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China ramps up missile capability
Staff and wires
HONG KONG, China -- China's People's Liberation Army is developing missiles that may soon be capable of penetrating America's proposed national missile defense system as well as threatening U.S. aircraft carrier battle groups. Sources close to China's military say a major focus of the PLA's ambitious arms development and procurement program is to prevent U.S. forces from "interfering" in the Taiwan Strait -- an area Beijing regards as a purely domestic issue. Beijing is also anxious to undermine plans by the Pentagon to incorporate America's Asian allies such as Japan and South Korea -- as well as Taiwan -- into an Asia-based missile defense system. The sources said Beijing's Second Artillery Corps, which is in charge of missile development, has been given extra funds and other resources to develop or import hardware that can successfully target American aircraft carriers. Chinese strategists believe that should a crisis erupt between both sides of the Taiwan Strait, the U.S. may try to aid Taiwan by moving one or two of its aircraft carrier groups to the Taiwan Strait area. That was what happened in 1996 when two U.S. carrier groups were deployed at either end of the Strait in an effort to deter any Chinese military action against the island. To counter that, analysts say, China's strategy focuses on the development of an enhanced medium- and long-range missile capability equipped with multiple independently targetable reentry vehicle warheads, also known as MIRVs. Deterrence
Such technology is seen as essential to bolstering the effectiveness of China's nuclear deterrence as the Bush administration pushes ahead with deployment of missile defense shields. MIRVs enable a single rocket to launch several warheads and decoys, which then separate in space to hit different targets vastly increasing an individual missile's potential destructive power. According to a CIA report last year China has about 20 operational long-range missiles, capable of hitting U.S. targets, although all have only single warheads. The report said China planned to increase that number to over 100 missiles, all equipped with MIRV warheads. Over the weekend the mass-circulation Japanese newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun reported that the PLA had successfully test-launched a medium-range missile equipped with MIRV warheads last December. The launching of the Dong Feng-21 (DF-21), with a target range of about 1,800 kilometers, was the PLA's first successful test launch of the upgraded missile. Increasing rangeThe paper quoted Chinese sources as saying the DF-21 launch indicated a rapid modernization of China's nuclear missile capability aimed at countering the U.S. missile defense network planned for the region. If the MIRV-equipped missiles are deployed, they could help to deter U.S. intervention in areas that China regards as its own affairs -- notably the Taiwan issue. The DF-21, about 50 of which have been deployed since the 1980s, is categorized as a medium-range missile. Hong Kong newspapers have reported that Beijing will begin deploying the DF-31-- a new type of ICBM with a target range of about 8,000 kilometers -- in about two years. Diplomatic analysts in Beijing say the PLA is anxious to widen the gap between the military capacities of the mainland and Taiwan before the latter has a chance to upgrade its weapons through U.S. help. Apart from Russia, which is China's biggest arms supplier, military analysts say the PLA has been basing much of its advances in missile technology on imports from Israel and several European countries.
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