True (not that the Chicken Littles will catch on, though), but articles like this one will help make it politically impossible for Democrats to hold up so much of Taiwan's arms purchases from us.
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.
1. The huge increase in missiles pointed at Taiwan is fact.
2. Their Russian-built destroyers and anti-ship missiles could take out a US carrier if China could identify the location of our carriers and were willing to lose their own ships in the process. The second part of that is very easy to imagine. As for finding our carriers, US carrier boosters decry that as nearly impossible, but I think that is a bold and reckless assumption.
3. Reasonable people can disagree about the threat presented to our carrier fleet, especially to its much ballyhooed mission of operating in littoral areas and projecting power ashore (which by necessity means getting fairly close to shore), but to call it "science fiction" is way too strong.
True (not that the Chicken Littles will catch on, though), but articles like this one will help make it politically impossible for Democrats to hold up so much of Taiwan's arms purchases from us.
It certainly didn't help when Clinton brought the Chinese military elite here to train with our military, nor did it help when he sold them our military technology.
If America feels a threat from Red China, remember the name Clinton and curse it.
The Trade Paperback printed version will get proofed next week and then go. Probably a couple of more weeks on that.
As they become available, I will post threads here and updates on the main site for the series.
Latest thread announcing the completion and submission of Volume Two is HERE
Which means let Japan get re-nuked...
My guess is they could produce nukes in short order if they felt they needed them.
Seriously. If Japan goes militaristic again, China will feel the real threat. Chinese hate Japanese so much that everyone is willing to join th army to fight Japanese. You can't imagine how strong the anti-Japanese sentiment is among Chinese.
I write of it extensively in book two of my series.
You response makes it clear that I am probably not far off the mark when I also write of what happens should Japan fall.
I can't imagine why....
Tokyo court rejects compensation demand by Chinese massacre survivors
Seriously, your boys in Zhongnanhai are doing everything they can to make Japan "go militaristic" again. Japan will not sit idly by and let China become hegemon of Asia. And Japan's beaten China more times than any other country in recent times. So be careful what you ChiComs wish for---you just might get it.
With "REMEMBER NANKING!" painted on each warhead.
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