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Post by Watchman on Feb 2, 2006 2:21:42 GMT -5
Mess with China over Taiwan and a hot war will await us, a Chinese general warns. A kooky source? Not unless you consider the Financial Times a haven of nutballs:
China is prepared to use nuclear weapons against the US if it is attacked by Washington during a confrontation over Taiwan, according to a senior Chinese military official.
“If the Americans draw their missiles and position-guided ammunition on to the target zone on China's territory, I think we will have to respond with nuclear weapons,” Zhu Chenghu, a major general in the People's Liberation Army, said at an official briefing.
Mr Zhu, who is also a professor at China's National Defence University, was speaking at a function for foreign journalists organised, in part, by the Chinese government. He added that China's definition of its territory includes warships and aircraft.
“If the Americans are determined to interfere [then] we will be determined to respond,” Mr Zhu said. “We Chinese will prepare ourselves for the destruction of all of the cities east of Xian. Of course the Americans will have to be prepared that hundreds. . . of cities will be destroyed by the Chinese.” Mr Zhu is a self-acknowledged “hawk” who has warned previously that China could strike the US with long-range missiles. But his threat to use nuclear weapons in a conflict over Taiwan is the most specific by a senior Chinese official in nearly a decade.
Rick Fisher, a former senior US congressional official and an authority on the Chinese military, said the specific nature of the threat “is a new addition to China's public discourse”.
China's official doctrine has called for no first use of nuclear weapons since its first atomic test in 1964. But Mr Zhu is not the first Chinese official to refer to the possibility of using such weapons first in a conflict over Taiwan.
Chas Freeman, a former US assistant secretary of defence, said in 1999 that a PLA official had told him China could respond in kind to a nuclear strike by the US in the event of a conflict with Taiwan.
“In the end you care more about Los Angeles than you do about Taipei,” Mr Freeman quoted this official as saying.The official is believed to have been Xiong Guangkai, now the PLA's deputy chief of general staff.
The rationale for the new threats is unclear. China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs could not be reached for comment.
Mr Zhu, who has risen from the rank of colonel over the past five years, insisted he was expressing his personal views, and that they did not represent the policy of the Chinese government. Nor was he anticipating war between China and the US.
But he said that, because China did not have the capability to fight a conventional war against the US, the threat to escalate might be the only way to stop a war.
His comments could provide insight into the thinking among some in the PLA amid growing anxiety in Washington about its capabilities. Last month, Donald Rumsfeld, defence secretary, voiced concern about China's military build-up.
While we dither and diddle in Iraq, the Red Chinese keep building their bombs. You can bet they have WMDs.
Part 2
A General of the Chinese army and dean at China's National Defense University commented to visiting Hong Kong reporters on Friday that China might use nuclear weapons against the U.S., in a conflict over the Taiwan Strait. "If the Americans draw their missiles and position-guided ammunition onto the target zone on China's territory, I think we will have to respond with nuclear weapons," Maj. Gen. Zhu Chenghu said to the reporters of the Asian Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times. "We Chinese will prepare ourselves for the destruction of all of the cities east of Xian [in central China]. Of course the Americans will have to be prepared that hundreds ... of cities willbe destroyed by the Chinese."
US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack called the remarks "highly irresponsible" and "unfortunate", and expressed the hope that they did not reflect the views of the Chinese government. Echoing the official Xinhua News Agency, China's Foreign Ministry officials said that Zhu was expressing personal views, and had warned the reporters accordingly, but stated that China would never tolerate "Taiwan independence". Reportedly, Maj. Gen. Zhu is not directly involved in the formulation of Chinese military strategy.
Sources
Bill Gertz "Chinese general shakes nukes at US". The Washington Times, July 16, 2005
Shih Hsiu-chuan "Fury over PLA official's nuclear threat". Taipei Times, July 16, 2005
"China plays down nuclear 'threat'". BBC News, July 16, 2005
"Beijing downplays general's nuke comment". USA Today, July 16, 2005 And They Arent the Only Ones N. Korea Threatens U.S. with First Strike
By Sun Feb 9th, 2003 at 06:11:01 PM EST
The Guardian says that North Korea is asserting its right to a pre-emptive strike against the United States, following very aggresive actions by the U.S. in recent months.
