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.
I agree with you in part, but what makes you feel that China could not respond? Just curious. I thought they had a pretty beefy nuclear arsenal themselves.
As far as Clintons go, as my eyes melt in the eyesockets from the detonating nuke I am sure my last thought would be of those Clintons. Right.
They are probing us for reaction, and I'm afraid we failed. Now they no we won't do anything.
Time factor, sub launched missiles would take out the command stucture in a matter of minutes. Peking would be glowing before they could be alerted.
Surviving military would not know who hit them (could of been the Russians for all they know) and with the EMP pluse distroying communications plus the fallout and destruction they are going to be busy with their own problems.
In a communist country like China who has been conditioned to take orders from above if you take out the leadership the followers is most likely to surrender than fight.
China's answer to the Global Warming problem: China's dust in the ash can of history.
That would be very stupid of him.
Bush doesn't have the guts to do the right thing, just as his all-Bush-no-balls brother didn't have the guts to do the right thing to stop the judicial torture and murder of Terri Schindler-Schiavo. Seems the brothers only have the courage to do females with a disadvantage. Politically it doesn't get any worse than the backstabbing their both doing on Kathleen Harris who saved them from oblivion. But keeping your word stops at the Texas border for the Bush boys.
China, Hughes Electronics Corp., Boeing Satellite Systems, and Loral Space and Communications Ltd........bump!
Supposedly we get to choose our leaders. If you know of another Teddy Roosevelt, point him out and we'll get to work.
You're forgetting one thing --
mobile sub launchers. If it's nuked, it'll automatically react by attacking the default target, whatever it may be.
Besides, all of the fallout from the nukes detonated in China will come back to the US in a couple of days (wind only goes Eastward....)
The Chinese know the truth. This is their way of flexing some muscle.
We'd spank them. A Taiwan war would be naval and air intense. We would embarrass them. It would be a one sided slaughter. A “Turkey Shoot” of unequivocal size.
Red6
The welfare of our nation is questionable thanks to their giving/selling Lucifer's atheist demons the trajectory technology they lacked previously.
I want a satillite weapon that will detect and detonate an ICBM at 2500 feet above the launch site. You shoot, you're dead. So, shoot all you want.
We can do that, we're Americans we can do anything.
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