China threatens nuclear attack on U.S. over Taiwan conflict

A Chinese general said Beijing might respond with nuclear weapons if the United States attacked China in a conflict over Taiwan, news reports said Friday.
The State Department rejected the warning as “highly irresponsible.”
The exchange could add to tensions with Washington at a time of U.S. worries about China’s military buildup and the proposed takeover of the oil company Unocal Corp. by a Chinese state-run company.
“If the Americans draw their missiles and position-guided ammunition into the target zone on China’s territory, I think we will have to respond with nuclear weapons,” Maj. Gen. Zhu Chenghu, a dean at China’s National Defense University, told visiting Hong Kong-based reporters. His remarks were reported by The Asian Wall Street Journal and The Financial Times.
Zhu stressed he was expressing a personal view, not official policy, and was confident that China and the United States would not go to war, the reports said. While Zhu is a serving officer, he isn’t involved in policymaking.
China threatens nuclear attack on U.S. over Taiwan conflict – billingsgazette.com

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