Fiction fast becoming fact? As good as the fiction is, let's hope not....
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.
There are two words on how to handle China - Preemptive Strike!
Fiction fast becoming fact? As good as the fiction is, let's hope not....
Don't forget, they can always see to it that North Korea "pay a visit" to South Korea, too, at the same time. Keep everyone busy at once!
Thanks, Bubba. Ya' sold us down the river REAL good! We owe ya' one. A big one. Where it would hurt the worst.
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