Chinese General Threatens Nuclear Force
By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Foreign Policy, The World, WarLooks like some in the Chinese military are still openly hawkish when it comes to defending their right to Taiwan. Old habits die hard I suppose.
From the NY Times:
…in extensive comments to a visiting delegation of correspondents based in Hong Kong, [Major] General Zhu [Chenghu] 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.”
Why is this important? Well, it seems the Pentagon is about to say that China is fast becoming our biggest strategic threat.
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.
What do you all think? Do our deep economic ties marginalize voices like General Zhu’s or make them stonger?
This entry was posted on Friday, July 15th, 2005 and is filed under Foreign Policy, The World, War. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
July 15th, 2005 at 5:47 pm
I’ve heard of credit card companies making threatening phone calls, but geez, this is over the top. I’m sure if promise to buy a few billion dollars worth of disposable crap via Walmart, and re-fi the entire national debt with the Bank of China, our soon-to-be masters will settle down a bit. This is exactly why it’s so excellent to have an MBA in charge of the US of A!
July 15th, 2005 at 6:01 pm
China is just putting on its crazy war face to scare us into letting them have Taiwan. They will never nuke us first because if they do they will die. And they know it.
July 15th, 2005 at 6:21 pm
This an old trick – we always used to get some lieutenant, who couldn’t be expected to know any better, to tell the colonel what the rest of us were thinking but couldn’t get away with saying. Same trick – some faction in the Chinese government gets a no-name, expendable general to float the idea, and they gauge the reaction. Another name for this is recon-by-fire – lob a few rounds in and see what else lights up. The right reaction is to take the right people aside and telll them that they have two weeks to shoot the old boob, or else we’ll recalibrate some settings for Shanghai. and leave them set just in case anything ever happens. Or better yet “sell” the Taiwanese the right stuff.
July 15th, 2005 at 6:46 pm
Remember, the General’s publicized opinion was approved by someone higher up. I think it was planned for him to talk about nuking America, as a scare tactic.
China remembers the nuclear standoff we had with Russia. It never came to blows for a reason. That reason holds true with China today: Extermination. Not only would millions die, but their regime would not survive a nuclear war. No life, no regime — not even Taiwan in the bargain.
That said, a Chinese invasion of Taiwan is not out of the question. Things could quickly escalate — often, unintended consequences are the real history makers. It’s not the threats they make that are necessarily the threat they pose.
July 15th, 2005 at 8:41 pm
A number of people I regularly read are calling this the most important story of the day (I’m still putting it on A2 tomorrow, though). One of them is Zenpundit, who has worthy ruminations.
July 16th, 2005 at 9:10 am
The bigger threat from China comes, not from their military, but their economy … And tha they have been purchasing a good deal of the USA debt in the markets …
Could be what others have commented on above … The rantings of a hawk … An old general …
Or a trial balloon …
If China moves on Taiwan, there’s little we could do, with our military understaffed and overextended in Iraq and Afghanastan ..
Hmmm … A powerful, nuclear-capable nation, annexing, taking over another country …
Are you ready for the sequel – Cold War II?
Peace
JTD
July 18th, 2005 at 2:28 pm
I’m not sure of the huge fuss over Taiwan…. The US would defend it if push came to shove, but if it did become a Chinese territory? (technically, it already is) If we did not defend Taiwan, what would we lose in the bargain? The US only has two relatively small airbases in Taiwan. I can’t imagine that overnight, Taiwanese companies would stop doing business with American companies. So what, other than losing face, would the US lose in the bargain? Honestly, this conflict is just a vestige of the cold war/Vietnam war conflicts.
I agree, China is probably the biggest threat to American global power at this time. However, as someone who has travelled to Taiwan and works regularly with Chinese companies, I think China has a long way to go to be a serious threat and we can somehow minimize that threat by not filling their coffers with gold. Unfortunately, we have become addicted to their low cost imports to Wal-Mart and that will be much easier said than done.