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China prepared to use Nukes on US

Thread ID: 19150 | Posts: 13 | Started: 2005-07-14

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BlueBonnet [OP]

2005-07-14 21:58 | User Profile

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China ‘ready to use N-weapons against US’

By Alexandra Harney in Beijing Published: July 14 2005 21:59 | Last updated: July 14 2005 21:59 [img]http://news.ft.com/c.gif[/img]>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.

Additional reporting by Edward Alden in Washington

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Sertorius

2005-07-15 23:26 | User Profile

This nothing more than saber rattling. They don't need to do this, nor do they mean it. The Chicom have something better. They have "American Capitalists" and something like $250 bil. dollars in US Treasury notes. Between "our capitalists" and their investments in Red China and the threat to the US position as reserve currency, they will probably get their way.

jay

2005-07-15 23:30 | User Profile

Someone once wrote that no two nations that housed a McDonald's restaurant ever went to war with each other.

Dunno if that's true or not, but it does align w/the globalist plan to integrate the whole world into their economic system. Thinking goes, China won't obliterate America if they're so co-mingled, you can't tell them apart.

Sertorius

2005-07-15 23:36 | User Profile

Jay,

I think the operative phrase here is "money talks and b.s. walks."

TexasAnarch

2005-07-16 00:52 | User Profile

China terror whipped up now to cover the London bombing and the Rove crack-up, for which the BTK CNN psychokillers are responsible..

Nothing pulls Re-pubes together like nuclear threat from communists power. Having trouble with one war? (or two -- Afghabnistan isn't lookng all that hot) -start another.

Blond Knight

2005-07-16 01:56 | User Profile

We could solve their overpopulation problem...once and forever!

Sertorius

2005-07-16 03:33 | User Profile

TA, [QUOTE]China terror whipped up now to cover the London bombing and the Rove crack-up, for which the BTK CNN psychokillers are responsible..[/QUOTE] This has absolutely nothing to do with this. The Chicom are exploiting the stupidity of the Bush Administration. [QUOTE]Nothing pulls Re-pubes together like nuclear threat from communists power. Having trouble with one war? (or two -- Afghabnistan isn't lookng all that hot) -start another.[/QUOTE] For once, the Neocons are not guilty in this case. Note that it was a Chinese general that said this, not Condi. This is not the first time this threat has been made. It was made back during the Clinton Administration.

Ponce

2005-07-16 03:42 | User Profile

[QUOTE=jay]Someone once wrote that no two nations that housed a McDonald's restaurant ever went to war with each other.

Dunno if that's true or not, but it does align w/the globalist plan to integrate the whole world into their economic system. Thinking goes, China won't obliterate America if they're so co-mingled, you can't tell them apart.[/QUOTE]

Jay? that was those who have Walmarts in their countries, Wally has all the people needed to terminate any war.

Howard Campbell, Jr.

2005-07-16 03:47 | User Profile

[QUOTE=TexasAnarch]China terror whipped up now to cover the London bombing and the Rove crack-up, for which the BTK CNN psychokillers are responsible..

Nothing pulls Re-pubes together like nuclear threat from communists power. Having trouble with one war? (or two -- Afghabnistan isn't lookng all that hot) -start another.[/QUOTE]

Start another war with what? Fighting two half-wars has already strained troop levels to the snapping point...recruitment is at abysmally low levels and the State Guards are maxed out.

And even if the grunts were available, how much of America's manufacturing base has been shipped to Red China since Bush I? 75%? Maybe the Chinese will be sporting enough to let us rebuild those factories before any war begins.

They think in terms of Millenia--the Plutocracy; in Quarters. They play Chess while Chimpie and the neo-cons struggle with Checkers.

Farewell, Taiwan.

Sertorius

2005-07-16 04:08 | User Profile

Howard,

Have you ever read Tai-Pan, by Clavell?

Howard Campbell, Jr.

2005-07-16 04:12 | User Profile

[QUOTE=Sertorius]Howard,

Have you ever read Tai-Pan, by Clavell?[/QUOTE]

Not yet, Sert--but I like his work. Cathay is holding all the face cards in this game.

xmetalhead

2005-07-16 17:25 | User Profile

[QUOTE]“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.[/QUOTE]

Mmmm, let me think about that Mr Guangkai. Ok, you can have Los Angeles!

I blame the neocons and Bush for this type of rhetoric coming from the Chinese. Had the Chinese ever said that stuff before??

When Bushie & The Jews illegally invaded Afghanistan and, of course, Iraq, they resorted to the 'law of the jungle' and will reap what they have sown.

CWRWinger

2005-07-16 18:14 | User Profile

XMetalHead:

When Bushie & The Jews illegally invaded Afghanistan and, of course, Iraq, they resorted to the 'law of the jungle' and will reap what they have sown.

They (Bush and company) may not reap anything except cash. It is the American people who will reap and weep.