Posted on 07/12/2002 2:02:14 PM PDT by TLBSHOW
Pentagon Paints Picture of Menacing China
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Defense Department has concluded that China is honing forces aimed at bringing Taiwan to its knees, if that is what is needed to unite it with the mainland, while keeping U.S. aircraft carriers at bay, Pentagon ( news - web sites) officials said Friday.
The assessment is detailed in a report to Congress on Chinese military power due for release late Friday. It represents the first such comprehensive U.S. look at the issue since President Bush ( news - web sites) took power in January last year.
"The report is factual and sober," said Navy Lt. Cmdr. Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman.
Detailing what the survey calls Beijing's coercive approach, officials said China was on track to deploying 600 ballistic missiles opposite Taiwan by 2005.
Growing at a rate of 50 per year in recent years, these missiles appeared designed to sow fear and undermine Taiwan's will to fight if China opted to use force, said the officials, who spoke on condition they not be named.
Under President Bill Clinton, the Pentagon's annual assessments of Chinese military power emphasized China's inability to take and hold Taiwan by conventional force such as an amphibious invasion.
Bush's Pentagon, on the other hand, said China's submarine force gave it the potential to blockade Taiwan while using Russian-built "Sunburn" missiles deployed on Sovremmeny-class destroyers to deter any U.S. response.
In 1996, Clinton sent two U.S. carrier battle groups to the region to signal support for Taiwan after China fired missiles into the sea off Taiwan's two main ports. China regards Taiwan as a rogue province that must be united with the mainland, if necessary by force.
The first assessment of Chinese military power by Bush's Pentagon has been delayed repeatedly. It was initially due on March 1, 2001, before the Sept. 11 attacks sparked the U.S.-led war on terrorism in which China has cooperated.
Shirely Kan, an expert on China's military at the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service, said Beijing's growing military clout posed challenges for the region, not just for Taiwan.
"The challenge posed by a rising China and its military modernization has not changed despite the antiterrorism war after 9/11," she said.
They won't take us on mano-to-mano. That is decades away.......they would try to cut off Taiwan and set up an umbrella of missilies to keep us at bay..
Our Los Angeles, new Virginia and Seawulf SSN's will make damn sure that the sea lanes remain open.
Here is a MARK 48 ADCAP and MK 50 Barracuda ping, Sir Gawain!
Note this year in Australia at the annual Taiwan roast traitor-rapist 42 made 300K bashing Taiwan.
China has more than the two Sovremenny's--it's signed for two more.
China is Russia's biggest customer and is also buying eight more Kilos, on top of the Su-30's.
Weldon has been tracking this IRBM buildup: it's at 350 going to six hundred.
Clinton blocked all aid to Taiwan, destroyed our military with 40% funding cuts and 300% deployment increases.
Clinton wasted our cruise missiles on the August 20, 1998 Blow Monica Off the Front Page, the December, 1998 Delay Impeachment, the 1999 Kosovo Aid for Muslim Extremists Campaign.
Taiwan has been controlled by the mainland for thirteen years in three millenia: 1887-1895, 1945-1949. Taiwan is twenty million indigenous with two million immigrants. Taiwan is in no way a "renegade province" of the Great Sewer.
Taiwan is a dramatically successful and prosperous democracy and loyal ally of the United States--hence is hated by the Eurofairies and the Eunuch Nations.
Now China is in disarray with widespread labor unrest and economic collapse. China is the world leader in cooking the books--exaggerating growth while obfuscating arms expenditures.
Exporting nukes and missiles and meth (oh my) to North Korea, Iran and Iraq--wait a minute--the axis of evil--
Making China the Anus of Evil.
Well, that oughtta drive a stake thru the heart of Chapt II Article 9 once & for all.
They won't take us on mano-to-mano. That is decades away.......they would try to cut off Taiwan and set up an umbrella of missilies to keep us at bay..
No. 133-P PRESS ADVISORYJuly 12, 2002
The Department of Defense today released its report to Congress on the Military Power of the People's Republic of China. The report was completed pursuant to the fiscal 2000 National Defense Authorization Act.
A copy of the report is available on-line at http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Jul2002/d20020712china.pdf.
The previous report was submitted to Congress in June 2000, and is available at http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Jun2000/china06222000.htm.
If China is directly threatening them they can come out of the closet re: procurement and use of their armed forces.
This is nonsense. While it does have several ballistic missile subs (that leak radiation and kill most of their crews within several years), most of China's attack subs are Russian relics, like the Whiskey class. Its several 1990s-vintage Kilo SSKs are so complicated that it has had to man them with Russians to keep them running. The two Sovremmeny DDGs China bought from Russia are no match for the US Navy. The Sunburn is an ok anti-ship missile, but again, no match for the USN. On top of all this, Taiwan is buying four ex-USS Kidd class DDGs and up to eight new SSKs. This article is science fiction.
Go www.jedonline.com
BTW, in my second Novel, after a successful ambush of the 7th Fleet as we are fully engaged in the Mid East and in Korea, they do set their sites on Japan absoultely, and the Phillipines, and Malayis, and so forth.
I couldn't agree more.
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