"The United States says that after Iraq, we are next", said the deputy director Ri Pyong-gap, "but we have our own countermeasures. Pre-emptive attacks are not the exclusive right of the US." North Korea restarted its nuclear power facilities in October of last year, after the United States stopped its shipments of over 500 thousand tons of oil per year, drastically reducing North Korea's electricity production. Temperatures in the capital city have reached as low as -21C recently
North Korea has stated numerous times that they will only be using their nuclear facilities for peaceful purposes, and have asked for a non-aggression treaty with the United States. The U.S. responded by sending an additional 2,000 troops, bombers, and an aircraft carrier to the region.
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Post by Watchman on Feb 2, 2006 2:23:04 GMT -5
Chinese General Warns May Nuke Hundreds of US Cities
Guardian | July 16, 2005 By Jonathan Watts
COMMENT: Oh how bottomless the Memory Hole is. Less than a year ago a representative of the Chinese government declared pubicly that China could destroy hundreds of US cities at a moments notice. It was allowed to be forgotten as soon as it was released but the manufactured threat of Iran is being paraded in front of the viewing public non-stop. The Bush Administration and the Media at large have been pushing and inflating the Iran "Nuke" threat when the "nukes" in question are peaceful nuclear reactors for use in supplying affordable energy to the people of Iran.
China is brandishing its biggest guns in our faces and they are ignored. Iran wants to give its people a reliable energy source and we threaten to attack them. There is no evidence that they have any intention of making weapons and they are a front page threat. China has one of the biggest nuclear arsenals in the world and is flaunting it and no one seems to be concerned.
The source of the disconnect is entirely transparent. Iran sits on a strategic resource and is a smaller, easier target which happened to be in the NeoCon's sights from the beginning anyway. Take a look back down the Memory Hole and remember how the "evidence" was created to support a strike on Iraq and you will see the same pattern with Iran. These guys are one trick ponies and we are all bearing witness to their obvious trickery all over again.
A senior Chinese general has warned that his country could destroy hundreds of American cities with nuclear weapons if the two nations clashed over Taiwan.
Major general Zhu Chenghu, a dean at the National Defence University, said he was expressing a private opinion, but his comments, the most inflammatory by a senior government official in 10 years, will fuel growing concerns in Washington about the rise of China.
Speaking at a lecture arranged by the foreign ministry and attended by several foreign correspondents on Thursday, Mr Zhu said China was prepared to initiate non-conventional warfare over Taiwan. "War logic dictates that a weaker power needs to use maximum efforts to defeat a stronger rival," he was reported as saying by the New York Times.
"If the Americans draw their missiles and position-guided ammunition on to the target zone on China's territory, I think we will have to respond with nuclear weapons."
Echoing threats last made in 1995, Mr Zhu, who has a reputation as a hawk in Chinese military circles, said his country was ready to sustain heavy casualties in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and other heavily populated areas.
"We Chinese will prepare ourselves for the destruction of all of the cities east of Xian," he said. "Of course, the Americans will have to be prepared that hundreds of cities will be destroyed by the Chinese."
Although Mr Zhu said war was unlikely, his proposal that China should adopt a first-strike nuclear option against the US will alarm the Pentagon.
China tested its first atomic bomb in 1964, but it claims that its arsenal of nuclear weapons is the smallest among the five nations on the UN security council.
According to a recent article in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, China has only 18 intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of delivering a nuclear warhead to the US mainland. Most sit in their silos unarmed.
However, US intelligence predicts that over the next 15 years, China will expand its IBM force to 75-100 strategic nuclear warheads targeted primarily at the US. They will be mounted on a new mobile solid-fuel rocket, the Dong Feng-31, and, possibly, miniaturised for launch from China's submarine fleet.
