A retired Chinese general has ruffled feathers in Taiwan again, this time telling the Beijing-based nationalist tabloid Global Times that the People’s Liberation Army would only need three days to reclaim the self-ruling island should such war become unavoidable.
Retired Lieutenant-General Wang Hongguang is a former deputy commander of the Nanjing Military Region, since reorganized as the Eastern Theater Command, which would be at the forefront of any clash with Taiwan. He said the PLA could spontaneously wage six types of offensives – artillery bombardment, targeted assaults, coordinated airborne and landing strikes, cyberattacks, special operations and psychological warfare – and that the “breakaway province of China” could be reunified with the mainland within as little as 72 hours.
Wang’s pugnacity again caused a commotion in Taiwan, so much so that even the pro-reunification newspaper China Times joined the condemnation.
“Beijing’s offer of national treatment and the slew of concessions to win over Taiwanese may be negated by such senseless saber-rattling … Beijing’s efforts can only boomerang if it counts on silly PLA generals like Wang who know nothing but warmongering,” the paper said in an editorial.
It’s not the first time Wang has caused a few raised eyebrows. On the sidelines of China’s annual parliamentary session in early 2017, Wang told reporters that “if the US deploys the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense in Taiwan, it will be the day that we liberate the island.”
His remarks prompted the PLA’s news website to issue a notice urging the public not to “over-interpret” the former senior military official’s statement on “liberating Taiwan.”
Wang’s remarks at that time soon ignited discussions online, with some calling it “bluffing,” some finding him excessively “hawkish” and most feeling “shocked” that a military officer would speak out in that manner, according to a commentary from 81.cn, a news website affiliated with the PLA.
While calling on the media not to make a fuss about Wang’s statements, the article did add that “his comments can be regarded as a warning,” and reiterated Beijing’s official line that “the war is on once Taiwan declares its independence.”
In 2016, Wang urged, also in Global Times, that the PLA Navy should step up naval training to seal off the Taiwan Strait, and map out the best routes for its submarines to prepare for attacks, while the PLA Air Force should also conduct air-attack drills near the virtual mid-line that divides the strait.
“During wartime, all the PLA would need to do is to turn its weapons toward Taiwan, and the shelling could cover as far as Hsinchu, Taoyuan and even Taipei,” he said, adding that Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen had long “revealed her staunch advocacy of Taiwanese independence.”
Other tactics outlined in Wang’s hawkish remarks have included using guided missiles to attack airbases in Taiwan’s central mountain range, as well as shelling the central Zhuoshui River region to sever the link between northern and southern Taiwan.
Dont just speak and speak. If you have th balls, then why you did’nt did it before? China never win a war, It was even defeatedn by the Japanese during the outbreak of world war 2.China has no experience of war, and now a boastfull retired general telling thqatm taking Taiwan will only take 3 days? Dont speak, just make it and lets see if you have really a balls.
Why not allow the people of taiwan to decide for there own self
so much blood had been shed in conflict between chinese dont u think its better to heal the wound thru megotiation
Not easy to attach Taiwan want to trie come on
hatred amongst your people the orphans will create ripples that will grow into tsumnami.. he he rebellion in the making destruction of China from within..
what is the fuss about the comment of some retired relic warmongerer? you think other countries will just watch china raping a progressive and productive taiwan? the reality is china is definitely superior militarily than taiwan but china will just bluster and blabber till kingdom come and nothing will come out of that rethoric.
#Wood Woo, so China becomes the biggest, and then what? So what does China do with the big territory.
Until China changes it’s ethos from manufacturing consumer goods to RESEARCH, They will always play second fiddle, and suffering inferiority.
Great nations are busy charting new horizons, YET China is content with being handed that technology for retail production. Retail production, reverse engineering and making toys is not what makes nations great.
Aondohemba Mnyim this is the calibre of Generals they have in China. So, yes, blame China. A country is not the geographical borders, BUT the people that reside therein.
Hey, do not blame china, blame the ex general
Why is china intertested in conquering countries that are successful? Please President XI think positive than invading countries. Try and improve your social system and leave Taiwan and Hong Kong alone.
Do remember the Battle of Kinmen Oct 1949 (金門戰役)
idiot
As long as military prowess is concern, China can bulldoze all the Taiwans military and dump all the mass dead bodies as a guiness record in 24 hours.
It will be foolishness for the Taiwanese leaders who want an independence of Taiwan. PRC leaders are very much determined to get it bace as an integral part of China. General Wang’s warning is based of reality. But PRC’s patience so far is highly appreciated . Killing own brothers is not desirable at all. That is why, PRC wants a peaceful solution.
From a general who has never seen a day of conflict in his life. Lols. Toy army and toy
General.
This kind of destructive talking serves as a timemachine for us to see Chinese history. Thousands of years ago, what destruction was done to colonize other native nations and make Han’s territory bigger, and bigger and bigger. The bigger the better. Now the whole South China Sea will make China the biggest.
‘The Hero finds it difficult to evade the traps of the beauty’ is a Chinese saying. Don’t you think Chinese leadership know this? So don’t be naive.
The Chinese leadership should have long since learnt the "CIA and KGB ropes on the technique of honeypots" and should have long since applied the technique to the gearings and the wheels of what makes this Island under the Chinese sun work namely…
"interfere with and disrupt the politics of the Island a’la Hilary Clinton/CIA interference of Russian elections and as in the politics of the Ukraine so as to screw the politics of Putin and the Kremlin." Get the picture and writings between the lines, folks?
Sadly, the Chinese leadership doesn’t have such eight balls break, not even when the finest of CIA/KGB examples are staring them square in the eyeball…
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Then what is the use of conquering devastated, burnt out territory, with littered graveyard spread out all over. What a primitive way of thinking to impose hegemony in the name of national unity? Can’t China think out a better approach to woo Taiwan to stay in its orbit or domain with its economic prowess and success?