China, Russia launch joint military exercises

By Darren Weeks

Wire reports and the international media are reporting at this hour that China and Russia have launched their first joint military exercise ever on Thursday.

The operation is named "Peace Mission 2005" and involves 10,000 army, navy, and air force troops.

Even though Gen. Yuri Baluyevsky, the head of the Russian armed forces general staff, assured the press that the "exercises don't threaten any country", China's Xinhua news agency reports the purpose of the exercises are to strengthen the capability of the two armed forces to act jointly if necessary.

The Financial Times reported last month that a top Chinese official threatened to use nuclear weapons against the United States if it interfered in the event of a Chinese confrontation with Taiwan. The report said,

China is prepared to use nuclear weapons against the US if it is attacked by Washington during a confrontation over Taiwan, a Chinese general said on Thursday.

"If the Americans draw their missiles and position-guided ammunition on to the target zone on China's territory, I think we will have to respond with nuclear weapons," said General Zhu Chenghu.

Gen Zhu was speaking at a function for foreign journalists organised, in part, by the Chinese government. He added that China's definition of its territory included warships and aircraft.

"If the Americans are determined to interfere [then] we will be determined to respond," said Gen Zhu, who is also a professor at China's National Defence University.

"We . . . will prepare ourselves for the destruction of all of the cities east of Xian. Of course the Americans will have to be prepared that hundreds . . . of cities will be destroyed by the Chinese."

Gen Zhu is a self-acknowledged "hawk" who has warned that China could strike the US with long-range missiles. But his threat to use nuclear weapons in a conflict over Taiwan is the most specific by a senior Chinese official in nearly a decade.

Meanwhile, American consumers continue to enjoy low-priced goods on store shelves across the nation that have been shipped to our shores on communist Chinese COSCO ships, giving our enemies every tool they need to defeat us.