Chinese General Threatens Use of A-Bombs if U.S. Intrudes

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Chinese General Threatens Use of A-Bombs if U.S. Intrudes

 

Written by New York Times

 

Thursday July 14, 2005

 

Page: | 1 |

 

July 15, 2005

 

By JOSEPH KAHN

 

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.

 

David Lague of The International Herald Tribune contributed reporting

for this article.

 

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