Outgoing CIA director Leon Panetta, US President Barack Obama’s pick for US secretary of defense, said China was preparing for “potential contingencies” involving Taiwan, which could include potential military clashes.
In written answers to questions posed by the US Senate Armed Services Committee, Panetta said China’s military expansion was geared toward building the capability “to fight and win short-duration, high-intensity conflicts” close to home.
He was almost certain to be questioned further on the issue at his senate confirmation hearings in Washington yesterday.
Bloomberg, which gained access to Panetta’s 79-page set of answers to the committee’s questions, reported that he said China’s “near-term focus appears to be on preparing for potential contingencies involving Taiwan, including possible US military intervention.”
Panetta added that the US should continue to closely monitor China’s military capabilities and develop a strategy “to preserve peace, enhance stability, and reduce risk in the region.”
“The complexity of the security environment, both in the Asia--Pacific region and globally, calls for a continuous dialogue between the armed forces of the United States and China to expand practical cooperation where we can and to discuss candidly those areas where we differ,” Panetta wrote.
The son of Italian immigrants, 72-year-old Panetta is a popular choice for secretary of defense and is expected to be quickly confirmed in the job.
He will take over from US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, who retires at the end of this month.
As secretary of defense, Panetta will play a major role in advising Obama on whether to sell advanced F-16C/D aircraft to Taiwan.
In his written answers, Panetta said the US must be prepared to confront potential adversaries armed with air defense systems, long-range ballistic missiles and anti-ship cruise missiles.
“Given the importance of power projection for US operations, naval and air assets will undoubtedly play a key role in these future military engagements,” he wrote.
Reacting to Panetta’s comments, Shi Yinhong (時殷弘), director of the Center on American Studies at Renmin University of China said they could be seen as a provocation by the US to exaggerate tensions between China and its neighbors.
Shi said although there was some friction between China and its neighbors, Beijing has strongly emphasized improving regional relations this year.
On the eve of the nomination hearings, CNN described Panetta as “the ultimate insider.”
A former congressman, director of the Office of Management and Budget and chief of staff for former US president Bill Clinton, Panetta is said to have Obama’s total trust.
Former CIA deputy director John McLaughlin said Panetta’s time at the CIA, during which al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was found and killed, would act as a “pretty good schooling” for the kinds of decisions he would have to make at the Pentagon.
“We’ve just come off 10 years where the CIA has been closer and more intimately connected to the military than anytime in its history. There’s a kind of intimacy between the military and the intelligence cultures that probably didn’t exist 10 to 15 years ago,” McLaughlin said.
Super Typhoon Kong-rey is the largest cyclone to impact Taiwan in 27 years, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. Kong-rey’s radius of maximum wind (RMW) — the distance between the center of a cyclone and its band of strongest winds — has expanded to 320km, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. The last time a typhoon of comparable strength with an RMW larger than 300km made landfall in Taiwan was Typhoon Herb in 1996, he said. Herb made landfall between Keelung and Suao (蘇澳) in Yilan County with an RMW of 350km, Chang said. The weather station in Alishan (阿里山) recorded 1.09m of
NO WORK, CLASS: President William Lai urged people in the eastern, southern and northern parts of the country to be on alert, with Typhoon Kong-rey approaching Typhoon Kong-rey is expected to make landfall on Taiwan’s east coast today, with work and classes canceled nationwide. Packing gusts of nearly 300kph, the storm yesterday intensified into a typhoon and was expected to gain even more strength before hitting Taitung County, the US Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center said. The storm is forecast to cross Taiwan’s south, enter the Taiwan Strait and head toward China, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The CWA labeled the storm a “strong typhoon,” the most powerful on its scale. Up to 1.2m of rainfall was expected in mountainous areas of eastern Taiwan and destructive winds are likely
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday at 5:30pm issued a sea warning for Typhoon Kong-rey as the storm drew closer to the east coast. As of 8pm yesterday, the storm was 670km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) and traveling northwest at 12kph to 16kph. It was packing maximum sustained winds of 162kph and gusts of up to 198kph, the CWA said. A land warning might be issued this morning for the storm, which is expected to have the strongest impact on Taiwan from tonight to early Friday morning, the agency said. Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) and Green Island (綠島) canceled classes and work
KONG-REY: A woman was killed in a vehicle hit by a tree, while 205 people were injured as the storm moved across the nation and entered the Taiwan Strait Typhoon Kong-rey slammed into Taiwan yesterday as one of the biggest storms to hit the nation in decades, whipping up 10m waves, triggering floods and claiming at least one life. Kong-rey made landfall in Taitung County’s Chenggong Township (成功) at 1:40pm, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The typhoon — the first in Taiwan’s history to make landfall after mid-October — was moving north-northwest at 21kph when it hit land, CWA data showed. The fast-moving storm was packing maximum sustained winds of 184kph, with gusts of up to 227kph, CWA data showed. It was the same strength as Typhoon Gaemi, which was the most
RSS