Chinese General warns US “we will not attack - unless we are attacked”!

According to the China Daily, the US is seeking to “reposition” its naval forces so that 60 percent of them will be in the Pacific by 2020. This has been confirmed by the US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta at the 11th Asia Security Summit in Singapore on Saturday, giving the world the first details of a new US military strategy announced earlier this year.

CHINA WATCHING CLOSELY

“This is something the Chinese military will have to watch closely”, said one Chinese military official , speaking “off the record” by email communication on Monday.

“China retain the right to defense ourselves against a US attack”, the official said.
Lieutenant-General Ren Haiquan, a People's Liberation Army (PLA) commander.

General Haiquan is also vice-president of the PLA's Academy of Military Sciences in Beijing, who led the Chinese delegation to the Singapore forum, said on Saturday that Washington's planned naval redeployment is neither something "desperately serious" nor something that "doesn't matter".

WE WILL NOT ATTACK FIRST

"We will also improve our military strategy, our national defense and the PLA's fighting ability. We will not attack unless we are attacked," the General told reporters."We have the measures to strike back when fundamental national interests are under threat," he said.

"We still face a very complex, sometimes severe, situation. We will be prepared for all complexities. There's a saying: work for the best and prepare for the worst," said Lt. General Haiquan.

These comments are seen as a warning to certain members of Congress and the entire US military industrial establishment - "don't mess with us in China."

In the China Daily report, Chinese officials indicated it would "improve" the capability of its forces and has the capacity to "strike back" when its "fundamental interests" are under threat.

IS CHINA THE TARGET?

"The shift is not wholly against China, but China is definitely one of its targets”, Wenzhao said.

Tao Wenzhao, from the Institute of American Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said: "What really matters is not the distance to China, but US equipment and activity in the Asia-Pacific region, an area which it regards as less stable than the Atlantic region.”

"Panetta (specifically) mentioned carriers, destroyers and cruisers but what about submarines? Where they are going to be based? Basing them in Pearl Harbor is not as threatening as basing them in Guam. And how are they going to be used?", said Gary Li, a London-based intelligence and military analyst with Exclusive Analysis, a business intelligence agency.

Currently, the US Navy fleet strength of 285 ships is almost evenly divided between the Atlantic and the Pacific.

PHILIPPINES

In addition the US is seeking to pre-positioned about 2,500 US Marines in Australia and there may be a similar arrangement in the Philippines (see RT news report: China infuriated by US-Philippines defense plans RT news report ).

VIETNAM

The US is also seeking to establish a US naval base in Vietnam, which is seen as an effort to threaten China, since there is no other real challenge to US military dominance in the region. It is unclear if Vietnam will grant such permission given the US record on human rights and war crimes abuses, both now and in the past (see article: US seeks to establish a naval base in Vietnam to threaten China see article ).

See also: US warships USS Blue Ridge, the destroyer escorted warship USS Chafee in Vietnam US warships USS Blue Ridge .

Regardless of the repositioning of naval forces and the development of more accurate missiles and weapons, China will always have the ability to devastate the US because of its construction of thousands of underground silos and tunnels housing thousands of Intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM’s) see video: Chinese Nuclear Tunnels, the Underground Great Wall: The DongFeng 21D Chinese Nuclear Tunnels


“In the end the US Naval buildup in the Pacific will be largely ineffective as well as hugely expensive waste of money, because China cannot be threatened in such a way”, said one official at the Pentagon, speaking on the strict condition of anonymity. “You can’t tell that to the people upstairs they have made up their minds already, this is what they want to do”, the official said.

China, it should be understood, maintains one of the largest, best trained armies in the world.

Source: Robert Tilford- Wichita Military Affairs Examiner