The US defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, recently expressed concern about Beijing's growing military power. Such strategic fears come at a time of rising Sino-American tensions over the bilateral trade deficit and competition for global energy resources.
The Chinese government refused to comment on Mr Zhu's statement, but in recent weeks the state-run media has carried several articles rebutting US claims about a military build-up. Earlier this month, Major General Ding Jiye, head of the finance office of the People's Liberation Army, said the 12.6% rise in defence spending this year was in line with economic growth and was mainly used to improve the living conditions of soldiers.
The China Daily, the English-language paper aimed at an overseas audience, focused on the planned reduction of 200,000 military personnel from the 2.5 million-strong army by the end of this year.
Analysts say China has learned from the collapse of the Soviet Union that it would be economic suicide to attempt an arms race with the US.
But there are still risks of a clash over Taiwan, a self-governing island that China considers part of its territory and the US has vowed to protect.
The president of the European commission, José Manuel Barroso, urged his hosts yesterday to resume dialogue with Taiwan before 2008.
"This will also greatly advance China's international standing and reputation as a global player with a particular responsibility for peace and security in east Asia," said Mr Barroso, who was on his first official trip to China.
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Post by Watchman on Feb 17, 2006 14:20:01 GMT -5
By Bill Gertz THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Commercial satellite photos made public recently provide a new look at China's nuclear forces and bases -- images that include the first view of a secret underwater submarine tunnel. A Pentagon official said the photograph of the tunnel entrance reveals for the first time a key element of China's hidden military buildup. Similar but more detailed intelligence photos of the entrance are highly classified within the U.S. government, the official said. "The Chinese have a whole network of secret facilities that the U.S. government understands but cannot make public," said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. "This is the first public revelation of China's secret buildup." The photographs, taken from 2000 to 2004, show China's Xia-class ballistic missile submarine docked at the Jianggezhuang base, located on the Yellow Sea in Shandong province. Nuclear warheads for the submarine's 12 JL-1 missiles are thought to be stored inside an underwater tunnel that was photographed about 450 meters to the northwest of the submarine. The high-resolution satellite photo shows a waterway leading to a ground-covered facility. Other photographs show additional underground military facilities, including the Feidong air base in Anhui province with a runway built into a nearby hill. The photographs were obtained by the nonprofit groups Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and Federation of American Scientists. The photos first appeared Friday in the winter edition of the quarterly newsletter Imaging Notes. The photographs are sharp enough to identify objects on the ground about 3 feet in size. Such digital images were once the exclusive domain of U.S. technical intelligence agencies, but in recent years, commercial companies have deployed equally capable space-based cameras. Disclosure of the underground bases supports analyses of Pentagon and intelligence officials who say China is engaged in a secret military buildup that threatens U.S. interests, while stating publicly that its forces pose no threat. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said during a trip to China in October that Beijing was sending "mixed signals" by building up forces in secret and without explaining their purpose. Adm. Gary Roughead, commander of the Navy's Pacific Fleet, said he did not consider China "a threat." But he also said in a speech Tuesday that China's purpose behind its rapid military buildup is not fully known. "That's a little unclear," he said, noting that "increased transparency" is needed from China. The photographs included several shots of Chinese H-6 strategic bombers and related aerial refueling tankers at Dangyang airfield in Hubei province. Also, 70 nuclear-capable Qian-5 aircraft were photographed parked at an airfield in Jianqiao, Zhejiang province, on the East China Sea coast. The Pentagon's four-year strategy report made public earlier this month stated that China is emerging as a power with "the greatest potential to compete militarily with the United States." The report stated that Beijing is investing heavily in "strategic [nuclear] arsenal and capabilities to project power beyond its borders." The report did not provide specifics. U.S. officials said, however, that the secrecy of the Chinese buildup has fueled a debate within the U.S. government over the threat posed by that country. U.S. intelligence agencies recently produced a National Intelligence Estimate, or major interagency analysis, that concluded China is using strategic