Chinese General threatens U.S. with nuclear weapons over possible Taiwan Strait conflict, Beijing downplays comment

July 16, 2005

A General in the Chinese (PLA) and dean at the National Defense University in China commented to visiting Hong Kong reporters on Friday that the PLA might use nuclear weapons against the U.S., in a conflict over the. "If the Americans draw their missiles and position-guided ammunition onto the target zone on China's territory, I think we will have to respond with nuclear weapons," Maj. Gen. said to the reporters of the and the. "We Chinese will prepare ourselves for the destruction of all of the cities east of [in central China]. Of course the Americans will have to be prepared that hundreds ... of cities will be destroyed by the Chinese."

U.S. State Department spokesman called the remarks "highly irresponsible" and "unfortunate", and expressed the hope that they did not reflect the views of the Chinese government.

Echoing the official Xinhua News Agency, the People's Republic of China's Foreign Ministry officials said that Zhu was expressing personal views, and had warned the reporters accordingly, but stated that China would never tolerate "Taiwan independence". Reportedly, Maj. Gen. Zhu is not directly involved in the formulation of Chinese military strategy.

The U.S. may defend Taiwan under the and is currently.