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A Chinese military specialist has outlined Beijing's plan to use force against Taiwan.Bombard, seal off and land on? Yeah, that sounds like a master plan. In other news, PACOM is keeping a close eye on the upcoming mammoth joint Russian-Chinese exercise:
The officer, identified only as a renowned military expert and professor at China's National Defense University, said in a speech on China and the "revolution in military affairs" that the plan for operations against Taiwan is to "bombard, seal off and land on" Taiwan.
It is highly unusual for China to cite threats by an unidentified officer. It follows recent comments by Chinese Maj. Gen. Zhu Chenghu that China is prepared to use nuclear weapons against "hundreds" of U.S. cities.
Reunification will be enforced under the new anti-secession law, the unidentified officer said in a Chinese media report. Planned military action against Taiwan is "an enormous historical obstacle" to China's peaceful rise, he said. The officer also said the United States is most opposed to "the rise of socialist China" and that Washington is curbing China through the Taiwan issue.
The Pentagon's recent dispatch of an active duty military officer to Taiwan is an "escalation" of U.S.-Taiwan cooperation, he added. "This is something that China cannot tolerate," the officer said. The officer said China's government continues to support peaceful reunification as long as Taiwan does not violate the anti-secession law. The reference to the new law, which U.S. officials say was drawn up to counter U.S. policy reliance on the Taiwan Relations Act, is a new condition allowing the use of force.
Past conditions for a Chinese invasion included a formal declaration by Taiwan of independence, foreign intervention on Taiwan and the introduction of nuclear weapons on Taiwan. The officer said Chinese missiles could counter any efforts by Taiwan to use its jet fighter aircraft to attack China.
The U.S. military will closely monitor the first-ever joint Russia- China military maneuvers, a U.S. general said last week.
"We are aware of the planned exercises," said Army Brig. Gen. Carter Ham, commander of the Multinational Brigade-Northwest. "And the commander of U.S. Pacific Command is taking an effort to monitor the conduct of those exercises. Clearly, there's interest in anything that affects the security in the Pacific Region. So PACOM is keenly interested in that and will monitor that, to the extent possible."
Ham said the maneuvers are not something that U.S. military leaders are "particularly worried about."
"But certainly as it affects, or may potentially affect security, they're very interested," he said.
Asked if the joining of Russian military forces and Chinese forces is a cause for future concern, Ham said: "I'm not sure we know yet, and that's why the interest in the monitoring."