A senior Chinese admiral delivered a three-minute “rant” to 65 visiting US officials in Beijing last month, in which he said that US arms sales to Taiwan proved that Washington viewed China as an enemy.
Since then, US diplomats and US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates have tried to portray the remarks by Rear Admiral Guan Youfei (關友飛) as at odds with the thinking of the rest of the Chinese government.
But in a Washington Post report published on Tuesday, Post reporter John Pomfret interviewed a wide range of experts, officials and military officers in China who indicated that Guan’s speech on May 24 as part of a two-day US-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue represented the mainstream views of the Chinese Communist Party.
It was the first time that this had been reported in the US.
“Perhaps the real outliers might be those in China’s government who want to side with the United States,” the Post said.
“Guan’s speech underscored that 31 years after the United States and China normalized relations, there remains a deep distrust in Beijing. That the United States is trying to keep China down is a central part of the party’s catechism and a foundation of its claims to legitimacy,” the paper said.
Despite intense efforts, Gates was unable to secure an invitation to visit Beijing when he was in Asia last week and blamed elements within the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) for blocking an invitation, which the civilian leadership wanted to deliver.
But a PLA general who spoke on condition of anonymity told the Post: “It’s silly to talk about factions when it comes to relations with the United States. The army follows the party. Do you really think that Guan did this unilaterally?”
Repeating Guan’s words, Major General Zhu Chenghu (朱成虎) told Gates: “You, the Americans, are taking China as the enemy.”
Zhu rose to prominence in China in 2005 after he warned that if the US came to Taiwan’s defense in a war with China, Beijing would abandon its “no first use” doctrine on nuclear weapons and attack the US, the Post said.
China was conducting a “concerted campaign” to change the US’ security relationship with Taiwan, the paper said.
“At the very least, Chinese officials said, they want the Obama administration to reiterate a commitment it made in a joint communique with China in 1982 to decrease arms sales to Taiwan,” the paper said.
Chinese analysts warned that US President Barack Obama would ignore “core national interests” — especially on US weapons sales to Taiwan — at his “peril,” the newspaper said.
It quoted Cui Liru (崔立如), head of the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, as saying: “For years China has opposed arms sales to Taiwan among other things, but we were never strong enough to do anything about it.
“But our national strength has grown. And it is time that the United States pay attention. It is something that must be dealt with or it will seriously damage ties,” Cui said.
This comes as Republican and conservative elements in Washington are pushing the White House to sell F-16C/D aircraft to Taipei.
The Wall Street Journal praised Gates in an editorial on Tuesday for talking frankly about how China’s military expansion threatens peace and security.
At the annual Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, Gates said there was growing concern about China’s behavior in the South China Sea and that the Pentagon objected to any effort to intimidate US corporations or “those of any nation engaged in legitimate economic activity.”
The Journal said: “Gates’s comments suggest the Pentagon thinks it’s time to draw brighter lines around this kind of misbehavior. That will come as a relief to such US treaty allies as Taiwan and Japan, which depend on the US security umbrella to counter China’s military buildup.”
CLASH OF WORDS: While China’s foreign minister insisted the US play a constructive role with China, Rubio stressed Washington’s commitment to its allies in the region The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday affirmed and welcomed US Secretary of State Marco Rubio statements expressing the US’ “serious concern over China’s coercive actions against Taiwan” and aggressive behavior in the South China Sea, in a telephone call with his Chinese counterpart. The ministry in a news release yesterday also said that the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs had stated many fallacies about Taiwan in the call. “We solemnly emphasize again that our country and the People’s Republic of China are not subordinate to each other, and it has been an objective fact for a long time, as well as
‘CHARM OFFENSIVE’: Beijing has been sending senior Chinese officials to Okinawa as part of efforts to influence public opinion against the US, the ‘Telegraph’ reported Beijing is believed to be sowing divisions in Japan’s Okinawa Prefecture to better facilitate an invasion of Taiwan, British newspaper the Telegraph reported on Saturday. Less than 750km from Taiwan, Okinawa hosts nearly 30,000 US troops who would likely “play a pivotal role should Beijing order the invasion of Taiwan,” it wrote. To prevent US intervention in an invasion, China is carrying out a “silent invasion” of Okinawa by stoking the flames of discontent among locals toward the US presence in the prefecture, it said. Beijing is also allegedly funding separatists in the region, including Chosuke Yara, the head of the Ryukyu Independence
‘ARMED GROUP’: Two defendants used Chinese funds to form the ‘Republic of China Taiwan Military Government,’ posing a threat to national security, prosecutors said A retired lieutenant general has been charged after using funds from China to recruit military personnel for an “armed” group that would assist invading Chinese forces, prosecutors said yesterday. The retired officer, Kao An-kuo (高安國), was among six people indicted for contravening the National Security Act (國家安全法), the High Prosecutors’ Office said in a statement. The group visited China multiple times, separately and together, from 2018 to last year, where they met Chinese military intelligence personnel for instructions and funding “to initiate and develop organizations for China,” prosecutors said. Their actions posed a “serious threat” to “national security and social stability,” the statement
NATURAL INTERRUPTION: As cables deteriorate, core wires snap in progression along the cable, which does not happen if they are hit by an anchor, an official said Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信) immediately switched to a microwave backup system to maintain communications between Taiwan proper and Lienchiang County (Matsu) after two undersea cables malfunctioned due to natural deterioration, the Ministry of Digital Affairs told an emergency news conference yesterday morning. Two submarine cables connecting Taiwan proper and the outlying county — the No. 2 and No. 3 Taiwan-Matsu cables — were disconnected early yesterday morning and on Wednesday last week respectively, the nation’s largest telecom said. “After receiving the report that the No. 2 cable had failed, the ministry asked Chunghwa Telecom to immediately activate a microwave backup system, with
RSS