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British Intelligence Says China is Preparing for Nuclear War

LONDON – Defense analysts for the British intelligence service MI6 believe China is preparing for the “eventuality of a nuclear war.” The conclusion follows evidence that Beijing has built secretly a major naval base deep inside caverns which even sophisticated satellites cannot penetrate, says a report in Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin.

In an unusual development, the analysts have provided details to the specialist defense periodical, Jane’s Intelligence Review, which published satellite images of the base location which is hidden beneath millions of tons of rock on the South China Sea island of Hainan.

The MI6 analysts have confirmed the submarine base hewn out of the rock will contain up to 20 of the latest C94 Jin-Class submarines, each capable of firing anti-satellite missiles and nuclear tipped rockets.

Knocking out the satellites would leave Taiwan, Japan and other countries around the Pacific Rim effectively without a key warning system. An attack also would disrupt vital communications between U.S. battle squadrons in the region and Washington.

Satellite images studied by GCHQ, Britain’s spy in the sky intelligence gathering organization based at Cheltenham that works closely with the U.S. National Security Agency, have confirmed the entrance to the base is through no fewer than 11 separate tunnel openings.

A Royal Navy nuclear submarine, one of those in the Typhoon Fleet, now has joined another from the U.S. Pacific Fleet to build up a clear image of what is happening inside the secret base which, as well as China’s nuclear subs, could house “a host of aircraft carriers.”

Naval intelligence officers in London and Washington have confirmed the discovery of the base will present “a significant challenge to U.S. naval dominance and protection to countries ringing the South China Sea.”

The base is sited at Sanya on the southern tip of Hainan island. The island came to the attention of Western intelligence in April 2001, when a U.S. EP-3 spy plane trying to test the island’s electronic defenses was forced to land there by Chinese fighters, one of which crashed in the sea killing the pilot.

A Ministry of Defense analyst, who cannot be named for security reasons, believes “this could be the prelude to China preparing for a nuclear response.”

Tags: china, CIA, nuclear, nuclear war, nuke, nukes, war

1958 Plan to Nuke China

US Air Force planned nuclear strike on China over Taiwan: report

AFP
Wednesday, April 30, 2008

The United States Air Force had considered a plan to drop nuclear bombs on China during a confrontation over Taiwan in 1958 but it was overruled, declassified documents showed Wednesday.

When he learned about it, President Dwight Eisenhower instead required the Air Force to initially use conventional bombs against Chinese forces if the crisis escalated, according to previously secret US Air Force history.

The president’s instructions seemingly astounded the Air Force top brass but the author of one of the studies released said US policymakers recognized that atomic strikes had “inherent disadvantages” because of the fall-out danger in the region as well as the risk of nuclear escalation.

The report on the crisis by Bernard Nalty, a then historian with the Air Force, included significant detail on nuclear planning, including an initial plan to drop 10-15 kiloton bombs on airfields in Amoy (now called Xiamen) in the event of a Chinese blockade against Taiwan’s so-called Offshore Islands.

“This was in accordance with the drift of Air Force thinking which considered nuclear weapons as usable as ‘iron bombs,’” according to the report released Wednesday by the National Security Archive.

The body, a non-governmental research institute at George Washington University in Washington, collects and publishes declassified documents obtained through the US Freedom of Information Act.

“Of course, if there was a real war who knows what would have happened but there wasn’t fortunately,” William Burr, senior analyst at the National Security Archive, told AFP.

There were two crises on the status of the Offshore Islands — in 1954 and 1958 — during the term of Eisenhower, a former military commander, but they did not lead to any serious military confrontation, he said.

“Instead, he ordered the Air Force and Navy to prepare for conventional strikes as a show of determination,” the report said, adding however that “if the conflict escalated, nuclear strikes could have followed.”

What led the White House to change the ground rules was the recognition that atomic strikes had “inherent disadvantages” — fallout would cause civilian casualties not only in China but in Taiwanese territory and the risk of nuclear escalation could present itself, the report said.

An important lesson from that crisis was “armed forces must expect civil authority to impose tight controls on them in times of emergency,” the report said.

Taiwan and China split in 1949 at the end of a civil war, but Beijing still sees the island as part of its territory awaiting reunification, by force if necessary.

Tags: china, nuclear weapons, nuke, war, weapon

China Plans to Destroy Satellites

China’s anti-satellite and space warfare program includes plans to destroy or incapacitate ‘every enemy space vehicle’ that passes over China.

The annual report of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, released last week, listed among Beijing’s goals that of ensuring that Chinese space weapons are “conducted covertly so China can maintain a positive international image.” China has called for a ban on space weapons at the U.N The report said that China also is developing civilian technology that can be applied to military space programs and is acquiring the “ability to destroy or temporarily incapacitate every enemy space vehicle when it is located above China,” the report said.
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Tags: anti-satellite weapons, china, GPS, high-energy weapons, satellite, weapon