deception to fool the United States and other nations about its goals and programs, including its military buildup. Pentagon officials have asked China to allow visits to underground facilities such as the submarine tunnel and a command center in Beijing, but either the requests were denied or the existence of the sites was denied. "The Chinese have denied having any underground submarine facilities," the Pentagon official said, noting that the satellite photos indicate that China has misled the United States. Underground submarine sites are one of 10 major types of facilities hidden by the Chinese military, U.S. officials said. The others include nuclear missile storage facilities, other weapons plants, command centers and political leadership offices. In 2004, China revealed the first of a new class of submarines. The development of the Yuan-class submarines was kept secret through the use of an underground factory in south-central China, the officials said. Since 2002, Beijing has deployed 14 submarines. And it is working on a new ballistic-missile submarine, known as the Jin class, and two new Shang-class attack submarines. According to a classified Defense Intelligence Agency assessment, China's nuclear forces include about 45 long-range missiles, 12 submarine-launched missiles and about 100 short-range missiles -- each with a single warhead. By 2020, China's arsenal will include up to 220 long-range missiles, up to 44 submarine-launched missiles and up to 200 short-range missiles, the DIA report stated. Richard Fisher, a China military analyst at the International Assessment and Strategy Center, said that in addition to the northern submarine base, China also has a major submarine base at Yulin, on Hainan island in the South China Sea. The southern base gives Chinese missile submarines easier access to firing areas than the Yellow Sea base, which is more vulnerable to attacks from U.S. anti-submarine warfare systems.
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Post by Watchman on Mar 20, 2006 13:50:30 GMT -5
By Bill Gertz THE WASHINGTON TIMES
The Pentagon is moving strategic bombers to Guam and aircraft carriers and submarines to the Pacific as part of a new "hedge" strategy aimed at preparing for conflict with China, Pentagon officials said yesterday. Peter Rodman, assistant defense secretary for international security affairs, told a congressional commission that the response to the emerging military threat from China is part of the White House national security strategy made public yesterday. Although U.S. relations with China are good, "both sides understand very well that there is a potential for a conflict, particularly in the Taiwan Strait," Mr. Rodman said during a hearing of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission. China's arms buildup in recent years altered the U.S. "strategic calculus" for defending Taiwan from a mainland attack and shows that "a prudent hedging policy is essential," Mr. Rodman said. The placement of about 700 Chinese missiles opposite Taiwan has changed the status quo between the non-communist island and the communist mainland, he said. The Pentagon policy calls for watching China's military and "being ready to deal with it, if the worst case should happen," Mr. Rodman said. James Thomas, deputy assistant defense secretary for plans, said key elements of the "hedging" policy are aimed at nations with uncertain futures, including China and Russia. Cooperation is preferred, but the Pentagon must prepare "for the possibility that others could choose a more hostile path," Mr. Thomas said. "In [the China] part of the hedging strategy, we're looking at the deployments of bomber elements to Guam on a more routine basis," he said. "We're also looking at making adjustments in our naval posture globally, shifting to six carrier battle groups in the Pacific region, given the shift in global transport and trade, as well as over the next several years shifting approximately 60 percent of our attack submarine fleet to the Pacific." The public term for the strategy is "hedge," but in internal Pentagon discussions the term is "effective preparations to swiftly defeat Chinese aggression," one defense official said. The comments about a conflict contrast with statements by Pentagon officials that have sought to minimize the emerging threat from China. The plan calls for frequent rotations of B-2 strategic bombers to Guam, part of what the Air Force calls its global strike mission to reach crisis areas quickly. Special hangars and other deployment and maintenance facilities are being built on Guam, a U.S. territory about 1,800 miles from the Chinese coast. Three attack submarines are based in Guam, and arms storage there includes long-range air-launched cruise missiles and Joint Direct Attack Munitions. Adm. William J. Fallon, commander of the Pacific Command, has visited Guam and told reporters that the island will become a pivot point for U.S. forces in the Pacific because of the relatively short distances to the Taiwan Strait, South Korea and Southeast Asia. Yesterday, Mr. Thomas said the Pentagon is strengthening alliances in Asia as part of the strategy.
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