Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing recently made very bold and praiseworthy remarks in defending China's basic sovereign rights from the hegemonic interests of the United States. Li asserted that China will never give in to America's nuclear blackmail and such an aggressive posture from the United States will only increase the determination of the Chinese people to safeguard their national sovereignty. And Li is right - the days of being able to bully China are certainly long gone.
During the past week, a Pentagon report revealed that China is among the seven countries that the Pentagon lists as being acceptable for targeting with nuclear weapons, and it considers Taiwan a security contingency that would necessitate a first strike with nuclear weapons.
Not only is this a blatant violation of the Three Sino-U.S. Joint Communiques and the One China Principle, it is a departure from the policy of never using nuclear weapons in a first strike. And to add fuel to fire, the United States invited Taiwan's so-called "defense minister" to a "business conference" in Florida.
It goes without saying that the United States is never sincere in adhering to the One China Principle and the relevant commitments in the Three Communiques. Bush Administration officials pay lip service to the policy and smile when they visit Beijing. But behind closed doors, their attitude is totally different. They are willing to do all it takes to impede the re-unification of Taiwan with the Chinese motherland, including peaceful re-unification under the One Country, Two Systems Principle, while supporting the trouble-making secessionist elements on the island.
And one must always be skeptical when hearing Bush Administration assertions that the National Missile Defense is for defending America from the ballistic missiles of so-called "rogue states," which fall short of reaching U.S. territory. North Korea's missile program may actually only be a convenient excuse for the U.S. right-wing to push deployment of National Missile Defense and Theater Missile Defense, while hiding their real motives.
Their real motives may be nothing more than to render China's limited nuclear deterrent useless so that the United States can blackmail China, overtly support Taiwan independence and make Taiwan an "unsinkable aircraft carrier" without fear of China's nuclear deterrent.
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But in the end, U.S. efforts at coercing China through nuclear blackmail are futile. China will never flinch at an American bully operating on its front doorstep, and putting China on America's nuclear target list does not deter China's determination to safeguard its sovereignty. National Missile Defense will only encourage countries throughout the world to proliferate in weapons of mass destruction, and as the U.S. has abrogated the 1972 ABM Treaty and failed to ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, why should other countries live up to their arms control agreements?
So, deploying National Missile Defense will not only constitute as the most wasteful government spending in U.S. history, it will ultimately go against America's own interests.
Keith L. Hammar
UNM alumnus living in Dalian, China
