7.16.2005
Chinese General Sees U.S. as Nuclear Target (IHT.com)
By Joseph Kahn
The New York Times
Saturday, July 16, 2005
BEIJING China should use nuclear weapons against the United States if the American military intervenes in any conflict over Taiwan, a senior Chinese military official has said.
"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, Major General Zhu Chenghu, said at an official briefing Thursday.
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 visiting correspondents based in Hong Kong, 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," Zhu said. "We can't win this kind of war."
General Zhu said in a brief telephone conversation Friday that he feared that his remarks had been taken out of context. He said he mainly meant to emphasize that both the United States and China were prone to "misjudging each other's intentions" and that he did not expect that tensions between the two countries would lead to 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.
(More ... Chinese general sees U.S. as nuclear target - Asia - Pacific - International Herald Tribune) ¶ 17:18
The New York Times
Saturday, July 16, 2005
BEIJING China should use nuclear weapons against the United States if the American military intervenes in any conflict over Taiwan, a senior Chinese military official has said.
"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, Major General Zhu Chenghu, said at an official briefing Thursday.
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 visiting correspondents based in Hong Kong, 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," Zhu said. "We can't win this kind of war."
General Zhu said in a brief telephone conversation Friday that he feared that his remarks had been taken out of context. He said he mainly meant to emphasize that both the United States and China were prone to "misjudging each other's intentions" and that he did not expect that tensions between the two countries would lead to 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.
(More ... Chinese general sees U.S. as nuclear target - Asia - Pacific - International Herald Tribune) ¶ 17:18
