China Refuses to Retract General’s Nuclear Threat

A Chinese Foreign Ministry official on Saturday did not disavow statements by a top military official that China would use nuclear weapons if the United States were to intervene militarily in Taiwan, Agence France-Presse reported (see GSN, July 15).

The official added, however, that Gen. Zhu Chenghu’s comments were only his own views and that China would seek a peaceful settlement to the standoff over Taiwan.

“We will never tolerate ‘Taiwan Independence,’ neither will we allow anybody with any means to separate Taiwan from the motherland,” the Foreign Ministry spokesman told AFP (Agence France-Presse/SpaceWar.com, July 16).

The U.S. State Department on Friday called Zhu’s remarks “highly irresponsible,” the New York Times reported.

“We hope that these are not the views of the Chinese government,” said spokesman Sean McCormack.

“The United States is not a threat to China. We have a broad and deep relationship,” said McCormack. “The remarks from that one individual are unfortunate” (Joel Brinkley, New York Times, July 16).

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