{"id":41111,"date":"2011-09-02T00:29:45","date_gmt":"2011-09-01T21:29:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turkishforum.com.tr\/en\/content\/?p=41111"},"modified":"2014-01-06T14:59:22","modified_gmt":"2014-01-06T12:59:22","slug":"general-china-could-be-planning-surprise-missile-attack-on-united-states","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/2011\/09\/02\/general-china-could-be-planning-surprise-missile-attack-on-united-states\/","title":{"rendered":"General: China Could Be Planning Surprise Missile Attack on United States"},"content":{"rendered":"

Is China Planning a Surprise Missile Attack?<\/h2>\n

Gordon G. Chang<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

A retired Chinese general recently revealed that his country might be planning a surprise missile attack on the United States. The public comment of Xu Guangyu came in response to WikiLeaks revelations that last year Washington had warned its allies beforehand of China\u2019s test of a missile interceptor.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, in a classified cable sent last January 9th, instructed American embassies in Australia, Britain, Canada, and New Zealand<\/strong> to notify those countries of upcoming Chinese launches two days later. The cable included details of the launch sites for the interceptor and the target, the models of the missiles, the purpose of the test, and the test date.<\/p>\n

Yesterday, Hong Kong\u2019s\u00a0South China Morning Post<\/em> carried<\/span> comments from Xu, now at the China Arms Control and Disarmament Association, to the effect that American satellites would have detected activity at the launch sites but that some of the information in the cables\u2014specifically the types of missiles and the day of the test\u2014must have come from a source on the ground. WikiLeaks\u2019s release of this cable, revealing one or more American spies in China\u2019s strategic missile corps, is perhaps the website\u2019s most significant compromise of US security to date.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Hong Kong paper noted that Xu said that \u201cif China could no longer keep secret its missile launches, it would not be able to launch a surprise attack on the US.\u201d<\/p>\n

Is China really in the process of planning to destroy the American homeland with a preemptive barrage of nuclear-tipped missiles? Xu\u2019s comment, of course, is not proof, but it does reveal that Chinese flag officers are thinking about doing so.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, Xu\u2019s hostile sentiment fits within a worrisome trend.\u00a0\u00a0Especially since the beginning of last year, there has been a series of belligerent comments from China\u2019s generals, admirals, and colonels, some talking about war with the US in the near future. Last February, for instance, Colonel Meng Xianging\u00a0said<\/span> the People\u2019s Liberation Army would \u201cqualitatively upgrade\u201d its capabilities to force a showdown on US policy toward Taiwan within the decade \u201cwhen we\u2019re strong enough for a hand-to-hand fight with the US.\u201d<\/p>\n

Given the belicose statements coming from some of China\u2019s military brass\u2014along with China\u2019s well-documented aggressive behavior in the South China Sea and other peripheral waters\u2014it is difficult to imagine how Western observers can deny China\u2019s intentions and the clashes that lie ahead. Thank you, General Xu.<\/p>\n

www.worldaffairsjournal.org<\/span>, 30 August 2011<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Is China Planning a Surprise Missile Attack? Gordon G. Chang A retired Chinese general recently revealed that his country might be planning a surprise missile attack on the United States. The public comment of Xu Guangyu came in response to WikiLeaks revelations that last year Washington had warned its allies beforehand of China\u2019s test of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":41112,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[146],"tags":[4048],"class_list":["post-41111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-china","tag-intelligence"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41111"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41111\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}