BEIJING - A senior Chinese general has warned that China was ready to use nuclear weapons against the United States if Washington attacked his country over Taiwan, the Financial Times newspaper reported on Friday.
Zhu Chenghu, a major general in the Peopleâs Liberation Army who said he was expressing his own views and did not anticipate a conflict with Washington, nevertheless said China would have no option but to go nuclear in the event of an attack. âIf the Americans draw their missiles and position-guided ammunition onto the target zone on Chinaâs territory, I think we will have to respond with nuclear weapons,â he told an official briefing for foreign journalists.
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A spokeswoman for Chinaâs Foreign Ministry noted that the general had said in the article he was not speaking on behalf of the government. A spokesman later said the ministry was looking into the matter. The Defence Ministry declined to comment, saying the Foreign Ministry had organised the event at which the general spoke.
Zhu said the threat to escalate a conflict might be the only way to stop one because China did not have the capability to fight a conventional war with the United States. âIf the Americans are determined to interfere ... we will be determined to respond,â he said. âWe 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,â he added.
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China has declared a policy of not using such weapons unless it has already suffered nuclear attack.
The newspaper observed that it was unclear what prompted the remarks, but noted that they were the most specific by a senior Chinese official in nearly a decade.
During a visit to Beijing earlier this month US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said there should be no unilateral change in the status quo over the disputed island of Taiwan. âThat means that we donât support unilateral moves toward independence by Taiwan. It also means that we are concerned about the military balance, and weâll say to China that they should do nothing militarily to provoke Taiwan,â she added. |