Chinese state media today hailed the country's nuclear force and second-strike capability, amid a row over US contingency plans listing China as a potential target for nuclear attack.
The
People's Liberation Army Daily
, the
People's Daily
and other newspapers carried as their top story a eulogy of China's missile and nuclear forces, organised in the Second Artillery Corps.
The article, titled Forging a Shield of Peace for the Republic, described an exercise in which computers simulated a nuclear attack from an enemy power and the response of "Red Force", or China.
Today's article, which put emphasis on President Jiang Zemin's call for military modernisation, was published at a time of renewed tensions with the United States.
A Washington defense review listing China as a potential target of US nuclear strikes was recently leaked to US media.
The report said one of the new contingencies in which US nuclear weapons might be used was a military confrontation between China and Taiwan.
China reacted angrily to the report, condemning it as one in a series of recent US moves endangering bilateral ties, and Vice Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing Saturday summoned US Ambassador Clark T. Randt to protest.
The nuclear planners' Taiwan scenario is particularly worrying for the Chinese, analysts said. It threatens to completely reverse the equation if US forces were to come to the rescue of the island during a Chinese attack.
CIA director Mr George Tenet said Tuesday China considers the United States the main obstacle to growing clout in Asia and is modernising its military to put US forces at risk in the event of a conflict over Taiwan.
"China is developing an increasingly competitive economy and building a modern military force with the ultimate objective of asserting itself as a great power in east Asia," Mr Tenet said.
AFP