China unveils missile men in show of strength
Coverage of the Second Artillery Force portrays a modern fighting team capable of posing a threat
straitstimes.asia1.com.sg
CHINA has lifted some corners of the thick veil that has shrouded its elite rocket forces in utmost secrecy for decades.
It has chosen to do so through selected publications and an 18-part television drama series, Missile Brigade Commander, which was aired nationwide from last month.
The rich, vivid details about the fighting men and their missiles as seen in the episodes broadcast so far have left experts in no doubt that technical support and advice for the series came from professionals in the Second Artillery Force (SAF).
The accent is clearly on showing the world how modern the SAF is - with soldiers in the missile brigade portrayed not as the stereotyped hard-faced men with square jaws and an iron will to win, but as savvy techno-warriors.
Some analysts believe China is waging psychological warfare by giving the world glimpses of the SAF, the fourth, and hitherto most secretive, arm of the People's Liberation Army.
They note that up to one year ago, almost nothing about the missile forces, created in 1966 and commanded by a field marshal, was ever written or shown on television.
Then from mid-2001, a steady stream of information ranging from a head count to the number of long-range DF-31 missiles stockpiled, found its way into selected publications and, from last month, television.
Professor Chung Chien Peng from Singapore's Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies believes the sudden openness was prompted largely by the United States' plan to build and deploy Theatre Missile Defence (TMD) as a shield for its western Pacific allies, in particular, Japan and Taiwan.
'To counter the TMD threat as well as to check Taiwan's independence moves, China must put up some credible minimal deterrent, and that was when publicity about the Second Artillery kicked in,' he said.
'To begin with, the force covers something similar to what the US called the nuclear triad. Second Artillery's triad is its short-range, medium-range and long-range missiles.
'Previously, it was busy building and honing China's own missiles and so it kept a very low profile. But now, although the SAF is still technologically behind the US, it is undoubtedly better qualified to go public and show that it can be a deterrent to any aggressor.'
Prof Chung said it was no accident that in all the publicity build-up, there would be some deliberate mention of the SAF's strike capabilities.
For example, a write-up about the tenacious spirit of Second Artillery personnel would contain seemingly casual remarks about how some DF31s were aimed at the west coast of the US.
Ditto for the DF21s that were directed at the former Soviet Union, India, Mongolia and Japan and the DF15s and DF11s that could hit Vietnam and Taiwan.
'Even just by suggesting that the multiple-warhead DF5As would be deployed one day is enough to force the US to do more strategic calculations before making a strike at China,' he said.
He said the Chinese realised that though the US now had its hands full dealing with terrorism, they could not afford to be complacent.
Dr George Tsai from Taiwan's National Chengchi University sees China's openness about its missile capabilities as a way of expressing confidence in the military, although parity with the US was a distant prospect.
'Key people from the Second Artillery are the last persons you could hope to meet in China because of obvious reasons,' said the long-time China watcher who often visits the mainland.
'But they rather selectively unveiled some parts of their organisation, and that could mean the revealed parts are able to live up to descriptions.'
He said that though no one should lap up every bit of the publicity blitz as if it were the unadorned truth, no key office-holder in Taiwan could shrug it off either.
'By making the Taiwanese sit up, such publicity has already fulfilled its psywar objective,' he said. |
