chinese Colonels entitled "Unrestricted Warfare".
Our traitor politicians and defense companies are in collusion with the double barreled atheist and religious pagan systems in this world, which have the capability of turning our country into ash.
In the meantime we are being drained financially and worn down militarily on the ground in a fight with a red minnow - cousin to the red herring.
This is merely the latest in a series of belligerant comments by Chinese generals. Hopefully, they have effective control over there nukes, but I would not put money on it.
It will be interesting to see what, if anything, the Chinese government does to these bomb throwers. I suspect that the general did not consult with the boss before shooting off his mouth. So far, though, I am not aware of any action that has been taken against generals who made similar statements.
Do it. Ask me if I care... I'd rather die in an vaporized instant than have China constantly telling me what to think, then where I could live, then what I could do for a living, then who I could marry, then... just do it, as the ad says.
the chinese would then have to be prepared for the loss of every city and every living thing in their country if they used nukes aginst us.
Tell that to their surrogate, OBL. Your assessment extends to the end of you nose.
This shows how stupid Chinese leadership is. Yes they do not have the messy democratic process like we do, but they are so uncoordinated. If China decides that they intend to bring down the US, you do not advertise it to the US, especially if the US is substantially stronger than you militarily and economically. Second, as a weaker power, you attempt to quietly position yourself to undermind the US (i.e undermind US support in countries in Asia, Australia and New Zealand) using soft power (such as economics) and buying UNOCAL. All this can happen if the operation is carried out discreetly or quietly. China right now is trying to buy UNOCAL, and the act is controversial enough, but what does a PLA general do, he shoots his mouth off about using nuclear weapons to destroy the US. Guess what Communist China, you provoked the strongest country in the world and the 21st Century may be the century that China ceases to exist as a civilization. One way or the other, the US will destroy China.
(snip)
Maj.-Gen. Zhu Chenghu, a dean at China's National Defence University, told visiting Hong Kong-based reporters.
He may not technically "make policy" but his position would seem to indicate that he is well informed about what that policy might be.
It's interesting the general concedes that China could not beat us in a conventional war. I would think we would have a very difficult time in a conventional war. The reason is not for lack of equipment or competant soldiers, sailors and aviators. The reason is that the too many Americans, especially the left but also the "moderate" McCain types, do not have the stomach for fighting a war with Red China. If we lost heart and stomach against the Viet Cong, how do we expect to prevail against PDR China?
...While Zhu is a serving officer, he isn't involved in policy-making....
Danely little crud, isn't he?
LOL.....China will have to time their attack in between their rolling electrical power blackouts : )
"Three Gorges Dam"
My response ( as posted above ):
Just as the gulible will believe pigs fly if it's printed in the NY Times, a from-the-hip suggestion this morron made those comments on his own is not a worthy response.
Our government would do well to tell the comie athiests to reign in thier dogs, less we act on thier threats. But so far we've done what most come natural to the government which pretends to represent us - nothing.
Chinese politics isn't that simple. There is no uniform control at the moment.
You'd think that Hu and Wen have the power. But in fact, Li Peng (the orchestrator of the 1989 massacre) is still in the background manipulating things and he have influences over much of the military infrastructure. These hardliners want some conflict to occur or to make the US respond to their stupid comments, and then they can get rid of Hu and Wen and have their own way of rule.
That's what's happening. It basically shows that Wen and Hu's power is still not firmly in control.
I believe an American general would be retired for making similar comments...IMO what that Chicom general said really DOES reflect the gov't position. Those Commies are never to be trusted.
It would be interesting to see what the Chicoms would do to their hardliners like this guy, if Taiwan were to detonate an a-bomb. My suspicion is that there would be a lot of introspection when they realized that comments like this one simply encouraged the Taiwanese to arm themselves.
"I believe an American general would be retired for making similar comments...IMO what that Chicom general said really DOES reflect the gov't position. Those Commies are never to be trusted."
Ah, but we have trusted them. Trusted them by letting them soak our economy with a bunch of cheap products! Imagine if we had given the Soviet Union carte blanche to our economy...
DrDD
I don't think we would ever do it but image the message to the rest of the World if we sent out ICBM Sub fleet a few miles from the chinese coast and gave the launch order. No way could the chinese respond to a massive submarine nuclear attack. No more threat to our cities and the rest of the World has nothing to fear from China.
Of course billions of Chinese will be dead but we are taking the chance that some fool in China will kill millions of Americans and then we have to kill those billons anyway.
we should have nuked China during the Korean war or at least we should have let MacArthur push all the way to Beijing. This would have solved two current problems and rid the world of two communist nations 50 years ago.
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