Look at these two articles on China...see if in combo they make sense??? Note the dates....
China Prepares U.S. War Scenarios
By John Leicester
Associated Press Writer
Sunday, Oct. 22, 2000; 12:28 p.m. EDT
BEIJING –– In word and deed – namely its biggest military show in 35
years – China has made clear that it views the United States as potential
enemy No.1.
Besides blowing up targets, test-firing missiles and driving tanks, the
military displays at four land and sea sites in northern China in the middle
of this month proved new capabilities to attack stealth warplanes and
cruise missiles, state media reported.
Meanwhile, a Chinese defense policy paper issued last Monday once
again raised threats of force against Taiwan and pointed to the United
States as chief troublemaker.
Should Beijing's communist leaders order the People's Liberation Army
to
recover the island that split from China 51 years ago, Chinese generals
are
planning against expected U.S. military intervention.
"Do they prepare against the United States? My answer is very clear:
yes," said Yan Xuetong, an expert in international security at Beijing's
prestigious Tsinghua University.
Yan believes war with Taiwan is inevitable. Others are less pessimistic.
In
a report Thursday, the London-based International Institute for Strategic
Studies said China is preoccupied this year with domestic issues, among
them preparing to enter the World Trade Organization. It forecast only
"a
remote possibility" of confrontation over Taiwan.
Moreover, China-U.S. relations have improved this year and their
militaries have expanded contact through reciprocal ship visits and trips
by
Chinese officers to the United States.
Beijing itself says it wants to peacefully recover Taiwan through
negotiations – a goal repeated in the defense policy paper.
But talks are stalemated, and the paper said the situation "is complicated
and grim." It reiterated that China would "adopt all drastic measures
possible, including the use of force" if Taiwan formally splits from China
or
continues indefinitely to refuse to negotiate unification.
China's generals have to assume an attack on democratic, capitalist
Taiwan might provoke an American military response. That is why they
are preparing for the worst.
Chinese fears were sharpened by NATO's air war on Yugoslavia last
year
to protect ethnic Albanians in Kosovo. Beijing saw unsettling parallels
with
its own restive minority regions, like Tibet, and felt NATO's intervention
on human rights grounds set a dangerous precedent for meddling over
Taiwan.
The scenario seems highly dubious right now. Unlike Yugoslavia, such a
conflict could at worst go nuclear, and even if it didn't, it could wipe out
U.S.-China trade worth nearly $95 billion last year, according to U.S.
figures, and trigger global economic catastrophe.
Still, Chinese suspicions have been heightened by Washington's efforts to
develop anti-missile shields, by congressional attempts to expand military
ties with Taiwan, and by continued U.S. arms sales to the island. Yan
said
the Pentagon was moving more submarines to the Pacific and stockpiling
cruise missiles on the Pacific island of Guam.
What should China's leaders conclude from that? "That the U.S. military
has prepared for war against China," Yan insisted.
The Chinese defense paper was peppered with criticisms of the United
States, among them that U.S. support has emboldened Taiwan's
anti-China camp.
With prospects for a peaceful unification of Taiwan and China "seriously
imperiled" and because of "hegemonism and power politics" – Beijing's
code words for U.S. meddling – "China will have to enhance its
capability
to defend its sovereignty and security by military means," said the paper.
But it also sought to allay foreign concerns by saying the military buildup
was "purely for self-defense," and that this year's defense budget of
$14.6
billion is just 5 percent of Washington's. Overseas analysts, however,
believe China spends up to five times more than it says it does.
The Gulf War shocked Beijing by exposing its technological inferiority. It
has since focused attention on the importance of air power in modern
wars. Military experts say Chinese generals have studied how Yugoslav
forces hid equipment from NATO attacks, have installed Russian-made
surface-to-air missiles on the coast opposite Taiwan, and have improved
air defenses around big cities.
But analysts say the Chinese military would be hard-pressed to take
Taiwan, and lags far behind the United States.
"The gap is enormous. They're just not in the same league," said Robert
Karniol, Asia-Pacific editor for Jane's Defense Weekly.
© Copyright 2000 The Associated Press
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Top Chinese military official visiting Pentagon,
military bases
Monday, 23 October 2000 15:03 (ET)
Top Chinese military official visiting Pentagon, military bases
By PAMELA HESS
WASHINGTON, Oct. 23 (UPI) - A top Chinese military official will begin an
11-day trip to the United States this week, visiting the Pentagon and five
military bases, including U.S. Pacific Command headquarters in Hawaii.
Gen. Yu Yongbo, a member of China's Central Military Commission, will be
the highest ranking member of the 2.5 million-man People's Liberation Army
to visit the United States this year.
His visit, from Oct. 25 to Nov. 4, is part of a goodwill effort between
the two countries as they try to repair relations after the 1999 bombing of
the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade.
The United States says the bombing was accidental, a result of faulty
intelligence and an outdated map that showed the embassy elsewhere.
Cohen visited Beijing in July, delivering a speech at the PLA officer's
school. Neither Cohen nor his Chinese counterparts made direct reference to
the bombing, an indication the Chinese were ready to restore ties between
the militaries, Cohen said at the time.
Yu is responsible for PLA officer development, education and management,
and is the PLA's "top political commissar, an influential individual in the
PLA command structure," according to the Pentagon.
Yu has asked to see how the average American soldier lives, and will be
taken to West Point, N.Y., home of the Army's military academy; Bolling AFB,
Washington, D.C.; Fort Jackson, S.C.; and Patrick AFB, Fl.
He will also visit some tourist sites and monuments, according to the
Pentagon.
Yu will conclude his trip with a stop at U.S. Pacific Command headquarters
in Hawaii, the U.S. military outfit with responsibility for operations in
the Pacific rim, including China and Taiwan.
This will be Yu's first to the United States. He is the official guest of
Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness Bernard Rostker.
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Copyright 2000 by United Press International.
All rights reserved.
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