A Chinese general denounced a US suggestion that Taiwan's military target China's Three Gorges dam and said yesterday that any strike on the world's biggest hydropower project would lead to war.
In its annual report to Congress on China's military power, the Pentagon suggested last month that Taiwan target the dam as a deterrent against any Chinese invasion of the island.
China will "be seriously on guard against threats from `Taiwan independence terrorists,'" People's Liberation Army (PLA) Lieutenant General Liu Yuan (
"[It] will not be able to stop war ... it will have the exact opposite of the desired effect," Liu said.
"It will provoke retaliation that will `blot out the sky and cover up the earth,'" he said, quoting a Chinese idiom.
The warning came as Ministry of National Defense in Taipei said it had test fired two Patriot anti-missile missiles to showcase its air defense capability.
The test was part of a routine drill and was conducted at a military base in southern Taiwan, the ministry said. It did not say when the test was held or give any other details.
Liu asserted that no country had conventional warhead missiles capable of critically damaging the dam -- made of concrete with a maximum thickness of more than 100m.
"The Three Gorges Dam will not collapse and cannot be destroyed," he said.
Seismologists have said the dam is designed to withstand an earthquake measuring 10 on the Richter scale.
The dam was first proposed decades ago, but construction was delayed because late Communist Party chairman Mao Zedong (
But the Pentagon report stirred controversy in China.
"Since Taipei cannot match Beijing's ability to field offensive systems, proponents of strikes against the mainland apparently hope that merely presenting credible threats to China's urban population or high-value targets, such as the Three Gorges Dam, will deter Chinese military coercion," it said.
A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman said last week the report was "Cold War mentality harboring evil intentions."
US President George W. Bush has pledged to do whatever it takes to help Taiwan defend itself against an invasion by China.
Liu, the general, called the Pentagon's suggestion "petty psychological war."
He likened Washington to "a prostitute pretending to be a gentleman" and no better than Osama bin Laden.
The Three Gorges Dam, also the world's largest flood control project, is due to be completed in 2009 at a cost of nearly US$25 billion. With total capacity of 18,200 megawatts, it will generate 84.6 billion kwh of electricity a year.
China says it needs the dam to contain the Yangtze River's devastating annual floods and to meet future power demand. But critics say it is not a practical solution to either problem and could cause pollution by slowing the river's flow.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
A magnitude 4.9 earthquake struck off Tainan at 11:47am today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The hypocenter was 32.3km northeast of Tainan City Hall at a depth of 7.3km, CWA data showed. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Tainan and Chiayi County on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. The quake had an intensity of 3 in Chiayi City and County, and Yunlin County, while it was measured as 2 in Kaohsiung, Nantou County, Changhua County, Taitung County and offshore Penghu County, the data showed. There were no immediate reports of
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is maintaining close ties with Beijing, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday, hours after a new round of Chinese military drills in the Taiwan Strait began. Political parties in a democracy have a responsibility to be loyal to the nation and defend its sovereignty, DPP spokesman Justin Wu (吳崢) told a news conference in Taipei. His comments came hours after Beijing announced via Chinese state media that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command was holding large-scale drills simulating a multi-pronged attack on Taiwan. Contrary to the KMT’s claims that it is staunchly anti-communist, KMT Deputy
RESPONSE: The government would investigate incidents of Taiwanese entertainers in China promoting CCP propaganda online in contravention of the law, the source said Taiwanese entertainers living in China who are found to have contravened cross-strait regulations or collaborated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) could be subject to fines, a source said on Sunday. Several Taiwanese entertainers have posted on the social media platform Sina Weibo saying that Taiwan “must be returned” to China, and sharing news articles from Chinese state media. In response, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has asked the Ministry of Culture to investigate whether the entertainers had contravened any laws, and asked for them to be questioned upon their return to Taiwan, an official familiar with the matter said. To curb repeated
RSS