China’s star war programme aimed at Taiwan
Beijing (AsiaNews/Agencies) – China has deployed 12 Jian-10 fighter jets at an air force base about 500 kilometres from Taiwan, a local source reports; whilst continuing its silence over test-firing an anti-satellite missile a few days ago. Both events suggest that China’s signal was destined for Taiwan.
Despite calls from the international community that Beijing explain itself, the mainland has not yet made any statement about the missile it launched last January 12, according to US sources, from a base in Xichang (Sichuan) destroying an old Chinese satellite orbiting at an altitude of 800 kilometres (500 miles).
On Friday, US National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley raised the possibility that Chinese President and Commander in Chief Hu Jintao might not have fully known what their military was doing. This would explain the increasingly embarrassing silence. Still more and more observers wonder about the real motives behind the test.
The US was already aware that China was carrying out research and development in anti-satellite weapons as US Lieutenant General Michael Mapes testified before the US Congress this month. This explains why the reaction by the Bush administration has been mild and limited to expressions of “general concern”.
During the Cold War until the early 1980s both eh US and the Soviet Union had conducted similar tests and destroyed satellites in space.
Beijing has not violated any international treaty. And the US’s main national security satellites are orbiting at thousands of kilometres above the earth.
What China’s move can do is strengthen the US space defence programme, which Bush had announced in October of last year.
Although the test itself has not caught the US off guard, Beijing’s continued silence might step up US complaints.
Some experts noted that a statement made on January 9 by Huang Qiang, spokesman for China’s Commission of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defence, now take on a new light. “China,” the statement said, “will unveil some new sophisticated weaponry with deterrent capabilities at appropriate times, and these are primarily aimed at peace”.
This might mean that Beijing is trying to get Washington to agree to negotiations to make space a weapons-free zone as requested by both China and Russia, a proposal so far rejected by the US.
Other experts point out that China’s People Liberation Army, which has benefited in the past 15 years of annual increases around 9.6 per cent, has a fundamental mission, being ready for conflict on the Taiwan Strait.
Recently, Taiwanese President Taiwan Chen Shui-bian reiterated the goal of making a formal declaration of independence before the end of his mandate.
China has expressed its displeasure with regard to joint military exercises near the island by the US and Japan.
It is within the context that Chinese media reported the deployment of 12 advanced Jian-10 fighter jets to Zhejiang province, some 500 kilometres (310 miles) from the island.
Rear Admiral Wu Chi-fang, spokesman for Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defence, did not confirm these reports. However, he did say that the Taiwanese “military is studying why the Chinese military has [recently] been unveiling its development of new weapons in such a high-key fashion, such as the production of J-10 fighter jets and the launching of a ballistic missile to shoot down an orbiting satellite.”
Similarly, US media reports suggest that Chinese military officials have extensively studied how the US used satellite imagery in the Persian Gulf War, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and in tracking North Korea's nuclear weapons program. Such studies also included extensive analysis of how satellite surveillance could be used by the US in case of a crisis over Taiwan. (PB)
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