Chinese General: We should use nukes if US defends Taiwan

I read somewhere that after the Gulf War ended, a general from India stated that "the lesson of this war is that if you are going to war with the United States, you'd better have a nuclear weapon".

 

Methinks if this thread is merged with the 2 Plame/Rove threads, there's no way the MacBeth come-back thread can beat it.

 

Is that guy an idiot or what? If they start a nuclear war with us, then both countries are going to be devastated by nuclear weapons. There won't be anyone left to give a rat's ass about Taiwan...which I don't give a rat's ass about anyway. And, the rest of the world will be choking on nuclear fallout.

It's a stupid ass scenario and, if the the governments of these two countries did choose this outcome, then they don't deserve to be around nor do the people they serve if the governments they choose resort to such extremes.

So, damn it all to hell if that happens.

 

Lock down in 3 2 1! Isn't this the same thread just a few spots down??

 

Sounds like a good rationale for BMD Defense to me....

 

the general said if the U.S. attacks/bombs mainland Chinese territory first.....

 

Where did you see 'mainland' in the article? I didn't see that.

 

it's assumed since the u.s. ain't going to bomb taiwan(even though legally and historically is chinese territory).

 

"China should use nuclear weapons against the United States if the American military intervenes in any conflict over Taiwan..."

That doesn't seem to indicate bombing the mainland to me. In fact, if we were to wipe out the PLA's growing naval force, I'm not sure this guy would draw the distinction you do.


Saw an interesting read on what would happen in another forum. Personally I don't the PLA would EVER launch nukes on the US - the are much more concerned with modernization and the continued economic development of the country. Occasionally the saber rattle to keep up a good face. Anyway, this is what one guy had to say, and I think it would happen this way in the worst case:

If China ever attacks Taiwan, I predict:-
The PRC air force lasts about 8 hours.
PRC navy will be sunk within 3 hours.
PLA will suffer massive casualties within hours.
PRC will threaten nuke attacks on US cities.
USA publicizes these threats and then launches non nuke attacks on PRC
nuke storage areas.
PRC attempts to launch a nuke attack but fails.
US launches massive nuke strike on PRC leadership. Riots break out all over PRC against the PRC government. PRC government falls within two weeks after the beginning of the crisis.

 

Wow , this would break the record for the the quickest ass whooping ever;which was previously held by our only ally in the middle east (6-day war).

 

Sure 'nuff, bro.



Keep D&D Civil!!

 

with the rate of military modernization they have.....i don't think so....
by 2010, they will have about 30-40 modern and very capable submarines(Yuan, Russian Kilos, Song, advanced nuclear submarines 093 and 094), a bunch(probably 500)) of longer range Tomahawk style cruise missiles, probably about 400+ advanced fighters(Su-27, Su-30MKK, MKK2, J-10, FC-1) with advanced beyond visual range air to air missile backed by airborne radars, new advanced surface ships with considerable advanced technology and firepower, and other feats such as way better military training and command structure. there are more than i can list. they are modeling their military like the U.S...they learned that lesson after witnessing america go bananas on Iraq in 91....

they even have stealth fighter program and it is reportedly going under testing i believe, inferior to the F-22 Raptor but might be equal to the Eurofighter and the Rafale, they probably have the engines ready by now, and the new radars aren't that far off. every thing you can think of....they made considerable progress in a short amount of time....from advanced airplanes engines, electronics, radars, missiles, etc.....with the urgency to try to take back Taiwan, more money to spend on the military, and infusion of foreign technolgies and serious research and development.....the PRC military transformation is the by far the most recent spectacular military buildup(in quality and quantity) in recent decade. Ask the Russian military officials are companies that make aircrafts, submarines, missiles, and ships and they will tell you that they are shocked/surprised at their progress.

 

China has been accumulating Dr. Evil-esque ransom money from the US.

Mainland surplus may top US$100,000,000,000

The Chinese mainland's trade surplus for 2005 could climb to a record high of US$100 billion. This could trigger more intensified trade rows with its major trading partners, said an economist.

... The investment bank also estimated that the mainland's mounting foreign reserves would surpass US$1 trillion from the current US$659 billion by 2008 as a result of robust export growth.

Overheated economy? fuggetaboutit

 

"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."

I would agree that the PRC isn't strong enough to take Taiwan militarily, short of using nukes on Taiwan, but I think that's an overly optimistic picture. While the US and Taiwanese airforce is technologically superior the PRC airforce is huge and its pilots aren't total slouches either. The PLA is also massive and can sustain far larger casualties numbers and continue functioning than any other country. Nuke facilities and command and control are hidden in well hardened facilities and couldn't be taken out that easily. Finally while the Chinese people are often fractious there is a great spirit of nationalism and if the US were to launch nuke strikes on the Chinese its not a sure bet that riots would break out and the PRC would fall. Its just as likely that there will be a greater rallying guarenteeing hostility from surviving Chinese in China and the worldwide Chinese diaspora that would make the threat from Al Qaeda pale. The Japanese WWII predicted that they would conquer all of China in three months since China then was governed by a far less stable nationalist government wracked by civil war and corruption. A unified prosperous China under the CCP isn't going to fall easily even if Beijing and Shanghai are nuked.

That said I think this is just some more sabre rattling and thinking out loud from the Chinese general. Its true that the PRC can't defeat the US conventionally but neither could they win a nuclear war. At the most they could hope for is that there are more Chinese left standing than Americans. A nuke exchange would be devestating for both and for the rest of the world and I can't believe that any Chinese general could sanely be considering that against the US as a reasonable option.

 

did you check the dates before you quoted? that got to be written some 30 years ago, at least 25. wake up!

 

he's just saying his own opinion.

i don't know about that in the near future....right now....maybe. some of their fighters now are equivalent to u.s. fighters with the exception of the newer ones like the F-22 raptor. and they have deadly missiles too. They have considerable numbers(300+) of Su-27, J-11(homemade Su-27) Su-30MKK, SU-30MKK2, advanced fighters that will really irritate the U.S. Their new domestic fighter J-10 in mass production ain't no slouch too and is probably equal to the latest F-16 Falcons. The numbers of these fighers are going to skyrocket. And to add to these list, the older J-8s some of them may even be equipped with their new SD-10 missile, which is in the same class as the american AMRAAM, which is america's most advanced air to air fighter missile in service.

and their stealth fighter program is coming along pretty well i heard, even though it might be inferior to the raptor it might be really good.

 

they don't have Jack Bauer

 

even though china is improving economically, politically, and militarily significantly...i think this anti-china thing is getting out of hand and a bit ridiculous and paranoid....i bet ordinary chinese think this paranoia and communism, china threatens the world trashtalking from america is getting really pathetic. yeah china is still communist politically, economically it is essentially capitalist. the corruption and human rights thing, it is not perfect but getting better each day.

the last time i heard some Chinese company wants to buy UNOCAL, so what? most of UNOCAL oil assets is in Asia.... just let them buy it....we owe them hundreds of billions of dollars. and dude, what threat is there buying an oil company??!!
what are they going to do? steal some top secret oil drilling techniques?

The U.S. spends more money on its military than the next 10 combined militaries in the world and definitely way more than China and has bases all over the world and recently conquered Iraq and has an excellent record of bombing other countries....so it is a bit pathetic and lame for the Bush administration to criticize chinese military modernization.