Originally posted by 38:
What a comment~
New York Times 15 July,2005
[b]Chinese General Threatens Use of A-Bombs if U.S.
Intrudes
BEIJING, Friday, July 15 - China should use nuclear weapons against
the United States if the American military intervenes in any
conflict over Taiwan, a senior Chinese military official said
Thursday.
"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," the official, Maj. Gen.
Zhu Chenghu, said at an official briefing.
General Zhu, considered a hawk, stressed that his comments
reflected his personal views and not official policy. Beijing has
long insisted that it will not initiate the use of nuclear weapons
in any conflict.
But in extensive comments to a visiting delegation of
correspondents based in Hong Kong, General Zhu said he believed
that the Chinese government was under internal pressure to change
its "no first use" policy and to make clear that it would employ
the most powerful weapons at its disposal to defend its claim over
Taiwan.
"War logic" dictates that a weaker power needs to use
maximum efforts to defeat a stronger rival, he said, speaking in
fluent English. "We have no capability to fight a conventional war
against the United States," General Zhu said. "We can't win this
kind of war."
Whether or not the comments signal a shift in Chinese policy, they
come at a sensitive time in relations between China and the United
States.
The Pentagon is preparing the release of a long-delayed report on
the Chinese military that some experts say will warn that China
could emerge as a strategic rival to the United States. National
security concerns have also been a major issue in the $18.5 billion
bid by Cnooc Ltd., a major Chinese oil and gas company, to purchase
the Unocal Corporation, the American energy concern.
China has had atomic bombs since 1964 and currently has a small
arsenal of land- and sea-based nuclear-tipped missiles that can
reach the United States, according to most Western intelligence
estimates. Some Pentagon officials have argued that China has been
expanding the size and sophistication of its nuclear bombs and
delivery systems, while others argue that Beijing has done little
more than maintain a minimal but credible deterrent against a
nuclear attack.
Beijing has said repeatedly that it would use military force to
prevent Taiwan from becoming a formally independent country.
President Bush has made clear that the United States would defend
Taiwan.
Many military analysts have assumed that any battle over Taiwan
would be localized, with both China and the United States taking
care to ensure that it would not expand into a general war between
the two powers.
But the comments by General Zhu suggest that at least some elements
of the military are prepared to widen the conflict, perhaps to
persuade the United States that it could no more successfully fight
a limited war against China than it could against the former Soviet
Union.
"If the Americans are determined to interfere, then we will
be determined to respond," he said. "We Chinese will prepare
ourselves for the destruction of all the cities east of Xian. Of
course the Americans will have to be prepared that hundreds of
cities will be destroyed by the Chinese."
General Zhu's threat is not the first of its kind from a senior
Chinese military official. In 1995, Xiong Guangkai, who is now the
deputy chief of the general staff of the People's Liberation Army,
told Chas W. Freeman, a former Pentagon official, that China would
consider using nuclear weapons in a Taiwan conflict. Mr. Freeman
quoted Mr. Xiong as saying that Americans should worry more about
Los Angeles than Taipei.
Foreign Ministry officials did not immediately respond to requests
for comment about General Zhu's remarks.
General Zhu said he had recently expressed his views to
former American officials, including Mr. Freeman and Adm. Dennis C.
Blair, the former commander in chief of the United States Pacific
Command.
[/b]
Actually , China's nuclear missiles will not be a threat in 10
years time.
With PAC-III missiles , Arrow ABM-launcher , you think USA give a
damn?
especially when they have those satellite laser stuffs.
Especially if China wants to attack USA with it's nukes , it's
nukes has to go past Pearl Harbor...which poses another
problem...
USA didn't spend billions and billions on anti ballistic missile
technology for nothing.
Threat dismissed
